Web Development Live

Helpstream, a leading provider of on-demand collaborative customer service solutions, today announced the general availability of the Helpstream Summer 2008 release, which contains over 130 enhancements to help companies understand customer attitudes, tap into community knowledge, and build winning relationships. By further integrating case management, knowledge management, and community collaboration, companies can leverage the power and familiarity of the Web to engage their customers in a rich, collaborative self service experience.

“Many companies turn to call deflection as a way to deal with increasing service demand, but in doing so they fail to engage the customer at a point where their attitudes and needs are conspicuously obvious,” said Anthony Nemelka, CEO of Helpstream. “By placing Community at the forefront of customer service, Helpstream enables anyone in a company or its community to be an effective customer service agent. This truly modern approach significantly expands the pool of knowledge available to each user by leveraging the Internet for what it does best connecting people to information quickly and effectively.”

The challenge for many companies is that their interaction with customers is too often one dimensional centered on resolving issues and ending the interaction. Consumer familiarity with Web 2.0 tools has led to higher expectations. Helpstream provides a convenient and affordable alternative to this one-size-fits-all service approach and helps companies embrace the web-enabled world to build customer loyalty through relationships.

Helpstream is an approachable application designed to engage users in a company’s customer community with an easy to learn and use interface, while offering internal service organizations the same benefits combined with ease of administration and a low cost deployment model.

The Helpstream Summer 2008 release continues to build on this idea by leveraging end-user familiarity with common office productivity tools, such as email and calendaring software.

Local web design company Webflo Studios has announced that its most recent project is a customized website for Verbraken and Sons Arizona Paint Company, which is based in Mesa.

The owners of the company wanted a professional website that would bring their specialty painting services to the forefront. As most of their clients are either involved in commercial work or own a large home, the owners’ goal is for their website to emphasize the company’s ability to take on projects industrial and elegant alike. Their overall objective with the website, like most clients, is to raise awareness about Verbraken and Sons Arizona Paint Company.

The website will be considered a full content management system. According to Webflo’s Senior Web Designer Travis Simpson, “The owners of Verbraken and Sons Arizona Paint Company will be able to update the site by themselves, allowing more control over their website than many other web design companies offer.” The website will also feature a Flash banner on each page, detailing services that the company offers.

Verbraken and Sons Arizona Paint Company purchased a full package deal, so aside from the website, they will also receive an informative business CD to distribute and two advertising brochures, each one focusing on the different services that they offer.

The University of Central Oklahoma office of the Oklahoma Small Business Development Center has been named one of the top 10 small business development centers in the nation after winning the regional “Small Business Development Center Excellence and Innovation Award” from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

UCO’s development center office competed against small business development centers in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas for the award after winning a similar award on a state level.

The center, which helps those throughout central Oklahoma who want to start or expand a small business, is now in the running to win the national award, which would recognize it as the top small business development center in the country.

Susan Urbach, director of UCO’s development center office, believes they stood out from other centers because of their emphasis on pro-activity and innovative technology.

“We are so excited about this award. I believe that what makes us special is the fact that we focus very much on staying at the forefront of information and technology. By always embracing change and development, we can be as efficient as possible in assisting our clients,” she said.

“We strive to teach them how to go from young businesses to professional status by turning their ideas into professional realities. You might say we help give their ideas both wings and feet.”

James Faulconer, president of MIDI for Kids and a former professor of music theory and composition, wanted to start a business that helps children learn to problem-solve through music. He went to the OSBDC for help.

Today, he credits Urbach and the OSBDC for MIDI’s success, which is currently helping 1,500 students and has been noted by some major music instrument manufacturers as the nation’s largest independent after-school music program.

“With Susan’s help, we now have programs in nearly 100 schools in five states and our Web site organization is truly amazing,” Faulconer said. “Oklahoma is really fortunate to have the devotion to purpose and inspirational guidance available through OSBDC. Without Susan and OSBDC, our business would simply not exist.”

UCO’s OSBDC is a bilingual organization that serves about 500 individual clients annually, helping the Oklahoma economy create 330 new jobs last year.

Mundie, who took over as Microsofts lead visionary from co-founder Bill Gates in 2006, is preparing the company for a technology shift that he expects will be as big as the rise of the personal computer or the internet: parallel computing.
Its a lot easier for us to have a fairly accurate sense of what will happen and even make good technical progress toward achieving it, Mundie said in an interview last week. Almost everything we tried to do took longer than we expected.
The overseer of Microsofts $US7 billion ($NZ8.7 billion) research and development budget, Mundie knows firsthand how even promising technologies can take time to develop. After all, he has led Microsofts efforts in Web-based television and nontraditional forms of computing.
Parallel computing has been hyped for years as the next big thing in technology, allowing computers to run faster by dividing up tasks over multiple microprocessors instead of using a single processor to perform one task at a time.
The technologys full potential is almost unfathomable today, but it could lead to major advances in robotics or software applications that can translate documents in real time in multiple languages.
The computer industry has taken its first steps toward parallel computing in recent years by using multi-core chips, but Mundie said this is the tip of the iceberg.
To maximize computing horsepower, software makers will need to change how software programmers work. Only a handful of programmers in the world know how to write software code to divide computing tasks into chunks that can be processed at the same time instead of a traditional, linear, one-job-at-a-time approach.
A new programming language would be required, and could affect how almost every piece of software is written.
This problem will be hard, admitted Mundie, who worked on parallel computing as the head of supercomputer company Alliant Computer Systems before joining Microsoft. This challenge looms large over the next 5 to 10 years.
The shift to parallel computing was born out of necessity after processor speeds ran into heat and power limitations, forcing the semiconductor industry to assemble multiple cores, or electronic brains, on a single chip.
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices have already assembled chips with as many as four processors on a single chip. Tilera Corp, a Silicon Valley chip start-up, foresees a 1,000-core chip by 2014.
KILLER APPLICATIONS
Mundie, who assumed half of Gates job almost two years ago, sets the long-term technological direction for the company as the co-founder moves to a part-time role in July to focus on philanthropy. Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, sets the shorter-term agenda.
Mundie has at his disposal Microsofts research department with over 800 PhD researchers working on the new technology.
The research focuses on everything from Web search to simultaneous translation to touch-screen technology, but parallel computing is certainly among its top priorities because it will likely affect every part of Microsoft.
Computers about 100 times more powerful than now will emerge within 20 years, Mundie estimated, packing the capabilities of a corporate data center into a single die sitting inside a mobile phone or laptop.
A killer application will bring this computing power to the forefront, he said, just like what word processing and spreadsheets did for the PC and how e-mail and the Web browser popularized the internet.
Pushing a company as big as Microsoft %26ndash; with about 80,000 employees %26ndash; to look past historical strengths and traditional ways of doing things to focus on new technology is not easy.
Bill (Gates) and I have both talked at times over the years that you cant do these jobs unless you are an optimist, almost an extreme optimist because in a way you are fighting so many forces that are resistant to change, said Mundie.

The shorts, collectively called Green Porno, wont cause a stir with the film censors because Rossellini, one of the worlds most recognized faces after decades of modelling and acting, is always fully clothed- in bug costumes.
I never really say anything dirty, Rossellini, 55, said in an interview, before using one choice four-letter word as an example of the language not used in the one-minute clips showing flies, spiders and snailsfornicating.
The intent is to be on the web so it is available to everybody, to reach as far as possible. Its not dirty talk. We talk about sex, but the terminology is not dirty. The film is principally humorous, and if anything else its informative.
The surreal part is the way we develop them visually, she said after a screening in Berlin drew loud applause.
Rossellini flashes a mischievous grin as she explains in her trademark Italian-accented English that flies are highly amorous and have sex many times each day. She then demonstrates by performing some heavy-duty doggy-style sex on another fly.
There are so many wonderful, great things in nature, said Rossellini, who made the films designed for small screens such as cell phones, iPods and laptops for the Sundance Channel.
I hope people will beamused and say Wow, I didnt know that about a fly or a worm.
NO SLOWING DOWN
Rossellini- a frequent visitor to the Berlin Festival over the years - said she had no intention of slowing down and would like to do more directing, especially at the forefront of new cinematic developments.
Filmmaking for the web is completely new, said Rossellini, the daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini.
Its at the cutting edge. Ive always been interested in experimental film making.
Rossellini, who stumbled into modelling at the relatively late age of 28, said she saw nothing extraordinary about moving to directing at 55, although she was quick to point out that she had roles in three major films due out in the months ahead.
Why would I want to do that? she said when asked if she planned to slow down. I had lots of fun doing Green Porno and will continue acting, modelling and directing. Why stop now?
Rossellini, who was briefly married to American director Martin Scorsese in the 1970s, said it was not always easy having famous parents and a well-known ex-husband. She once complained it might have cost her acting jobs as others were intimidated.
She said the advantages outweighed any disadvantages- and she admits her name and face helped get Green Porno made. The filmmakers label it GP to avoid problems with customs.
The press is always compressing my life into two sentences, she said with a smile. Its always Ingrid Bergmans daughter or Martin Scorseses wife is now acting or directing. Now tell me: what isthe connection?
It all happened over so many years of my life so its less of a connection than the press makes it out to be. I grew up in film, I continue to be in film, I like film, my friends are filmmakers or occasionallya husband was a filmmaker. It certainly didnt hurt at all. If anything, it was helpful.

A silver-haired anti-poverty and human rights campaigner, he is at the forefront of a fast-growing global market for gold and platinum jewellery which seeks to soothe consumers consciences and protect miners from danger and exploitation.
His jewellery shop in the southern English city of Chichester has formed a partnership with miners in a cooperative in Choco, an underdeveloped region in northeast Colombia, called the Green Gold (Oro Verde) project.
Together they are working with the Fairtrade Foundation %26ndash; which backs farmers and workers from poor countries to develop their communities through fairer terms of trade. They aim to extend Fairtrades successful labelling to gold.
Green gold jewellery is a niche in a fast-growing wider market for ethical goods, ranging from day-to-day foodstuffs like tea, coffee and chocolate to designer fashions and travel.
Analysts say global sales of ethical gold jewellery are probably less than one per cent of the total $56 billion gold jewellery market based on figures from London-based consultancy GFMS %26ndash; and the Fairtrade label is a year or so away.
Although the ethical product is priced at a premium and gold is at record highs, the market has been ballooning. Among a plethora of online offers are companies including one called greenKarat that argues industrial mining methods damage the land and endanger ecosystems, so recycled gold would be better for society.
British fashion designer Katharine Hamnett includes a link to Valerios outlet, called Cred, on her Web site. He said ethics were a strong selling point in the jewellery trade: a woman would not want to receive a gift that was tarnished by exploitation.
Nor do some men want to give them. A customer of Valerios store, Stephen McIlhenny, 27-year-old deputy manager of an outdoor activities centre in Devon, said he ordered a bespoke white gold engagement ring with a round diamond in November for 800 pounds ($1,600).
I wanted my engagement ring to have put labor and materials to good use rather than wrecking things, he said by telephone. I wanted my fiancee to know that the gift was very special and did not put people through hardship.
PAY PREMIUM
The Oro Verde miners receive an income premium of roughly 10 per cent over their peers in Colombia for their work, said Valerio, who has dual British and Canadian nationality and also helped found the independent, global Association for Responsible Mining (ARM).
With donors including the charity Oxfam, the ARM aims to expand the Green Gold initiative to develop a framework for responsible artisanal and small-scale mining and meet growing consumer demand for sustainable jewellery and minerals.
Mine owners in many parts of the world regularly flout safety regulations to meet demand that seems insatiable %26ndash; gold has been in a bull market for seven years and on Tuesday prices were probing fresh all-time highs above $880 an ounce.
In South Africa, the worlds top platinum producer, more than 200 workers were killed in 2007, prompting a nationwide strike over safety that hit output. The National Union of Mineworkers has threatened more action as it urges the government to prosecute mining companies for the deaths.
The Fairtrade Foundation, which coordinates Fairtrade labelling in 20 countries including Britain, is working with the ARM to explore how to develop the concept of ethical gold.
If we get a positive board decision to proceed with Fairtrade labeled gold, then depending on the outcome of the pilot studies to date, it would be likely that the first certified gold will be available during 2009, said Fairtrade Foundation policy and producer relations officer Chris Davis.
It is a partnership that seeks to bring our knowledge of Fairtrade standards and practice together with ARMs knowledge of artisanal small-scale mining, said Davis, who has visited the Choco cooperative, as well as mines in Bolivia and Peru.
BLOOD DIAMOND BOOST
Valerio started his store in 2004 and says it is one of the first jewelers in the world to sell ethical gold and platinum jewellery.
We were helped by Blood Diamond, he said, referring both to the Leonardo DiCaprio movie and to international efforts to stem the flow of conflict diamonds %26ndash; rough diamonds used by rebel groups to finance wars, featured in that film.
The Kimberley Process, a joint government, industry and civil society initiative introduced in 2003, sought to help curb decades of devastating conflicts in countries such as Angola, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.
Since Cred started marketing ethical gold and platinum jewellery, its sales have grown fast, with online orders flowing in from around the world, notably the United States, Valerio said.
Bearing in mind that our certified gold sales at the end of 2004 were zero pounds, we have just posted over 200,000 ($400,000) (in sales) at the end of 2007, he added.
Creds wedding or engagement rings typically cost about 10 per cent more than average prices but are about 15 per cent below the top luxury brands such as Tiffany.
A bespoke Cred 18-carat gold wedding ring might cost from 195 to 800 pounds ($390 to $1,600) depending on its size and design %26ndash; the cheapest engagement ring one could expect to buy in a standard British store would cost about 80 pounds ($160).
I think the idea of fair trade jewellery will spread, said Cred customer McIlhenny. Whenever I talk to my friends about my fiancees fair trade ring, they all really like the idea.
Andrew Wade, a consumer goods analyst with Seymour Pierce, a London-based investment bank and stockbrokers, is less certain: It is difficult to know how the end-consumer will respond to higher-priced ethical jewellery, he said.
However keen the demand may be, the health of the global economy will ultimately drive sales: jewelers face the double challenge of soaring gold prices and a downturn in consumer confidence in Europe and the United States.
But it makes sense to be in a business in a growing area, Wade added.

About 120 countries are developing ways to use the internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, Internet security company McAfee said in an annual report.
Intelligence agencies already routinely test other states networks looking for weaknesses and their techniques are growing more sophisticated every year, it said.
Governments must urgently shore up their defences against industrial espionage and attacks on infrastructure.
Cybercrime is now a global issue, said Jeff Green, senior vice-president of McAfee Avert Labs. It has evolved significantly and is no longer just a threat to industry and individuals but increasingly to national security.
The report said China is at the forefront of the cyber war. It said China has been blamed for attacks in the United States, India and Germany. China has repeatedly denied such claims.
The Chinese were first to use cyber-attacks for political and military goals, James Mulvenon, director of the Centre for Intelligence and Research in Washington, was quoted as saying in the report.
The report was compiled with input from academics and officials from Britains Serious Organised Crime Agency, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Nato.
Cyber-attacks on private and government Web sites in Estonia in April and May this year were just the tip of the iceberg, the report warned.
Estonia said thousands of sites were affected in attacks aimed at crippling infrastructure in a country heavily dependent on the Internet.
The attacks appeared to have stemmed initially from Russia although the Kremlin denied any wrongdoing.
The complexity and co-ordination seen was new, the report quoted an unnamed Nato source as saying. There were a series of attacks with careful timing using different techniques and specific targets.
EU Information Society commissioner Viviane Reding said in June that what happened in Estonia was a wake-up call. Nato said urgent work was needed to improve defences.
The McAfee report predicted that future attacks would be even more sophisticated.
Attacks have progressed from initial curiosity probes to well-funded and well-organised operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage, it said.