Given the emphasis on section 508, this acquisition is very interesting. larry
-- Larry C. Lyons ColdFusion/Web Developer Certified Advanced ColdFusion 5 Developer EBStor.com 8870 Rixlew Lane, Suite 204 Manassas, Virginia 20109-3795 tel: (703) 393-7930 fax: (703) 393-2659 Web: http://www.ebstor.com email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chaos, panic, and disorder - my work here is done. -- -----Original Message----- From: Watchfire [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2002 4:38 PM To: Larry Lyons Subject: Watchfire acquires Bobby, the website accessibility technology from CAST Because you've tried Bobby in the past, I thought you might be interested to know that Watchfire has recently acquired this technology from CAST, a not for profit research and development organization whose goal is to expand opportunities for people with disabilities through the innovative use of computer technology. This letter will tell you: 1. Who is Watchfire? 2. About Bobby 3. How Watchfire will continue to support Bobby, including development plans 4. Why the acquisition took place 5. Where to learn more about Watchfire and Website Management 6. About an upcoming seminar on August 20th, 'Closing the Accessibility Gap' 7. Want to learn more? WHO IS WATCHFIRE? Watchfire provides Website Management software and services to help organizations automate the testing and analysis of web content on large, complex sites. Our solutions are designed to help detect and manage problems by identifying issues that affect website operational costs, online risk including accessibility and privacy, and user experience. Founded in 1996, Watchfire's customers represent over half of the Fortune 500 companies, including many of the largest ecommerce, government, and educational sites in North America, such as Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Compaq Computer, and AT&T. ABOUT BOBBY Bobby is a comprehensive website accessibility software tool designed to help expose barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines. Bobby is available in two formats: a free online service and a downloadable version that has been recently updated. The online version of Bobby allows testing individual web pages for accessibility using your Web browser. It is only able to evaluate web pages that have been published on the Internet; it cannot find web pages local to your machine or behind your company's firewall. In contrast, the application version of Bobby is a program that is run on your personal computer that will allow you to test large sites more easily. It can see local web pages as well as web pages behind your company's firewall. It is ideal for large scale accessibility testing. HOW WATCHFIRE WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT BOBBY I assure you that Watchfire will continue to support both the client version and free online versions of Bobby, and will work to further develop and enhance the product. In order to meet the reporting and scalability needs of enterprise customers, Watchfire plans to integrate the accessibility functionality of Bobby into our enterprise Website Management platform, Watchfire(R) WebXM(TM) and will add accessibility reports to our website quality testing tool, Watchfire(R) WebQA(TM). CAST's experience, knowledge and user base in the accessibility space, combined with Watchfire's market leading website content analysis and reporting capabilities, will allow us to offer customers the most full featured Website Management solution set available. In addition to the acquisition of Bobby technology from CAST, Watchfire is pleased to announce that Michael Cooper has joined Watchfire as a Product Manager. While at CAST, Michael was the Bobby Project Manager and Technical Designer, playing a key role in Bobby development. At Watchfire, Michael will be responsible for overseeing enhancements to the Bobby Client and the online Bobby service. He will also take a lead role in adding Bobby capabilities to Watchfire's WebXM and WebQA products. WHY THE ACQUISITION TOOK PLACE Watchfire has been committed to helping companies with website accessibility compliance and we have made excellent progress in this area. But we realized that to fully round out our offering, we needed additional accessibility expertise and technology in-house. By devoting greater resources to further enhancing and developing the accessibility functionality in the Bobby product line we will be able to provide our customers with a more complete accessibility solution. 'For over six years, CAST has been dedicated to making websites accessible to all, yet as a not for profit organization, we lack the internal resources necessary to keep up with the growing demand for this technology,' said Chuck Hitchcock, Chief Education Technology Officer, CAST. 'Watchfire is a vendor who has impressed us with their commitment to website accessibility and they have the software development and product marketing expertise necessary to take Bobby to the next level.' ABOUT WEBSITE MANAGEMENT Website Management is the management of complex website issues relating to accessibility, privacy, and content integrity that can affect the usefulness and management of your website. Watchfire's analysis of business-critical content enables e-businesses to identify key issues that affect user experience, online risk, and e-business operational costs. These issues include accessibility, privacy, content and web application defects, search engine optimization problems, usability, asset mapping, and 3rd party link management. Given the synergies between Watchfire's offerings and this accessibility technology, Watchfire's acquisition of Bobby immediately broadens the company's Website Management reach. UPCOMING ACCESSIBILITY SEMINAR I'd like to draw your attention to an online seminar we're presenting on Tuesday, August 20th at 2pm EST. 'Closing the Accessibility Gap' will highlight the features and the benefits of using this accessibility product on websites and will be hosted by Michael Cooper, Product Manager. While at CAST, Michael was the Bobby Project Manager and Technical Designer, playing a key role in Bobby development. To register for this seminar, please visit http://www.watchfire.com/news/seminars.asp WANT TO LEARN MORE? To buy the latest version of Bobby, please visit http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/pricing.jsp To learn more about Watchfire and Website Management, please visit http://www.watchfire.com/ To learn more about our products, WebXM and WebQA, please visit http://www.watchfire.com/products/default.asp, or contact Watchfire Sales at 1 800 282-5951 (US) or internationally at +44 (0) 1753 705 010. To keep up to date on further developments of Bobby and other Website Management news, you can sign up for our newsletters at https://www.watchfire.com/resources/newsletter.asp Watchfire also offers a series of free online seminars to educate organizations on Website Management issues and our products. To register for any of our seminars, please visit http://www.watchfire.com/news/seminars.asp Sincerely, Michael Weider Chairman and CTO Watchfire Corporation If you do not wish to receive customer communications from Watchfire please go to https://www.watchfire.com/resources/newsletter/unsubscribe.asp?email=llyons@; ebstor.com ______________________________________________________________________ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
