I'm very grateful to my sponsors. Over the past three years they have enabled me to concentrate on reporting and have been very supportive of my work.

I'm making some changes. I want to showcase the social/new media work that my sponsors have been doing rather than just showing their logos at the top of my page. Over on the the right of this page you'll see a good example of what I mean: Intel with a video player and some links to its latest and most popular blog posts.

This can be encapsulated into a widget that can then be shared on other sites. I'm offering this type of showcase to all my sponsors and I'm talking with some large PR companies too. The PR firms will get to showcase their own new media practices and also their clients.

There will be five side widgets and a super-widget slot on top of the page. The five side widgets will be rotated daily so that each one takes turns being the lead widget above the fold. I'll be announcing additional sponsors very soon. Contact me tom(at)siliconvalleywatcher.com if you'd like to reserve a spot.

I think this is a much better type of promotion than traditional advertising or marketing because it shows what each company is publishing and its involvement in its communities.