Techdirt Brings Together Expert Bloggers to Provide Insight to Businesses

WebKnowHow
Thursday, October 12, 2006; 04:17 AM

Recognizing the need for better, faster, more honest analysis in the marketplace as well as the untapped raw knowledge within the growing blogosphere, Techdirt, Inc. (www.techdirtci.com) unveiled a new service that allows companies to raise issues and receive customized, direct insight from the blogging community. The Techdirt Insight Community (www.insightcommunity.com) is expected to bring together smart, insightful expert bloggers with companies looking for expert analysis and opinions to test new ideas at Internet speed. The new service fills a gap between broad consumer testing services and expensive traditional industry analyst services.

www.insightcommunity.com

"Companies are looking for better ways to understand and engage with bloggers, knowing that those individuals are often the most influential and knowledgeable experts in their space," said Michael Masnick, CEO of Techdirt, Inc. "The Techdirt Insight Community gives companies a true alternative to traditional analyst services, by allowing them to tap the insight, experience and knowledge of a group of experts who are passionate followers of their markets. Just as people have realized the power of the community in new offerings from open source software to Wikipedia to Digg, the Techdirt Insight Community allows companies a way to gain the insight of the larger community, comprised of some of the smartest opinion makers in their space."

Companies can use the Techdirt Insight Community on an as-needed basis to access a confidential instant focus group of experts to gain feedback, test ideas, review products, make strategy suggestions, help with purchasing decisions or any number of other services. Techdirt also offers a subscription service, where Techdirt's in-house analyst team will regularly engage expert bloggers for their thoughts on how major current events impact Techdirt customers. Major corporations are stepping up to test the waters of the Techdirt Insight Community.

"The analysis that came out of the Techdirt Insight Community was clear, concise and brutally honest," said Brian O'Shaughnessy, VeriSign's director of corporate communications, a Techdirt customer who has been using Techdirt Insight Community while in development. "It's a great way to dig deep on complex topics, getting the viewpoints of multiple experts who have all been thinking about and discussing issues to a level far beyond what you would see elsewhere."

The Techdirt Insight Community is currently in closed beta testing.