manage their own data better and their information. This is an idea that Paul has been championing.
PAUL TINNIRELLO: I think it’s a key idea right now, given the fact that data is king; people have been using data in ways that we never even thought of.
MCDONALD: Then after that at noon we are going to have our final finalist presentation which is Allied North America with their mySocrates program which very much impressed our initial round of judges so much so that they made it a finalist. What I like about this year’s E-Fusion finals is that we really see some diversity. It’s not just agent portals or one type but we have high speed communications and media, we have some amazing work in user interface and then what we’re going to see next week is some great use of gathering tracking information, databases and very user-focused but high-level, commercial insured information.
TINNIRELLO: I agree, Lee. I applaud the judges for picking out a diverse group of presentations, unlike years in the past where they tended to cluster around a similar type of operation or application. This year is quite different and I think it shows. MCDONALD: Why don’t you fill us in right here? When we talked about the original E-Fusion series we had an idea that we wanted to get at some of the things – the frontier parts of the Web and things that everybody deals with – the explosion of all the new formats and all that. A little tongue in cheek – what do you mean by “Is the Web out of Control?”
TINNIRELLO: It’s a great topic. It’s a topic that I share with both Mike and Charles. When you go back years ago and you talk about email and the impact of email on the organization, one question really popped up – how much productivity was lost through the email? Well that’s changed quite a bit. If you take a look at all of the blogging, all of the social networking, all of the opportunities for people to exchange information and ideas, I think the election this year certainly represents that, as well. How much of the Web is out of control when it comes to productivity in the workplace? A great article appeared this month in computer magazine. The article is from David Allen Grier of George Washington University. It’s all about social networking. Talks about the concept of social networking and the impact on society. I think we’re going to hear a little bit of that from you, Charles, and from Mike today. Certainly for those of you that are listening, the real question is how much of the Web is out of control in your organization? Is it being used for productive purposes? I think some of the questions that are going to be posed to our panelists today are going to be focused around that topic.
MCDONALD: Let’s go right to our presenters here. Charles, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and about the van Aartrijk Group?
CHARLES WASILEWSKI: The van Aartrijk Group is a marketing, communications and brand development firm. Almost all of our clients are in the insurance sector. We have a specialty in working with carriers and trade groups, trade associations and brokers in the independent agent channel. So, our founder, Peter van Aartrijk, used to work at the big I, both of us used to work at A.M. Best years ago, as many people in the industry start here. What I do is really try to help clients connect on a business to business level, either carriers with agents or software vendors with agents. So, that’s mostly what we do. Obviously we’re starting to explore the social media aspects that Web 2.0 is starting to bring about.
MCDONALD: Mike, can you fill us in about yourself and IdeaStar?
MIKE WISE: Surely. I’ve been with IdeaStar since about 2004. IdeaStar is a Web developer focused on the insurance industry. Are specialty is really online quoting and e-signature based applications, agent portals, affinity portals and really the front end distribution technology that insurance companies, the carriers, the distributors, brokers or the associations use to promote and enroll their customers. We’re just getting started on the social Web and how to attract traffic to you enrollment engines through the social Web and those types of things. So, that’s a little bit about IdeaStar.
MCDONALD: OK. Thank you and so now we’ll turn it over to you, Charles.
WASILEWSKI: Thank you very much and by the way hopefully next year’s E-Fusion finalists will have even more social media aspects to them.