Jennifer Larson, Director of Marketing
Durand Communications, Inc.
Voice: 805-961-8700 ext. 221   Fax: 805-961-18701
E-mail: jennifer@durand.com

(SANTA BARBARA, CA)-Durand Communications, Inc. announces the latest version of CommunityWare™ (www.communityware.com), the world's first Internet service providing on-the-fly creation of virtual communities on the Web. New features include an enhanced interface; easier navigation; secure, real-time file transfers; a host audit trail; enhanced Web site management tools; enhanced group email capabilities; and the ability to subscribe to discussion forums via email. The new release will be available June 20, 1997.

CommunityWare is an interactive Web site that hosts free public communities; and private communities at a nominal monthly fee. Both community types offer services such as communications (chat, live messaging, who's live), groupware (messaging, email, whiteboards and newsletters), electronic commerce and Web publishing tools and capabilities.

Public communities are free to join and are listed under topics such as Arts, Music and Literature; Business and Commerce; and Computers and the Internet, to name few. If users can't find a community of interest, CommunityWare gives them the ability to create their own fully functional, public Web site (community) in less than five minutes for only $3 per month. Private communities are password-protected Intranets and cost $3 per month per user.

Within only two months of full operation, more than 900 communities have been created with CommunityWare. No special client software is required other than a standard Web browser.

With the new release, CommunityWare is the first service to allow secured, instantaneous file transfers through the Web, giving users the ability to send any computer file to another user instantly and in a completely secured environment.

"The simple task of sending an MS Word document or spreadsheet via email can be treacherous and there's no guarantee of security," says Andre Durand, president of Durand Communications, Inc. "Now with our new file transfer service, users can exchange files with complete security and real-time speed using the Web, an ideal feature for our private communities which are primarily used by small businesses as their Intranet solution."

Other new features include:

• Enhanced interface for faster navigation-CommunityWare now provides faster navigation, with fewer and smaller graphics, including specific "doors" on the home page labeled "special interest groups," "education," "friends and family," "associations" and "government and business." These "doors" provide customized templates to community hosts and include default message folders and service links, making it easier to build interactive Web sites within these specific categories.
• Host audit trail-Hosts now have the ability to view a report of their community's activity.
• Remote site management-CommunityWare has added an enhanced remote Web site management utility that allows hosts to upload, download and manage their Web site files and graphics with ease and in real time.
• Subscription service-The new "subscription" feature in messaging allows users to subscribe to ongoing discussion forums within their own community and other communities of interest. CommunityWare will automatically email users the contents of new messages posted in the discussion forums.
• Customization-New user customization features allow both hosts and users to add their photographs to community and personal profiles with ease.