United Effort to Help Families Stay in Touch over the Holiday Season- Reaching Out with Video Email

Ontario, Canada, December 22, 2005 --(PR.com)-- Local businesses and institutions in New York and California are teaming up to bring local families face-to-face with their loved ones anywhere in the world this holiday season using Video Email. The initiative is a pioneering effort by the local offices of WSI (We Simplify the Internet) - world leader in Internet consulting and education with more than 1000 local offices in 87 countries specializing in the SME market.

Video email services were introduced by WSI through the company’s exclusive e-marketplace in October this year. John Volker, who operates the local office of WSI in Western New York, got together with a fellow WSI Internet Consultant (IC), Lynne Ashcraft in the Bay Area region of California to make this exciting technology available to local families during the festive season. While many servicemen and women stay in touch using phone cards and e-mail, the idea behind this venture is to use the Internet to allow video-taped messages to be sent through e-mail, as well as provide live conferencing over the Internet. Lynne and John are joined by local organizations like Rotary Clubs, American Red Cross, video filming companies, Churches and others who recognize and appreciate the efforts of WSI and extended a helping hand to make this exercise truly beneficial to local communities.

“Anyone overseas is lonely right now. Any kind of family contact is good,” said Volker, who got the WSI corporate headquarters in Toronto, Canada to back his plan. The upcoming holiday season inspired John to find a way to use the technology he works with every day to provide better, more meaningful communications to individuals in the military who are serving the country in other parts of the world. “Our plan is to reach out to military families whose family member is away over the holidays.” he said. Lynne Ashcraft said “Many families are still apart as they have not been able to get together again after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. We want to help them reach out across the miles with a video email so their loved ones can see that they are safe and happy at this time of the year when no one wants to be alone”.

The WSI ICs also hope to use the company’s web conferencing products to eventually connect troops with their families online. Web conferencing allows people to speak and see each other in real-time through a Web page. While the technology is readily available statewide, computers at military bases overseas may not have the equipment at this time. “We have already been warned that we may not have enough time to get the equipment over there for this holiday season”, said John and Lynne, but it’s something they still plan to pursue. They plan to work with the military family support networks, which provide assistance and support to families of deployed servicemen and women.

WSI’s corporate office is hoping that a pilot program of this kind this year will eventually spread nation-wide and into Canada. Ffor more information on WSI’s Video Email technology go to http://wsiprofessionalwebdesign.com or to know more about how to send a video email go to http://www.wsimagicweb.com/videoemail.asp?pid=40304

About WSI:
WSI delivers thousands of e-business solutions to small and medium sized businesses annually. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, WSI is ranked the #1 Franchise in the Internet Business category in the world and the 4th fastest-growing International franchise. For more information please visit www.wsiconsultants.com

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