PaperThin, Inc., a leading Web publishing and content management software vendor, today announced that The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), an international multimedia broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government, recently implemented CommonSpot for its Voice of America (VOA) site. VOA (www.voa.gov) is one of the largest ColdFusion-based Web sites ever constructed, consisting of 45 sites in 44 different languages. CommonSpot offers IBB a scalable, flexible solution for maintaining and distributing Web content across multiple sites and platforms. Extensive workflow and multi-language capabilities support the agencies’ online globalization strategy, enabling it to efficiently reach its audience of more than 94 million worldwide, via the Web.

IBB engaged PaperThin partner, Fig Leaf Software, a leading software development firm, to assist with implementation and development of the site. More than 250 thousand pages of content were converted from the pre-existing site, originally developed using Macromedia Spectra, over to CommonSpot. With hundreds of pieces of new content added daily, IBB needed a solution that was powerful and scalable enough to support expansion and growth of the site’s architecture over time. CommonSpot delivers enterprise-level scalability and high-availability to the VOA site. The site reliably handles hundreds of content requests daily while achieving 24 X 7 uptime. It also supports over 120 million hits per month generated by 2.4 million unique monthly visitors.
 
To publish content in a variety of languages and to easily import content from one language bureau into another, IBB needed a content management system that provided multi-language capabilities. As a full Unicode compliant solution, CommonSpot provides the ability to publish content into nearly every written language.  VOA regularly publishes news articles and content in more than 44 different languages including English, Chinese, Greek and Persian.  CommonSpot’s multi-language feature also facilitates the efficient production of localized content and helps to ensure consistency across multi-lingual sites. Using CommonSpot, IBB staff can easily create and manage associations between related content for the various language sites. This functionality supports the agency’s global Web strategy and its ability to successfully compete with other national broadcast services.
 
In addition to publishing news and articles by way of the standard Web browser, the VOA site now supports the output of content to multiple formats.  According to Steve Drucker, CEO of Fig Leaf, “CommonSpot’s flexible architecture allowed us to quickly build powerful custom extensions to meet the unique requirements of VOA’s news organization.” These custom extensions allow for the aggregation and rendering of content for Really Simple Syndication (RSS), XML, and WAP. Content is easily managed by non-technical users and delivered to a variety of mediums including mobile phones and PDA’s.  The ability to repurpose content helps to ensure content accuracy and consistency, and allows IBB to more effectively meet its audience’s wide range of needs.
 
“The Voice of America has established a powerful internet presence,” said Bob Cellucci, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at PaperThin.  “From the beginning, this project was about product and partnership.  The flexibility of CommonSpot combined with the efforts of PaperThin, Fig Leaf, and the team at IBB produced a robust, scalable site that distributes content in many languages across multiple platforms. We’re proud to be part of this accomplishment.”
 
About PaperThin:  PaperThin, Inc. is a privately held Massachusetts-based company. Since 1993, PaperThin has helped corporations and government agencies of all sizes to significantly reduce the time and expense involved in creating, updating and managing Web content.  PaperThin’s flagship product, CommonSpotÔ Content Server, powers Internet, intranet and extranet sites worldwide for organizations of all sizes, including the AFL-CIO, Babson College, Booz Allen Hamilton, Business Software Alliance, Mayo Clinic, National Park Service, The Gillette Company, Turner Sports, and Vanderbilt University. CommonSpot was named a “Trend-Setting Product of 2005” by the editors at KMWorld, and has been twice recognized for Good Value among leading content management vendors by industry analysts at CMS Watch.  PaperThin was recognized as one of New England’s fastest growing technology companies in both the 2004 & 2005 Deloitte Technology Fast 50, and was named by KMWorld in their “Top 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management” in 2006.
 
PaperThin’s select group of partners includes industry leading Web design and development firms, system integrators, software manufacturers, and training firms, worldwide.  For more information about PaperThin, Inc., please visit http://www.paperthin.com and for additional details about CommonSpot Content Server, visit http://www.paperthin.com/Products/Index.cfm.