Corrections or additions?
These articles by Barbara Fox and Melinda Sherwood were published
in U.S. 1 Newspaper on June 30, 1999.
All rights reserved.
Rising Stars Of the Internet
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Stars: Communities, Continued
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Employment Services
<B>Harrison Uhl, president of Web Services Inc.
at 55 Princeton Hightstown Road, uses proprietary database programs
to host high-end interactive sites
(http://www.web-services.net).
For instance, http://www.Help-Wanted.Net provides full
text search on millions of job hostings from news groups plus
thousands
of jobs crawled direct from corporate web sites. "Private label
job search sites that seamlessly integrate with existing corporate
web sites are our current focus," says Uhl. A Cornell University
alumnus (Class of ’77), Uhl has been a consultant for 20 years with
such firms as Applied Color Systems, Dow Jones Telerate, Commodities
Corporation, and CreditSuisse First Boston.
"We spent a good bit of last fall developing the technology to
allow us to produce and deploy a generic private label job search
site in minutes. By minimizing per site development costs, we can
offer a free starter service," says Uhl.
The private label site that Uhl sold to Covance at the Carnegie Center
has generated a new hire about every other week for the past six
months.
"This service has proven to be one of the most cost-effective
elements in our recruiting mix," says Paul Surdez of Covance.
Choose button "1" at
http://www.covance/com/career/career.html
to see the site.
Shift scheduling software is previewing on the Net with
a joint effort between Uhl’s company and ScheduleSoft in Madison,
Wisconsin. "Shift scheduling will be an essential ingredient for
any web-based calendar site targeting the one-third of America’s
workers
employed in shift work," says Uhl. Products are used by such
round-the-clock
operations from police departments, nursing homes, and prisons to
multinational enterprises as such airlines. Co-branded and private
label alternatives will be available.
A search site aimed at the Linux technology community is Uhl’s effort
to leverage his experience developing specialized search sites. Now
in beta form at http://www.1StLinuxSearch.com, the site
aims to pitch the services of Help-Wanted.Net. A formal launch is
planned for late summer or early fall.
Uhl added an additional service, mail management technology, for the
Scholar’s Bookshelf at Cranbury Industrial Park
(http://www.scholarsbookshelf.com)
which wanted to send customized E-mail to a database of existing
customers.
After each E-mail cycle, Uhl’s eMailServices program provides a
detailed
report of undeliverable and duplicate names, incorrect addresses,
and recommended address corrections. "This keeps our in-house
computer network free to handle the more than 100,000 orders received
yearly in addition to the extensive customer service inquiries,"
says Keith Kochberg of the book distribution company.
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For News Hounds
Dorothea Coccoli Palsho of Dow Jones Interactive
Publishing
on Route 1 North, won TNJ’s prize for number one website as well as
an Internet Innovator award (http://www.djinteractive.com).
Her aim is for Dow Jones to become the world’s leading publisher of
electronic business news and information (U.S. 1, February 3, 1999).
Said Coccoli Palsho: "I am proud to be a part of small team at
Dow Jones who had a dream, not a strategic plan, who had a belief,
not a corporate dictate, who had determination that said if not Dow
Jones than who? Who better to transform brands and editorial content
and publish new products for new markets for the new digital world.
This truly is an exciting time to be alive, and an exciting time to
be in our business."
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For Student Markets
Marty Levine grew MarketSource from a two-person start-up
to a 600-employee marketing services firm in Cranbury that focuses
on the college store business (http://www.marketsource.com).
Derek White of MarketSource Interactive launched
in 1995 and it soon blossomed into the leading college
targeted-Internet
site that operates at break-even or better profitability and generates
revenue in the seven figures (U.S. 1, July 17, 1996). As president
of the 45-person MarketSource Interactive, White provides creative
design, technical development, and management for the such
high-profile
companies as IBM, J.C. Penney, and Carter-Wallace. Both received TNJ’s
Internet Innovator awards.
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More Communities
other websites, http://www.fineartists.net , a online art
gallery and marketing tool for artists
(http://www.freelance-assoc.com).
in Kendall Park offer both a paperback edition and a web edition of
their directory of jobs, resumes, and career management sites on the
world wide web (http://www.careerxroads.com).
(http://www.NIB.com ) has a web-based Right to Know program that
provides customers with a one-stop source for monitoring important
personal records. Consumers can order comprehensive reports on their
credit profiles, motor vehicle records, medical status, Social
Security
records, education, worker’s compensation, and their employment
records
various distance learning programs including an online Financial
Services
University won a TNJ award, (U.S. 1 May 27 and November 25, 1998).
It has just been bought by California-based Yipinet
began offering web pages to nonprofit groups and opened cyberspace
to the greater Princeton area, creating a virtual community within
physical boundaries. The site now hosts 120 non-profits, has more
than 80 business clients, and draws events from
the website for U.S. 1 Newspaper.
technology of Princeton University , won a TNJ Internet Innovator
award for helping to found the BITNET network. He is chief scientist
to JSTOR, the $5 million digital library of out-of-print scholar
journals (http://www.princeton.edu~fuchs).
Internet Innovator award for her efforts to make New Jersey the
"On-Line
State (http://www.state.nj.us ).
programs
as web-based English language training (U.S. 1, November 25, 1998).
It won a TNJ website award (http://www.vlearn.com).
forum at its website (http://www.fusion-adv.com ), where
professionals
in the communications and marketing industry can post comments, share
ideas, and seek advice. It’s a good concept and a potential community
builder, but it’s hindered by limiting access only to those who fill
out a lengthy application form. U.S. 1’s reviewer attempted to submit
a partially filled out form, but was turned away.
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Rising Stars: E-Commerce
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Online Magazines
Everybody says E-commerce levels the playing field,
and no one drives a steamroller with more zest than David
Gewirtz
of Zatz: Pure Internet Publishing at 1377 Route 206,
Gewirtz founded his firm with Denise Amrich, and together they think
they can threaten Time Warner.
Zatz publishes three online magazines: PalmPower Magazine (for users
of the Palm device), DominoPower Magazine (for Lotus Notes and
Domino),
and Windows CE Power Magazine (about Windows CE). Finding no software
program to publish these magazines, Gewirtz built one and now markets
Zenpress as a costly but problem-free turnkey magazine publishing
solution. The firm is adding sales people and editors to its
five-person
staff and is talking to investors.
Each of the magazines is "pushed" by an E-mail newsletter
linked to the home page of the manufacturer. "Everybody has to
opt in to get our mail, and once a week we send out a newsletter with
a tip," says Gewirtz, noting that the newsletters are in plain
ASCII text for universal readability, have links to the web magazine,
and have one or two ads: "We try to keep the ad quantity to a
low roar."
The rectangular ads range from $60 to $5,000, with the low end
reserved
for start-ups, and have lots of copy. "People are coming to our
site pre-inclined to read descriptions in detail," says Gewirtz.
Typical advertisers are building add-on products for a particular
technical market. Freelance authors get a minimum stipend of $25 plus
visibility in their fields.
His next target: print magazines that feel the pressure to go online
— for instance, the 1,800 existing investment journals and 2,700
law journals. With ZenPress, Zatz will put them online for from $7,000
to $20,000 a month, including the Internet feed, maintenance, and
all the programming including a search engine. "We guarantee no
up-front engineering fee provided you follow our overall structure,
including text ads and banner ads. We have proven it works," says
Gewirtz. "At the $20,000 range I think we help them sell the
ads."
A potential competitor, CNet, has an automated production tool called
Vignette’s Story Server, which Gewirtz says must be continually
programmed
from scratch for an initial engineering charge of close to $250,000.
"Zatz will definitely go public," says Gewirtz, "but we
need to grow the thing to critical mass, which will be in 18 months
to 2 1/2 years."
A native of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where his father was in sales and
his mother was a teacher, Gewirtz majored in computer science at
Worcester
Polytechnic in Massachusetts in 1982. He was in the Ph.D. program
in computer science at Berkeley before leaving to be a middle manager
at a Silicon Valley startup, Pyramid Technologies, and then went to
Living Videotext, owned by Symantec.
Gewirtz founded two companies in California, and when he acquired
full control of both, he started two companies in Princeton, Component
Software and Product Power. Enthusiastic about the virtual business
prototype, he wrote a book on the subject (U.S. 1, April 21, 1993).
He spun off one company, based on FileFlex, to a former employee.
From 1992 to 1999 he helped set up a number of journals for Ziff
Davis.
His latest publication is found on E-mail only, "Advertips,"
originally intended for advertising prospects on how to do Internet
marketing, now with wider distribution.
"Here we are," says Gewirtz, "in the middle of central
New Jersey, and after one year we have the leading publication in
three major market areas and important trademark licensing
relationships
with three of the major companies in the technology world (Lotus,
3Com, and Microsoft). When the fire got lit under this puppy it became
pretty all consuming."
"We consider Ziff Davis a competitor and Time Warner our
target,"
says Gewirtz, "but Ziff now really can’t compete with us. We have
the largest market for the topics we are covering. They try to produce
a publication that people have to buy a subscription to. The old
school
printing companies can’t really compete." As he builds a technical
audience, Gewirtz says, that audience will have interests outside
the technical realm. "It will be very referential."
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Digital Books
Using one of the new portable electronic "book
readers"
does not substitute for holding a good, old-fashioned book in your
hands. But John Feldcamp of Xlibris Corporation is using
digital technology in another way
He founded the company at the Trenton Business and Technology Center
to drive the cost of paper publishing down so that every author could
self publish (U.S. 1, May 6, 1998). Last week the firm moved to
Philadelphia.
"In contrast to mainstream publishing practices, because an
author’s
book is stored digitally and produced on-demand in quantities as low
as a single unit, Xlibris books never go out of print," says
Feldcamp.
Less than two years after founding Xlibris, he has 295 titles on his
server, and more than 400 authors have signed contracts.
For $450 and a manuscript supplied in electronic form, the company
digitally formats a bound hardback of up to 800 pages, programming
it with codes for pagination and text and title styles. Authors get
galley proofs for review and retain control over their work; the first
set of corrections is free but correcting the second set of galleys
costs $100.
Stored electronically, the book can be ordered via the Xlibris
webpage,
at one of the dot.com sites, at a traditional bookstore, or by phone,
fax, or mail. Books can be manufactured in single-unit quantities
at a price competitive with retail. Xlibris ships the book to the
buyer and pays royalties.
Just last week Xlibris and its 17 employees moved out of Trenton’s
incubator space into the old Corn Exchange National Bank building,
in Philadelphia’s Olde City (215-923-4686; fax, 215-923-4685).
"The
space is cool and it doesn’t cost very much," says David Hisbrook,
himself a new hire as vice president for communications.
Potential recruits are Philadelphia’s mother lode of graduate students
and recent college graduates. Hisbrook wants "really really bright
20 somethings who were liberal arts and computer science majors, who
are casting about looking for a mission in life."
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Fast Applications
When Peterson’s started producing college guides
in 1966, it provided a unique service to a blossoming new market.
Today using such guides is a rite of passage. The Carnegie
Center-based
firm has turned many of the grueling rituals necessary to get into
college — from preparation for college entrance exams to the
actual
application process — into electronic transactions that can be
handled with relative ease (http://www.petersons.com).
When the Thomson Corp. bought the family-run business in 1995,
Peter
and Casey Hegener had already launched a reasonably-big website
and started pioneering E-Commerce. Now Michael Brannick is
president
and CEO, and the company’s "supersite" has a book store
modeled
after Amazon as well as searchable databases, using both key words
or zip codes, to track down colleges, grad schools, virtual campuses,
summer jobs and camps, and executive education.
Then last year the company teamed up with ETS, formerly a competitor,
to produce an online admissions service called GradAdvantage
(http://www.gradadvantage.org)
for students applying to business schools. It is the only site capable
of sending college applications with official, confidential test
scores
attached. The best part: you only have to fill-out your background
information once. It’s simply transferred to each new application.
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Multiple Light Bulbs
<B>Jeff DiBartolo, founder and president of
Interact
Multimedia Inc. at 1100 Cornwall Road in Monmouth Junction, sees
the Internet as a giant laboratory. "If I were Edison, I’d get
to invent something in the basement," he says. "I do it on
the Net, and then see if I can apply it to some of our customers."
The results of his light bulb moments: a site for registering other
websites with search engines using proprietary software
and E-magazines geared towards the reader suffering from
"information
overload" (http://www.briefme.com). "I roll them out
but I don’t really worry if they fail because it’s not my core
business."
Interact’s core business (http://www.teaminteract.com) pulled
in 2.5 million in revenue last year. For Budweiser, it created an
interactive screensaver; for Spelling Studios, an interactive
marketing
tool used at conventions and trade shows; for Philips Lighting, a
web site that won an award from Apple Computers; for Tower Records,
an in-store kiosk that lets people listen to music. All this, and
DiBartolo never touched a computer before leaving college.
DiBartolo is a graduate of Trenton State College, Class of 1988, with
a degree in advertising and design. Initially, he went into print
design with CompuDoc, now a competitor.
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Self-Designing Duds
<B>Mark Meara of Princeton Internet Group
(PInG)
on Roszel Road (http://www.PInGsite.com) bagged a TNJ
award for the website of one of the firm’s clients, Boathouse Row
Sports Ltd. It has an E-commerce application to make everyone’s
mouth water: On the site you can design your own team jacket
Boathouse Row is known for making fabulous team jackets, first for
crew teams, then for everyone else. With PInG’s Design Online tool,
developed with Java and an Oracle database, customers can choose
features
(color, logo, lining, collar, and hood style) and right away see the
custom product. It significantly changed the way Boathouse Row did
business. "This feature is not only entertaining for the customer,
but it bridges the gap from the conceptual into the practical,"
says Meara. About 1,500 users work with the Design Online feature
each week, and sales are on the rise.
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Custom Service
<B>P.V. Kannan, president and CEO of four-year-old
Business Evolution at 305 College Road East, parlayed his interest
in groupware to devise the "@Once Service Center," the first
Web customer support software that uses these four channels: E-mail,
live messaging, private chat, and telephone callback. The system can
also prioritize customer questions according to their urgency or
readiness
to purchase, so that only the qualified customers get access to
real-time
channels (http://www.businessevolution.com).
"Customer service on the Internet is more than chatting with
customers,
it is providing the experience that today is done in the brick and
mortar world. It’s understanding the customers needs and quickly
responding
to them," says Kannan, who won a TNJ Internet Innovator award
as well as a website prize (U.S. 1, April 30, 1997).
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Custom Site Tours
Chellury Sastry is project manager of Web Tour for call centers,
E-commerce, and distance learning, developed at the College Road
laboratory
of Siemens Corporate Research
Verbal and diagrammatic annotations on the web pages help viewers
go through a website, and the viewer can respond verbally or with
E-mail. For instance, a doctor could make notations or verbal comments
on a patient’s record and pass it along to a colleague for review.
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Cyber Ball Game
Jim Medalia founded the world’s first and only retailer
specializing
in sales of balls over the Internet on Route 27 in Kingston
Not only was Justballs! voted most likely to receive funding
at the New Jersey Venture Fair, but it won People’s Choice (most ready
to receive funding) at the prestigious Early Stage East Venture Fair,
both held this spring. Medalia says he is, indeed, on the verge of
getting his first venture capital funding (U.S. 1, August 12, 1998).
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More E-commerce
company that specializes in personal and corporate growth, merges
input from both managers and employees to pull out insights useful
for a career development discussion. This intranet is available by
a password at http://www.blessingwhite.com ).
Jersey on Route 1 South is developing a brandable customer loyalty
program that will provide account balances, point totals for loyalty
programs, and redemption options or discounts, awards, and gifts —
all at the client’s website, which will reside on Datamark
Technologies
server. These webcentric programs, now in effect for 20 clients, are
expected to launch late this year
(http://www.datamarktech.com ).
website
awards (http://www.kandu.com ). Located on Kuser Road, the
10-year-old
interactive multimedia company does both hard-core programming and
the high-end graphics (U.S. 1, January 27, 1999). As an extension
of its kiosks for NikeTown stores, it put a Java-based expert system
on the website at http://www.nike.com. It polls the user
on requirements for running shoes or soccer shoes and then recommends
appropriate models.
(http://www.princetoncyber.com)
has webcentric market survey programs that are written to a database
that resides in a protected directory on the server, thereby
guaranteeing
the security of the collected data (U.S. 1, August 12, 1998).
position
clients on the Internet using what it calls "weblicity" —
a thorough search of the World Wide Web for sites to link with their
clients’ sites. The agency is also designing and redesigning websites,
and building E-Commerce applications
(http://www.princetonpartners.com ).
Windsor
firm, has created a grant application and administration program for
the state arts council and a capital purchase evaluation software
for PSE&G. Soon to be released: a $1,000 to $6,000 human resources
policy site that notifies employees of ever-changing personnel policy.
In an increasingly litigious climate, this will help HR managers track
down employees to get them to review policy and sign-off with a simple
click (http://www.strandmanagement.com).
A whiz-kid who attended Stevens Institute of Technology at the age
of 15, David Krumholz was one of the first independent developers.
"Back 20 years ago, the information world was divided into two
parts: the IBM world, and everyone else," he says. "We
basically
decided we were going to be everyone else because the IBM world was
very structured and slow. We wanted to put quick solutions directly
into people’s hands."
assessment
of a firm’s communications strategies. Visitors can respond to a
series
of questions, submit their responses, and receive the assessment by
E-mail (http://www.crestancorp.com ).
award for its website ( http://www.dtiprinceton.com) , which
offers specifics about an end-user tool for legacy mainframe formats.
the pharmaceutical category for http://www.formalsystems.com.
The site promotes custom software development services and has
Pedagogue
Campus as its on-line virtual university.
Pike-based
Gillespie Organization is perfecting direct customer marketing
for such clients as Columbia House, which erected an online music,
video, and bookstore called Total E.com, and Gobi.com, a company that
bundles computers and Internet service together for discount prices.
It just received assignments for Fidelity in Boston and Household
Credit Services in California. (http://www.gillespie.com).
at 4390 Route 1 North, is a http://www.interfire.org , which
supports a CD-ROM offering educational information related to proper
fire investigation (http://www.stonehousemedia.com).
overall design strategy for Dow Jones University, the new personal
finance education product from Dow Jones Interactive Publishing, and
produced more than 50 video segments for the courses
(http://www.trampsteamermedia.com .
Corrections or additions?
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— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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