Webcasting Plays Key Role in Chancellor Interviews at University of Tennessee

MADISON, Wis. - December 4, 2008 - Students, faculty and staff at The University of Tennessee were able to more easily participate in recent campus forums held as part of Chancellor candidate interviews, thanks to webcasts via Mediasite by Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the recognized market leader for rich media webcasting and knowledge management.

Dr. Jimmy Cheek was recently appointed as the new Chancellor of the UT Knoxville. He and the other four finalists for Chancellor participated in two days of campus interviews, including two public forums. The campus community was encouraged to attend the forums both in-person and virtually, ask questions of candidates and then submit feedback to the search committee.

To make it easier for the campus community to participate, the forums were webcasted live and viewers were allowed to submit questions in real time to the candidates. The webcasts also were archived for members of the campus community to watch at their convenience.

"It was important to our campus community that they play a role in the Chancellor interviews. To do that effectively we needed to give faculty, staff and students the greatest possible access to those public forums. Mediasite helped us reach individuals we wouldn't have otherwise reached," said Amy Blakely, assistant director, media and internal relations at The University of Tennessee.

"Webcasting the event provided a chance for the virtual audience to see the candidates, ask real-time questions and make comparisons, no matter where they were physically at the time," Blakely continued. "This is probably one of the most innovative and important uses of Mediasite we've seen. It's really opened the possibilities for how we will reach out to audiences in the future."

More than 1,000 people tuned into the webcasts and then provided feedback to the president and search committee for review. The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees approved the appointment of Dr. Cheek last month.

The search for a new chancellor began in January and was overseen by a 21-member committee of faculty, staff, students and community leaders. The committee narrowed from 37 candidates down to five and brought them to campus for two full days of interviews and then webcasted public forums, which also included an American Sign Language interpreter.

"As we face the challenges presented by current global economic conditions, universities and corporations alike are going to need cost-efficient ways for engaging large distributed audiences," said Rimas Buinevicius, chairman and CEO of Sonic Foundry. "The University of Tennessee is an excellent example of how live webcasting can improve communication and foster discussion, not just within the classroom setting, but community-wide."

To view Chancellor Cheek's public forums, visit http://chancellor.utk.edu/announcements/chancellorcheek.shtml
University of Tennessee's Mediasite catalog is available at http://mediabeast.ites.utk.edu/mediasite4/catalog/

About The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee System, a statewide institution governed by a 26-member Board of Trustees appointed by the governor of Tennessee. Other institutions of the UT system are UT Health Science Center in Memphis, UT Chattanooga, UT Martin, UT Space Institute in Tullahoma, UT Institute of Agriculture, and UT Institute for Public Service. UT Knoxville is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees. UT Knoxville has more than 27,500 students and nearly 1,400 faculty members. Students come from every Tennessee county, every state and more than 100 other countries.