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  • Report: Worldwide VoIP Market Grew to $20.7 Billion; Strong Demand Continues

    Infonetics Research released its biannual VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers report, which tracks business and residential/SOHO voice over IP services and includes a North America Business VoIP Services Leadership Matrix that analyzes and ranks the top service providers in the VoIP business services market.

    The research shows IP connectivity services currently make up about a third of total VoIP business service revenue, growing to 40% of the total by 2013 (managed IP PBX services and hosted VoIP and UC services make up the balance).

    The current sweet spot of the North American IP Centrex market is small business (those with fewer than 100 employees). Roughly two-thirds of all IP Centrex seats sold in the first half of 2009 went to small businesses.

    The report shows that demand for residential and business VoIP services continues to grow even as spending in other communication areas tightens. For the first half of 2009, the worldwide VoIP services market grew to $20.7 billion. Residential VoIP services remain healthy, comprising the majority of worldwide VoIP services revenue, and subscribers are up 14% from the end of 2008.

    “On the business VoIP side, while managed IP PBX revenue growth has slowed in line with IP PBX shipments, we are expecting IP Centrex and hosted UC service revenue to grow 26% year-over-year in 2009,” explains Diane Myers, directing analyst for service provider VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.

    While the largest VoIP services opportunities are in North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), demand for VoIP services is growing fast in Asia Pacific and Central and Latin America.

    For the first half of 2009, Japan’s NTT, France Telecom, and Comcast in North America retain their leadership as the world’s largest residential VoIP service providers, together holding nearly 20% of the world’s VoIP subscribers

    Infonetics forecasts the number of residential/SOHO VoIP subscribers will reach 225 million by 2013.

  • Empirix VoIP Monitoring Now Avaya Compliant

    Empirix, a provider of VoIP monitoring solutions, announced that its products are now compliant with key contact center solutions from Avaya.

    The Empirix Proactive Communications Assurance solution is now compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya AuraTM Communication Manager on Avaya S8700 servers with MCC1 Media Gateways and Avaya Proactive Contact with PG230RM.

    The company says this solution gives organizations the ability to test their outbound contact center from end-to-end thus enabling companies to ensure performance, a high quality end-user experience and compliance with government regulations.

    Empirix is a Platinum member of the Avaya DevConnect program—an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network.

    As a Platinum member of the program, Empirix is eligible to submit products for compatibility testing by the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab in Basking Ridge, N.J. There a team of Avaya engineers develops a comprehensive test plan for each application to verify whether it is Avaya compliant.

    Doing so ensures businesses can confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructure—speeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs, the company says.

    “Earning the Avaya compliance accreditation is important because it gives customers a cost effective, comprehensive approach to ensuring the performance of the Avaya solutions in their unique environments from end-to-end,” said Tim Moynihan, vice president, marketing for the enterprise business unit at Empirix.

    “Combined with innovative products, such as Avaya Proactive Contact and Avaya Aura, Empirix Proactive Communications Assurance gives organizations confidence that their business-critical outbound infrastructures will deliver the most business value in the least amount of startup time,” he added.

    According to Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya, the companies that are members Avaya’s DevConnectprogram are able to use Intelligent Communications to connect employees and customers to information from wherever they are, over whatever device they have available – “getting more out of their multivendor network and delivering new value to their bottom line.”

    Widely acclaimed Empirix Hammer Test Engine, with more than 30 patents, is the acknowledged global standard for validating the quality of IP networks, systems and applications.

  • Compuware Expands SaaS Portfolio With Gomez Acquisition

    Compuware, software and consulting provider, announced it has completed its acquisition of Gomez, one of the two major forces in web application monitoring services that has a leading SaaS solution for desktop/laptop web application monitoring.

    “This is a very interesting and potentially game changing move in both the end user experience monitoring and the application performance management (APM) markets,” Jean-Pierre Garbani wrote on the Forrester Blog for Vendor Strategy Professionals.

    The closure of the $295 million cash transaction brings about 270 new employees to Compuware, including the complete Gomez leadership team. Jaime Ellertson will remain with the organization and serve as President of Gomez, the Web Performance Division of Compuware.

    "IDC believes the Gomez/Compuware marriage is a good match with little overlap and lots of upside," wrote Mary Johnston Turner, Tim Grieser and Melinda-Carol Ballou of IDC in a report titled Compuware Expands SaaS Portfolio With Gomez Acquisition.

    "With the completion of the acquisition, Compuware will be able to address a customer’s full range of in-house and internet-based application performance management requirements on an end-to-end basis," the report says.

    Compuware will retain the Gomez brand, technology portfolio and business model while moving purposefully to achieve additional technical, sales and marketing synergies. The firm says they expect the acquisition to be operationally accretive this fiscal year.

    The combination of the companies’ significant SaaS revenues makes Compuware the world’s leading SaaS infrastructure management provider, as the company claims.

    "We’re thrilled to welcome the Gomez team to Compuware," said Compuware President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Paul.

    "Together, Compuware and Gomez will-through a solution that features rapid time-to-value, ease of use and real-time answers-give IT and business executives the optimal application performance they need to drive brand image, customer loyalty and revenue."

    Gomez, the Web performance division of Compuware, provides the platform of Web application experience management solutions used by organizations to optimize the performance, availability and quality of their Web and mobile applications, and proactively identify business-impacting issues.

    The on-demand Gomez platform integrates solutions for Web load testing, Web performance management, cross-browser testing and Web performance business analysis that test and measure Web and mobile applications from the "outside-in" – across all users, browsers, devices, and geographies – using a global network of over 100,000 locations.

    According to the company, over 2,500 customers worldwide, ranging from small companies to large enterprises – including 12 of the top 20 most visited US Web sites – use Gomez solutions to “increase revenue, build brand loyalty, and decrease costs.”

  • Taking Technology to Higher Level: Interview with Manoj Bhoola, Country Manager at HP

    Does your organisation need technology products, solutions and services that drive innovation and rapidly scale up or down to meet changing times?

    Well, look no further than HP, the world’s largest technology company, says Manoj Bhoola, Country Manager, HP Enterprise Severs, Storage and Networking, HP Enterprise business.

    HP has unleashed new products onto the market, among them HP Neoview Advantage, an enterprise data warehouse platform which supports real-time insight and decision making, allowing customers to respond to business events faster.

    This release offers dramatic improvements in perfomance, capacity, footprint and manageability, says Bhoola.

    HP Neoview Advantage is also designed to reduce the cost of ownership with industry-standard components and prebuilt, pretested configuration optimised for warehousing.

    Manoj Bhoola

    "The HP Neoview Advantage solution is flexible to be used for a very large data warehouse solution, as well as a data warehouse that is much smaller, but requires high through-put.

    "This is an enterprise solution based on our robust Non-Stop architecture within a bladed solution," says Bhoola.

    HP has also launched the HP Converged Infrastructure Architecture, a solution which delivers a technology environment that rapidly adjusts to meet organisation’s changing needs.

    HP Converged Infrastructure addresses IT sprawl, the main cause of technology spend being focused on maintenance instead of innovation.

    "Technology is a fundamental contributor to business innovation," says Bhoola.

    "With HP’s portfolio of products, services and solutions, organisations can build technology environments that deliver the outcomes that matter today and tomorrow," he adds.

    For customers who do not want to build infrastrature themselves, HP Enterprise Services provides a full range of IT outsourcing services to deliver an HP Converged Infrastructure.

    Organisations can outsource all or part of their infrastructure based on their business needs.

    HP also offers flexible financing solutions for customers deploying an HP Converged Infrastructure through HP Financial Services, the company’s leasing and life cycle asset management services subsidiary.

    HP Financial Services makes it easy for customers to deploy technology that meet their rapidly changing business needs.

    Asked if the global recession had anything to do with the timing of the launch of the new products, Bhoola said it was important for companies to be proactive to survive difficult times.

    "During an economic downturn organisations look towards all areas within their business to either reduce costs or find new innovative ways to increase profits.

    "HP has an ideal solution that will reduce costs by implementing a converged infrastructure, as well as make organisations data warehousing more effective by providing a solution that is built on their Non-Stop architecture with the flexibility of a bladed system," says Bhoola.

    New research conducted on behalf of HP shows that more than 90 percent of business decision makers believe business cycles will continue to be unpredictable in the next few years. As a result, 80 percent recognise a need to be far more flexible in their approaches to business and technology.

    And given this situation, how is HP responding to ensure that it is always on top of the situation?

    "Products are continually innovated and updates are provided to meet certain business requirements.

    "HP’s solution offerings has evolved with the current unpredictable market conditions in mind, and launched products that will assist organisations to become more flexible to adjust to their business requirements.

    "Businesses more than ever need to have the ability to see around the corner, and a strong Business Intelligence (BI) solution will assist with this.

    "The HP Neoview Advantage will provide a robust infrastructure that will support these requirements," says Bhoola, who has a background in computer science and marketing and has been in the IT industry for over 25 years.

    Bhoola attributes HP’S success to continuous investment in its people and innovation.

    "Many organisations have reduced product lines to reduce costs and cut back on innovations.

    "HP continues to improve solution offerings to better optimise customer infrastructure by leveraging off of industry standards and providing unified management software to enable improved elasticity of customers’ infrastructure investment.

    "HP is unique in that they have continued to invest in innovation and continually update their product offerings responding to the market requirements," says Bhoola.

    Although the African continent is a huge growth area for HP, Bhoola says South Africa remains the major driving force of technology.

    "Many organisations still set up offices in South Africa and then launch their Africa business from SA. Doing business in Africa is becoming much easier in that the infrastructure is being addressed and matches many first world countries," adds Bhoola.

  • ZiiLABS Introduces 1080p Blu-ray Quality Handheld Media Processor

    ZiiLABS announced the ZMS-08, its 3rd generation media-rich applications processor that brings 1080p Blu-ray quality H.264 decode to low-power devices.

    ZMS-08 delivers the low-power, high performance processing required of next-generation connected devices such as web tablets, netbooks, connected TVs, video conferencing systems and home media hubs.

    ZiiLABS says the ZMS-08’s proven StemCell Computing array provides the media processing capabilities to deliver full HD 1080p high-profile H.264 video decode, simultaneous H.264 encode and decode at 720p, 1080p 24fps encode, accelerated OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics at up to 1 Gpixels/sec, 2D processing, compositing, image processing and advanced Xtreme Fidelity X-Fi Audio effects.

    With the low-power ARM Cortex processor running at up to 1GHz, the ZMS-08 is aimed at small form factor devices that enable content currently accessed via the PC to spread to mobile and low-energy devices.

    "Combining advanced ARM technology with their own media processing IP has enabled ZiiLABS to deliver the high performance and low-power consumption required to enable the next leap in the mobile internet revolution" said Ian Drew, EVP marketing at ARM.

    Full HD video playback at 1080p supporting H.264 High Profile at up to 40Mbps means users can experience Blu-ray quality video playback direct to their 1080p TV utilizing the integrated HDMI controller.

    Block Diagram

    Support for OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics and 1 Gpixels/sec fill rate enable a new class of user experiences including enhanced user interfaces, PC-like 3D gaming and Adobe Flash 10.

    The tightly coupled 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 provides a secure, high performance main CPU that features a 256K L2 cache, NEON, TrustZone security technology and 1 GByte addressable RAM.

    According to the company, dual USB 2.0 OTG controllers with PHY and ULPI interfaces provide direct connection to USB hosts, peripherals and high-speed modems. Four HD video processing units support camera and display input and output processing with the integrated HDMI and Analog video encoders supporting HD-TV 1080p output at 60fps.

    The secure Boot ROM, three SDIO/MMC ports, UARTs, SPI, GPIO and 64-bit and 32-bit memory controller supporting mDDR and DDR2 at up to 333MHz provide the interfaces and memory bandwidth required for today’s media rich connected devices.

    The ZMS-08 is sampling to certain customers now and is scheduled for volume shipment in the 1st quarter of 2010. The chip is housed in a 13x13mm, 424-pin FBGA package.

  • Sky Takes Mobile TV to iPhone and iPod touch

    UK’s largest mobile TV service is now available for iPhone and iPod touch.

    Sky announced the availability of the Sky Mobile TV App on the App Store. The company has created a dedicated app for the service specifically for iPhone and iPod touch.

    The app allows users to stream live TV via WiFi and the channels available include all Sky Sports channels, Sky Sports News, Sky News, ESPN and At The Races.

    The app also allows to browse the Sky Mobile TV electronic programme guide for free and see what’s on over the next 24 hours. To view live TV, customers will need to subscribe to the Sky Mobile TV service for £6 a month and register for a Sky customer ID. The app is available for free.

    Sky Mobile TV was launched in 2005, and is the largest 3G mobile TV service in the UK, allowing customers to receive over 20 mobile TV channels. The service is currently available to 3G subscribers on 3, Vodafone, Orange, and T Mobile.

    Sky’s sports package already includes live matches from the Barclays Premier League, Scottish Premier League and Football League as well as European Tour Golf, Premiership Rugby and cricket.

    David Gibbs, General Manager for Mobile at Sky, said: “In less than a year we’ve already seen millions of downloads of Sky’s Apps from the App Store. Our new Sky Mobile TV App combines the demand for great live TV on the move with the high quality viewing experience offered by iPhone and iPod touch”

    “Sky Mobile TV offers more choice, control and flexibility for customers ensuring they can access the content they want, at a time that’s convenient to them, on the screen of their choosing,” he added.

    Other iPhone and iPod touch apps from Sky incluye Sky+ Remote Record, Sky News, Sky Sports Cricket Score Centre and Sky Sports Football Score Centre. According to the company, there have been 2 million downloads of Sky apps to date.

  • Skype and eBay Settle with Joltid

    Skype and eBay announced they has reached a settlement agreement with Joltid and Joost N.V. that gives Skype ownership over all software previously licensed from Joltid.

    It also ends all litigation currently pending against the investor group and eBay at the closing of the acquisition (the investor group led by Silver Lake had previously entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Skype from the company).

    As part of the settlement agreement, Joltid and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis will join the investor group, contributing Joltid software and making a significant capital investment in exchange for a 14 percent stake in Skype.

    As a result, Silver Lake and other investors including Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), will together hold 56 percent of Skype and eBay will retain 30 percent.

    eBay will receive approximately $1.9 billion in cash upon the completion of the sale and a note from the buyer in the principal amount of $125 million.

    The deal, which values Skype at $2.75 billion and is not subject to a financing condition, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.

    “We will now have ownership of the software previously licensed from Joltid, so we’ll be in control of our technology future,” Josh Silverman, president of Skype, wrote at Skype’s blog.

    “All litigation against eBay, Skype and the investor group ends, so we’ll be free to concentrate all of our efforts on building the world’s greatest communications software,” he added.

    Commenting on the agreement on behalf of the investor group, Silver Lake Managing Director Egon Durban said: “We are very pleased to have the litigation resolved. We remain confident in a great future for Skype, and we look forward to working with Niklas, Janus and the other investors as partners to help the company achieve its full potential.”

    The investor group will no longer include Index Ventures, which has withdrawn from participation. “Although Skype has the potential to be a great investment, the deal terms changed for Index such that it no longer matches our investment criteria and thus we have decided not to participate in the transaction,” said Danny Rimer of Index Ventures.

  • Epson Develops World's First 4K HTPS TFT Panel for 3LCD Projectors

    Projector applications continue to expand. In addition to being used for business presentations, projectors are gaining wider use in the classroom, in auditoriums and at big events.

    Meanwhile, demand for high-performance products is expected to grow as more and more households enjoy full HD content via digital broadcasts and high definition video players.

    Epson announced that it has developed the world’s first 4K-compatible high-temperature polysilicon (HTPS) TFT liquid crystal panel for 3LCD projectors.

    Measuring 1.64 inches diagonally, the new panel supports displays with resolutions up to 4096 × 2160 pixels.

    With a resolution of nearly 8.85 megapixels, 4K panels offer four times the resolution of full HD (1920 × 1080), making them ideal for the high resolutions required by special applications such as industrial design, architectural design and simulations, as well as for presentations and projecting four full HD images at the same time.

    Epson says they have employed the latest process and C2 Fine technologies in the new panels and developed a new, original driving method optimized for 4K resolution to achieve high-resolution projected images with “outstanding” brightness and contrast.

    C2Fine is an original Epson technology for achieving high-quality images with high contrast by combining an inorganic liquid crystal alignment layer with vertical alignment technology.

    In contrast to the organic alignment layer process, the inorganic alignment technology uses inorganic material to create the surface onto which the liquid crystal molecules align. The layer thickness is controlled at the molecular level, and the alignment structure is generated with a contact-less process, thus there is no problem of unevenness.

    Epson will show ultra-high resolution images including 3D when it exhibits a prototype ultra-high resolution projector using the panel at the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition (Inter BEE 2009) to be held at Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan, from November 18 to 20.

  • In The Era Of Virtualization: Interview with Richard Gilder, CEO of Intercept

    The cloud has been a popular computing term for 2009 and going into 2010 will likely see the rise of that term as content become more accessible from multiple location as opposed to being locked down by local storage.

    Already users of cloud computing are experiencing more success as costs are lowered, work and necessary files are accessible from anywhere, reducing the need to be directly in front of a computer in the office or at home. More incredible is the access mobile devices have now in accessing necessary files, content, and sites as we move into an era where virtualization becomes more commonplace.

    Intercept is a virtualization company within the UK specializing in desktop virtualization, server virtualization, application virtualization and storage virtualization. A very large part of their business is based in the cloud. Majority of our clients seek virtual hosting for their enterprise computers. They  basically help develop a system allowing generic access, via the cloud, to any application that a company has.

    When asked about the innovation of Intercept, Richard Gilder, CEO of Intercept replies, "we are now in the process of putting together some new services which are now launched which is exchange share point and we’ve got another CRM coming on site soon."

    Fear of the Cloud

    Richard Gilder

    For many companies, much like it is with anything new, there is still that hesitation when adopting new ways of doing business. The cloud has been on the receiving end of both criticism and praise, and ultimately both sides have solid cases, it’s strong companies and good practices that can prevent catastrophic data loss and ensure a smooth changeover and maintenance of the idea.

    "I think the biggest fear is actually within the wording that your putting your data and storing it ‘in the cloud’. This is actually probably the most frightening thing about it. Its going via the cloud and will be completely replicated to multiple data centers for redundancy purposes," says Richard.

    The idea of giving up that control on your content and not having it locally stored is not an uncommon fear. Looking at things on a more personal level, using simplified tools like Google Documents has raised severe concern over ownership of content placed on equipment that is not technically "yours."

    If content is suddenly gone, what is the actual cost on the client. In terms of personal documents, it may be subjective, but when working with large corporations, the loss could be financially devastating. Releasing the grip on the the way things have always been done is most certainly an uphill battle, but thee are many factors that can make cloud computing appealing to the client.

    Money savings in terms of man power and equipment is a major selling point, reduction of carbon footprint is huge for the green enthusiasts, consistent and professionally reliable customer service personnel to answer questions for clients and address their needs, and finally, a long list of client success with the transition of locally stored data and applications to virtual cloud services.

    Advancements In the Field of Virtualization

    Significant advances have been made in the field of virtualization in just the last few years, but do the clients grow at the same pace, or does Intercept see that the technology completely outpaces the needs of the user?

    "Generally the clients infrastructure is growing at a rate in which the technology is actually growing faster," says Richard. "We’ve had a tough couple of years with a country wide perspective in people spending upward with technology has lapsed slightly."

    In the last two years alone Richard has seen people and companies become incredibly receptive to change and enthusiastic with the coming technologies. Intercept tends to focus the clients on the scalability, hardware savings, and most importantly in today’s green focused society, energy savings.

    It’s apparent that technology is not the only thing advancing at great rates, but also the reduction of the carbon footprint by many companies like Intercept that offer large scale businesses the ability to tap into a virtual network in order to get their job done.

    "Its an absolute colossal benefit and I think this should be pushed more and more from a green point of view. We run green government events, we run green events across the country and we should be pushing this side of things. We all are very very worried about climate change certainly not just in the UK where it rains a lot but within the global environment." Richard responds when asked what he and Intercept feel with regards to the green impact of virtualization.

    Conferences and Expos

    Intercept is always providing briefings in the UK regarding the virtualization market. The IP Expo is their biggest event for the quarter thus far, but several Ustream events are being planned right after Christmas.

    They had 5 seminars which they ran focusing on some of their key clients, such as Windsor & Maidenhead, which show colossal cost savings up in excess of 350,000 pounds the first year, all the way through to Ed Lowry’s, which is a very large law firm in London who virtualized their infrastructure over the last couple of years.

    Plans are being made currently for the 2010 year where they hope to continue their success at demonstrating the bonuses of moving to the cloud and worrying not about the data and not about the company’s security, but rather where the company is going and how it can be more successful. Richard Gilder, CEO of Intercept says shifting that focus for them is what he likes to do.

  • Running Web 2.0 Campaign: Interview with Ben Self, Founding Partner of Blue State Digital

    Today’s connected society has relied on technology to help provide successful campagins in marketing, outreach, converting, establishing, ultimately looking for one thing…results.

    Most recently the United States was embroiled in a political race that was heated and highly contested. Many through their name in the hat, but in the end it was down to two major candidates from two of the major parties. What these candidates needed was a campaign that could provide results and that is where Ben Self and his company, Blue State Digital came into play.

    Blue State Digital is a full service creative and strategic firm dedicated to providing results for their clients. They also offer a tiered system that requires no downloads, installs, or plugins, but rather stays online for the client to log into as needed to check on their campaign, analyze results, and with accessibility on mobile devices, makes it easy for the client to stay connected.

    With their focus on design, strategy and implementation of their plan, they were able to become a part of the winning team that would eventually win the presidential campaign and make a major footprint for their company in the White House.

    What Their Software Does Best

    Ben Self

    Realizing how important it was to reach out to as many people as possible, Blue State Digital did what many thought was impossible. Blue State’s overall plan was to help put their client in front of as many people as possible, crossing boundaries of wealth, race, religion and age.

    Using new media tools and digital outlets they were able to tap into a market that has otherwise been apathetic to the voting process, and in doing so truly used their tools to change the way elections will be held in the future.

    Blue State Digital claims itself to be “the leader in online fundraising, advocacy, social networking, constituency development for nonprofit organizations, political candidates and causes, and corporations.” Though just starting in 2004 they’ve been able to acquire an impressive clientele list to include President Obama, Walmart, Alliance for Climate Protection and Communication Workers of America.

    When asked what separates their products and services from the rest, found partner Ben Self had this to say, “the thing that I think makes it really interesting and important is that it has been rigorously tested through our analytics department.”

    Ben went on to discuss how thorough the process of testing is using a contribution page as an example. He discusses how an extra form field can increase or decrease the donation amount, how something on a website might impact how long a person is on the page, and other such, what he calls “minor tweaks,” can impact the end user’s experience.

    On Social Media Tools

    Ben Self comments that social media has been given a place on a pedastool by too many people that do not understand the essentials of a true marketing campaign. He sees these networks as only tools for his company to use, while useful, should not be considered a sure thing.

    “And so we view some of the external social media sites, the Facebooks, the Twitterers, those things, as not necessarily the secret to the success, as they are a way of reaching out to people,” Ben responds to an inquiry on social media tools.

    His takeaway point from this conversation was definitly to never forget that putting something online for the sake of being online is not helpful to anyone. Interactive campaigns and outreach are not billboards, but rather a focused, and strategic measureable way of exchanging information and data.

    Blue State Digital recognizes that social networks are extremely useful in directing people to new websites, but Ben stresses that great content and a compelling message will hopefully keep them on your site and encourage them to follow through with the call to action of the campaign you set out to do.

    Metrics & Reporting

    Stated at the beginning of this article, results are what the clients are looking for. To get these, it’s vital that any campaign have a solid method of acquire metrics and an easy to comprehend reporting process so that the metics can be analyzed effectively. Ben recognizes the importance of sending a mass email, for example, but more importantly it’s how that person will interact with that email.

    “It’s things like open rates, click through rates where it emails, it action conversion rates where you go through that. It’s like everyone who signs a particular petition and how many follow through and send out and invite your friends to sign the petition as well. How many of those friends then come along and sign it. Its the qualitative side of measurement as well so what issue brought these individuals in originally, what should we be talking about with them ongoing,” says Ben Self in an example of how metrics can be measured from something as simple as an email campaign.

    In a bold statement Ben says that no action online goes without a way to measure it in some way. That is what Blue State Digital looks to capture and report. The key ingredient to their system is focusing in on what YOU are doing.

    Andicom 2009

    Blue State Digital was featured at Andicom 2009 in Colombia where Ben has been asked to discuss the case study of the Obama campaign.

    “It doesn’t matter if you are a politician, or a corporation or a nonprofit or a university or a film, we’ve worked with clients in all sorts of organizations, but that people are expecting the internet to not just be a broadcast medium anymore. They are expecting interactivity and giving a few examples of how you can build that interactivity honestly and transparently and then giving some best practices for engaging with people after you’ve built that website and once you’ve brought them there,” Ben says of his speaking topic.

    He adds that Blue State Digital wants to ensure that they share “the basics of online organizing along with a few best practices that hopefully people can take away from no matter what industry they come from.”