Fri 04/01/2011 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
I use notepad++ for everything for such a long time that it has become a part of my desktop. Like a browser, it is constantly on my desktop, helping me with writing code snippets for a SQL query to full pledged code projects.
Today, Don Ho said that he has joined Scientology and after reading his article I am following him, if my donations are going there why not me!
Even though many communities across USA are looking at Kansas city, Kansas with envy, I am happy that Google has broken grounds on the project. Even if Google is selective (1100 communities wanted Google Fiber to Home) in it's High speed networks and where they are laid out, other providers can not ignore the fact that fiber to home is the way to go. Google and it's Gigabit Fiber network will be the catalyst for other providers to come out, at least with megabit networks.
It is more than just a faster network and an example of what high speed network and applications could do to a community. What ever the selection criteria, Google has chosen Kansas city and is working with with local organizations including the Kauffman Foundation, KCNext and the University of Kansas Medical Center to help develop the Gigabit applications of the future.
Congratulations Kansas City!
Official Google Blog: Ultra high-speed broadband is coming to Kansas City, Kansas
Smartphone Patents, http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
I come back from a small spring break to find a bunch of smatphone related lawsuits. iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Microsoft are all targeted in these suits. Google / Android alone seem to have attracted 38 such lawsuits.
But the latest lawsuit targeting 32 entities is covering developers in addition to hardware and Smartphone OS manufacturers like Google and Apple. Texas-based H-W Technology L.C. filed a complaint in Eastern Texas March 30, 2011, asserting a Patent on an "Internet protocol (IP) phone with search and advertising capability" against 32 legal entities. H-W Technology L.C. claims that the patent covers systems and methods that "allow users of [smartphones] via domain specific applications to receive information and offers from merchants and to complete a transaction with one of said merchants without having to generate a voice call.", which sounds to me like web browsing me who knows next to nothing about law and patents!
This is setting a pathway for patent hoarders as well as real patent holders to go after app developers. USPTO should really be checking these stuff well. At least we can be happy that Florian Mueller is doing the hard work of sorting things out for us.
He has drawn out the main pieces of the complaint (which is supposed to be very large);
Verizon Overcharges 133000 Customers http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Verizon customers in Florida, Texas and California, 133000 of them, were over billed by the company because of an operator error.
An operator or someone of of same capability from North Carolina billing center programmed the computers with wrong instructions to bill customers with a phantom late fee of $7 or 1.5 percent of most users' bills (whichever was greater). This brought in closer to a million dollars from state of Florida alone.
Someone in a Durham, N.C., billing center entered the wrong instructions into a computer that generated the bills for customers in Florida, California and Texas, said Bob Elek, a Verizon spokesman. Verizon says customers should get a credit for the fee on one of their next two bills.Last October Verizon agreed to pay closer to $90 million in refunds for unauthorized $1.99 data charge billed to customers.
PBX in a Flash ( PIAF ) Can Run without Internet http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
If you experienced PIAF server was not able to route any calls after losing your Internet connection, even between local extensions Ward Mundy just Tweeted how we could avoid this.
The solution is to run a Bind DNS Caching Server running on your PIAF box to keep it going with an Internet outage. If you decided to use this solution, and if you are using FDQNs on your phones, the primary DNS server address must internal or external IP address of your server, where your phones are attached.
Ward Mundy, on the PIAF forum, has provided a simple script to run on your server and a set of files to get everything setup properly like ROOT server information and forwarding DNS queries to Google DNS servers.. The script is not shell script so you will have to run each line by themselves. (You can convert it into a shell script, if you have many PIAF servers running.)
After logging into your server with root capability (root or a sudo account) run the following code at the end of the article. Once you run the code and satisfied that everything is fine, run a dig command (e.g. dig inbound1.vitelity.net) for each of the FQDNs of your SIP trunk providers! This will cache the DNS information on your server to be used when the need arises. You can find the info with FreePBX: Tools, Asterisk Info, SIP Info, SIP Registry. Happy calling;
yum -y install bind*
cd /var/named
service named stop
wget http://pbxinaflash.net/source/bind/bind.tgz
tar zxvf bind.tgz
rm bind.tgz
echo nameserver 127.0.0.1 > /etc/resolv.conf
sed -i 's|$nameserver|127.0.0.1|' /sbin/dhclient-script
service named start
service network restart
dig pbxinaflash.com
dig pbxinaflash.com
# look at the output for the second dig command issued above
# 2d dig command should show a very short DNS lookup time, e.g.
#;; Query time: 1 msec
#;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
# IF ALL IS WELL...
#be sure to set named for auto start on bootup
chkconfig named on --level 2345
chkconfig --list named
# named should be configured to start with RunLevels 2,3,4,5
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Digium just announced that they are now accepting submissions for the 2011 Asterisk Innovation Awards! The Digium Innovation Award is designed to recognize developers, customers and partners for outstanding achievements with Asterisk that are improving business processes, overcoming technology challenges and enhancing the company’s bottom line. Digium first introduced the Innovation awards at Astricon 2006 and has been an industry wide accepted award and awaited ever since.
This is open to any and all Digium|Asterisk customers and partners world-wide with solutions that are running and in production. There is also no limits to the number of projects and you can submit as many projects as long as you remember that each project requires a separate submission.
Digium will select this year’s winner based upon a number of criteria that include:
A Sprint In Your Google Voice, Or Vise Versa. http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Yesterday we wrote about Google Nexus S 4G on Sprint with integrated Google Voice. I was so excited about the Nexus S 4G, I almost did not pay attention to the Google Voice part of it. By reading a Post on Googleblog (Cross-posted from the Google Voice Blog) explains to process in bit more depth.
Google Voice has come a long way since the Grand Central days, where I got my feet wet with what is now Google Voice.
Google Voice already comes in as mobile versions and you can use it with your existing numbers or as of lately, you can even port your mobile number to the Google Voice. By doing so means one can make the mobile number you’ve always used your Google Voice number, so it can ring any phone or computer you want.
So obviously the next step is to work with Carriers to integrate Google Voice with mobile phones. If you remember the AT&T / iPhone / Google Voice fiasco, you will understand how short sighted some carriers are. They even went as far as complaining to FCC about how bad Google Voice for not connecting to spam numbers! But then again, there are others who see the light early on, like Sprint.
Sprint customers will be the first in line to be able to do so. So now Sprint customers who uses Google Voice, will be able to use their mobile number as their Google Voice number.
This means a lot to Sprint customers as they can have all the benefits of Google Voice without having to port or change their numbers.
Additionally if so desired, Google Voice users can replace Sprint number with Google Voice number when making calls or sending TEXT messages from their Sprint phone.
In both the above cases, Google Voice will assume the tasks of Sprint Voicemail allowing Sprint customers to receive transcribed voicemail as email or TEXT messages. Another benefit is the International calls at low rates. International calls made from Google Voice users’ Sprint phones will be connected by Google Voice at Google's very low rates.
Also all other feature of Google Voice, like call recording, blocking unwanted calls, and personalized voicemail greetings based on the callers number, will be available to users.
These benefits will be avilable to Sprint users in the USA and will gradually be availble to all Google Voice users. Check your Google Voice account.
To learn more please visit google.com/voice/sprint.
Official Google Blog: Sprint integrates Google Voice
| Network | HSPA＋ 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100 EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 |
|---|---|
| OS | Android™ 3.0 (Honeycomb) |
| Display | 10.1" WXGA 1280x800 |
| Processor | 1GHz Dual Core application processor |
| Camera | Main(Rear) : 3.0-Mega Pixel Camera AF with LED Flash Front : 2.0-Mega Pixel Camera |
| Video | Format : MPEG4/H263/H264,Divx/Xvid Playback : 1080p Full HD Video @ 30fps Recording : 720p HD Video |
| Audio | MP3, AAC, AAC＋, eAAC＋, OGG, MIDI, AMR-NB/WB 3.5mm Ear Jack, Surround Sound Stereo Speakers |
| Enterprise Solutions | Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync |
| Quickoffice HD Editor | |
| Value-added Features | Android Market™ |
| Google Mobile Services : Google™ Talk Video Chat, Google™ Maps, Books, etc. | |
| Samsung TouchWiz UX | |
| Samsung Mini Apps Tray | |
| Social Hub, Music Hub, Readers Hub ＊Availability differs by region | |
| Adobe Flash Player 10.2 | |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth® technology v 2.1 ＋ EDR USB 2.0 WiFi 802.11 (a/b/g/n) |
| Sensor | Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Ambient Light sensor |
| Memory | 16G / 32G / 64G, microSD (up to 32GB) |
| ＊Size | 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6 mm, 595g |
| Battery | 6800mAh |
| Network | HSPA＋ 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100 EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 |
|---|---|
| OS | Android™ 3.0 (Honeycomb) |
| Display | 8.9" WXGA 1280x800 |
| Processor | 1GHz Dual Core application processor |
| Camera | Main(Rear) : 3.0-Mega Pixel Camera AF with LED Flash Front : 2.0-Mega Pixel Camera |
| Video | Format : MPEG4/H263/H264, Divx/Xvid Playback : 1080p Full HD Video @ 30fps Recording : 720p HD Video |
| Audio | MP3, AAC, AAC＋, eAAC＋, OGG, MIDI, AMR-NB/WB 3.5mm Ear Jack, Stereo Speaker |
| Enterprise Solutions | Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync |
| Quickoffice HD Editor | |
| Value-added Features | Android Market™ |
| Google Mobile Services : Google™ Talk Video Chat, Google™ Maps, Books, etc | |
| Samsung TouchWiz UX | |
| Samsung Mini Apps Tray | |
| Social Hub, Music Hub, Readers Hub ＊Availability differs by region | |
| Adobe Flash Player 10.2 | |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth® technology v 3.0 USB 2.0 WiFi 802.11 (a/b/g/n) |
| Sensor | Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, Ambient Light sensor |
| Memory | 16G / 32G / 64G, microSD (up to 32GB) |
| ＊Size | 230.9 x 157.8 x 8.6 mm, 470g |
| Battery | 6000mAh |
Microsoft Sues Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Microsoft filed a complaint with the US District Court for the District of Western Washington, and one with the US International Trade Commission (ITC). Microsoft earlier lodged complaints against Motorola with the same organization and asserted the same patents in both of them.
“The Android platform infringes a number of Microsoft’s patents, and companies manufacturing and shipping Android devices must respect our intellectual property rights. To facilitate that we have established an industry-wide patent licensing program for Android device manufacturers, HTC, a market leader in Android smartphones, has taken a license under this program. We have tried for over a year to reach licensing agreements with Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Inventec. Their refusals to take licenses leave us no choice but to bring legal action to defend our innovations and fulfill our responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year to bring great software products and services to market,” said Horacio Gutierrez, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Property & Licensing.
iPhone 5 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
I guess untill Apple comes out with a definitive answer regarding the iPhone 5, there will be more rumors.The latest comes fro China Times and according to them the device is in production state and has an improved antenna and a metal case or chassis and will be ready to launch in third quarter of 2011.
There is also information about NFC (Near Field Communication) chip to be coupled with an e-wallet service allowing users to leave their wallets behind. Like in Japan where most of the monitory transactions like buying a railway or bus ticket, a cup of coffee or many other stuff offered in vending machines are done with ones phone. The Google Nexus S and Google Nexus S 4G already has the NFC chips embedded so it is only natural that iPhone keeps up! :)
In addition to the antenna correction (remember the antennagate) the iPhone 5 screen will also have more real estate with an 4" screen instead of 3.5 inch that they have now.
Next improvement comes from the processor and will have tha same processor as the iPad 2, a dual core A5 processor.
The China Times als speaks of an Apple manufacturing plant in Brazil, dedicated to producing Apple product which plans to begin production in 2013.
China Times (Translated)
“The BlackBerry PlayBook is an amazing tablet that is already being widely praised as a multi-tasking powerhouse with an uncompromised web experience and an ultra-portable design,” said Mike Lazaridis, President & Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “Given the high level of customer interest in the BlackBerry PlayBook, we are particularly pleased to be working with such an amazing lineup of retail partners.”The BestBuy USA and Canada will carry the device and will begin accepting orders as of today. In addition, AT&T, Office Depot, RadioShack, Staples, Sprint and Verizon will also carry the device.
7" 1024x600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touch screenSorry Jobs, they did not supply sand paper with it as you wanted. Well, you can't have everything you want!
Ultra-portable at less than a pound and less than one-half inch thick: 0.9 lbs (425g) and 5.1” x 7.6” x 0.4” (130mm x 194mm x 10mm)
1 GHz dual-core processor
BlackBerry® Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
MP3, AAC and WMA audio playback
Support for high resolution video playback (H.264, MPEG4, WMV)
1080p HDMI output
Dual 1080p HD cameras for video conferencing and video capture (3MP front and 5MP rear)
1 GB RAM memory
Up to 64 GB internal storage (16, 32 and 64 GB models)
GPS, Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), 6-Axis Motion Sensor (Gyroscope), Digital Compass (Magnetometer)
Stereo speakers and stereo microphones
Wi-Fi® (802.11 a/b/g/n) connectivity
Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support
Cool New 2011 Apple MACbook Pro Problems http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Looks like the new Macbook pro notebooks are having some cooling issues under heavy loads.I was a bit disappointed because I was planing to get the new 17" version for myself.
Since my interest, I have been watching the forums to learn about the new Macbooks and these issues reported points to Mac OS X and graphics chip cooling. People who has loaded Windows says the machines stay stable under the same conditions.
Apple has indicated to users who notified the issue that a team of engineers are working on the issue. Many people who has returned the machines because of the problem experienced the same with the new machines.
I guess I will wait for my 1920x1200 screen!
Forum information could be found here;
Apple
MacRumors
Twitter Tax Break, http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The Twitter Tax break would give companies in the economically depressed Mid-Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods, be exempt from paying the payroll tax for new employees. The exemption would be good for six years and would not apply to workers already on the payroll.
The legislation also exempt affected companies from paying payroll taxes on employee stock options if they go public during this six years and would save a bundle for involved companies.
But the board of supervisors are up in arms. Some supports the measure while others looking to bring it in front of voters in November.
Twitter, a private company, is thinking of moving to Brisbane from it's current location, south of market, is of course looking for the break. If approved, Twitter would move in to a place on Market street by ninth street. Twitter is projecting to hire about 2650 employees by 2013. Twitter currently has 350 employees.
read more on SFGate.
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Remember those T-Mobile Ads, depicting AT&T and Other networks are being crappy? Well I guess now they will have to say, following the trend we have decided to become crappy too! Too bad T-Mobile was one carrier I was considering to replace my AT&T Unlimited plan, which has apparently will become limited if you are tethering your smartphone.
You Tether, You Pay http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Looks like AT&T wants smartphone users to pay up for tethering. Tethering came to AT&T network with iOS 4.3 and has a specials data plan for such users. But many users have used third party apps like MyWi.
If you thought you are exempt because you are on the grandfathered unlimited plan, you are wrong;
If we don’t hear from you, we’ll plan to automatically enroll you into DataPro 4GB after March 27, 2011. The new plan – whether you sign up on your own or we automatically enroll you – will replace your current smartphone data plan, including if you are on an unlimited data plan.So if you have been tethering and received the fallowing letter, stop it and contact AT&T before March 27 and save your unlimited plan.
Dear [Name of Account Holder],
We’ve noticed your service plan may need updating.
Many AT&T customers use their smartphones as a broadband connection for other devices, like laptops, netbooks or other smartphones– a practice commonly known as tethering. Tethering can be an efficient way for our customers to enjoy the benefits of AT&T’s mobile broadband network and use more than one device to stay in touch with important people and information. To take advantage of this feature, we require that in addition to a data plan, you also have a tethering plan.
Our records show that you use this capability, but are not subscribed to our tethering plan.
If you would like to continue tethering, please log into your account online at www.wireless.att.com, or call us at 1-888-860-6789 Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. CST or Saturday, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. CST, by March 27, 2011 to sign up for DataPro 4GB for Smartphone Tethering. Here are details on the plan:
DataPro 4GB for Smartphone Tethering
• $45 per month (this gives you 4GB in total, combining both your smartphone data plan for $25 and the tethering feature, $20)
• $10 per each additional GB thereafter, added automatically as needed
• Mobile Hotspot capabilities are included for compatible Smartphones
If we don’t hear from you, we’ll plan to automatically enroll you into DataPro 4GB after March 27, 2011. The new plan – whether you sign up on your own or we automatically enroll you – will replace your current smartphone data plan, including if you are on an unlimited data plan.
If you discontinue tethering, no changes to your current plan will be required.
It’s easy to track your usage throughout the month so there are no bill surprises. For example, we send you free text messages when you reach 65, 90, and 100 percent of your plan’s threshold. If you would like to monitor your account more closely, go to www.att.com/dataplans to learn about other ways to track your data usage.
As a reminder, our smartphone data plans also include unlimited usage of Wi-Fi at no additional charge. AT&T smartphone customers can use Wi-Fi at home or on-the-go at any one of our more than 23,000 U.S. hotspots already included in your data plan.
Thank you for bringing your account up to date. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve your mobile broadband needs.
Sincerely,
AT&T
Please update your data plan by March 27, 2011 if you intend to continue tethering
To learn more and update your plan, visit att.com/dataplans
Reach us for assistance during business hours: Monday – Friday 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. CST Saturday 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. CST at 1-888-860-6789
$39 Billion AT&T, T-Mobile Deal http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
With the following press release, AT&T is on the way to acquire T-Mobile USA and many including deal makers stand to gain.
AT&T and T_mobile share the same type of networks like GSM. UMTS/HSPA and the integration on two companies will technologically seem to be sound.
“This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO. “It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people. Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more. During the past few years, America’s high-tech industry has delivered innovation at unprecedented speed, and this combination will accelerate its continued growth.”The buyout will also make AT&T the largest wireless carrier with somewhere close to 130 million users and T-Mobile customers 33.7 million of them now can have iPhones if they really want, just like T-Mobile European customers.
SIPNOC 2011http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
SIPNOC seem to be going places with ever expanding attention from CEOs, CTOs, network architects and engineers from carriers on five continents as well as government, research organizations and industry bigwigs. The first of its kind conference will be a good source of information for everyone involved in SIP Network operations or any communications operations involving SIP for that matter.
SIPNOC earlier announced that the Keynote Speech will presented by Dr. Douglas Sicker, FCC.
"When we initiated SIPNOC, we knew we were embarking on a new type of event for the industry and that there would be interest, and the response we have received has justified our enthusiasm, and then some, We expect this event to be far more than just an educational conference, but a meeting of the brightest industry minds from across the entire spectrum of the global networking operator community. Our vision for SIPNOC is to make it a place for network operators of all shapes and sizes to come together to share their perspectives and ideas on how to make IP communications better, and hopefully provide tangible results that further accelerate the development and propagation of SIP and SIP services in the years ahead." " said SIP Forum Managing Director, Marc Robins.Follow the links below for registration and further information.
NORTH ANDOVER, MA (March 18, 2011) - The SIP Forum announced today a preliminary list of registered attendees and participants in the first SIP Network Operators Conference (SIPNOC), to be held April 25-27 at the Hyatt Dulles Hotel in Herndon, VA. The two-day conference, which is designed to be a first-of-its-kind international conference aimed a SIP network operations personnel, is attracting CEOs, CTOs, network architects and engineers from carriers on five continents, including AT&T, Comcast, Cbeyond, Time Warner Cable, Swisscom, COX Communications, Verizon, Uni-tel, A1Telekom Austria, Telecommunikasi Indonesia, XO Communications, and Sprint Nextel.
In addition to carrier participants, SIPNOC has also attracted a myriad of SIP community stakeholders from vendors, governments and research organizations such as Acme Packet (which has also signed on as a SIPNOC Diamond Sponsor), the FCC, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Microsoft Corp., IBM Research, CableLabs, Dialogic, Broadsoft, Ingate Systems, MetaSwitch, Polycom, Commetrex, Sonus, Sagemcom Canada, NGN Data Services Corp. and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Registration for SIPNOC remains opens by visiting http://www.regonline.com/sipnoc_2011.
"When we initiated SIPNOC, we knew we were embarking on a new type of event for the industry and that there would be interest, and the response we have received has justified our enthusiasm, and then some," said SIP Forum Managing Director, Marc Robins. "We expect this event to be far more than just an educational conference, but a meeting of the brightest industry minds from across the entire spectrum of the global networking operator community. Our vision for SIPNOC is to make it a place for network operators of all shapes and sizes to come together to share their perspectives and ideas on how to make IP communications better, and hopefully provide tangible results that further accelerate the development and propagation of SIP and SIP services in the years ahead."
The SIP Forum has also developed a world-class lineup of speakers at SIPNOC, to be announced in detail at a later date.
SIPNOC will focus on issues critical to the reliable and successful deployment and operation of SIP-based services in carrier networks. The agenda will feature special presentations, panel discussions and workshops covering key topics by network operators related to SIP-based services and infrastructure, including testing, application development, SIP trunking, FoIP, call routing and peering, troubleshooting and monitoring, emergency services and more.
While the international carrier and service provider community is the lynchpin of the event, industry stakeholders involved in major SIP initiatives such equipment vendors, government representatives, large enterprises and research organizations are encouraged to attend.
The SIP Forum has gained an international reputation for developing important, educational events surrounding SIP. The organization's SIPit series of interoperability testing events (www.sipit.net) regularly provides a test bed for SIP-based applications and equipment that has been heralded as critical for the development of new products and services in the industry. The SIP Forum also has a number of committees and task groups made up of well-known industry experts examining a myriad of SIP-related topics, including the use of SIP in smart grid installations, FoIP, video, and user-agent configuration.
* To register for SIPNOC, please visit http://www.regonline.com/sipnoc_2011.
SIPNOC General Show Info
* For more information about SIPNOC, please visit www.sipnoc.org or send an email to sipnocinfo@sipforum.org.
SIPNOC Sponsorship Info
* For information about corporate sponsorship opportunities at SIPNOC, please contact Marc Robins, SIP Forum President and Managing Director, at +1-718-548-7245 or marc.robins "at" sipforum.org.
Sn0wbreeze 2.3 beta 3 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
iH8sn0w has released Sn0wbreeze 2.3 beta 3 to fix the iPod touch 4 and iBooty issues. Other than that, the release is same as the Sn0wbreeze 2.3 beta2;
Android Continue to Lead http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
AUSTIN, Texas, March 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ubershare.com, a new website that launched March 11 is putting its own information sharing technology to use to spread awareness for the Japan relief effort. The campaign has garnered support from more than 120 companies exhibiting at SXSW and strives to bring the Japan crisis and relief effort to the forefront of the Austin conference.
After launching its new sharing rewards platform, Ubershare.com, a site that enables people to offer and earn rewards for helping spread messages, quickly realized that its platform could be used to get the word out on the Japan relief effort.
Says Founder Jason White, “We noticed there were a few very respectable efforts at the South By Southwest conference to raise funds and awareness for Japan, but from our discussions with conference attendees, none of these efforts seemed to be getting significant exposure.” White added “SXSW seems to have an incredible mix of creative, brilliant and connected people who can use their resources to support this type of cause and we realized the technology we built in Ubershare to spread messages could be used to raise cause awareness within that community.”
To put its sharing rewards service to use, Ubershare published an announcement on its site with information about donating to the Red Cross and background on the existing SXSW relief effort. It then applied its own sharing rewards to the announcement, offering $1 in donations to the Red Cross, up to $10,000, for each person visiting www.ubershare.com/japan and using its tracked sharing system to spread the word. To encourage sharing, Ubershare additionally pledged a free SXSW 2012 conference pass to the person most actively spreading awareness.
Once the post went live on March 14, White jumped into action, printing hundreds of Japan awareness signs and scrambling to speak with the various companies exhibiting at the SXSW exhibition hall. Each company was invited to support the initiative by placing an awareness poster somewhere visible at their exhibition booths. By day’s end, more than 120 companies, each listed at the page www.ubershare.com/japan had pledged support by not only putting up posters, but using their social media channels to promote the initiative. Some offered financial matching support as well.
Says White about his company’s effort “We’re genuinely grateful but unsurprised by all the support. The South By Southwest community is incredibly caring, positive, and resourceful and we expected nothing less. But," adds White, “the only thing we actually care about is that folks spread awareness about this relief effort or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.”
