here at the northern virginia digital media conference is janet yang who is a principle partner with novak biddle. what is novak biddle? >> guest: we're a venture capital firm, and we're based outside of bethesda, maryland. we're about 12 years old, and we have about $600 million under management, and our focus is purely i.t. meaning we don't do biotech or health care. so we have seven partners on the investment side, and all we do is do i.t. investments. and by i.t., it incorporates anything from digital media, for example, which is why we're here all the way to mobile and telecommunications, semiconductor materials, software and the whole gamut. >> host: is it fair to say that most i.t. venture capitalists are based out in california? is it rare to find one here in the washington area? >> guest: well, obviously, the mecca is silicon valley, but we are seeing pockets of growth elsewhere in the country, you know, boston is a fairly big market. and this region is actually quite, quite in terms of a talent and the ideas are quite prolific primarily because we have a lot of government l

. >> janet yang, thank you. >> political campaigns have gone high-tech. at the digital media conference, there was someone there responsible for the obama campaign platform. what is distributed networks? >> we are mobile marketing and technology company. we help brands, political clients, and government organizations to manage text messaging and communications via cell phones. the best known example is the text messaging done during the presidential campaign. barack obama used it to keep in touch with millions of people by text message to let them know if he was going to be in town, to encourage them to volunteer. you may remember when they were waiting for the vice presidential announcement, people had their cell phones out. he said the announcement would be a text message about joe biden being the vice president. >> union before everyone else? -- you knew before everyone else? >> maybe 10 minutes before. the nice thing about text messaging is that has to be opt anin. you are not receiving messages you do not want. it is tightly policed by the cell phone