If you use RB, you are a member of Team RB
This is your exclusive area for:
- RB news of particular interest to RB users
- Downloadable RB manuals & other materials
- Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about RB
- Free RB training: Step-by-Step Tutorials and Videos
- What's new in RB9 vs. RB8, broken down by modules
- Downloadable free marketing materials to help you sell your RB services
- Links to other sites of interest to RB users
- Legacy information for RB8 users
Reporterbase.com
What to do now that free digital signatures for RB-PDF transcripts were discontinued
Update May 2019: Sectigo no longer offers free digital certificates. They still offer the certificates, but for a yearly fee. Agencies and reporters can use digital certificates from any Certification Authority (CA), but we are not aware of any free digital certificates at this time.
Update February 2019: Comodo CA has been acquired and rebranded Sectigo. You and your reporters can get digital certificates, called InstantSSL Secure Email Certificates, that are good for one year. Visit reporterbase.com for more information.
December 2017: In August 2016, we announced that RB-PDF transcripts could be signed for free on reporterbase.com. You and your reporters could use any digital signature you prefer, free or paid, but we recommended StartSSL, due to their zero cost, ease of installation, and multiple-browser application.
However, we have recently learned that StartCom, the Certification Authority (CA) that issues StartSSL’s free digital IDs, has been “de-certified” by the majority of browser makers. StartCom has been unable to regain the trust of these browser makers, so they decided to no longer issue digital IDs after December 31, 2017. They will provide validation services for two years from January 1, 2018, but starting 2020, all remaining valid certificates will be revoked.
In addition, we have learned that Google Chrome plans to distrust Symantec, GeoTrust, and Thawte security certificates.
These changes are the result of ever-improving security standards, which require CAs to evolve or stop offering security certificates. StartSSL decided on the latter.
How this affects you & your reporters
Fortunately, all existing digital IDs issued by StartCom will be valid for 2 years from date of issuance. However, new IDs will not be issued as of January 1, 2018.
If you or your reporters do not have a digital ID after the end of this year, you will need to get one from a different source, either free or paid.
We have updated the RB Digital Signature Proxy Guide for Reporters. Please share with your reporters.
ReporterBase.com
Updated training videos for your reporters
March 7, 2019: We have posted how-to videos on reporterbase.com that show your reporters how to obtain and set up the digital certificates from Sectigo. These digital certificates can be set up in Firefox or Internet Explorer, and the process is slightly different depending on the browser used for installation, so there are videos that cover the process in each of these browsers.
We have also posted the videos on YouTube as a playlist, so you can share this link with them: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmVdUc3mPMoP11dNGryc2BOJABljZLUwW
Team RB News
First Look @ RB9: Team RB conference
The Team RB user conference held Oct. 24, 2018, was attended by over 300 RB users who got the first look at RB9, the new version of ReporterBase software. Jason Yee, OMTI’s Director of Client Services, and Ted Yoo, OMTI Product Specialist, led attendees through the big differences between RB9 and RB8 with lots of demos.
View the entire conference video playlist on YouTube.
ReporterBase Business Management Software
RB9 is available
December 2018: The wait for the next generation of your business management software is over. OMTI is pleased to announce that RB9, the next major upgrade of ReporterBase, is available as of December 2018. This new version has been completely redesigned with new features and other improvements that incorporate your suggestions from the Idea Collaborator.
What does it cost?
RB9 costs the same as RB8 Cloud. Differences to note are that some RB8 plug-ins are included in RB9 for no extra cost (Tracking and Reward Points), and user licenses are handled differently than in RB8. In RB9, each user accessing the program must have their own user account, instead of the generic user licenses that RB8 allowed.
Are you ready to upgrade?
The upgrade process from RB8 is a simple 4-step process. Ted Yoo, OMTI Product Specialist, explains the upgrade process and other RB9 upgrade details in this conference video, along with licensing and pricing info:
Want to check out RB9 for yourself?
If you are interested in trying out RB9 before making a commitment, we have an RB9 demo site you can explore. To access the site, contact OMTI Support.
Idea Collaborator
Get your feature requests in the next RB update
Idea Collaborator in our customer portal gives you a forum
Idea Collaborator is the way to get your ideas for improving OMTI products implemented in future versions. It is an online forum where everyone who uses the same products as you do can post suggestions and vote for those they would like to see in an upcoming version.
Ideas that are most popular with our clients will be priorities for our development team. You don’t have to wonder if we are paying attention to your idea, and we don’t have to wonder if a requested feature is useful to enough users to be worth the time, effort and expense of developing it.
Idea Collaborator is available to our clients through our portal site. Sign in with your user name and password, post a request and vote on existing feature requests you’d like to use too. The more votes an individual feature gets, the more likely you will see it in our products.
Like an ongoing focus group, online places like Idea Collaborator are widely used in the software industry to gather ideas from client bases. Since we are software developers, not industry experts like our clients, we don’t know if a new feature makes sense. We will be relying on you and your peers to guide our future development.
To enhance the possibility that your requests are popular with the group, please write your requests using the following guidelines:
Idea Collaborator Guidelines
- Include only one idea per request. If you have multiple suggestions, make separate requests for each. This will make it easier for other users to vote for ideas they want to see too.
- Make the Idea Title descriptive of your idea. Requests will be listed by their titles, so a descriptive title makes your idea easier to find when someone scrolls through the list. For example, instead of titling an idea “RB8 Billing,” which is too generic, write “RB8 payments by credit card” to title a request to add a credit card payment option in RB Billing.
- Explain the idea in depth in the Description field. The more detailed your feature description, the better. Also include some background on the issue(s) the feature would address, and why you want/need it.
