You may recall past writings about how TMCnet has been building communities of interest for customers worldwide in an effort to educate purchasing decision makers about the products and services in different subsets of the communications and technology markets.

Our micro-community program is called channels and our more comprehensive program is called GOCs or Global Online Communities.

Currently TMCnet has built sponsored communities devoted to over 100 topics such as: IP VPN, Telecom Expense Management Solutions, IPTV CRM and HD Voice.

In addition, there are over 30 more in development and a number of our customers have been asking for longer term contracts -- ensuring they are able to keep the key term which represents the channel or GOC they sponsor.

One such customer -- Eyeball Networks, the company sponsoring the NAT Traversal channel has just signed a five year contract to hold the term as the name of a channel.

TMC's customers -- the service providers, resellers, enterprises, SMBs and developers tell us they search for products to purchase at trade shows, via magazines and the web. I believe it will soon become obvious that in addition to traditional activities such as trade show exhibits and magazine ads, all companies should explore building viral, news-generated communities in order to help educate the markets they serve, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We have found that online communities build a company's brand, thought leadership and ultimately its sales.

Most importantly, as communities are online products, they can be measured, tracked and adjusted frequently to ensure they perform well.

So thanks to our customers for continuing to choose TMCnet as a destination which helps them make  purchasing decisions and thanks to sponsors such as Eyeball Networks who enable us to bring you all the quality content you have come to rely on day after day.