news releases from Field Media:

At about the same time as the The Network started up, a fellow named Marc Bailey organized a location information brokerage in association with a Tennessee publisher of promotional materials for chambers of commerce and economic development organizations. It started out with the name: American Community Network.

The ownership of ACN changed several times, finally settling in Georgia with a publisher named Doug Field who was was aware of a joint committee of the Council for Urban Economic Development and the American Economic Development Council getting together with site selection and economic development consultants. The group was called the Site Selection Task Force. It took on the challenge of coming up with location data standards.

What the Site Selection Task Force produced was picked up by Field and used to develop location data file (example of data points)more about ACN transitioning. Field associated with Plants Sites & Parks magazine which was maintaining location data in competition with Conway Data, the publisher of Site Selection Magazine. Within a couple of years, however, PS&P bit the dust. Later the location data brokerage site of Field Media was no where to be found online as a resource for site selection.

Economic Development Services and its network of three websites remained at a distance from all that went on as described above. The Network continues on its independent course as a open access resource for enterprise and economic development. The question is sometimes asked about who pays for and controls the operations of The Network: answer

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Dunwoody, GA -- (September 15, 2003) - bizsitesDATA replaces ACNOdyssey today, providing a completely re-engineered knowledge tool designed for anyone involved in corporate site selection. Under the new ownership of FieldMedia, Inc., significant resources were invested in bizsitesDATA ...

According to Doug Field, President of FieldMedia, bizsitesDATA provides the most effective and efficient tool for preliminary site selection. Those involved in the site selection process can easily identify communities nationwide that meet their specific criteria. Only bizsitesDATA provides a comprehensive tool for a site selection team to develop their preliminary list. The amount of accessible information is an incredible resource for the business community. There simply isn't a comparable tool.

bizsitesData's depth of information and ease of use prompted the publisher of Plants Sites & Parks (PS&P) magazine and Bizsites.com to form a strategic partnership, giving both name and support to this revitalized effort. Most of the inquiries we receive from our readers and website visitors are requests for reliable data. We know from our own editorial research how valuable this information is, and we are happy to partner with a company that has made a commitment to collecting, organizing and presenting the best data, so that corporate site seekers and their consultants can make an informed decision, states Len Scaffidi, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Plants Sites & Parks magazine and Bizsites.com.

Together, bizsitesDATA and PS&P/Bizsites.com form the foundation for comprehensive research to assist the site team, and a way for the economic development community to present local distinctions and advantages ...

About FieldMedia, Inc. [ http://www.fieldmedia.com/index.htm ]

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News release provided by Rich Lapin as a follow up to FieldMedia, Inc. acquires ACN.net (April 7, 2003). At the time Lapin provided the news releases he was a member of the staff of bizsitesDATA.com. The following quotes are from the earlier new release:

... (American Community Network) founder, Marc Bailey, has joined (FieldMedia, Inc.) ... as our Vice President of Product Development and Planning ...

Having been away from the (economic development) business for some time, I've had time to reflect on customer needs and to re-focus on a tool that was initially ahead of its time and is now right in the mainstream of solutions for (economic developers). What strikes me as a constant is that (economic developers) and site selectors are finding it even more essential to harness technology to solve basic problems in an era where budgets are reduced and expectations remain high. (Marc Bailey)

A search online for bizsitesDATA in 2007 found http://servicecenter.snm.org which indicated no website available. A webfile titled Guide Data Points was found stating that ... (the website provided) consistent data on many places ... compiled from many independently published sources rather than the local area representatives who are promoting investment ... includes sources which openly publish the data for free, such as government statistics, plus other sources such as commercial databases or research providers with related fees and usage restrictions. This approach makes it possible to search across a large database for areas which match specific criteria, even if data elements for some areas may be inaccurate or potentially misleading from a perspective based on greater local market knowledge or more experience at the data query, screening, and analysis process for projects ... (source of the quote)

The quote above makes the same point as the definition of location information broker in the .network glossary, i.e. what they supply for a fee may be available for free from originating sources. This tells site selectors that they have the choice of going directly to the sources.

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