Invisible Worlds ``BEEP`` Technology Ratified by IETF; BEEP Becomes a Standard for New Internet Applications.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PETALUMA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2001

Invisible Worlds announced today that its Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP) framework is now on the Internet standards track with its ratification by the Internet Engineering Task Force (http://www.ietf.org/).

"I've been excited about BEEP since it was a gleam in Marshall Rose's eyes," said Tim O'Reilly, president of O'Reilly & Associates and advocate of new technology for the Internet. "BEEP was ahead of the curve then, and it's ahead of the curve now. The industry is just now catching up to the Invisible Worlds vision of the 'data-web' and the need for more robust network plumbing to support emerging Internet services. BEEP is an essential step towards the next generation of the Internet."

BEEP enhances new Internet applications with advanced communications capabilities, improving performance and efficiency. BEEP raced through the IETF's rigorous standards process, speeding in less than a year from its introduction to the publication of RFCs 3080 and 3081. The IETF is rapidly adopting the BEEP framework, with new proposals for BEEP-based Internet content delivery, Internet caching, domain name provisioning, application exchange and relaying, and intrusion detection and system logging.

"BEEP is much more flexible than HTTP, and therefore allows you to build applications that perform better," said Steve Hole, Chief Technical Officer of ACI Worldwide-MessagingDirect. "Our electronic billing delivery and payment systems products for the Internet communicate using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). By layering SOAP on top of BEEP rather than HTTP, our products gain flexibility, scalability, and security, all while maximizing software reuse."

"With BEEP, Invisible Worlds has delivered one of the quantum enablers for new applications on the Internet," said Dr. Marshall Rose, general manager of Invisible Worlds and chief designer of BEEP technology. "The IETF standardization of BEEP will enable these applications and services to interoperate over the Internet seamlessly. Using BEEP, Internet applications will become smarter, faster, and more effective than before."

Implementations of the BEEP framework are downloadable immediately at Beepcore.org (http://www.beepcore.org/) for the Java and Tcl languages, with a version written in the popular C language to follow soon. Invisible Worlds publishes these implementations under an unrestrictive BSD-style free software license. A similar license covers other core Internet protocols built into many other software products.

About Invisible Worlds

Invisible Worlds develops Internet software products and solutions based on the Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol (BEEP) framework. Founded in 1998 by Carl Malamud and Dr. Marshall Rose, investors in privately held Invisible Worlds include Softbank Venture Capital, El Dorado Ventures, Reuters Greenhouse Fund, (Nasdaq NM: RTRSY), and private investors.