Fourth Annual Rich Media Impact Awards webcast live from UNLEASH 2008, the Mediasite User Conference. Sonic Foundry created the awards to recognize excellence in the practical and creative integration of Mediasite in education, business, health and government. Members of the Mediasite user community nominated organizations that achieved measurable improvements in accessibility, cost savings, efficiency and productivity through rich media

Stony Hill Management has developed a web-based application that manages continuing education courses created using Mediasite. More than 25,000 students from more than 2,300 organizations have enrolled to complete courses for credit offered through Stony Hill, and it is estimated an additional 20,000-30,000 individuals have viewed at least one online Mediasite-powered course. Tom presents results of a recent survey of students and casual viewers and examines those Mediasite and application features that have the greatest impact on individual's perceptions of their online learning experience. Stony Hill's survey findings will be insightful for a variety of Mediasite users, particualry those who are contemplating or are presently creating content for commercial distribution.

Kelly provides an overview into the successes and challenges the State of Wisconsin Government Agencies faced with implementing Mediasite in an enterprise-wide deployment. Kelly's presentation helps those that are facing an uphill battle with their IT department, offering practical strategies and lessons learned He also discusses how they overcame communication difficulties with customers and what is in store for the future for their enterprise. Kelly's presentation is applicable not only to government, but corporate healthcare, and education as well.

In the not too distant past in the corporate world, the creation of video presentations was reserved to those with enough access, money and influence to use the systems to record, produce and publish content. Today, with a laptop, webcam and Mediasite QAD has enabled all employees to create and publish videos as well as rate them, see what videos are being watched and are the most popular. Scott shares how using their corporate collaboration system and portal, coupled with customized Mediasite templates, appropriate access to the Mediasite Management Portal and usage guides, they have created a corporate-style YouTube, called QTube, that allows all employees in various global offices to create, record and post their own presentations.

Helder discusses key aspects of producing a successful live webcast in which the audience "co-authors" the content and shares knowledge for a highly interactive event. Learn concepts, tips and tricks and best practices to make the live internet audience the star of the show and see how Atitude has applied these concepts in 600+ webcasts since 2005, with more than 30,000 different attendees in a dozen countries. Helder covers factors driving the decision to produce live vs. archived content, the audience's role and how to target content specifically for an internet-only audience, ways to increase audience interaction during live webcasts, and how webcast producers can increase production value and content's appeal (multi-camera, switching, virtual sets, lighting, opening/closing animations, voice-ver, lower-thirds).

"Jim illustrates first-hand, how webcasting and rich media transformed how a campus and community communicates and how it helped to redraw the traditional big picture communications effort. See step-by-step how Mediasite was introduced to the campus, how it was funded, and how it was deployed for classroom capture, international collaborations, a multi-million dollar fund drive, professional development and training. Survey and assessment data shows the effectiveness and acceptance of Mediasite. Some technical best practices on preparing and producing effective rich media presentations are covered. This interactive session informs and motivates the audience to think “outside-the-box” in developing innovative programming, providing participants the tools to develop their own “Big Picture” plan for success.