Comunicano

IOTUM TALKS BUSINESS WITH CALLIFLOWER CONFERENCE CALLING

Open Beta Introduces a Fresh New Approach to Business Conversations

OTTAWA–June 25, 2008—iotum™ today launched the open beta of Calliflower, a visual conference calling service designed to meet the growing conferencing needs of business. As a result of iotum’s positive experience with more than 200,000 users on Facebook, Calliflower expands iotum’s market reach to the rest of the Web. Calliflower features iotum’s signature Web interface—an easy-to-use, interactive dashboard that makes organizing and participating in multi-party calls simple and engaging.

The free beta launches concurrently with Calliflower Communiqués, a seminar series designed to highlight the unique capabilities of Calliflower, and features high-profile guests interviewed live on the Calliflower service. An evening with William Shatner—famous for his role as Captain Kirk, captain of the starship USS Enterprise in the long-running Star Trek television and movie series—kicks off the program at 6:30 p.m. PDT June 26.

“Today’s businesses want rich conversations. We are building on our social networking expertise to transform traditional conference calling by making it more interactive and interesting without the premium price,” said iotum CEO Alec Saunders. “Calliflower keeps folks from ‘vegging out’ on long, static calls, while creating opportunities for participants to really listen, join in and ‘talk business.’”

Calliflower is designed for sharing media and building conversations with the goal of making the entire experience—before, during and after the call—easy and more productive. The service extends beyond traditional calling by providing unique, comprehensive and easy-to-use tools at no extra cost.

Calliflower streamlines the process of organizing and managing calls by offering:

• Caller visualization: See names, pictures and caller status in real time as everyone joins, participates and leaves the call. Callers are identified as they join the call, with their names and (if desired) pictures. The status of their lines (mike open, closed, hand raised to ask a question) is also visible to everyone.
• Intuitive conference controls: Participants can access conference controls, the live wall and more from a simple Web interface.
• Interactive chat: Participants can engage in a group chat before, after and during the call to share information without interrupting the flow of conversation. From sharing a link or an image to asking a relevant question, the multiparty IM opens a second channel for participants to have richer and more engaging calls.
• Call archives: Handouts, agendas and links to files can remain accessible to the right people, long after the call is over.
• Invitations and reminders: Receive call invitations and reminders by e-mail or SMS with all the information moderators and participants need.
• Easy calendar integration: Manage call invitations, updates and RSVPs with an attached iCal that integrates with any major calendar solution.
• PINless connectivity: The participating caller’s phone number becomes the personal PIN, which seamlessly connects callers to every call from anywhere.
• MP3 recordings: Moderators can record any call from the Web interface or from the phone. Recordings are available to every participant as MP3 files seconds after the conference is over or the recording is stopped.

Open Calliflower Beta

To start using Calliflower, simply visit http://calliflower.com to sign up.

The Calliflower Communiqués

The Calliflower Communiqués seminar series runs during three months and features some of the best-known and most thought-provoking people from around the world.
• June 26, 2008, An evening with William Shatner - Up Till Now. Shatner, famous for bringing characters Captain James T. Kirk, Sergeant T.J. Hooker and Denny Crane to life, is one of the most beloved entertainers in the world.
• July 10, 2008, An evening with Alan Alda – Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself. Alda, a multiple award-winning actor, is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the television series M*A*S*H.
• July 21, 2008, An evening with Peter Senge – The Necessary Revolution.
• July 29, 2008, An evening with Al Turtle – The Map to Successful Relationships.
• August 6, 2008, An evening with Gabor Mate – In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction.
• August 21, 2008, An evening with Ariane de Bonvoisin – Taking Charge of Change.
• September 4, 2008, An evening with Ken Blanchard – Being a One Minute Entrepreneur.
• September 16, 2008, An evening with Alex Mandossian – The Past, Present and Future of Internet Marketing and Success.
• September 25, 2008, An evening with Josh Waitzkin – Perfecting Your Art of Learning.

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About iotum
iotum, a Voice 2.0 company, sets out to reinvent business conversations and shape a world of relevant communications where devices, social networks and Web services work seamlessly together to let people communicate with whom they want, when they want and on the device they want. iotum’s business is to design and provide a simple, supportive and intuitive environment to enrich business conversations. iotum’s products and services bring greater meaning and productivity to typically stale and static multiparty communications and meet the growing teleconferencing needs of a broad range of customers across many industries. Iotum’s flagship service, Calliflower, makes it easy for people to plan and participate in engaging and meaningful conference calls that bridge business and social networks, and follow up afterward. 

Contact:
Sue Huss
Comunicano, Inc.
sue.huss@comunicano.com
619-379-4396

IOTUM ‘FREE CONFERENCE CALLS’ ON FACEBOOK GOES GLOBAL

Three New Partnerships Extend Reach from North America to The World

OTTAWA–Feb. 26, 2008—iotum today announced global availability of its popular FREE Conference Calls application on Facebook under agreements with Internet communications partners Truphone in the U.K., Abbeynet in Italy and MOI Telecom in France.

iotum CEO Alec Saunders said the global expansion of FREE Conference Calls is in response to demand from users of the application launched on Facebook last September. “Now, thanks to our partnership agreements, anyone can join a FREE Conference Call from anywhere in the world.”

“FREE Conference Calls has many standard features not available from other providers,” he said. “We give our users the ability to provide agendas for their calls; moderators can mute or unmute the calls; record a podcast; schedule calls in advance, or provide reminders. Hosts can also queue participants to speak, and we even provide a live ‘writing wall’ for interactive text chat.”

Since launch, Iotum’s FREE Conference Calls service on Facebook has attracted more than 90,000 users. Conference calls have been created to hold public tele-seminars, private meetings, family events, New Year’s Eve countdowns, political discussions and to record multi-person podcasts.

Starting today, users can join an iotum FREE Conference Call using one of three methods:

1. Direct dial from home, office, or mobile. In the United States, Canada and France, users can dial the conference server directly using an ordinary call and be joined to the FREE Conference Calls.  Iotum intends to roll out more direct-dial countries in the future by recruiting additional partners to service other parts of the world.
2. VoIP. From anywhere in the world, users can call using their PCs.  All that’s required is an active Internet connection, and clicking on the FREE Conference Calls application icon in Facebook.
3. Call back. A user can be called back simply by entering into the FREE Conference Calls application on Facebook the phone number where his or her call is to be received. 

“Participants don’t have to be on Facebook, but it’s more valuable for them if they are,” Saunders said. “And it’s easy. Facebook users simply install the iotum FREE Conference Calls application—http://apps.facebook.com/freeconference—and invite friends for a group chat.”

Sherman Hu, producer and host of the ShermanLive.com blog, wrote: "As a coach to thousands of business owners about the innovative combination and profitable deployment of blogs, podcasts, video and social media for business, I see the ability to conduct training calls and have anyone outside North America dial in from anywhere in the world at no charge as a priceless benefit. This initiative will have far-reaching impact for my global business."

At Truphone, Platform Director Dean Elwood said: “Truphone already has built a reputation for telephony innovation by providing free mobile-to-mobile calls via the Internet. This tie-up with Iotum fits perfectly with our vision of providing new ways for people to call each other without heed to old world boundaries and pricing structures.”

About iotum
Founded in 2003, privately held iotum (http://www.iotum.com) is a Voice 2.0 company setting out to shape a world of relevant communications where devices, social networks and web services work seamlessly together to let people communicate with whom they want, when they want and on the device they want.  Iotum has been awarded the prestigious CATA Alliance Innovation Award for Emerging Technology Achievement as the best emerging technology company of the year in Canada; was named a DEMOgod at DEMO2006, and was named to the Branham 25 Emerging Companies in Canada as well as to Business 2.0's Next Net 25.  iotum and its innovative products, including the iotum Relevance Engine, iotum Talk-Now for Blackberry, and most recently iotum Free Conference Calls for Facebook, have garnered accolades from industry and users alike. 

About Truphone
Truphone develops Internet Protocol-based (IP-based) mobile internet telephony, delivered by means of 3G mobile networks and Wi-Fi networks. The Truphone service enables free and low-cost calls for customers by routing calls via Wi-Fi and the Internet. The service is presently in a 'beta' state and offers Voice-over-IP, SMS-over-IP and Facebook Calling capabilities. This beta service was announced in mid-2006, when Truphone became the first company to introduce true Internet telephony for mass market mobile phones. Truphone is the trading name of Software Cellular Network (SCN). SCN is privately owned, funded by both venture capital investment and angel investors.

About Abbeynet
Abbeynet develops high-technology VoIP solutions. Founded in Cagliari, Italy, in 2000, the company launched Chocophone, one of the first FREE VoIP services worldwide. Today, with more than seven years of experience in VoIP, the company has reached a leadership position in Europe. Abbeynet develops and sells end-to-end platforms to allow telecom companies and Internet Service Providers to offer high-quality and innovative VoIP services to their customers. Abbeynet also offers solutions designed to answer the needs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), such as Sitofono, a customer-engagement tool based on Abbeynet's click-to-call technology. The company is also a major VoIP provider and is the only Italian company awarded the Pulver100 Award. Last June, Abbeynet developed and launched its first Web 2.0 service, Hictu, an innovative video micro-blogging service.  http://www.abbeynet.com;  http://www.sitofono.com;  http://www.hictu.com.

About MOI Telecom
MOI telecom (http://www.moitelecom.com/) is a personal telecom company in France founded by Nour El Hadri. Moi Telecom is a success story of the new communications era. Indeed, its founder Nour El Hadri decided back in 2006 to build his own switch and to become his own telecommunication carrier. Today MOI Telecom's switch is interconnected with the public telecom network and is an authorized phone provider distributing phone numbers in France.

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CONTACT:   
Sue Huss
Comunicano, for iotum
sue.huss@comunicano.com
619-379-4396

IOTUM SECURES NEW CAPITAL INVESTMENT FROM VERDEXUS

Tech Industry Veteran Randall Howard Joins Board and Becomes Chairman

Ottawa, Ontario – Nov. 26, 2007 – iotum, a pioneer and leader in voice services for social networks, announced today that it has received new investment funding from boutique investment and management consulting firm VERDEXUS.  Financial details were not disclosed; iotum will use the new funding for ongoing operations. In addition, VERDEXUS General Partner Randall Howard has joined iotum’s Board of Directors and has been appointed Chairman of the Board.

“Our investment represents a strong endorsement of iotum and recognition of a fast-growing and potentially dominant player in the mobile presence universe,” said Howard, a veteran of Canada’s technology industry as an entrepreneur, executive, consultant and venture capitalist. “iotum has the potential to be the phone company for social networks, as shown by its strategic launch of the first conference-calling application for Facebook. The underlying, patent-pending technology foundation and experienced management team make iotum a compelling addition to our portfolio.”

Howard, a founding partner of VERDEXUS, brings a global network of senior-level business contacts based on his deep executive experience in international technology markets. As founder, Chairman and CEO of MKS Inc. (www.mks.com) (TSX: MKX), one of Canada's leading enterprise software vendors, he led growth to more than $40 million revenue annually and 350 employees worldwide, including seven acquisitions. From May 2004 to April 2006, Howard served as CEO of VERDEXUS’ portfolio company, Software Innovation (www.softinn.com).

Howard’s extensive board and advisor experience has included Necho Systems Corp, GoodContacts, Whitehill Technologies, Waterloo Maple Software, Arise Technologies and Nanodesign.

“Randall is recognized as one of the pioneers of the Canadian software industry. He is a serial entrepreneur who has earned a reputation as a respected visionary and innovator,” said iotum CEO Alec Saunders. “His decision to join iotum as investor, board member and Chairman is a strong endorsement of the iotum vision.”

About iotum

Founded in 2003, privately held iotum (http://www.iotum.com) is a Voice 2.0 company setting out to shape a world of relevant communications where devices, social networks and web services work seamlessly together to let people communicate with whom they want, when they want and on the device they want.  Iotum has been awarded the prestigious CATA Alliance Innovation Award for Emerging Technology Achievement as the best emerging technology company of the year in Canada; was named a DEMOgod at DEMO2006, and was named to the Branham 25 Emerging Companies in Canada as well as to Business 2.0's Next Net 25.  iotum and its innovative products, including the iotum Relevance Engine, iotum Talk-Now for Blackberry, and most recently iotum Free Conference Calls for Facebook, have garnered accolades from industry and users alike. 

About VERDEXUS

VERDEXUS (www.verdexus.com) is an international, strategic management and financial boutique dedicated to turning great technologies into globally competitive companies. We leverage our extensive management know how, finance partners and international networks to build technology ventures faster and further. Founded in 2001 by international technology entrepreneurs who have founded and built global technology companies, VERDEXUS uses a hands-on investment model that provides seasoned operational executives who turn strategy into execution and build new levels of strategic market value for technology companies.

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CONTACTS:   
Sue Huss
Comunicano, for iotum
619-379-4396
sue.huss@comunicano.com

Randall Howard, General Partner, VERDEXUS
519- 957-2231
rhoward@verdexus.com

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