GroupServe Launches GroupDX: Company Invites Others to Help Define a Groupware Standard.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 1, 2000

GroupServe, Inc., the developer of wireless groupware systems, introduced Monday its forum to establish a groupware standard.

The forum, known as Groupware Data Exchange (GroupDX - www.groupdx.org), was created to facilitate data exchange among the various groupware applications, and facilitate data synchronization among groupware applications and their individual counterparts.

The goal of the GroupDX forum is to provide industrial grade XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and Object Schemata for Internet groupware applications. This new standard will be known as Groupware Markup Language or GML.

As more and more personal devices access the Internet (for example, via WAP-enabled phones, via PDAs, and via voice through regular phone calls), more and more XML languages are being invented where traditional HTML will not suffice. GroupDX.org classifies these languages as &uot;Final Rendition XML&uot;, the XML that is rendered in a user's device.

GroupDX.org aims to produce a single, semantically oriented &uot;Final Transformation XML&uot; for groupware, an intermediate XML that can be transformed into a &uot;Final Rendition XML&uot;. This Final Transformation XML is GML.

&uot;Groupware is about working together. It's ironic that none of the groupware systems out there work together,&uot; states Dr. Theodore Achacoso, GroupServe's CTO. &uot;GroupDX intends to install this essence into groupware.&uot;

GroupServe plans to promote the standard and invites other groupware and telecommunication companies and organizations to join and participate in the creation of this standard.

&uot;Group communications between users of wireless devices represents a significant opportunity in the near future,&uot; said Scott Goldman, CEO of the WAP Forum. &uot;The WAP Forum has found that creating a standards organization is an important and elemental step in moving the wireless Internet access rapidly forward. Creating GroupDX will help facilitate the advancement of 'groupware' in a similar fashion.&uot;

In December, GroupServe launched the Palmtop version of GroupVine(SM), its premier web discussion service. The Palmtop version runs on Palm OS(TM) devices, Nokia Communicator, and Windows CE(TM) devices. GroupServe is continuing its wireless track by providing GroupVine(SM) accessibility to WAP-enabled mobile phones in beta this month. Voice access to GroupVine(SM), developed using Motorola's latest technologies, is also available in beta.

GroupVine(SM) Desktop and GroupVine(SM) Palmtop are currently available at www.groupvine.com. Both versions of GroupVine(SM) are offered at no charge.

GroupServe, Inc. (www.groupserve.com) is a Washington, DC-based telecommunications company focused on wireless group communications. GroupServe is led by Wayne Silby, the founding chairman of the Calvert Funds, a $5 billion mutual fund group in Washington, DC, and by Dr. Theodore Achacoso, a computational neuroscientist and former chief science and technology advisor to Calvert Funds.