Founded in Blacksburg, Virginia in 2002 as a means of bringing the online fund-raising power of Software-as-a-Service, SaaS, to non-profits, Click & Pledge now serves more than 7,000 customers, ranging from health organiztions, to public service initiatives, to politial campaigns in 45 countries.  Aptly, the company's tag line is "a better way to do good."

The most recent innovation at Click & Pledge is Pledge TeeVee, a video fund-raising tool.  Client organizations create their own YouTube videos and the Pledge TeeVee widget allows the video to play within an applet so organizations don’t have to utilize their own bandwidths.  A donor may donate anytime during the video.

Robert Scoble of Rackspace took video footage of Kamran Razvan during his visit to VT KnowledgeWorks in Blacksburg, Virginia in June, 2009.  We share it with you here:

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Click & Pledge and Handshake Media, Incorporated, the parent company of Handshake 2.0, are both member companies of VT KnowledgeWorks.  Click & Pledge was a client of Handshake Media in 2008 and purchases through Handshake 2.0 are powered by Click & Pledge.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

When Jim McIntyre and Christina McIntyre became partners in life through marriage, they had no idea they would find themselves partners in business. After all, they had established careers: Christina, a fourteen-year vetran of academic advising, serves as associate director of Virginia Tech's University Honors program, while Jim is founder of McIntyre & Associates, an Internet security consulting firm.

The couple launched Innovative Academic Solutions in 2006. In June of 2009, they released BecomeAlum, an online academic planning tool for college students.  BecomeAlum guides college students through the complexities of meeting degree requirements.  From freshman year through graduation, and even graduate school, BecomeAlum keeps students on track to meet their academic goals, helping them "Dream, Plan, Reailze" - BecomAlum's tagline.

“We are constantly amazed at how students use the program to create a truly unique and individualized plan that enhances their education,” said Christina. “It's not just a one-plan-fits-all.”

As an Ironman competitor, meeting goals is something close to Christina's heart. “There are certainly a lot of parallels to training and competing in an Ironman and being an entrepreneur. It's a risk. You're in it for the long haul. Endurance, perseverance, judgment calls, measuring performance and making adjustments - it's all an investment in yourself. Sweat equity certainly applies to both.”

The couple discovered there are benefits to working and living together.  According to Christina, “The great thing is that when one of us has an idea...that kind of 'Eureka!' moment, you don't have to wait until the next day to share your idea with someone.” Jim joked that “having two companies resolves the question of what to do with the other 12 hours of a day.”

With the development and launch phases of BecomeAlum behind them, they are building a strong user-base as more students and academic institutions sign up. The next business hurdle is to build a strong marketing and sales force. Jim admits that, when it comes to selling, the learning curve has been steep. “We're looking to involve others who have this expertise. Having an understanding of higher education, academic structure and the people is essential.” Christina concurs, "'Dream, Plan, Realize.  It's not just a pretty phrase for us.”

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Virginia Tech students are invited to test drive BecomeAlum.  They can sign up for 2 Weeks Free for VT. This offer is open to Virginia Tech students. Other colleges, universities, or student organizations can contact BecomeAlum for information on how to get BecomeAlum going at their schools.

You're invited to become a fan of BecomeAlum.com on Facebook. 

BecomeAlum.com is a client of Handshake 2.0.  Parent companies - Innovative Academic Solutions, LLC, and Handshake Media, Incorporated - are both members of VT KnowledgeWorks.

Photo taken with Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 on loan to blogger Z. Kelly Queijo.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

In an age of information overload, when everyone can find everything that's possible to do all at once, wouldn’t it be nice to know what’s happening just in the next three days?

NextThreeDays.com is the brainchild of Jami Ryan, Senior Developer at Automation Creations, Inc. He and the Automation Creations team, located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia,  created the site under the leadership of Laureen Fleming, Operations Manager at ACI, who is heading up the web development division of Automation Creations, Inc. while the company’s president and founder, Henry Bass, is on a tour of duty in Iraq.

“Henry asked me and Dale Kipp, head of our MatWeb division of ACI, to hold down the fort while he was in Iraq,” said Fleming.  “To honor his sacrifice, we wanted to do more than that.”

NextThreeDays.com is a multi-function web resource featuring restaurant meal and drink specials, music, sports, and other special events in the Blacksburg, Virginia and New River Valley of Virginia areas, all in a scrolling format for today, tomorrow, and the next day.  Information from the site can be viewed, emailed, and sent to a mobile device.  "That's cool!" and "How'd you do that?" and "I didn't know they served that!" are frequent responses to the site.

Known for its innovative development of web user interfaces paired with complex backend databases, Automation Creations built NextThreeDays.com on SQL Server, ColdFusion, Flash Remoting, Web Services, Javascript and Adobe Flash.  Like the best entrepreneurial technology enterprises, it, of course, can be automated and scaled.  While still considered in beta, launching in other locales is in the plan.

“We’re working on lots of other features including a mobile version, full event searching, and the ability to limit the event display to a specific area in the New River Valley," said Jami Ryan.

“We created NextThreeDays because we knew there were things to do in the New River Valley, but we had trouble finding them," Ryan added.  "We talked to our family and friends and discovered they were having the same problem. Once we heard, 'There’s nothing to do in Blacksburg' repeatedly, we knew we had to create NextThreeDays and solve this problem.”

Connecting with things to do in the NRV through NextThreeDays.com can happen on Twitter at @Next3Days and on Facebook.

Pictured are Henry Bass, President, "Flat Henry," stand-in presence during Henry's absence, and Laureen Fleming.

All who know Henry Bass look forward to the time they can say, "We'll see Henry in the next three days!"  Welcome home, Henry, to a masterpiece of an enterprise created by your team while you were away.

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Automation Creations, Inc. is a client of Handshake 2.0 and is featured in the Company Index.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

“Discussion of time and attendance reporting inside Federal agencies might seem like a cure for insomnia.  Not so, my friend.”
- Jim Flowers, Director of VT KnowledgeWorks, located at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, also the home of the Federal Division of Kronos, Inc.

Many companies fall under the category of "government contractor," and the standard perception of providing products and services to the U.S. government is one of innovation-slowing red tape to meet seemingly endless federal rules and regulations.

To quote Jim Flowers, not necessarily so, my friend.  Indeed, Jim Gray describes leading the Federal Division of Kronos, Inc. as more like founding a start-up than working for a large corporation.  "Every federal agency has unique requirements.  We have to have the flexibility to adjust and adapt to meet the needs of different customers," Gray said.

While the original product acquired in 2004 by Kronos from Blacksburg, Virginia start-up 3i Systems was a web-based employee time and attendance system, Gray and his team have developed new versions and expanded it into a suite of workforce management solutions.

And while many public sector companies seek ways to extend their web-based offerings to mobile devices, the Federal Division of Kronos has already developed, in-house, a mobile solution to enhance its signature workforce management system, Kronos webTA™.

"Given the new administration's emphasis on transparency and teleworking," Gray said, "we offer  ubiquitous computing solutions.  No matter where they are or what device they have, our solutions let  federal government employees track the work they do."

Ubiquitous computing on mobile devices?  My friend, at the Federal Division of Kronos - the equivalent of a start-up corporation within a corporation - there's way too much excitement on the cutting edge of the most innovative technology for sleep.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

According to Jim Gray, director of engineering for the Federal Division of Kronos, Inc., there's a rule in the federal government:  Every employee must submit a timesheet to get a paycheck. No timesheet, no paycheck.  That turned out to be a bit of a challenge for one agency in 2005.

The day before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans, the federal government's department of Homeland Security had just completed a summer-long deployment of Kronos webTA™, an employee time tracking, attendance, and labor management solution.

“When Katrina hit, they [Homeland Security] were shutdown. They could not process payroll. We were able to recreate their environment here in Blacksburg, build a function-of-last-report, and generate payroll for every employee in Homeland Security. To this day, the head of HR remembers what we did for them," Gray said.

But, back in 1999, before Katrina, and before the Federal Division of Kronos even existed, a start-up in Blacksburg Virginia, 3i Systems, created a web-based time and attendance system. 

In 2004, this small, still virtually unknown start-up won the contract to provide service to the FDIC, beating out Kronos, one of the nation's leading providers of workforce management solutions.

“Kronos had been trying for years to break into the federal space,” said Gray. “After losing the bid for the FDIC contract, they asked 'Who is this company, 3i Systems, that just beat us?' They did their research, approached the founders, and acquired the company.”

Today, Kronos, Inc. has grown to 3,000 employees worldwide and, since 1980, has conducted 60 acquisitions. The Federal Division remains housed in Blacksburg at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center and employs a staff of 16.

Gray, who's been with Kronos since 2005, said, “One of the things we've learned along the way is that the federal government is not a market, it's a community. You can have one customer with 60 divisions and they all talk to each other. We're not just selling a service, we're part of a community.”

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

The Tech Showcase on Handshake 2.0, kindly sponsored by Rackspace, has featured entrepreneurs and the companies they have founded.  This edition of the Tech Showcase reveals a power fueling local entrepreneurship and company formation.  In fact, three of the companies featured in the Tech Showcase - Attaain, 88owls, and TORC - are member companies.

When first conceived, VT KnowedgeWorks may have fallen under the category of "business incubator," but it has evolved into a business acceleration center that not only incubates technology companies, but takes entrepreneurs through all stages of a company’s development, from start-up, to growth, to expansion.  And that's not just for member companies.  A highly valued outreach program of VT KnowledgeWorks, available to any corporate president within driving distance, is Presidents’ Council, a monthly meeting fostering continued development of corporate leadership within a context of confidentiality and synergy.

The power fueling VT KnowledgeWorks is Jim Flowers, its wise and lively director.  Accolades received for VT KnowledgeWorks under his leadership include listing among the Top Ten Incubators in the United States and an international award, Most Promising New Incubator.  He shares readily what he has learned through his blog, So you want to launch a business..., Twitter updates, and his book, Moxie and Other Fundamental Entrepreneurial Concepts.

Jim Flowers humors the videographer - Anne Clelland, founder of Handshake Media, Incorporated, also a VT KnowledgeWorks member company - by recounting one of her favorite Jim Flowers stories of valuing...well...when knowledge works.

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VT KnowledgeWorks and Jim Flowers are clients of Handshake Media, Incorporated.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

Did life as an “Air Force-brat” influence David Bradshaw's love for geography? You bet. With five Air Force moves during his childhood, it's no surprise that as a student at Radford University, Bradshaw gravitated to a class in geography and developed what he calls “a passion for cultural geography as well as the technical side of map-making.” Both led him to launch a business in March of 2008.

Located in Blacksburg, Virginia at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, InteractiveGIS combines data and space. InteractiveGIS uses MapServer® technology, originally developed by NASA and made available through an Open Source licensing agreement, as the core of its spatial mapping engine.

A geographic information system, GIS, joins maps and databases in a way that allows access to the details stored about a particular location on a map. “Basically, it's your data, our technology, one solution,” said Bradshaw.

Clients of InteractiveGIS range from government agencies and non-profits to the private sector. The company's services have been used for mapping everything from location data of fire hydrants, to targeted lists for Christmas card mailings. According to Bradshaw, “Anytime you have something and want to see its relation to others, or you want to visualize data, then you need InteractiveGIS.”

Using the fire hydrant as an example, Bradshaw explains that details such as location, pounds per square inch, PSI, working condition, and type of hose connector are all critical things to know. “That's valuable information firemen can access while en route to a call.”

As if interactive maps aren't cool enough on their own, other cool-factor features InteractiveGIS includes are:  endless query combinations, innovations in mapping, maps you can draw on using their online-hypermarkup program (which can be sent out via email), and the “Just the Facts” feature which provides information about a single item on the map, relative to its surroundings.

Through InteractiveGIS, Bradshaw has created a way to view the world, not just as a map, but as a world of data just waiting to be mapped.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

From TORC Technologies:

In Out of Harm's Way, 2nd Lt. Brian S. Villiard asks, "Can remotely operated platforms get Marines off the road?"

TORC's answer? Yes, thanks to ARCH, its Autonomous Remote Control HMMWV System.

In the video, Michael Fleming, CEO of TORC, describes how TORC transitioned and commercialized its DARPA Urban Challenge technology to ARCH featuring the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle - the HMMWV, or "Humvee." TORC has also produced several other Urban Challenge technologies, including the ByWire XGV (computer controlled Ford Escape Hybrid), which provides other robotics developers with an integration-ready drive-by-wire platform.  The video includes a clip of the HMMWVs in action. Michael Fleming was named to the Virginia Blue Ridge Business Journal's 2009 "20 Under 40" list of young entrepreneurs.

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Update 9/21/09:  Latest from TORC on ARCH (Autonomous Remote Controlled HMMWV) - descriptions, photos, videos

TORC Technologies, located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia, is commercializing intelligent robotic technologies into modular, interoperable, off-the-shelf products that enable customers to rapidly integrate and deploy robotic solutions involving unmanned and autonomous vehicles.  TORC is widely recognized as a leading source of teleoperated control and autonomous navigation solutions for unmanned vehicles.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

To Southwest Virginia Entrepreneurs from LeClairRyan:

Here's all about it: You've scouted the competition. You've scouted out ways to make your venture a success. Now it's time to apply for the LeClairRyan Southwest Virginia Connection for Originating Unique Technology (SCOUT) Award.

The SCOUT Award was created to recognize an entrepreneur or emerging business in Southwest Virginia that has a unique idea and is ready to evolve. If you have a business plan and are ready to seek angel or venture capital financing, the SCOUT Award may be for you. Every new venture needs someone to guide them through the common pitfalls that can end a good idea before it emerges. We’re here to be your scout.

Here's what you get: If you are selected as the recipient of the SCOUT Award, you will receive legal services estimated at $10k-$15k over a twelve month period (maximum of $3k per month). You will be able to choose from a list of services that can be found here.

Here's what to do: Go to the LeClairRyan Scout Award description to view the full details of the award program. Create an informative, entertaining 60-second video elevator speech and a 1-3 page executive summary of your venture, including all contact information. Then, submit them to scout@leclairryan.com by December 4, 2009. Winner will be announced on January 12. Click here to determine if your venture qualifies.

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Simulating the opportunity to speak with someone briefly and intensely, at a busy NewVa Corridor Technology Council meeting, Handshake 2.0 asked Michael Drzal, Chair of the Venture Capital Practice Area Team and the Technology and Venture Capital Team at LeClairRyan about the main points to cover in a 60-second elevator pitch.

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LeClairRyan is an entrepreneurial law firm that provides business counsel and client representation in matters of corporate law and high-stakes litigation.  It specializes in the founding of high-tech start-ups and the development of high-tech enterprises.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.

Like reporters on assignment, members of the NewCity team began work on a new web site for the International Reporting Project (IRP) with two ideas in mind: probing questions and a deadline.

The IRP, based in Washington, D.C., is a fellowship program for professional journalists covering critical issues in some of the most under-served regions of the world. The program is hosted by the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at John Hopkins University.

According to William Colbert, IRP communications coordinator and webmaster, over the past 11 years, the program acquired quite a catalog of incredible material by journalists, including written works, video, audio, and photographs. “NewCity understood our dilemma from day one: How do we bring these stories, once hidden on the old IRP site, to the forefront? This mutual understanding allowed us to hit the ground running,” said Colbert.

At NewCity, every project begins with the end-user in mind. For the IRP, the end-user included editors, journalists, as well as readers. According to Melissa Beaver, User Experience (UX) project lead, “In our research for this project, we found that the author was as important as the content. People read a news blog because they like the blogger. The subject is the primary draw but it's a personal connection that keeps them reading.”

Another way the NewCity team connects the reader to the story is through an innovative story map browser that unites geography and journalists to their stories, creating what Beaver refers to as a “sense of place for the reader.”

“The new site has exceeded our expectations,” says Colbert. “The site's contemporary look, improved functionality, and simplified navigation places the IRP in a position to continue its longstanding tradition as pioneers in non-profit news.”

Pioneering experience design is the foundation for NewCity projects where the end-user experience is where work begins.

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An example of the work of the International Reporting Project (IRP):  IRP reporters visited Lebanon and Syria in 2004:

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Like what you read about tech companies in the Blacksburg, Virginia area?  Rackspace Email and Apps has openings for developers.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

About Rackspace
As the leader and specialist in hosting services, Rackspace(R) Hosting is changing the way businesses worldwide buy IT. Rackspace delivers computing-as-a-service, integrating the industry's best technologies into a flexible service offering, making computing more reliable and affordable. A trusted partner to companies of all sizes, Rackspace enables IT departments to be more effective. Rackspace is distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support(R), furthering the company's mission to be one of the world's greatest service companies. Rackspace is recognized as one of FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best companies to work for in the US, ranking number 43 on the list. Rackspace's portfolio of hosted IT services includes managed hosting (www.rackspace.com), email hosting (www.rackspace.com/apps) and cloud hosting (www.mosso.com). For more information on Rackspace Hosting, please visit www.rackspace.com.