3Com Enlists Leading Polling and Technology Companies to Conduct World's Largest Interactive Poll; The Planet Project Poll Requires Technologies Never Before Assembled.

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 2000

3Com Corporation (Nasdaq:COMS) announced today that leading technology and polling companies are for the first time assembling the technologies needed to facilitate the world's largest Internet-based poll, called the Planet Project(TM). Over four days in November, millions of people in all corners of the world can go to the Planet Project Web site (Web site address: www.planetproject.com) to share and instantly compare their opinions on topics ranging from the thought-provoking to the entertaining.

The technologies required to make the Planet Project poll possible include contributions from nine leading companies, including Harris Interactive; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Akamai Technologies, Inc.; Oracle Corporation; BEA Systems, Inc.; Mercury Interactive; Macromedia; Eucid, Inc.; and AT&T. Combined with 3Com networking technologies, the technologies of these companies will help bring the Planet Project poll to life.

"The Planet Project event only now is possible because a powerful group of leading companies have rallied behind our vision of connecting the world in an unprecedented way," Bruce Claflin, 3Com president and COO, said from the Planet Project Mission Control center. "The poll is the biggest, fastest, most sophisticated survey of its kind ever attempted, yet the contributions of our partners are ensuring that it will be easy for the world to take. It's a bold demonstration of how technology can be used to foster greater understanding across geographic, cultural and economic barriers."

3Com's own networking technology is critical to the Planet Project poll, particularly at the project's Mission Control in Santa Clara, Calif. The Switch 4007 networks all servers and workstations for the project. In addition, the SuperStack(R) 3900 technology provides the operation with the fast, Gigabit Ethernet connectivity necessary to access the volumes of data throughout the data centers each second. Every phone in Mission Control is a 3Com(R) NBX(R) phone, streaming both voice and data in one network for superior inter-office connectivity. Claflin explains 3Com's technical role in the Planet Project poll as "the glue tying the technologies together."

As the global leader in online market research, with a database of more than 6.6 million online panelists, Harris Interactive (www.harrisinteractive.com) brings critical expertise to the development of the poll content and methodology. Over the past seven months, Harris Interactive led the development of the poll questions, drawing on 40 years of experience and knowledge from the well-known Harris Poll.

Gordon Black, chairman and CEO of Harris Interactive, said the Planet Project poll represents a sea change in the way public opinion is shared throughout the world. "We've assembled the technologies to allow people to instantly share and compare their views from many countries, on many topics, on a massive scale," he said.

"For every question we're asking, we've probably thrown away another dozen," explained Black. "We wanted questions that were original enough for this unprecedented undertaking, but also questions that made sense and were relevant in different countries, languages and cultures."

Harris Interactive is also responsible for related polling technologies, including systems integration, and development of applications and the database. A battery of Harris Interactive programmers spent in excess of 20,000 hours over several months to create the Web pages necessary to run the poll in eight languages.

The resulting poll will consist of eight topical modules: religion; beliefs and fears; health and well-being; sleep and dreams; self image; marriage; dating and sex; parenting and education; law and order. There are 20 questions per poll topic.

Harris Interactive is working with Eucid, Inc., (www.eucid.com), to analyze the results. Eucid will provide ad hoc analysis, on-demand response and complex visualization of the poll. Eucid's data mining expertise will translate the stream of incoming information into an easily identifiable source of knowledge.

In order to engage people online as well as those who are not connected by the Internet, Planet Pollsters -- volunteers located in the remote corners of the world -- will be equipped with handheld computers and a variety of transmitting devices to facilitate poll taking. These pollsters will make certain that the voices of people without access to the Internet are included in the poll -- those as geographically separated as the indigenous groups in the jungles of the Amazon and Papua New Guinea, ice fishermen in Siberia and rice farmers in Myanmar. After receiving responses, pollsters will transmit the collected data by connecting to networked PCs, handheld modems, mobile phones and -- in the most remote areas -- satellite phones.

Anyone with Internet access can take the poll at www.planetproject.com or at one of the other local country domain names registered. Akamai Technologies' FreeFlow(SM), FreeFlow Streaming(SM) and FirstPoint(SM) services will ensure fast, reliable delivery of rich content and streaming media found on www.planetproject.com, as well as high availability of the site. As the exclusive Internet content and streaming media delivery service provider for the project, Akamai (www.akamai.com) will play a key role in keeping the Web site fully optimized, enabling millions of people around the world to participate in the poll.

Unprecedented volumes of polling data generated by the Planet Project poll will be streamed to Sun Microsystems' servers (www.sun.com), located at the Planet Project Mission Control center in Santa Clara. The Sun servers make it possible for the poll data to be easily stored and be disseminated quickly and efficiently. Mission Control will be equipped with the scalable Sun Enterprise and Netra servers to satisfy the project's huge demand for computing resources.

As the exclusive provider of the e-business software platform for the Planet Project poll, BEA Systems, Inc. (www.bea.com) has supplied 52 clustered CPUs of BEA WebLogic Server(TM) -- the core technology at the heart of the BEA platform -- to ensure that survey responses are reliably executed. The BEA WebLogic E-Business Platform(TM) will process thousands of transactions each second from millions of users during the four-day global survey.

For the Planet Project poll, 3Com chose the Oracle8i Internet Platform for powerful, reliable, and secure data collection and management. To find meaningful patterns hidden within the poll data, 3Com also chose Oracle's Internet Business Intelligence tools for analysts to access and interpret the collected information.

According to Claflin, the Planet Project poll also seeks to give people an unmatched way of experiencing a poll or vote. To make the Planet Project site visually compelling to its unprecedented global audience, with engaging graphics and sound across platforms and multiple devices, Macromedia (www.macromedia.com) was selected to provide cutting-edge streaming media. From the Macromedia Flash-based front end to the Macromedia Generator-powered back end, Macromedia software is vital to providing a rich, engaging user experience for all Web site visitors.

To ensure the optimal performance of the Planet Project site, 3Com selected Mercury Interactive (www.merc-int.com) to provide load-testing products and e-services.

The Planet Project Web site will be hosted at the AT&T Internet Data Center, based in Redwood City, Calif., directly linked to AT&T's high-performing OC48/192 IP backbone. By hosting the site at this state-of-the-art center, the Web site's performance and security are greatly improved, enabling end users to gain fast and easy access to the Planet Project Web site.

About 3Com Corporation

3Com simplifies how people connect to information and services through simple-to-use connectivity products and solutions for consumers and commercial organizations. The company also provides access infrastructures and IP services platforms for network service providers. For further information, visit www.3com.com or the press site at www.3com.com/pressbox.

Note to Editors: 3Com, NBX and SuperStack are registered trademarks and Planet Project is a trademark of 3Com Corporation. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.