Difficult times call for smart planning and decisive action. Evoca Express makes it easy to record calls with debt collectors to keep track of what they say and, if necessary, to protect your rights in potential disputes. Debt collectors are supposed to comply with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This federal law promotes the fair treatment of consumers by prohibiting debt collectors from using unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices. Debt collectors are prohibited from harassing, oppressing, or being abusive in collecting a debt. This includes using threats or obscene language, publicizing the debt, making annoying or anonymous telephone calls, and misrepresenting the identity of the collector, the status of the debt, and the consequences if it is not paid. This act applies to professional debt collectors who collect on loans they did not originate. Though it technically does not apply to banks, department stores, and other lenders who collect their own debts, no reputable lender is permitted to use such practices.

You can use Evoca Express to record any telephone conversation with a debt collector. Hint: If the debt collector calls you, tell him you cannot talk then and get a phone number to call him back. Then here’s how you record the phone call that you initiate. Be sure to practice it first with a friend.

If you originate the call in a state that does not require notifying the debt collector you are recording the call (see “About privacy laws” below):
Step #1: Dial one of the Evoca phone numbers (click on “Call to Record” link to get the numbers)
Step #2: After you hear the Evoca greeting and tone, put the call on hold and dial the debt collector’s phone number
Step #3: When you hear the number ringing, join the two calls together (method will depend on your phone set-up)
Step #4: Start talking. Be sure to mention your full name in the conversation and get the debt collector’s name and confirmation of the phone number you used to reach him.
Step #5: Simply hang up when the call is over. The recording is saved instantly.
Step #6: Go to your Evoca account. You will find the recording right there! It is tagged with the date and length of the call. Be sure to type an appropriate title for the recording and a description.

If you originate the call in a state that does require notifying the debt collector you are recording the call (see “About privacy laws” below):
Step #1: Dial the debt collector’s phone number
Step #2: Tell the debt collector that you are going to record the call and that you will put the call on hold while you bring in the recording service
Step #3: Put the call on hold and dial one of the Evoca phone numbers (click on “Call to Record” link to get the numbers)
Step #4: After you hear the Evoca greeting and tone, join the two calls together (method will depend on your phone set-up)
Step #5: Start talking and ask the debt collector to state that he consents to being recorded. Be sure to mention your full name in the conversation and get the debt collector’s name and confirmation of the phone number you used to reach him.
Step #6: Simply hang up when the call is over. The recording is saved instantly.
Step #7: Go to your Evoca account. You will find the recording right there! It is tagged with the date and length of the call. Be sure to type an appropriate title for the recording and a description.

You can also order a transcription right online; it will be delivered as a Word document to the email you registered in your Evoca account.

If you need your attorney or other authorized person to listen to the recording, you can email the link to your private recording. Your email allows your attorney to download the recording to keep on file.

About privacy laws: “Federal law allows recording of phone calls and other electronic communications with the consent of at least one party to the call. A majority of the states and territories have adopted wiretapping statutes based on the federal law, although most also have extended the law to cover in-person conversations. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia permit individuals to record conversations to which they are a party without informing the other parties that they are doing so. These laws are referred to as ‘one-party consent’ statutes, and as long as you are a party to the conversation, it is legal for you to record it. (Nevada also has a one-party consent statute, but the state Supreme Court has interpreted it as an all-party rule.)

Twelve states require, under most circumstances, the consent of all parties to a conversation. Those jurisdictions are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington. Be aware that you will sometimes hear these referred to inaccurately as ‘two-party consent’ laws. If there are more than two people involved in the conversation, all must consent to the taping.” (This is an excerpt from The Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press website. Evoca is not providing legal advice. Confer with your attorney as needed.)

To start recording calls today — whether’s it’s a phone conversation with a debt collector or for other business or personal purposes, an Evoca Express member account gives you a lot of value. You can sign up for a 30-day FREE trial account today and upgrade to a PRO account any time.

While Wall Street experiences its financial twister, the Storm Chasers fan site features viewers’ audio recordings about real tornadoes that changed their lives. Kirk Denkler, Discovery Channel producer of the highly popular Storm Chasers series says, “If you’ve had a tornado encounter of any kind — or have heard tales you want to pass along — please call us toll-free at 1-866-656-7157 and share your story. Whether you’ve been directly affected by a tornado, love to chase them across the countryside, or anything in between, here is the place to let others hear your messages.” Using Evoca’s digital media services to attract compelling user-generated content through its “Share Your Twister Stories” feature, the new season of Storm Chasers premiers Sunday, October 19 at 10 Eastern/Pacific on the Discovery Channel.

Every year it seems like more tornadoes are touching down and 2008 may turn out to be a record-breaker in the United States. Already thousands of tornadoes have been reported. Many of them cause massive property damage and tragic loss of life. Listen to a moving first-person account by Alex, one of the Boy Scouts who survived the deadly June 11th tornado in southern Iowa, as he praises the “Storm Chasers” for bravely studying how these storms behave to prepare and protect people from their wrath. Hear everyone’s stories at the Storm Chasers fan site and add your own voice to “Your Tornado Stories” simply by calling 1-866-656-7157.

We welcomed the opportunity to provide our Voice-to-Web services to the courageous Storm Chasers teams and their vigilant fans during production in the spring and summer and now for its on-air season. We’re pleased to continue to deliver Evoca Media Services for Discovery Communications’ interactive campaigns, engaging thousands of fans with its outstanding non-fiction television series such as Animal Planet’s Animal Cops, Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, and TLC’s Singing Office.

If you’d like to hear more about how Evoca can increase the ROI of your own interactive programs (or your clients’ campaigns), tell us at 1-866-940-9988 or use our online inquiry form. You can start with a 30-day free trial of the Evoca Media Services developer version.

Introducing … Evoca Express for Educators! We’ve welcomed the extensive use of Evoca Express by educators around the world, from elementary and high school teachers and students to college and university faculty, students, and researchers for a wide range of uses including language learning, audio assignments, citizen journalism, oral histories, field research, student and parent communications, and more.

To make it easy and affordable for educators and students in non-profit institutions to continue to use Evoca Express for their courses and students, we are offering three programs to “empower the voices” of educational communities. These programs are available for non-profit educational institutions and their faculty.

Program #1: One Evoca Express PRO member account used by both the teacher and students

Program #2: One Evoca Express PRO member account used by both the teacher and students with a dedicated Virtual Voicemail™ phone number

Program #3: One Evoca Express PRO member account used by the teacher and each student has an Evoca Express PRO member account

We invite you to learn more at Evoca Express for Educators!

From our joint news release:

Colorado Capitol Watch, devoted to keeping Colorado voters up to date about its state legislature, expanded its services to enable anyone engaged with the Democratic National Convention in Denver to put their voices online using Evoca’s innovative Phone-to-Web digital audio service.

Voices ranging from Ashley Judd, the actress to Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader to Jeff Greenfield, Senior Political Correspondent for CBS News are going online thanks to the initiative by the Colorado Capitol Watch team to make sure that messages about political experiences and opinions can be heard around the world. Anyone can call the CCW hotline at 303-481-6000 to get heard instantly simply by using their mobile phones. Digital audio recordings are streamlined online.

“An informed electorate is essential for small ‘d’ democracy to continue to thrive in the United States and enabling first-person accounts from the Democratic National Convention is our contribution to this important process,” remarked Paula Noonan, CEO and Founder of Colorado Capitol Watch and Colorado delegate to the DNC.

“We applaud the innovative use of Evoca’s Phone-to-Web services by the Colorado Capitol Watch and look forward to supporting their on-going non partisan initiatives during the upcoming election season and legislative sessions in the State of Colorado”, added Murem Sharpe, CEO and President of Evoca.

Colorado Capitol Watch endeavors to bring truth through facts to the voters of Colorado based on the bills and voting records of their legislators. Its goal is to ensure that Colorado voters have all the necessary information to assess their legislators based on their actual voting record. The website serves as a “truth check” for any allegations or assertions made by anyone, including candidates, legislators, and 527s, on the public record of legislators. CCW is a non partisan enterprise dedicated to open, transparent government. All collected data comes directly from the public voting record of Colorado legislators and uses the Colorado General Assembly website and the Secretary of State’s website to gather information. CCW also records Committee and General Assembly sessions via the web audio streaming provided by the State.

The Evoca tagline, “Make Voice a Choice™” simply means — use voice recording by phone as a convenient, engaging way to generate fresh, compelling online content. Harald Anderson, writing for Adotas, a news publication focused on the Internet advertising and media industry, confirms Evoca’s value proposition in his August 21, 2008 article “How not to Fail, Flounder of Flop”. Thank you, Harald! He makes that case that digital media generates ROI, or as we call it “Return on Interaction”.

“The language of the internet is slowly moving to audio and video. Will you resist the change or embrace it? Recently a New York Times study reported that 52% of all online traffic is video related. Have you ever noticed the battle that technology has to go through before it is accepted? Today we are seeing incredible technological advances in audio, video mobile and text messaging as traffic generation alternatives.

New technological breakthroughs are always perceived as a threat. People unaware of the technology are slow to see the benefits of the new solution. Instead they usually look at the threat of loss the new innovation is creating. One of the best cultural examples of this is the folk song “John Henry.” Although the legend of John Henry sounds like the ultimate urban legend, it is certainly based on historical evidence. In order to build the railroads, companies hired thousands of “steel driving men” to smooth out geography and eliminate any obstacle that stood in the way of the proposed railroad plan.

One such obstacle was the Big Bend Tunnel — more than a mile straight through a mountain in West Virginia. As the story goes, eager to reduce the cost of employees and to also speed up progress, some tunnel engineers were using steam drills to power their way into the rock. According to the famous ballad, on hearing of the machine, John Henry challenged the steam drill to a contest. John Henry won, but died of exhaustion, his life cut short by his own determination and superhuman effort. Man versus technology.

When the typewriter was invented all of the clerks who wrote manually were the ones who were responsible for resisting the change. So much so that they actually organized group protests and even attempted to burn down a typewriter manufacturing company. The same is true for any new breakthrough technology. When the word processor entered the marketplace in the 1970’s it was the typists who most resisted the change. Old technology suppresses new technology. This is the age old truth through which I feel it is important to look at to better understand the core values of the eRevolution. There is one word which very quickly summarizes what the eRevolution is all about. People think it’s all about technology. However, the word is “Accountability.”

The online businesses that are reaping the highest rewards follow one very simple formula that is at the heart of the eRevolution. They want to know how many visitors are visiting their Web sites and from that amount how many are becoming customers. This is referred to as their conversion rate. All prosperous online businesses live, eat and breathe their conversion rates. All floundering businesses are unaware of this simple yardstick. Success online is summarized by the mantra, ‘give the world something to click on,’ if you know your conversion rates you’ll enjoy the ride a lot more. Text, Audio and video are all powerful traffic generation alternatives.

Promotion online can be done with text, audio and video and you have to know all three methods if you really want to prosper. It is much easier than you think. Newbies wrestle with technology thinking that the answer lies in technology. Businesspeople worry about getting their message out into the world. The difference is huge. Text, audio and video are simply different layers of one another. You are reading this message in a text based format. If I turn on the tape recorder and read it…it becomes an audio based message…when I attach an rss feed to it, it becomes a podcast. Podcasting is one of the things that has made iTunes one of the top ranked sites in the world. Search Engine Spiders love podcasts. If I turn on a video camera, or take graphic images and turn into into a slide show I have a video. Videos are among the fastest way to get eyeballs.

The three components of successful marketing online are:
1) How much traffic are you getting?
2) What did that traffic cost you?
3) What is your conversion rate?

Use technology to always answer those questions and you can’t help but succeed.”

We’re pleased to report that the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) just deployed Evoca Media Services to achieve its mission of increased youth voter turnout and election protection using mobile phones and the Internet. Now everyone can call +1.866.558-4165 to put their voices online at the SAVE website. Powered by Evoca, SAVE announced its “Voter Protection Hotline” to encourage young voters to report voter experiences and voting irregularities. With the global reach of the Internet, anyone can listen online. What is a youth voter in the U.S.? Any U.S. citizen between the ages of 18 and 29.

SAVE announced its partnership with Evoca on Friday, July 25 in Washington, DC at its national press forum entitled “Asserting the Youth Voice,” featuring Thomas Friedman, national best-selling author of The World Is Flat and New York Times columnist; Judy Woodruff, senior correspondent for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer; Eleanor Clift, contributing editor of Newsweek and a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group; Joe Scarborough, former U.S. Congressman and MSNBC Anchor of Morning Joe; David Broder, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist of the Washington Post; and Mike McCurry, former White House press secretary to President Bill Clinton. They all agreed that in the 2008 national election young voters could make history if they use their 20% “block” to caste decisive votes in the election of the U.S. President, Senators, Members of Congress, as well as many state and local officials and ballot initiatives.

A national non-profit, non-partisan youth voter engagement organization, SAVE operates chapters that work with college administrators to institutionalize voter registration, host debates, discussions and town hall forums centered on electoral awareness, coordinate grassroots efforts to reform elections, lead registration programs for local high schools, disseminate voting information and resources, and collaborate with statewide press outlets to bring young voters to a forefront in the media. SAVE has held numerous press conferences on youth voting trends, hosted national town hall forums with presidential candidates, contributed to Congressional hearings, directed higher education-meetings on civic education, been featured in dozens of leading newspapers and media outlets, and formed partnerships the United States Student Association, Student PIRGs (public interest research groups), and Mobilize.org.

“As the organization that has initiated national dialogue about youth voter disenfranchisement, SAVE looks forward to this partnership with Evoca to address these obstacles on a wider platform,” said Matthew Segal, the executive director of SAVE. “We held a hearing recently which identified pressing problems such as ineffective allocation of voting machines, ambiguous definitions of “domicile,” and deceptive tactics to deter young voters on various college campuses. We are encouraging students from around the country to call in and report any problems so we can address them quickly and appropriately.”

As the leading Voice-to-Web solutions provider, we were enthused to be part of this historic effort to increase the youth vote in the United States. In the recent news release about this exciting announcement, Murem Sharpe, Evoca CEO, added, “SAVE exemplifies the mission of Evoca to empower voices of concerned citizens around the world, using the two most democratic communications tools ever created, the phone and the Internet. With Evoca’s Voice-to-Web services, voices travel without boundaries.”

On Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT the popular new reality TV show — TLC’s “Singing Office” — matches amateur singers from two companies (like Jet Blue and The Los Angeles Zoo) who sing their hearts out to get selected to compete in the final episode. For TLC, our new TV network partner, the Evoca team delivers the easy-to-use interactive Phone-to-Web feature — THINK YOU CAN SING? — to engage TLC’s “Singing Office” fans online and stream the results for everyone to hear.

TV audience members (and that includes you!) can simply dial 888-5-TLC-SING - 888-574-6485 and belt out their own renditions of “Working for the Weekend” for the whole world to listen to online. Go to the link “Click here to hear how others sound” to get the Flash playlist player in the pop-up, built and streamed with Evoca Media Services. Catch the show this week and enjoy new episodes every Sunday night.

This month the Discovery Channel series aired “When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions”, its epic series produced in collaboration with NASA. Evoca was honored to be part of this historic event, enabling the creation of oral histories by scientists and engineers along with everyday people who experienced the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs over these five decades.

Discovery Channel invites it audience members to “Join us in celebrating NASA’s 50th anniversary by sharing your memories and stories of America’s manned space missions.” The stories recorded by phone are amazing, funny, informative, and poignant. Listen in and pick up the phone to record your story at the toll-free number: 1-866-947-NASA (1-866-947-6272).

Discovery asks everyone of us: “Were you watching when Neil Armstrong took that first small step? Did you happen to catch one of the Mercury, Gemini or Apollo launches? Glued to the set when Apollo 13 was fighting to stay alive? Maybe you were even on one of the capsule recovery ships.”

For the professionals who made it all possible, Discovery Channel requests: “If you are among one of the tens of thousands of specialists and engineers who built and maintained space vehicles, manned a console in a ground control station, or are even one of the chosen few who left Earth here’s your chance to tell the rest of us what’s it’s like to have been a part of America’s space program.”

You can watch highlights and even buy the DVD — I know that I will!

With its highly popular “Vox Populi” feature, The Savannah Morning News makes it easy for thousands of Savannah region citizens to tell their Savannah neighbors — and the rest of the world — what’s on their mind about local and national political candidates and a wide range of civic and economic issues.

The newspaper’s savannahnow.com recently expanded Vox Populi, enabling its tri-county residents to call 912-652-0370 and speak up about any local, state, national, or even international topic. The digital audio recordings are available for anyone to hear in its online editions for Bryan, Effingham, and Chatham counties. The newspaper’s online content team launched the multi-county Phone-to-Web feature using Evoca Media Services.

As one of its seasonal interactive features, the newspaper also gives friends and family members a chance to congratulate their favorite graduates, free of charge. Savannah area residents can simply phone (912) 330-4255 to leave a Graduation Shout Out, and then invite the lucky graduate to listen in online.

Executive Editor Susan Catron summed up the benefits with, “The ability to coordinate user generated content online is a feature unique to savannahnow.com, and gives users more opportunity for self expression. It also allows reporters and readers to engage more with our community, which drives interaction and page views to our website. Vox Populi is one of our most popular features and Evoca’s new technology makes it possible to deliver it online.” The daily newspaper is a member of the Morris Publishing Group, a diversified media company with holdings in 29 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in Europe and Asia.

Evoca makes it possible for newspapers, radio, and television companies to offer easy ways for their users to contribute timely content by phone — whether it’s about a serious community topic or a friendly greeting to a recent graduate. User-generated content drives online traffic and advertising revenue, so everyone wins.

You can imagine how enthused we were when Padre Anchieta Foundation (Fundação Padre Anchieta), Brazil’s highly respected public radio and television company, engaged Evoca to enable Brazilian “citizen reporters” to contribute original content online using their mobile phones. For the initial program, we supported the Foundation’s collaborative journalism initiative at RadarCultura, empowering thousands of Brazilian citizens to contribute online audio reports using their mobile phones at more than 800 venues within the São Paulo mega-city during Virada Cultural 2008, attended by over 3 million participants. The reporting by the station’s six professional journalists covering this massive 48-hour event was expanded by the thousands of citizen reporters using their mobile phones as “Internet mics”, enabled by the highly scalable Evoca Media Services software platform and integrated VoIP telephone services. On Brazil’s first collaborative radio station, RadarCultura listeners interact with one another and Cultura’s content team to produce the station’s broadcast programs.

Paulo Markun, president of the Padre Anchieta Foundation and noted Brazilian journalist, described the collaboration best: “Media convergence, as well as collaborative journalism, is a market trend, and the Padre Anchieta Foundation is keen to incorporate it into its operations to stimulate ‘Cultural Responsibility’ and reach an increasing number of Brazilians. The New Media environment is emerging and we intend to be protagonists in this process. Broadcasting the ‘Virada Cultural Event’ was an opportunity to reinforce the mission of this institution, which is ‘to contribute to social development as a public media company’. By engaging with Evoca we can provide the opportunity for citizens to take part in mainstream communication, demonstrating the objective of public communication on TV, radio and the Internet”.

More about the Padre Anchieta Foundation: The Foundation was established by the state government of Sao Paulo in 1967 to deliver television and radio broadcasting as a private entity that enjoys autonomy of intellectual, political, and administrative activities. It is governed by a Council of 47 members from the professional, business, cultural, government, and nonprofit sectors. The main objective of the Foundation is to provide information of public interest and promote the cultural and educational advancement of its viewers and listeners.

We’ll keep our readers updated as we support Padre Anchieta Foundation’s objective to make broadcasting a two-way enterprise. Our missions are closely aligned: the Foundation’s mission as a public media company is to stimulate social development and we articulate the Evoca mission as: “The democratic impulse of the Internet, the ubiquity of the cell phone, and the power of oral expression have convinced us of one thing: it’s time to mobilize the voices.’” Stay tuned for our reports about the Foundation’s digital media initiatives with Evoca during the upcoming electoral campaign season in Brazil.

More about Evoca Media Services: EMS is a robust, scalable media platform delivered as Software-as-a-Service, through a RESTful HTTP API (application programming interface) with integrated VoIP telephone services, customizable Flash recorders and players, and user-friendly media management and phone application configuration features.

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