Bit Group's Web 2.0 Entertainment Portal Selected As a 2007 MITX Awards Finalist
OurStage.com Recognized as One of New England’s Best
Cambridge, MA October 5, 2007 — Bit Group, Inc today announced the selection of OurStage.com, a Web 2.0 Entertainment Portal as a finalist in the Social Computing category for The 12th Annual MITX Awards. Held annually by the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, the MITX Awards recognize excellence in the creation of web innovations designed, produced or developed in New England.
Begun in 1996, the MITX Awards has grown to the largest and most prestigious awards competition in the country for technology innovations and celebrates the best creative and technological accomplishments emerging from New England.
“New England continues to be a thriving center of technological and creative innovation. We are thrilled to report continued growth in awards entries year on year, as well as in our organization in general,” said Kiki Mills, executive director of MITX. “Our awards finalists consistently raise the bar and we are very proud to provide the platform to showcase their work to the public.”
OurStage is the only purely democratic online competition where the fans decide who’s the best in emerging music, film and video. The OurStage mission is to help talented artists achieve critical exposure by solving the greatest challenge on the Internet today: sorting quality content from the sea of mediocrity online. OurStage provides a neutral, trusted, game-free platform, in which the true judgment of the fans drives the best content to the top.
OurStage has a very well-defined and clear perspective about the importance, timing and value that this “American Idol”-type entertainment portal would bring to the market. The portal had to cater to the target consumer audience in the 10 – 60 age range but also appeal to the contributors and reviewers in the 15-30 age range. For instance, target contributors in the music channel could be indie musicians looking for an avenue to promote their music. Users would potentially have leapfrogged dial-up technology and moved directly into broadband access with higher bandwidth.
“Bit Group’s user experience team has been an invaluable asset to OurStage in helping us to develop the initial user experience design and information architecture for our Web site” said Ben Campbell, CEO of OurStage.com
The web site incorporates Web 2.0 concepts around social networking such as user-generated content community (similar to Myspace.com), contest & judging experience, viral marketing techniques to send, link, & embed content such as video, images, and music, and other collaborative community features.
“Bit Group is very excited to be leading and contributing the user experience for Ourstage.com” said Praveen Ramanathan, Executive Vice President, Client Services of Bit Group. “If you think about the key challenge of online media in the Web 2.0 world, it’s virtually impossible to find good quality content. In following a user-centered design approach for the site, thanks to the OurStage team, we were able to introduce some new and innovative design approaches to provide high-quality content and enhanced user community building features on the site.”
Bit Group, Inc will be recognized with the other finalists in the category of Social Computing at a gala awards ceremony traditionally attended by over 900 of the region’s top interactive technology and business professionals. Winners will be announced at the ceremony in the Boston Marriott Copley Place on Thursday, November 8th. Tickets can be purchased at www.mitxawards.org.
The 2007 MITX Awards program is sponsored by Backbone Media, Berman Gobin Creative, Digitas, DLA Piper, Doubleclick, Eyewonder, Fidelity Investments, IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC and Technology Review.
About Bit Group Inc. Founded in 1995, Bit Group provides complete business solutions for companies that understand the importance of the Web to create competitive advantage and market leadership. Bit Group works closely with clients to establish and meet clear, measurable business goals. Bit Group’s proven methodology consists of assessment, information architecture, design, and development and implementation phases of Web presence development. This comprehensive approach provides a framework for achieving the defined business goals for more than 270 projects in 11 years for 115 market-leading Fortune 500 companies and businesses such as Fidelity Investments, EMC Corporation and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Bit Group can be reached at http://www.bitgroup.com.
About MITX Established in 1996, MITX—the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange is the leading industry organization focused on the web, bringing together digital technology, marketing and media. Reaching more than 6,000 professionals in New England, MITX is a dynamic and growing community of thought leaders, collaborators, and individuals in search of insight, education and opportunity. MITX hosts over 60 events annually from specialized roundtables, monthly panel discussions and networking events to conferences, forums and two of the largest awards recognition programs in the country. For more information go to www.mitx.org