Neat way of improving relations with the developer/user community for VSIO products:
Visio Corp. Licenses Netpodium Real-Time, Web Communications Software
PR Newswire - May 18, 1999 09:15
New Corporate Licensee Demonstrates the Effectiveness of Netpodium Software for Sharing Technical Information
SEATTLE, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Visio Corp. (Nasdaq: VSIO) today announced plans to broaden its developer education offerings with Web seminars powered by Netpodium Inc.'s real-time, Web-based communications software. The leading graphical solutions software company licensed Netpodium's highly interactive software program to produce regular twice-monthly Webcasts for developers around the world. Netpodium software creates a moderated, interactive Web conference that unites a speaker and up to 2,000 audience participants at the same time.
"We are excited about the opportunity to help Visio enhance their ability to train developers," said John O'Halloran, chief executive officer at Netpodium Inc. "We think this is a powerful example of how live Web communications can be used to convey complex technical information reaching a broad and geographically dispersed audience."
"We want to educate developers about how Visio software is more than just a flowchart. It can be used to build applications," Scott Campbell, group manager, Visio platform development customer unit. "But developers are very busy. It's hard to get them out of the office to attend training or a conference so it makes sense to meet them online. Finding the best way to do that was key. We needed a medium that is effective for communicating advanced, technical information and still cost-efficient."
After testing Netpodium software with a pilot Webcast in February, Visio's platform development staff decided Netpodium was the best vehicle for communicating with developers." A Netpodium Webcast is easy to access via an Internet URL, Campbell said, and it has live sound, video and comes with the ability to incorporate graphics, Microsoft PowerPoint slides and screen shots to illustrate technical points. He also likes Netpodium's interactivity, which includes the capacity to field questions, provide immediate live answers and to take "instant" polls.
"Developers really liked the pilot Webcast," Campbell said. "They could get high-level technical information in a concise segment without leaving their desks. The use of streaming media to deliver the audio portion eliminated the need for a conference call, reducing our costs while expanding the reach of our message."
For the regular Webcasts starting in May, Visio plans to introduce a theme or topic in the first Webcast of the month, give assignments, such as writing code, then return to the same topic in greater depth for the second Webcast of the month.
"It's the ideal way to disseminate technical information for this audience," Campbell said.
|
