ConQuest Software awarded contract for Global Change initiative.

COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 1995--ConQuest Software Inc., the leading provider of advanced text management solutions, Tuesday announced that it has been awarded a contract to deliver a prototype system incorporating ConQuest's core technology and that of its partners, E-Systems Garland Division, Infrastructures for Information (I4I), and WAIS Inc., for the Global Change Data and Information System's Assisted Search for Knowledge (GCDIS-ASK) Project.

GCDIS-ASK is a key initiative of the United States Federal government's Global Change Research Program (USGCRP).

Based on an advanced client/server architecture, the GCDIS-ASK prototype will be an Internet and dial-up accessible, distributed online information system. Open and extensible, it will provide access to databases which are highly diverse in terms of content, medium, and physical location.

It will serve multiple classes of users who need to observe, understand and predict global environmental change and its associated social, political and economic impact, from researchers and policy makers, to students, educators, corporations and individual end-users.

ConQuest's toolset of full-text search and retrieval engines, semantic knowledgebases, and integration tools will provide powerful, easy-to- use access to relevant global change information.

E-Systems will serve as the projects systems integrator, and will provide geographical information (GIS), digital imagery, and spatial data processing expertise. Infrastructures for Information will deliver advanced capabilities for filtering and viewing compound documents, including SGML documents. WAIS Inc. is the provider of Internet communications protocols for the project.

The GCDIS-ASK initiative has emerged from an innovative, cooperative effort among the multiple Federal agencies and organizations which are USGCRP members, including: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Defense, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Department of State.

Each agency manages its own implementation efforts within a framework of coordination by the agencies.

An Interagency Working Group on Data Management for Global Change coordinates issues of data access and content, including establishing liaisons with non-Federal global change information providers, such as universities, non-government organizations, and international organizations.

GCDIS-ASK will demonstrate the central information management mission of the Global Change Research Program: to provide the easiest and most effective access to the highly diverse textual, numeric, image, geographic and other sources which comprise global change information.

Global change research extends across traditional disciplines, ranging from the geophysical and biological sciences, to economics and social sciences. For example, international negotiators of the United Nations may need to formulate policy positions surrounding greenhouse gas emissions.

A Gulf state legislator may need to understand if global warming will cause sea levels to rise, and how that could impact her constituents. An educator may wish to develop a school curriculum on population concerns. Individuals may desire information about current environmental issues in order to make more informed voting decisions.

"It is both an honor and an affirmation to have been selected for this vitally important project, stated Edwin R. Addison, president and CEO of ConQuest Software.

"Through the rigorous process of defining requirements, evaluating products and technologies, and completing a successful pilot project, ConQuest has proven that its performance, flexibility and extensibility exceed that of any other text retrieval system. GCDIS-ASK is a blueprint for the information systems of the late 1990s and beyond. ConQuest is proud to be at the forefront of this groundbreaking development."

James Henry, project manager for E-Systems Garland Division, noted, "E-Systems is pleased and excited about the opportunity to be part of the GC-ASK program. Our systems integration experience, together with our geospatial data processing technologies, are perfect complements to ConQuests natural language search engine.

"Our combined technologies will provide intelligent access to selected Global Change databases ranging from text to geographic data and remotely sensed imagery.

"We will synergistically integrate off-the-shelf technologies to provide new levels of performance and ease of use across a diverse range of users. To that end, well be working closely with the end-users to ensure that the tools we develop are truly useful in helping them to better perform their missions."

"Infrastructures for Information believes that the ability to take user requested information from a variety of sources and merge it into a single HTML document for viewing in Mosaic will smooth the bumps in the information highway by making the format of the information retrieved consistent," commented Michel Vulpe, president of I4I.

"The current technologies are akin to the hand drawn cart on a dirt road while the vision of GCDIS-ASK is that of a four-lane superhighway."

Brewster Kahle, president of WAIS Inc., said, "ConQuest and WAIS have an alliance which strengthens the Internet as the open platform for network publishing by adopting a key implementation of the standards. We are pleased to extend this relationship through our work on the GCDIS-ASK project."

E-Systems

E-Systems Inc., based in Dallas, is a high technology developer and producer of information-based electronics systems and products for a wide variety of customers and applications, including defense, engineering, medical, educational, aeronautical, scientific and data storage.

E-Systems products and services include intelligence processing, reconnaissance and surveillance systems, command and control, specialized aircraft maintenance and modification, guidance and navigation, and field services support.

Infrastructures for Information Inc.

Infrastructures for Information Inc. is a privately held software development company specializing in SGML driven database systems. With offices in Toronto, Ontario and Los Altos, Calif., Infrastructures is the premier supplier of complete "out the box" information systems for the development, management and deployment of intellectual assets.

WAIS Inc.

WAIS Inc., established in 1992, provides interactive multimedia publishing systems and services to organizations who wish to deliver information over networks.

Server software products for searching, browsing, and creation of hypertext links has helped make the Internet a powerful companion to CD-ROM and online services. The company was founded by Brewster Kahle, who organized the original Wide-Area Information Servers consortium, comprised of Apple Computer, Inc., KPMG Peat Marwick, Dow Jones & Co., and Thinking Machines. WAIS is privately held.

ConQuest Software, Inc.

ConQuest Software, established in 1989, provides advanced text information management technology. Products include query engines, knowledgebases, applications modules and APIs for stand-alone, networked and true client/server environments.

ConQuest is the first text retrieval vendor to employ a semantic network architecture, using word meaning as the basis of its search capability. Its plain English software delivers unsurpassed precision and recall, while being extremely easy to use. ConQuest is a winner of the 1994 Washington Technology StarTech Best New Product Award and the 1994 Information Industry Association Entrepreneur of the Year Award. -0- ConQuest is a trademark of ConQuest Software Inc. All other trademarked terms are the property of their respective organizations.

CONTACT: ConQuest Software

Judith Feder, 914/946-3806

or

E-Systems

Kimberly A. Quirk, 214/205-5124

or

Infrastructures for Information

Scott Young, 416/920-6489

or

WAIS Inc.

Lori Nelson, 415/617-0444