Akiva Releases ChatSpace 4; New 'Community Groups' Interface Takes Community Building to the Next Level


CARLSBAD, Calif., May 15, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Today Akiva(tm) released a new version of ChatSpace(r) - its market leading chat, instant messaging and message board technology for online communities. Using ChatSpace 4, organizations can build stronger online communities and provide more value for their members and website visitors.

ChatSpace 4's "Community Groups" interface provides an out of the box ability to create a full featured community that emulates the features of a large public Internet community such as AOL, MSN or Yahoo. By standardizing the difficult processes of content layout, tool integration, look and feel integration and single sign-on, ChatSpace 4 reduces the time to go from concept to fully deployed community from months down to a few days. The result is better and more organized information that's easier for website visitors to access and use and leads to a stronger community.

"ChatSpace 4 represents a true step forward in enabling ChatSpace users to build better and stronger online communities," said Eric Olinger, CEO for Akiva. "As a leading supplier of community tools to major online community sites we have been able to encapsulate many existing "best practices" in the ChatSpace product. This has allowed us to produce the only true 'out-of-the-box' community solution on the market today."

ChatSpace 4 New Features:

New "Community Groups" Interface The "Community Groups" interface ties the chat and message board together into categorized, named groups, which present a coherent, intuitive and familiar interface for the members of the community. A "My Groups" feature allows quick access to favorite areas.

Enhanced Management Reporting Community reports have been updated to include additional information management information for utilization and abuse tracking. Administrators also have the option to observe activity on the site without being seen.

New Look & Feel Each area of the site has been updated to have a new look and feel that makes it easier for users to find what they are looking for. The look and feel is driven through standard style sheets (CSS) to provide easy integration into existing web sites.

Time Tracking Online Community Managers can now track the amount of time the site was used by each member and set an "allowed time" for members individually. This feature can be integrated with ecommerce engines for billable time online or used to set online quotas.

Single Sign-On Capability Your site can be integrated with other membership systems on your website so that users only have to sign on once to your website/application, and never have to fill out multiple login forms (and keep track of multiple user IDs and passwords).

Audit Log and Transcript Search Enhancements New filters allow you to narrow down your audit logs and transcripts to only the information you need to see.

ChatSpace 4 is available for Microsoft Windows Server platforms. Akiva is currently offering a free downloadable trial of ChatSpace 4 on their Website. Annual licenses for the product start at $5000. To find out more go to www.akiva.com.

About Akiva

Akiva's technology and services enable organizations to collect ideas from employees, customers, partners and suppliers to dramatically improve business performance through rapid innovation. The company's enterprise products enable teams to successfully contribute, share and track ideas that produce revenue or reduce expenses. The company also publishes the number-one selling WebBoard(tm) and ChatSpace(r) products and provides professional services to assist organizations in developing effective online community applications. The company's clients include major corporate customers in financial services, manufacturing, technology and online media as well as major educational institutions and non-profit organizations. For more information, visit www.akiva.com.

Akiva, WebBoard and WebBoard Meeting are trademarks of Akiva. ChatSpace is a registered trademark. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.



            

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