UK - Demon Internet Services Plans National Access 09/20/95 LONDON, ENGLAND, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Demon Internet Services (DIS) plans to be the first Internet service provider (SP) to offer national local call access to its Internet point of presence (PoP) network in the UK. Plans call for 100 percent local coverage to roll out at the end of October. Because of the changes to its network, DIS plans to phase out the terms tPoPs (traditional points of presence) and vPoPs (virtual points of presence), the two phrases that the company claims it originally coined. In their place will be ROMPs (regionally organized modem pools). To cover the UK, DIS will operate three main ROMPs, covering: Central England and Southern Scotland; Southern England and Northern Scotland; and London. Full details of the ROMPs and further information on UK local access numbers can be found on DIS's World Wide Web page at http://www.demon.net . (Steve Gold/19950918/Press Contact: Foresight PR, +44-181-371-3711; Internet e-mail pr@demon.net; Reader Contact: Demon Internet Svcs, +44-181-371-1234; Internet e-mail sales@demon.net) Wall Street Journal Web Site Adds Company Reports 09/20/95 NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- The interactive Internet World Wide Web publication from the Wall Street Journal is adding a new feature that will let Net surfers access background reports on almost any company in the news. The new section, called "Company Briefing Books," offers highly graphical compilations of financial data, stock charts, and recent news from more than 6,500 US and international companies, officials said. These reports offer Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones newswire content, as well as company performance data and background from other sources. The Briefing Books are split into five sections. The Company Background area includes an updated overview of each company's business and history. The Financial Overview includes a chart of quarterly earnings over a two-year period, and other data in graphical form. The Stock Performance section features the company's highs, lows, and closings on the stock market over a 200-day period, along with other stock data. The Company News and Press Releases sections cover happenings on each company from both independent news sources and from the company's perspective. Company Briefing Books can be accessed from the Journal's "Money & Investing Update" Web publication, which Newsbytes first reported on last July. The Web newspaper is updated throughout the day and evening as news breaks, with full stories behind each news item appearing in a summary. In an interview with Newsbytes at that time, Neil F. Budde, editor of Money & Investing Update, had hinted at a "Company Briefing Books" feature. In general, he said the Web newspaper would be more than a dumping site for news wire stories. "We're trying to treat it like a newspaper in the sense that editors cultivate and organize information based on some order of priority of what's important." News stories about companies in the Company Briefing Books area will now have direct hotlinks to the detailed reports provided in the new section of the Web site, officials said. Also, readers can ask for a Briefing Book on a company of their choice at any time by entering the concern's name or stock symbol. Like the "Money & Investing Update," the Company Briefing Books are on a free trial period. Officials said the Web offerings will continue to be free over the next few months, but nothing more specific was released. The Journal's Web page is at http://update.wsj.com . (Bob Woods/19950919/Press Contacts: Wendall Wood Collins, Wall Street Journal, 609-520-4685; Lisa Gilbert or Michael Bayer, Miller/Shandwick Technologies, 617-536-0470) Global Post Code & Demographic Info On The Web 09/20/95 BUSHEY, HERTFORDSHIRE, 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- ALLM Systems and Marketing, publisher of the Global Gazetteer, has plugged into the World Wide Web, opening up a home page at http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/geodata . According to Alan Pritchard, who heads up the company, the Global Gazetteer is one of the "largest and most complete" files of international geographical data available. The Gazetteer contains geographical data in "machine readable form," which is available to customers of ALLM. "We see the Internet as very much a shop window for our products, and a means by which potential customers can view our services and download sample files," Pritchard told Newsbytes. He added that the Gazetteer now covers more than 900,000 international place names and 11,000 administrative areas around the globe. Data held on file includes geographic and statistical information, as well as ISO (International Standards Organization) codes, time differences, NUTS levels, phone dialing codes, postcodes details, population, latitude, longnitude, and preferred/non-preferred place names. The basic data set is available in three main formats: dBase (ASCII, delineated by commas); PICK T-Dump; and as plain ASCII. Data files cost UKP20 per 1,000 records, plus UKP10 per 1,000 fields for enriched data, and UKP50 per 1,000 Unicode fields. Depending on the size of the file, ALLM will send out the data on disk or by electronic-mail. "Some of the data files are big that using e-mail can be impractical, especially over the Internet, so for these files we tend to use disks to mail out the data to customers," Pritchard said. (Steve Gold/19950919/Press Contact: The Media Crystal, tel +44-1332-823781, fax +44-1332-823755, Internet e-mail smallsopp@cix.compulink.co.uk; Reader Contact: ALLM Systems and Marketing, tel +44-1923-230150, fax +44-1923-211148, Internet e-mail apritchard@cix.compulink.co.uk/GAZETTEER19950920/PHOTO) See Lake Michigan....On The Internet 09/20/95 CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- All kinds of sites can be seen on the Internet -- from the inside of various offices, to a fish's artificial home in an aquarium, to a shot of the "infamous" Hollywood and Vine corner in Los Angeles. Now, the Midwest enters cyberspace as views of Lake Michigan from Chicago can be seen on the Net's World Wide Web. The Habitat Company, a Chicago-based real estate development and management firm, and American Information Services (AIS) are providing the views of the lakefront as a part of a new Web information site featuring the Habitat Company. The view Net surfers see is from the 33rd floor of the Buckingham Building, which Habitat manages. The real-time image is updated 24 hours a day and features the newly-renovated Navy Pier, which now contains shops, restaurants, an IMAX theater, a Ferris wheel, and an indoor garden, among other features. Josh E. Schneider, AIS president, told Newsbytes the camera can also be swung around to capture other Windy City sites, including Meigs Field, Grant Park, the Ritter Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, and other views of the lakefront. When Newsbytes surfed to the site, we saw the Navy Pier shot framed by a typically cloudy Chicago setting. Habitat and AIS have archived two other views at the site: a rainy day, and a night view. Already Schneider said he has received many electronic-mail messages from the Internet community, saying the site and the view are very "cool." Habitat's home page, which contains the real-time view of Lake Michigan, is on the Web at http://www.habitat.com . Besides the Navy Pier view, the Habitat site also contains information on apartments it manages in the downtown Chicago area. Future plans call for giving users the ability to cross-market any of 21 properties from any leasing office a prospective tenant walks into. (Bob Woods/19950918/Press Contact: Josh E. Schneider, American Information Systems, 312-255-8500, Internet e-mail jschneid@ais.net) ****IBM Launches Internet Search Service 09/20/95 FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Trying to solve what it described as one of the Internet's three big problems, IBM has launched infoMarket Search, an Internet search service. InfoMarket Search will let Internet users search multiple Internet sites, including World Wide Web sites, Usenet news groups, and other documents available on the Internet. Searching is free, and according to IBM it will probably remain so. The company hopes to make money from the service by getting a cut from information providers who sell information to users thanks to infoMarket Search. IBM announced agreements to provide access to the Yahoo! index of Web sites, the Open Text index of Web documents, and the McKinley database of Internet sites. IBM also said the content of more than 13,000 Usenet news groups will be searchable through its service. Several content providers have also signed up to make their information available through infoMarket Search. Newsbytes is one of these, along with: Disclosure Inc., which provides financial and management data on public companies around the world; Comtex, a distributor of press-release services and some news wires; Information Access Co., which produces more than 7,000 journals, magazines, newspapers, and other materials electronically; and Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, a publisher of scientific and technical information. Jeff Crigler, vice-president of IBM infoMarket, said one of the key problems IBM has found with the Internet is the difficulty of finding the information one wants. He described infoMarket Search as a "lighthouse in the information fog." The other two big problems, Crigler added, are how to pay for the information once you find it, and how intellectual property can be protected. IBM is also planning to address those issues in the future, he said. Internet users can try out infoMarket Search at http://www.infomkt.ibm.com. There is no charge to use the searching capability. "We think essentially that browsing the store should be free," Crigler said. IBM apparently hopes to keep it that way, though Crigler said at one point during the teleconference that searching "is free to users and it will continue to be free," but at another point that "we hope to continue making searching available for free forever or for as long as we can afford to do it." For the rest of this year, there will also be no charge for access to information that content providers offer through the service, Crigler said. Later there will be charges, and IBM will get a cut. Asked about the level of usage IBM would need to break even, Crigler would say only that it would be within the bounds of what would be expected on a large net site. (Grant Buckler/19950919/Press Contact: Mike King, IBM, 914-766-1119, Internet e-mail mikeking@vnet.ibm.com) ****President Clinton Live On America Online 09/20/95 WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- Have something you really want to say to President Bill Clinton? You'll be able to do that online, in real time, online, tomorrow, if you are quick or lucky enough, and a member of America Online. The President will be on the premiere of "Larry King Super Special" radio show, billed as a "radio town meeting" by producer Westwood One. Listeners can ask questions of the President via telephone, fax, and in a live auditorium session on AOL. In addition to posing zingers to Bill Clinton, AOL members can get news, photos and special information in an area dedicated to the event. The radio town meeting will be aired from the Westwood One studios in Los Angeles at 6:30 pm, EST. AOL members can access the event by using the keyword "Clinton Live." The auditorium event will take place in the "AOL Live" area. AOL says it will open the auditorium in advance. It says that in keeping with the town meeting theme, virtual seating in the auditorium is limited to 5,000. Westwood One is America's largest producer and distributor of radio programming and the parent of the Mutual Broadcasting System and NBC Radio Network. Among the radio personalities it distributes are Don Imus and Howard Stern. Westwood One programming airs on over 6,000 stations around the world. So Thursday, 6:30 pm on America Online is your chance to show those White House reporters just how to question the chief executive and commander-in-chief. (Kennedy Maize/19950920/Press Contacts: Margaret Ryan, AOL, 703-883-1625; Laurie Peters, Westwood One, 310-306-4125) Vanguard Offers Online, Internet Education Programs 09/20/95 VALLEY FORGE, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.A., 1995 SEP 20 (NB) -- The Vanguard Group will begin offering educational materials in separate cyberspace channels for people who want to learn about mutual funds and retirement planning. The "Vanguard Online University" mutual fund area will be on America Online (AOL), while 401(k) retirement program information will use Internet World Wide Web technology. These two initiatives aren't the first forays into electronic-based information, John S. Woerth, communications manager for the Vanguard Group, told Newsbytes. He noted the group has been on AOL since the beginning of this year. "Vanguard is setting out to be a leader in online information about investing," he said. "We feel that cyberspace will be the next "800" number, and supplement our telephone and mail mediums in a cost-effective and more timely manner." On AOL, the Vanguard Online University will offer a six-week introductory course to help novice investors learn about the fundamentals of mutual fund investing. Topics will include "how-to" subjects like setting up an account, selecting funds, and tracking returns. Other classes will address different investment objectives, various investment strategies, and the nature of risk. The AOL classes will begin September 27, and run through November 1. Study materials are made available several days before each class. There is a "final exam" that will test students' knowledge in investing in mutual funds. On the retirement side, a new service called "Participant Online" will educate and give Vanguard 401(k) plan participants information on developing a financially sound retirement program. Investing, asset allocation, risk, and other investment-related topics are covered in this venture. Users can also obtain account balances and their current allocation mix through the system. Participant Online is based on Web technology, although it is not a site that everyone can access, Woerth told Newsbytes. The Vanguard customer will access the site using customized software from Spyglass Inc. (NASDAQ:SPYG) and Logical Design Solutions. Since the system is Web based, it uses hypertext markup language (HTML), which makes navigation easier through hyper links. Although Participant Online is best suited as a desktop application that participants access from their workplace PC's that are connected to a local area network (LAN) with Internet access, Vanguard said it plans to make dial-up access available for those who would access the system from a home computer. (Bob Woods/19950920/Press Contacts: Brian S. Magges, 610-669-6219, or John S. Woerth, 610-669-6224, both of the Vanguard Group) CompuServe Readies Internet Home Page Service 09/20/95 READING, BERKSHIRE, ENGLAND, SEP 20 (NB) -- CompuServe has announced it will soon be allowing subscribers to upload their own Web pages on to its server. In preparation for this, the online giant has announced a dual-application package called the Home Page Wizard and Publishing Wizard. According to CompuServe, the package is a unique authoring and submission utility that allows users to create, edit and test Web pages on their own PCs, prior to uploading them to a live Internet environment. In parallel with the launch of the new software and planned new subscriber Web service, CompuServe also plans to offer a mail-in picture digitizing service. This will allow subscribers to mail their paper pictures to a central point and have the images returned to them on disk. Judith Coley, a spokeswoman for CompuServe, told Newsbytes that plans are in hand to launch the CompuServe Home Page service to subscribers this coming November. "The Home Page Wizard software will be offered to subscribers free of charge on a free time download basis," Coley said, adding that the arrangements will be similar to those offered with CompuServe's NetLauncher Internet and Web access package. The aim of releasing Home Page Wizard is to allow subscribers access to Web page creation facilities, without all the usual hassle of designing and submitting a home page. Home Page Wizard will offer drag- and-drop editing, templates and hints to assist users in designing attractive, personalised home pages. It will also support hotlines that can jump to other sites on the Web. The Publishing Wizard, meanwhile, is an application that allows transmission and upload of one or more Web pages to CompuServe's Internet server system. This element of the package will create a subscribers personal Uniform Resource Locator which will be in the form of http://www.compuserve.com/home/. Plans call for CompuServe to offer a series of indexes for subscribers Web pages, based on name, subject matter and other topics. More information on the new Web services are available on CompuServe's home page, which is at http://www.compuserve.com . (Steve Gold/19950920/Press Contact: Judith Coley, CompuServe UK, +44-1734-525516, Internet e-mail jcoley@compuserve.cim; Reader Contact: CompuServe UK, +44-1734-525555)