The ITS Vendor Forum was established to give vendors of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies an opportunity to share their views with the ITS community and the greater transportation market in an objective venue. The ITS Vendor Forum is open to vendors of ITS technologies; automotive suppliers; and construction companies, technology integrators and project managers that serve the transportation industry. All commentary in Vendor Forum blogs is intended to be objective, vendor-neutral and non-promotional content to educate and enlighten our readers.
All vendors in the ITS, transportation and automotive spaces are welcome to blog on the Vendor Forum at no cost.
Organizations that would blog on the Vendor Forum include:
■ ITS Product Vendors
■ Automotive and Transportation Suppliers, Distributors and Resellers
■ Construction, Engineering and Project Management Services
■ Technology Integrators
If you represent an organization that is not a vendor, you would blog on The ITS Blog.
Signing Up for a Vendor Forum Blogging Account
■ To request a blogging account on the Vendor Forum, contact Pete Goldin, Editor and Publisher of ITSdigest.
■ A request for a blogging account on the Vendor Forum must come directly from the individual whose name will be on the blogs, from that individual's corporate email address.
Rules for Blogging on the Vendor Forum
Please observe the following rules when blogging on the Vendor Forum:
■ Do not promote your own company, products or partners in blogs on the Vendor Forum. Topics should be general industry interest. Copy and graphics should be non-promotional and vendor-neutral.
■ One reference to your company in the blog copy is permitted when you are discussing a survey or report conducted or commissioned by your company. A reference to your company's or partner's product is never permitted in the blog copy.
■ Case studies are not permitted on the Vendor Forum. Do not reference your customer in a blog, or talk about or imply how your company or products helped a customer.
■ Do not make negative references to a company, brand or product in any blogs on the Vendor Forum.
■ Companies that do not sponsor ITSdigest can only include a link to their company home page at the end of the blog – no product pages or any other pages. Even if the product has its own URL separate from the company page, this cannot be included in place of the company home page. The home page link will always be included in the "Related Links" section at the end of the blog, and cannot be substituted with a hyperlink in a marketing message.
■ Only sponsors of ITSdigest can include additional links at the end of the blog, to other pages on their websites, white papers, webinars, articles, blogs, product pages, etc. Click here to find out how you can sponsor ITSdigest.
■ ITSdigest removes old outdated links, but only updates outdated links for current sponsors of the site.
■ Do not place any hyperlinks in the body copy of a blog linking to your company's or any other vendor's web pages or other promotional pages. Hyperlinks in the body copy should only be to support factual points you are making. These hyperlinks can link to a supporting report or article as long as the content is not on your website or your partner's website, is not sponsored or commissioned by your company or partner, and does not promote your company or your partner company in any way. Inclusion of any hyperlinks is at the sole discretion of ITSdigest.
■ Try to keep blogs between 500-1000 words. This is more of a guideline than a rule. You can include more content if you wish, but ITSdigest recommends posting shorter blogs more often. If you have written a 1000+ word blog, consider breaking it into two or more blogs. You could call them Part One and Part Two, if you want.
■ All blogs will be reviewed by ITSdigest prior to publication. ITSdigest reserves the right to edit any content submitted, and the publication of any blog is at the sole discretion of ITSdigest. Vendor Forum blog posts are edited by ITSdigest for spelling, basic grammar and punctuation. Vendor Forum blogs are also edited to ensure they meet ITSdigest guidelines.
■ The date the blog is actually published will be decided by the editor. ITSdigest may provide you with an estimated date the blog will be posted, but that date cannot be guaranteed, as unforeseen priorities may push the posting date back.
■ ITSdigest sponsors have priority posting. This means that sponsor blogs go to the front of the queue, usually posting within a day or two. The only factors that could delay posting of a sponsor blog would be other sponsor blogs already in the queue, or content that must be posted due to timeliness.
■ All Vendor Forum blogs must be original content that has not been published somewhere else. ITSdigest periodically may request to re-post a blog, if the content is particularly valuable to our readers, but please do not pitch ITSdigest to re-post your blog.
■ You can re-post your blogs from the Vendor Forum on your own blogs or websites, as long as you mention that the blog was originally posted on ITSdigest, and include a link to ITSdigest. However, we recommend linking to the blog on ITSdigest.com rather than posting the full blog on your site, to highlight the fact that the content was published by an independent third party.
■ Please note that these guidelines are updated periodically to ensure continued alignment with ITSdigest's mission.
Topics for the Vendor Forum
ITSdigest accepts Vendor Forum blogs on topics relating to ITS and all related technologies, including:
■ Autonomous Vehicles
■ Connected Vehicles and Infrastructure
■ Traffic Management
■ Travel Information Systems
■ Open Road Tolling
■ Public Transport
■ Transportation Safety
■ Emissions Control
■ Transportation Cybersecurity
■ Fleet Management
■ Parking
