When I was back in the US, I visited Madison for only a brief 8 hours before moving on. I visited State St and the Square and was shocked at how much the place had fallen apart, due to a combination of Covid and people working from home. Stores were boarded up and gone. They were in the process of tearing down some buildings. And homeless folks were everywhere.
There were always homeless people in Madison, but they were among the many other people walking around, working, and living in the area. Now, it felt empty and ravaged. I don't think the downtown area of Madison was the only place in America that has fallen apart in recent years. (Visiting the city during a rainstorm probably also contributed to the gloomy atmosphere.)
Anyways, one of my destinations in Madison was to visit where I used to work, Widen Enterprises. After graduating university, I worked for Widen Enterprises as a Software Developer for over 7 years and then worked abroad for them a litlte bit after coming to Japan.
Widen Enterprises had a history of print which began in the 40s. They first began detailing and manufacturing plates for newsprint and then broke into catalog printing in the 60s. In the 90s, they invested in developing a user interface and backend that would aid their customers and building these catalogs. This move was perfect syngery with their printing service.
However, with the Internet becoming more and more ubiquitous, print died and their software division grew considerably. During my years of working there, the printing division became smaller and smaller. The basement used to have huge printers for all their costumer's catalogs. As company's workflows moved online, less and less were printing and these printers just took up space. Just after I left, I think the entire print division was disbanded.
Widen's Digital Asset Management system grew to become their main focus and now it had become their only focus. When I began work there, we occupied half of the top floor. After I left, the building was remodeled and development took over the entire ground floor.
Even before the Covid years, I think many developers and staff worked from home at least one day a week. And then during Covid, I think everyone switched to remote working. Not uncommon for companies in the US.
According to Wikipedia, in September 2021, they sold the company to Acquia. Acquia's main product is a line of content management software for your enterprise website. Having a digital asset management system is powerful tool to allow your costumers to host all their product images and use their software to build their corporate website or commerical website around it.
Over the 4 years of ownership and looking at some staff listsing at Acquia, it looks like much of the brilliant excellent folks at Widen have been moved into more senior roles within Acquia. From other rumors, it seems like much of Widen's staff has either been absorbed into other areas of Acquia or left the company altogether.
Today, the old Widen building is for sale. It is no longer used by any developers or staff still working on DAM, wherever they may be. I think Widen had been at this location since the late 60s or 70s? Some of the other print buildings in the area still look like they're in business. It seems like a blight to have one of the major businesses in the area gone.
Someone had recently mowed the lawn, so it doesn't look too bad. But there are still some overgrown plants around the parking lot. Nobody comes here. (The overgrowth is much more present on Google Street View.) I'm not sure when they sold the building. Maybe it was still being used in late 2023?
While I was in the US, I drove past many corporate buildings and businesses that were completely empty because of the workforce moving online. I'm not a fan of working from home, but my commute to work is only 5 minutes in this dense mountain town. If I had to drive 45 minutes to work every day in a dense metro traffic, I would probably prefer working from home, too.
While everything feels like it's falling apart in the states, I think it's a consequence of transitioning the next (or another) form of our society. And change hurts.
It still sucks that another one of my former workplaces is gone.
