Dustin Haisler Joins e.Republic as Chief Innovation Officer & Lead Our New Labs Initiative

Very excited to announce that Dustin Haisler has joined e.Republic as our chief innovation officer and will lead a new iniative we've launched called e.Republic Labs. 

I first ran across Dustin when in 2009, at the age of 22, Government Technology named him one of our Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for the work he was doing as CIO for Manor, a small town near Austin, Texas.

A pioneer in open government innovation, Dustin lead a first-in-nation effort putting QR codes on points of interest in downtown Manor, letting citizens use smartphones to access historical information and data about city services. The QR code initiative drew attention from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and was featured in a 2009 blog post on open government innovation. Later Dustin launched Manor Labs, an early civic crowd sourcing initiative. 

Dustin moved to the private sector in 2010 joining Spigit as director of government innovation. While at Spigit, a company that makes crowd-sourcing and innovation management software, Dustin helped design and deploy innovation programs for New York City; Bogota, Columbia and NASA's Langley Research Center. 

Prior to joining e.Republic Dustin was with the startup KlabLab.

Dustin has great insights and instincts around emerging technologies and how these can be harnessed   to help states and localities build better communities. 

Governing Magazine Takes 1st at Neal Awards

Was very proud to receive word that Governing magazine took 1st place at the 57^th Annual Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards competition, in the “Best Single Article” category.

The article receiving recognition is an excellent feature by Governing senior editor Zach Patton and tells a clear, straightforward story about Colorado Springs, Colorado and what happens to a local government when driven by an ailing economy and tax adverse voters to do “less with less”. Published last September it’s a prescient piece now being played out by increasing numbers of states and localities throughout the country. It’s also a great example of the kind of reporting that Governing’s talented writers and editors consistently turn out.

e.Republic Moving to Cloud Based Technologies

The July/August cover story of Folio magazine is about the increasing use of cloud based technologies in the publishing field and does a good job outlining various steps we have taken at e.Republic to move to an entire set of "Software as a Service" (SaaS) type applications for much of our technology infrastructure.

In this day and age a publishing firm's technology platform is a central to its overall business strategy and while any technology solution has tradeoffs we've been pleased with how this deployment has worked for us since we began this overhaul of our tech platforms two years ago.

The products we use include Clickability for content management, Eloqua for marketing automation and Salesforce for a whole range of apps including sales and customer relationship management as well subscription and event registration management.

The Folio article details some of the tangible benefits we've seen from this migration. Bottom line, it has allowed us to focus on using our technology to effectively meet business objectives as opposed to supporting an increasingly expanding IT shop.

Media in the Middle

In a recent interview with Naomi Reiter of eMedia Vitals I talked about the need for B2B media companies to increasingly focus on building and sustaining professional communities. Certainly the need for a media firm to be a trusted source for credible and relevant news and analysis remains vital. But the future of this business requires much more:

eMV: In what direction do you see the industry moving?

McKenna: The entire nature of B2B media is changing. In the past, it was largely built around a model of “informing” markets or readers. Magazines and events were largely built around disseminating information, and “social networks” were a secondary consideration. But the Web has made information a commodity. News distribution and analysis is not, in itself, a competitive advantage any longer.

The future of the business is more about “communitizing” markets. I’m not talking about social media, but using all elements of a media platform—both high tech and high touch—to effectively engage with audiences to help them solve their business and professional challenges.

eMV: Can you give an example?

McKenna: e.Republic has launched several very narrowly focused “gated communities” of government IT professionals. These communities address specific business challenges faced by their members. Our role is to facilitate this community of professionals through a number of different services, including conducting specific research on topics of concern to them, providing expert analysis and hosting both online and in-person forums or leadership networks. By building these communities in a way that dynamically engages both readers and advertisers, we’ve been able to effectively monetize these efforts.

Yes, publishing information remains important, but the future of business media centers on being much more engaged with our audience and delivering greater practical value to them. Media comes from the Latin word for “middle”. I like to say that the new model is about “media in the middle,” meaning that the role of media brands should focus on building and sustaining professional communities. Successful media companies have always done this to some degree; however, it is central to our mission going forward.

eMV: Has the paradigm shifted permanently?

McKenna: No question. A media company can’t just assume that it is delivering value to its audience. All the discussion over what or if readers will pay for content is evidence of this. What is the real value my media company brings to the market? It’s a tough question to ask. A media firm needs to have a clear-eyed view of what value it’s delivering to both readers and advertisers. Once you start down the road in answering this question, you’re looking at entirely new business models.

The entire interview can be found here.

Three e.Republic Titles Annouced as ASBPE Finalists

Three of e.Republic's national magazines were named as finalists today in the American Society of Business Publication Editors' (ASBPE) annual Awards of Excellence.

The publications included Government Technology, Public CIO and Emergency Management. The awards will be announced at ASBPE Awards of Excellence banquet to be held July 16 in Washington D.C.

We are excited and honored to be among such a prestigious group of magazine finalists. Members of the e.Republic team will be in D.C. on the 16th to celebrate!

e.Republic Wins Four Magggie Awards from the Western Publishing Assoc.

Received word this week that e.Republic received four major recognitions at this year's Maggie Awards sponsored by the Western Publishing Association.

This is a competition among hundreds of national and regional magazines published in the Western U.S.

e.Republic came home with awards in the following categories:

Best Overall Design/Trade Magazine -
Public CIO

Special Theme Issue/Trade -
Emergency Management
November 2008

Best Public Safety/Trade
Emergency Management

Best Non-Paid Circulation/Trade (circulation under 50,000)
Public CIO

We are very proud of our editorial and design teams for their consistently awesome work on these and all our print, web and video media products!

GovtechTV Wins Best-in-Class for Online Video

We were jazzed at e.Republic when we got word that Media Business recently named GTtv best-in-class in their inaugural Online Video Awards. An exciting recognition for this new venture. You can see our promo spot here.

We kicked off GTtv about a year ago as a launch and learn experiment and were not sure what to expect. Its been a success on several fronts.

I’ve been especially impressed with how our editorial team, with no prior video experience, has taken to the medium. Armed with video cameras and backed by a couple of talented producers/editors they have turned out original and interesting work that has given govtech.com an entirely new approach in covering the public sector technology field.

We made the jump into online video because the future of the publishing business (do we still call it publishing?) is very much online and multimedia and we needed to get into this sandbox fast.

We’ve learned a lot in the year plus we’ve been at this and know that on-line video is a core element of e.Republic’s content platform as we go forward.

Tune in for exciting things ahead.

BtoB Media and the Hypercommoditization of Information

This is a reprint of an article I wrote in March of 2008 for BtoB Media Business. While the focus of the piece is largely on the work we do at e.Republic, the challenge of the hypercommoditization of information confronts the entire media industry these days. I was reminded of this while reading Michael Kinsley's spot-on essay this am in the NYT: "You Can't Sell News by the Slice". More to say on this topic down the road.

Business Information and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Like many b-to-b media firms, e.Republic spent a fair amount of time over the last few years working to understand and exploit the disruptive dynamics unleashed on our industry by the webification of just about everything.

And while we aggressively move ahead in areas like Web 2.0 and broadband video, our most rewarding work to date has been in the development of business information or market intelligence offerings. It is here that we have been able to launch our most successful new ventures and, more important, build higher-value relationships with new and existing clients.

What precisely is business information? You can get as many definitions as there are publishers discussing the topic. American Business Media defines business information as “public and proprietary information gathered and linked in order to create valuable business intelligence which can be sold to customers for analytical, business development and operational purposes.”

It's an area that holds untapped potential for many media firms but is exploited by only a few.

Our foray into business information began several years back, when the Web's hypercommoditization of information was tearing up industries from travel to finance to daily newspapers. We were concerned that this trend posed a serious challenge to our firm as a traditional b-to-b “infomediary.” However, as we looked more closely at the characteristics of our market, what we originally saw as a threat was, in fact, a larger opportunity.

It was our view that the same technologies that were supercommoditizing data also made it possible to make information hyperrelevant in ways that were physically or financially impractical just a few years earlier. After taking a deeper look at the information ecosystem that existed between the buyers and sellers in our market, it was clear to us that the Web could be used to cost-effectively deliver sophisticated, high-value information to our customers—for which they would pay a premium.

E.Republic primarily serves the public-sector market. Our sellers are largely targeting buyers who work for government or educational institutions. This makes the sellers' marketing/sales lifecycle complex, fragmented and (due to competitive procurement) information-intensive and time-critical.

By aggregating both public information—such as published government bids, jurisdictional budget data and agency procurement procedures—and supplementing this with our own proprietary data harvested from our existing content streams and new research, we were able to create a high-value, premium information product for our commercial customers that we sell on an annual subscription basis.

Launched more than five years ago, the service has been through several iterations as we've learned more about which data sets our clients consider most useful. Additionally, developments in Web technology have enhanced our means of delivery, and we have been able to develop a set of solid add-on offerings, such as custom research for clients who require a more detailed look at a particular market area.

But aside from the services themselves, what is surprising about our journey into business information is how it is driving the evolution of relationships between us and our clients. We are finding that, as we understand more about the business information needs of our commercial customers, we develop better insights into the strategic and tactical challenges they face in how they market and sell to the buyers in our marketplace.

Call it the law of unintended consequences, but our move into business information is shifting our role with clients beyond a relationship weighted toward traditional branding and lead-generation services (advertising and events) to that of a high-value partner more closely attuned to a customer's entire marketing/sales lifecycle. Our role as a market intelligence partner is making us a more integral element in a client's “go-to-market” work flow, specifically helping them to more efficiently target and complete sales transactions and build deeper relationships with their customers. The essence of this role was echoed by Mike Reilly, CEO of Randall-Reilly Publishing, which runs its own $13 million premium information business. He wrote in a recent article: “We think that our business is to help our clients find and keep customers.”

From our vantage point, incorporating business information into our product platform demonstrates a subtle but powerful shift in the role a media firm can play in today's b-to-b market. It is a shift that provides the perfect counterpoint to hypercommoditization: hyperrelevancy.

21st Century Government For Real?

e.Republic is a media and research firm focused exclusively on the public sector - primarily state/local government and education. Central to our mission is the idea that a dramatically new era requires new kinds of government and educational systems. We’ve stated this in many ways over the 20 + years we’ve been at this but they boil down to the belief that you can’t successfully run 21st century schools, cities, counties and states on 20th century “operating systems”.

Clearly public organizations are frustratingly slow to evolve. Much of the current economic crisis has its roots in governments overwhelmed by a world made smaller, faster and complexly interdependent by new technologies.

This week President Barack Obama was inaugurated as our 44th President. I watched the inauguration ceremony, streamed live over the web, with tremendous pride and hope as a citizen of both America and the world.

Politics aside, there is strong promise in the new administration in Washington. President Obama is a one of a new generation of leaders who get it - for real – it’s in their DNA. They know we won’t succeed in this new century with a 20th century government.

As President Obama said in his inauguration Tuesday: “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” Also speaking about the scope and ambition required to meet the challenges ahead he remarked: “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them…the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”

No doubt the obstacles and inertia to transforming our public institutions are nearly insurmountable, but a new spirit is loose in the land and here at e.Republic a recommitment to our goal of being at the forefront of informing 21st century government.

e.Republic

Phone Number: 1.916.932.1300

Fax Number: 1.916.932.1470

E-Mail: e.republicinc@gmail.com



Dennis McKenna co-founded and directs the leading media company focused on information technology in the public sector, most specifically serving the state and local government and education markets.

Launched award-winning trade magazines in this field, including, Government Technology, Public CIO, Emergency Management and Converge. In 2007 e.Republic's Public CIO was named “Magazine of the Year” by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). In 2008, e.Republic titles won seven additional editorial and design awards with Government Technology named as “Best Overall Publication/Trade” by the Western Publications Association (Maggie Awards).

In 2007 e.Republic premiered Government Technology TV(GTtv), an online video news and information channel as part of govtech.com. In 2008 BtoB Media Business magazine awarded GTtv best "Overall use of Video, Small BtoB".

Designed and developed the Government Technology Conferences and Executive Event series, the largest intergovernmental events for public sector IT leaders, held each year in more than thirty jurisdictions around the US.

In 2008 launched the Conference on California’s Future.

Developed and oversees management of the Center for Digital Government - the first of its kind research and business intelligence consultancy focused exclusively on state and local government.



Tags: e.Republic, erepublic, Erepublic, e.Republic, ERepublic, E.Republic, Government Technology, GTC, Executive Events, Center for Digital Government, Center for Digital Education, CDE, CDG, Converge Magazine, Dennis McKenna e.Republic, Digital Government Navigator, Digital Education Navigator, public sector, public sector advertising, government advertising, education advertising, government research, education research, government magazines, technology magazines, government events, education events