NextPlane Releases XMPP-Hosted Group Chat Federation for Microsoft OCS 2007 and Lync 2010

Expanded Features for NextPlane Federation Cloud Service Allows Microsoft Office Communicator and Lync Users to Participate in Chat Rooms Hosted on XMPP UC Platforms.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (August 1, 2012) -- NextPlane, Inc., the market leader in cloud-based federation services for unified communications (UC), today announced the addition of XMPP group chat federation to the NextPlane Federation Cloud service. Now end users with Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC) and Lync clients can easily add chat rooms hosted on XMPP-based UCs, such as OpenFire, to their contact lists without requiring specialized Microsoft Group Chat servers or clients. With these new features, Microsoft users can now take advantage of the NextPlane Federation Cloud services as a central exchange to extend their reach and connect with other UC platforms to create collaborative business communities.

Now Microsoft OCS and Lync users can easily participate in chat rooms hosted on XMPP UC platforms see the other participants, view chat room history, and engage in live chat conversations. Chat rooms can be added to the MOC or Lync client contact list as if they were federated users. Moreover, NextPlane supports the restrictions imposed by members-only rooms.

Enabling group chat federation is an important component in building federated communities, a strategy that more and more competitive organizations are adopting with the aid of the NextPlane Federation Cloud service to connect to suppliers, partners, and customers in real time,” said Farzin Shahidi, Founder and CEO of NextPlane. “For the first time, Microsoft users can participate in XMPP hosted chat rooms.”

The NextPlane Federation Cloud service accelerates building federated business communities by eliminating the need to set up and maintain separate federation to multiple partners. NextPlane Federation Cloud service subscribers enjoy unprecedented control over which types of traffic (IM, presence, voice, video, and file transfer) are allowed or denied to any of their federated partners. Finally, using NextPlane’s unique analytics and reporting tools, companies are gaining valuable insight into how collaboration with their federated partner community is boosting their business.

To demonstrate the value of the NextPlane Federation Cloud to build collaborative business communities, NextPlane is offering a 30-day trial to qualifying organizations. For more information, visit http://www.nextplane.net.

About NextPlane, Inc.

NextPlane offers the NextPlane Federation Could service for unified communications (UC) platforms, seamlessly federating Microsoft LCS, OCS, OCS R2 and Lync, Cisco Jabber XCP, CUPS and Webex Connect, IBM Sametime, Google Apps, Jive OpenFire, ISODE M-Link and eJabberd. Using the NextPlane Federation Cloud service, organizations can connect users from different companies regardless of underlying UC platforms - with shared presence, instant messaging, multi-user chat, voice and video - as if they are on the same UC platform.

NextPlane offers an ideal solution for companies migrating from one UC platform to another, or to integrate different legacy platforms following a company merger or a new contract or partnership. NextPlane even supports domain sharing, allowing two or more UC platforms to federate internally and externally using the same domain name.

For more information please visit http://www.nextplane.net, or contact sales at sales@nextplane.net.

Contact:
Farzin Shahidi
NextPlane, Inc.
(650) 305-7404

Tom Woolf
Woolf Media & Marketing
(415) 259-5638

The Animals Art Exhibition Now Online and Ready to View

Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is pleased to announce that its August 2012 art exhibition is now posted on their website and is ready to view online.

Jupiter, Florida, USA - August 1, 2012 -- Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is pleased to announce that its August 2012 art exhibition is now posted on their website and is ready to view online. The theme for this art exhibition is "Animals" and artists were asked to apply to this competition in July by submitting their best animal art for inclusion into the gallery’s August online group exhibition.

An art competition was held in July 2012 which determined and judged the art for this exhibition. The gallery received submissions from 23 different countries from around the world and they also received entries from 36 different states. Overall, there were 734 entries from 237 different artists that were judged for this art competition.

Congratulations to the artists who have been designated as this month's category winners, along with the winning Special Recognition artists. The gallery commends all of the winning artists for their artistic skill and their creativity, as this online art exhibition is indicative of their creativity.

To proceed to the gallery's "Animals" online art exhibition follow this link: http://www.lightspacetime.com/animals-art-exhibition-august-2012/

Each month Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery conducts themed online art competitions for 2D artists. All participating winners of each competition have their artwork exposed and promoted online through the online gallery to thousands of visitors each month. If you know of a talented 2D artist who may benefit from the exposure and the publicity that the gallery can provide to them, please forward this press release to them.

About Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery

Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery conducts monthly art competitions and monthly art exhibitions for new and emerging artists on a worldwide basis. It is Light Space & Time’s intention to showcase this incredible talent in a series of monthly themed art competitions and art exhibitions by marketing and displaying the exceptional abilities of these worldwide artists.

The art gallery website can be viewed here: http://www.lightspacetime.com

Media Contact:
John R. Math
Light Space & Time Online Gallery
118 Poinciana Drive
Jupiter, FL 33458
888-490-3530

Getting Ready to Manage $5 Trillion by 2016 at Hedge Funds Leaders Forum 2012

Building off of the momentum of past conferences, Golden Networking brings back Hedge Funds Leaders Forum 2012, "Getting Ready to Manage $5 Trillion by 2016", now in New York, Chicago and London (www.HedgeFundsLeadersForum.com).

New York City, NY, USA (August 1, 2012) -- Global assets invested with hedge fund firms could rise from today’s record $2.1 trillion to more than $5 trillion by 2016, according to a recently released survey from Citi Prime Finance. The study found that pension funds, endowments, foundations and other institutional investors are increasingly embracing the risk management and diversification that hedge funds offer, and that hedge funds are developing new products that compete with traditional, long-only managers.

Indeed, the potential for institutional investors to increase allocations to hedge fund strategies by $1.0 trillion in order to better insulate against risk and to help ensure more diversified portfolios is there. Equally relevant, the survey revealed a “convergence zone,” in which hedge funds and traditional asset managers will increasingly compete head-to-head to offer a broad set of equity and credit strategies. There could be an additional $2.0 trillion in new allocations to hedge fund firms in the form of regulated alternatives and long-only products. Supporting this, mature hedge fund firms are leveraging their infrastructures and resources towards creating the offerings investors will demand.

How can your firm take advantage of these structural trends impacting the alternative investments industry? How to successfully face the new post-crisis legal and regulatory challenges? How to manage the exploding data requests from investors and regulators? How to identify opportunities in frontier markets? Which other opportunities can be exploited to offer investors positive alpha at all times? Finally, how can you position yourself to capture the significant asset inflows in the next years?

On September 25 in New York, October 9 in Chicago and December 12 in London, hundreds of the most important players in alternative investments will gather for all-star agendas at Hedge Funds Leaders Forum 2012, "Getting Ready to Manage $5 Trillion by 2016" (http://www.HedgeFundsLeadersForum.com). A virtual who’s who will soon follow as one legendary manager after another will take the stage. Billions of investable assets will be represented by influential local and international investors who will listen with rapt attention as star managers and analysts discuss and debate the biggest issues facing the industry today.

Hedge Funds Leaders Forum 2012, "Getting Ready to Manage $5 Trillion by 2016" will provide attendees in New York, Chicago and London with the most up-to-date review of where this ever-changing industry stands and how regulatory and alpha expectations will impact it. Recognized managers, investors, experts, regulators, and strategists will return to Hedge Funds Leaders Forum 2012 to provide the information practitioners are looking for in an open and unbiased environment, highly conducive to the most efficient and effective networking.

Hedge Funds Leaders Forum 2012 is produced by Golden Networking (http://www.goldennetworking.net), the premier networking community for business executives, entrepreneurs and investors. Panelists, speakers and sponsors are invited to contact Golden Networking by sending an email to info@goldennetworking.net.

Media Contact:
Julia Ye
Media Relations Coordinator
Golden Networking
516-761-4712

Florida Power & Light Company Encourages Customers to get 'Energy Fit' and make their Bill even Lower

"We're committed to helping our customers manage their energy use to help keep their bills low," says Sondra Houhoulis, an FPL Energy Expert.

Juno Beach, FL (August 1, 2012) -- Have you ever wondered what it costs to power your television or your refrigerator?

Florida Power & Light Company's new "energy fit" campaign answers those questions and wants customers to think about energy savings in a new way. The campaign shows the benefits of applying simple energy-saving tips by comparing how those savings could power popular household appliances.

Sondra Houhoulis, an FPL Energy Expert featured in the campaign, says customers may not realize the effect from a few simple changes. “By making simple changes like turning your air conditioner’s thermostat up by one degree, it gives you enough savings in one month to be able to power: your home for one day, your refrigerator for 29 days or your 50-inch TV for 40 days. This simple change is just one of the ways you can save with the improved FPL Online Home Energy Survey.”

Houhoulis recommends FPL customers take advantage of free tools like the Online Home Energy Survey. Furthermore, she adds, not only is it well worth your time, but taking the improved Online Home Energy Survey is easier than ever. “It’s the most convenient way to get personalized, expert advice on how to save energy and money.”

"We're committed to helping our customers manage their energy use to help keep their bills low," says Houhoulis. FPL residential customers have the lowest bills out of all 55 utilities in the state and bills 25 percent below the national average.

To get energy fit and make your bill even lower, visit http://www.FPL.com/energyfit. Take the Online Home Energy Survey between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30 for a chance to win a $5,000 Energy Fit Makeover. For videos, please visit: http://www.newsroom.fpl.com.

Media Contact:
FPL Media Line
Florida Power & Light Company
700 Universe Blvd.
Juno Beach, FL 33408
305-552-3888