The Distance Learning Student Scholarship Award was presented to Katherine (Casey) Clarke, who is enrolled in the online MS in Print Media program. Clarke, who accepted her award via a taped video conference, had plenty of positive comments about her experiences as an RIT online learner. Her instructors also had plenty of good things to say about her.

Clarke was also recently recognized for her 2006 OutputLinks Women of Distinction Award that recognizes individuals who have contributed to the development of the high volume transaction output (HTVO) industry. At a recent conference in relation to this distinction, Clarke mentioned RIT and the online program as “great supporters” of her continued education.

Clarke, who is a National Account Manager for the U.S. Government Printing Office, explained that “everything I do at work, I bring to the classroom, and everything I learn in the classroom blossoms through my work.”

RIT School of Print Media Professor Michael Kleper, who accepted the actual award on her behalf, added that Clarke “successfully combined her professional activities with her graduate course content, bringing her expertise into the classroom and applying what she learned to her day-to-day responsibilities.”

Clarke also said that the interactions she experienced in her online courses, through such activities as group assignments, teleconferences, live chats and e-mail correspondences, kept all the students on task and helped to build a substantial community of learners.

Professor Linda Underhill noted that Clarke consistently seized upon the online medium to engage in questioning that promoted interaction and allowed others to actively engage as well. Clarke “is comfortable in the online learning environment and her interactions are well thought out and challenging,” said Underhill.

There were 21 student candidates for the Distance Learning Student Scholarship Award. All candidates had to be currently matriculated in a distance learning degree or certificate program, have had to have completed at least three distance learning courses since September 2003, and needed to be carrying at least a 3.3 grade point average. Candidates also had to provide at least two letters of support from RIT distance learning faculty. Clarke was given a $2,500 cash award by RIT’s Online Learning.

“Reprinted from OutputLinks.com, the information resource of the high volume transaction output (HVTO) industry.”

There has been a lot of buzz about blogging – it has caught on in many businesses.  Not until now did the Federal Government move into blogging!  The Federal Trade Commission has stepped up and started a blog. FTC is using technology to talk about technology.  Just the nature of a blog requires openness; this is not necessarily easy in a federal agency.  They managed to do it.   The editor is an internal representative not a spokesperson for the agency.  They cover a variety of topics and allow comments.  This is a forum for FTC to discuss how technology is affecting the way we carry out everyday activities like shopping, banking, and communicating.  

Does you business or agency have a blog in place? If you do not, now might be a good time to get on-board with a great way to communicate with customers/consumers.  Visit the FTC blog, “Protecting Consumers in The Next Tech-ade” at http://ftcchat.us/blog/  and see how they are using blogging.

We wanted to provide for our visitors a forum to ask questions and get answers.  That is one of the benefits of Xplor.  The members have many years of knowledge and experience covering many subjects.  Provide a comment to this posting with any question you may have and see the responses in no time at all.  I have included “Search” for our blog to easily check for subjects of interest to you. From this area, we will also gather subjects that are of interest to you and create postings of that topic in “industry news”. 

Exstream Software Jumps to #238 from #285 on Software 50  

Exstream Software, Inc. today announced that its ranking rose from #285 in 2004 to #238 in 2005 among the Software 500, Software Magazine’s 24^th annual listing of the world’s foremost software and services providers.  The Software 500 ranking is based on total worldwide software and service revenue for 2005, a year Software Magazine described overall by saying “revenue and employee head count [remained] flat.” The data shows that only 144 companies (28%) of the Software 500 grew by more than 25% over 2005. Exstream beat the curve by achieving an above-average 37% growth rate, placing the company in the top one-third of all companies on the list.

Welcome to the Xplor MidAtlantic Region’s blog!  Xplor is a worldwide association of users and suppliers of the products and services that create, modify, and deliver customized information using a variety of document technologies.  We provide networking, education, and information to help you and your business keep up with technology trends. 

We just had our annual fall conference in Ocean City, MD.  There were a number of presentations on hot topics such as disaster recovery, profitable sales activities, the internet as a business tool, mail hygeine, personal coaching, an industry technology update, growing your business through business development initiatives and . . . blogging.  That’s how this came about.  We were all made aware of the importance of multiple forms of media in communicating with our members and potential members.  The same is true in your business.

If you attended our conference, we hope you will share your experience on this blog.  If you were not there, we hope this provides you a glimpse of what you missed.  In any case, we hope this blog becomes a communications tool for you to get information or share information we all can use.

More to follow!