EchoDitto

Crain's New York Business featured EchoDitto founders Harish Rao and Nicco Mele in an article about the emergence of internet consulting firms from intense political campaigns.

"After Howard Dean dropped out of the 2004 presidential primary race, Harish Rao and Nicco Mele, the team that led his campaign online, started a political consulting firm specializing in Internet strategies."

Rao said, "Clients come to us because it's an election year and they want to influence change ... People now understand that the Internet is not a fad; it's a necessity."

In a recent article in PR week, EchoDitto Principal Brian Reich was quoted regarding the decline in "well-regarded veteran newscasters" and upswing in hiring younger and less-recognizable reporters.

Specifically, Reich addressed this change and the impact it may have online. "News organizations will make more money in the business by producing more and better content," Reich said. "Stripping out the experience and context of the people who have been in the news operation a long time will only undermine that."

Entrepreneur Magazine recently wrote an article regarding the impact customers can have on a company's website. The article asks, "Why not let [the customers] customize what they see on your site?"

EchoDitto co-founder and CEO Harish Rao is featured in the article and argues that the worst thing an entrepreneur can do is ignore its customers and their input. "You have to listen to those conversations," Rao says. "Then you have to decide: You can participate, or you can host the conversations yourself."

To read the full article, click here

Echoditto co-founder Nicco Mele was recently featured in a BCC report on the uses of online gaming in businesses today. Mele shows EchoDitto Island on Second Life, "people in our company built this island..." Mele continues, "I think for a technology company like ours to spend time as a team getting to understand and use an emerging technology together, that's absolutely a good use of time."

To see the full video, click here.

EchoDitto co-founder and President Nicco Mele was recently interviewed on MotherJones, regarding the changing political landscape, and whether websites will play as central a role in the upcoming elections as they did for Howard Dean in 2004.

Mele, former webmaster for Howard Dean, attested that websites will play an even more central role now than they did five years ago. "Who would have thought five years ago that Hillary Clinton would announce her candidacy for the presidency on the Internet. That would have sounded like a crazy pipe dream from nerds five years ago."

In a recent article on MotherJones EchoDitto's Nicco Mele, Harish Rao, Michael Silberman, and Justin Pinder were mentioned in the segment, "10,000 Deaniacs: Where Are They Now?"

"Three years after Howard Dean's campaign put online outreach on the map, its alumni—and the netroots consulting firms they've helped spawn—are a fast-growing part of the political power structure."

To read the full article, click here

Harish Rao, EchoDitto CEO, was recently quoted in an article in Entrepreneur Magazine that addresses the risk of identity theft online.

Rao says, "It's not so much about physical property anymore, it's about information." The article also speaks to EchoDitto's role in securing client websites that accept payments and donations.

To read the full article, click here.

EchoDitto CEO Harish Rao was recently featured in an article about the use of wiki's in the workplace. "For organizations considering a wiki, Rao advises they should not focus initially on its appearance." Rao says, "There’s no need to force a great design because it doesn’t matter to initial users...Encourage early adoption. Once you reach a critical mass then invest in the design."

To read the full article, and to learn how EchoDitto and its clients use wiki's, click here.

In New Jersey's, The Star Ledger, EchoDitto CEO Harish Rao was interviewed concerning text messaging loopholes for campaigns. As the Ledger describes, "While most states have laws forbidding campaigning in close proximity to the voting booth, they don't address the potential that voters might receive messages on their mobile devices even if they are exercising their franchise at the time."

Rao comments, "I don't think electoral laws have kept up with technology, not by a long shot." To read the full article, click here.

In a recent interview posted on Linux.com, CTO Justin Pinder, talks about founding EchoDitto and the company's commitment to its clients and the open source community.

To read the full article, click here