Metal Toad Media Issues Challenge to Governor Kitzhaber on Cover Oregon Website
Portland, OR (PRWEB) March 27, 2014 -- Metal Toad Media, Inc., a web development firm that specializes in creating websites and apps for the entertainment industry, has offered to undertake the construction of a new website for Cover Oregon, the state health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act.
According to the Oregonian, Cover Oregon’s current website has been fraught with technical difficulties that have spawned controversy across the state and left countless Oregon residents unable to apply for coverage under the ACA. In a recent open letter to Governor John Kitzhaber, Joaquin Lippincott, president of Metal Toad Media, has offered to take on the challenge of redesigning and developing the website from scratch.
“In its current state, the Cover Oregon website is simply unusable,” said Lippincott. “At Metal Toad Media, we have the experience, skills and ambition to create a new website that will meet the requirements of the state and its residents. We have made Governor Kitzhaber an offer — we will build a new, fully functional website using open source code for only $10 million, which is less than one-tenth of what the state spent on its current, broken website. If we fail to meet this goal by the required deadline, we will refund every penny we receive back to the taxpayers.”
Metal Toad Media has extensive experience creating high-traffic websites. Most recently, the company managed web traffic for the Emmy Awards site, which received more than 2.4 million visitors in a span of less than four hours.
One of the keys to Metal Toad Media’s success is the firm’s use of open source media solutions, which allow for the creation and management of high-traffic websites with no licensing fees. The lack of these fees makes its promise of a $10 million health care exchange website a completely attainable goal.
“In our opinion, the company that was originally tasked with the Cover Oregon website, relied too heavily on closed source technology. That was a huge mistake,” said Lippincott. “The licensing costs made the website an absurdly expensive venture for the state, and in the end Oregon didn’t even get what it paid for. At Metal Toad Media, we use open source to create functional, high-traffic websites that keep costs at a minimum. If the governor and state officials are serious about creating a working state health care exchange, he will take us up on our offer.”
To view the open letter Metal Toad Media sent to Governor Kitzhaber, go to http://www.metaltoad.com/blog/call-open-source-coveroregoncom.
Heidi Kayser, Freelance - HBK, +1 503-360-5904, [email protected]
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