Activerse Releases Ding! and Ding! Switchboard: The First All-Java Live Collaboration System; Managed Network Presence for Workgroups, Enterprises, or Communities.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 1997--Activerse Inc. (http://www.activerse.com) Monday announced the availability of Ding!(TM) and Ding! Switchboard, the first all-Java, Internet/intranet instant collaboration system.

Ding!, Activerse's highly acclaimed instant messaging client application, lets users know at a glance who's on-line and available and supports a variety of ways to communicate, including instant HTML messaging, chat, file/URL transfer, and live status bulletins. Ding! gives users the power to manage their online presence by controlling their availability and managing who has access to them.

Ding! Switchboards are online access managers that reside on public or private servers. Multiple Ding! Switchboards work together like Web servers do, utilizing a common protocol to create a seamless distributed network with no single point of failure.

Ding! clients utilize Ding! Switchboards to authenticate users and connect them to their work or social groups regardless of current physical location. Once connected, Ding! communicates peer-to-peer, providing enhanced security and no server bottlenecks.

"Ding! and Ding! Switchboard keep you in touch with the people you need to keep in touch with. We put a high priority on security, reliability, productivity and user control," said Steve Vandegrift, chief executive officer of Activerse. "Ding! is designed as a true business productivity tool, especially for distributed workgroups, telecommuters, and others who need to communicate quickly and effectively across the Net."

Beta installations of Ding! and Ding! Switchboard are currently operating or planned at several sites, including Hewlett-Packard's Medical Products Group, the Trammell Crow Co., GE Mortgage, Andersen Consulting, Ernst and Young, First Union Banking Corp., Bank of Boston, Credit Suisse, and L-3 Communications Telemetry & Instrumentation (formerly Lockheed Martin Telemetry & Instrumentation).

"We use Ding! to manage communication among workgroups, including individuals working from home. Ding! is an effective tool for drawing our group together," said Gregory Blake, a systems administrator for L-3, a San Diego-based designer and manufacturer of real-time hardware and software products for flight test, satellite command and control, avionics test and integration, and signal conditioning and data capture.

"Ding!'s peer-to-peer architecture is especially important. Most, if not all, of the other instant messaging products rely on a central server. If that server goes down, you lose communication. This doesn't happen with Ding!."

Ding! allows organizations to create reliable workgroup-based collaboration solutions that can be scaled to the group, enterprise or community as needed. Ding! Switchboards create communication networks that can be based anywhere from a manager's machine to a departmental server. No other product has the flexibility to support instant messaging and collaboration from the workgroup level to tens of thousands of people online.

A Full-Featured "Private Line" for the Net

"Ding! and Ding! Switchboard allow you to create truly private networks, limiting access only to those who are most important to you," said Kelly Looney, vice president of marketing for Activerse. "With email, you are accessible to anyone at anytime. Email messages pile up, and mailboxes are constantly clogged with junk email or non-critical messages, and so its effectiveness as a communications tool is diminished."

Ding! offers a rich set of features to support messaging and collaboration:

-- Users manage their Net presence: Ding! allows you to manage who has access to you, the type of communications you'll accept, and whether or not you are available to be contacted. These features are quickly configurable for ease-of-use. For example, you set your availability with a button that "opens or shuts the door."

-- Peer-to-peer communication is reliable and scalable: Ding! is the only instant messaging product that works like the Web. Ding! Switchboards serve your online presence like Web servers serve up pages, sending your peers your current Internet address. Once your Ding! clients are connected, communication is peer-to-peer, improving security and eliminating downtime common to server-based products.

-- Advanced features ensure user privacy: Ding! lets you watch who's watching you by "turning the lens." With this list of watchers, you can remove yourself from peer lists on which you don't wish to appear.

-- Ding! lets users manage file transfer: When a file arrives for you, a file icon flashes next to the peer's name who sent it. You choose to accept or refuse the incoming file. If you accept the file, you are prompted where you want the file to be saved. When you choose a destination, a file transfer status box appears, letting you know how much time is left for the transfer.

-- Embedded HTML makes Web access easy: Ding! allows URL embedding in any of its communication modes. Whether the URL is in an instant message or a chat session, if you click on the highlighted URL, your default browser will open to the selected location.

-- The "Doing Field" builds real-time sense of team: A unique feature of Ding! is the "Doing Field," a text area associated with your on-line ID where you can enter information about your current status ("out 'till Wednesday"), unobtrusively ask questions or request information ("Looking for budget numbers!"), or simply contribute to the social interaction of the Ding! group. Watching the changes in the doing field throughout the day provides a pulse of your enterprise, and creates a feeling of working together.

Pricing and Availability

Activerse will ship Ding! Switchboard and Ding! PowerPak bundles later this year, priced at $695 for a Ding! Switchboard and a 25 client pack. The Ding! Switchboard is currently available for trial download free of charge with approved password access.

Ding!, without Ding! Switchboard, is free for non-commercial and non-business use and is priced at $29.95 per user for commercial and business purposes, with discounts for volume purchasers. Ding! is a cross-platform, all-Java standalone application utilizing standard interfaces including LDAP for directory searches. The initial distribution of Ding! targets Windows 95 and NT users, with support for all major Java platforms being added later this year.

About Activerse

Activerse (formerly Active Paper Inc.) was founded in October 1993 and is developing Java-based tools and technologies that will allow everyone, everywhere, to interact easily and efficiently over the Internet. More information about Activerse can be found at http://www.activerse.com .

Ding! is a registered trademark of Activerse Inc. All other product names or trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used in this release for identification purposes only.

CONTACT: GTT Communications Inc., Austin

Bill Stotesbery, 512/347-1012

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