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News Release: GVC & The University of Michigan Team Up to Produce GVC.SiteMaker. VANCOUVER, CANADA, January 31, 2002: Global Village Consulting Inc. (GVC), a leading developer of web based Object Oriented applications, announces its partnership with the University of Michigan (U-M) for the development of GVC.SiteMaker. GVC.SiteMaker was originally created by U-M and Apple iServices to solve the web-publishing needs of faculty, students and staff. GVC was brought into the GVC.SiteMaker project to provide further development, product maintenance, and marketing for the current version, (1.0) for a planned release of April 2002. What sets GVC.SiteMaker apart from other web-publishing tools? Few (if any) universities have implemented web-publishing systems on a significant scale. Existing products are either too rigid to meet the diverse requirements of academic users or too complicated for ordinary people to handle. GVC.SiteMaker was designed by a University of Michigan Professor (Jonathan Maybaum) who understands the needs and capabilities of university faculty and staff. GVC.SiteMaker is extremely flexible yet requires no training or experience with HTML. In addition, GVC.SiteMaker is designed to overcome the practical difficulties that people face when trying to put their pages into production. It transparently handles finding the right directory to deposit files, designing layouts and navigation tools, and making pages and files accessible to selected visitors. GVC.SiteMaker also allows either distributed or central administrative control of websites (such as creating and naming them) depending on the needs of the organization. In addition to universities, small businesses and non-profit organizations would also benefit from GVC.SiteMaker?s ease of use and flexibility. Important Features Use of templates for entering page contents - GVC.SiteMaker templates enable users to create pages by filling in text fields, checking boxes, etc., without knowing HTML code. However, those who are comfortable using HTML editing tools can simply to include HTML code and to completely customize any page. Consistent website appearance, structure and navigation - An institution can create an unlimited number of "styles" (i.e., layouts that include graphics and color schemes) for users to choose from. This relieves them of the burden of designing their own graphics and helps to achieve a sense of consistency among a unit's websites, while preserving the unit's identity within the organization. A self-configuring navigation bar ensures consistent navigational links.. Delegation of website management - Configuration and maintenance of the website may be shared or delegated to other users merely by granting the necessary permissions to the corresponding user(s) using the GVC.SiteMaker web interface. This does not require an understanding of UNIX permissions, as is often the case in conventional deployment schemes. Ability to restrict access - With the exception of the Home page (which is viewable by everyone), access can be restricted to any other part of a GVC.SiteMaker website. Restricted areas will be available only to those users who are members of specified access group(s) created and managed by the site owner. Members of a specific group may include both users within and outside of the organization. Sending files to other people - Files that are stored in GVC.SiteMaker may be accessed as ordinary web links. Viewing of files is optionally available to everyone or can be restricted using access groups. Files can also be sent to a specific user by clicking a button that sends an email to them directly from GVC.SiteMaker, containing the URL from which they can download the file. Embedded Sites - By using the "Embedded Site" feature, websites can combine information from a number of individual websites in a rich, hierarchical structure. However, the owners of the individual website maintain the control, context, and access for their own site. For more information: Contact: Leon Salvail Global Village Consulting Inc., 319 West Hastings St., 3rd Floor Vancouver, BC, V6B 1H6 Tel: (604) 608-1779 lsalvail@global-village.net

News Release: GVC & The University of Michigan Team Up to Produce GVC.SiteMaker.

VANCOUVER, CANADA, January 31, 2002: Global Village Consulting Inc. (GVC), a leading developer of web based Object Oriented applications, announces its partnership with the University of Michigan (U-M) for the development of GVC.SiteMaker.
GVC.SiteMaker was originally created by U-M and Apple iServices to solve the web-publishing needs of faculty, students and staff. GVC was brought into the GVC.SiteMaker project to provide further development, product maintenance, and marketing for the
current version, (1.0) for a planned release of April 2002.

What sets GVC.SiteMaker apart from other web-publishing tools?

Few (if any) universities have implemented web-publishing systems on a significant scale. Existing products are either too rigid to meet the diverse requirements of academic users or too complicated for ordinary people to handle. GVC.SiteMaker was designed by a University of Michigan Professor (Jonathan Maybaum) who understands the needs and capabilities of university faculty and staff.

GVC.SiteMaker is extremely flexible yet requires no training or experience with HTML. In addition, GVC.SiteMaker is designed to overcome the practical difficulties that people face when trying to put their pages into production. It transparently handles finding the right directory to deposit files, designing layouts and navigation tools, and making pages and files accessible to selected visitors. GVC.SiteMaker also allows either distributed or central administrative control of websites (such as creating and naming them)
depending on the needs of the organization.

In addition to universities, small businesses and non-profit organizations would also benefit from GVC.SiteMaker?s ease of use and flexibility.

Important Features

Use of templates for entering page contents - GVC.SiteMaker templates enable users to create pages by filling in text fields, checking boxes, etc., without knowing HTML code. However, those who are comfortable using HTML editing tools can simply to include HTML code and to completely customize any
page.

Consistent website appearance, structure and navigation - An institution can create an unlimited number of "styles" (i.e., layouts that include graphics and color schemes) for users to choose from. This relieves them of the burden of designing their own graphics and helps to achieve a sense of consistency among a unit's websites, while preserving the unit's identity within the organization. A self-configuring navigation bar ensures consistent navigational links..

Delegation of website management - Configuration and maintenance of the website may be shared or delegated to other users merely by granting the necessary permissions to the corresponding user(s) using the GVC.SiteMaker web interface. This does not require an understanding of UNIX permissions, as is often the case in conventional deployment schemes.

Ability to restrict access - With the exception of the Home page (which is viewable by everyone), access can be restricted to any other part of a GVC.SiteMaker website. Restricted areas will be available only to those users who are members of specified access group(s) created and managed by the site owner. Members of a specific group may include both users within and outside of the organization.

Sending files to other people - Files that are stored in GVC.SiteMaker may be accessed as ordinary web links. Viewing of files is optionally available to everyone or can be restricted using access groups. Files can also be sent to a specific user by clicking a button that sends an email to them directly from GVC.SiteMaker, containing the URL from which they can download the file.

Embedded Sites - By using the "Embedded Site" feature, websites can combine information from a number of individual websites in a rich, hierarchical structure. However, the owners of the individual website maintain the control, context, and access for their own site.

For more information:

Contact: Leon Salvail

Global Village Consulting Inc.,

319 West Hastings St., 3rd Floor

Vancouver, BC, V6B 1H6

Tel: (604) 608-1779

lsalvail@global-village.net