'Give Thanks America' Campaign Allows U.S. Citizens to Send Web Video Messages to Troops Overseas

In cooperation with the Department of Defense, Compaq, SorensonMedia and Digital Island (a Cable & Wireless company), havelaunched the "Give Thanks America" campaign, an initiative that allowsAmericans to quickly record and send streamed video messages of supportand thanks to the U.S. troops currently serving in and nearAfghanistan, the Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean. The technologyinitiative will kick off in New York and Washington, D.C., on Tuesday,December 4, and then Americans will be able to record their messages inselect cities across the U.S. beginning on Friday, December 7.

To make the initiative possible, Compaq is providing a variety ofhardware and software, Sorenson Media is providing their Vcast service,and Digital Island is providing its 2Way Web Services, specifically itscontent delivery and caching services.

Sorenson Media's Vcast service is an automated, easy-to-usewebcasting service that delivers compressed video content over the Web.After the video clips are filmed, Vcast will provision, store, andmanage the video for streaming distribution on the Internet.

Digital Island's 2Deliver and 2Manage solutions will control andmanage the content and speed the delivery of the messages. To enablethe delivery of the video clips, Digital Island has set up accounts forSorenson Media, which will control all the assets and content. Sorensonwill upload content to Digital Island's content delivery network, whichwill be replicated out domestically and internationally.