Microsoft Ships NetMeeting SDK; Provides Standards-Based Platform For Developing Conferencing Solutions for the Internet

REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 30, 1996 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate worldwide availability of the NetMeeting
™software development kit (SDK) for the Microsoft® Windows®
95 operating system. The SDK makes it easy for software developers, solution providers, Web publishers and intranet webmasters to integrate audio and multipoint data conferencing capabilities into their Internet applications and Web sites. Microsoft NetMeeting conferencing software is the Internet’s first real-time voice communications client that includes support for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) T.120 multipoint data conferencing standard, providing true multiuser application-sharing and data-conferencing capabilities. The NetMeeting SDK is the first deliverable under the standards-based Internet conferencing vision that Microsoft unveiled to more than 75 leading industry vendors at the NetMeeting Design Preview in July. The software is available today for Windows 95 at no charge over the Internet from Microsoft’s Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/msconf/ .

The NetMeeting SDK opens new market opportunities for third-party software developers, solution providers and Web site professionals. Many of these opportunities are demonstrated in the following examples:

  • Integrate real-time multipoint data conferencing capabilities into existing conferencing solutions. VDOnet Corp. is using the NetMeeting SDK to integrate NetMeeting with its popular VDOPhone video conferencing application, enabling data to be shared as part of a video call. VDOPhone users can launch NetMeeting at any time during an Internet session for access to the full collaborative set of tools, such as application sharing, electronic whiteboard and file transfer, while concurrently viewing a video image.

  • Develop custom conferencing solutions to enhance service offerings. EveNTs Software Products Inc. is using the NetMeeting SDK for its Customer EveNTs Server (CENTS) product, providing a real-time customer service add-on for Microsoft Merchant Server. With CENTS, online stores can use NetMeeting to offer their customers direct access to customer service representatives over the Internet, enabling them to establish communication through the audio and data-conferencing capabilities.

  • Integrate conferencing functionality into existing Web pages. GeoCities is using the NetMeeting SDK to add conferencing functionality to the communication and self-publishing tools it offers users of its Web site. GeoCities operates Internet-based communities of personal home pages where users can share their thoughts and passions with others around the world. The multiuser electronic whiteboard, text-based chat, file transfer and application sharing features of NetMeeting will be used to extend and enhance communication among its members.

  • Extend the features of NetMeeting. Creative Software Technologies Pty Ltd. is using the NetMeeting SDK to integrate its CamWiz products with NetMeeting to share video and high-quality still images as part of a conference. As an add-on, CamWiz uses the T.120 multipoint data conferencing capability of NetMeeting to send images to all participants in a conference.

“Developers, hardware vendors, Web professionals and customers have made it clear that they want Internet communications and workgroup conferencing capabilities built on accepted industry standards,”
said John Ludwig, vice president in the Internet platform and tools division at Microsoft.
“With the NetMeeting SDK, Microsoft is taking a leadership role to facilitate an open market for innovative solutions that extend communication and collaboration on the Internet and corporate intranets.”

Microsoft’s release of the NetMeeting SDK builds on the tremendous market momentum for NetMeeting for communication and collaboration on the Internet. To date, users have downloaded more than 2 million copies of NetMeeting from the Internet, and more than 10,000 developers have downloaded prerelease copies of the NetMeeting beta SDK.

“NetMeeting is emerging as the platform of choice for conferencing on the Internet,”
said Asaf Mohr, VDOnet’s president and CEO.
“Integrating the multipoint data conferencing capabilities of NetMeeting with our award-winning VDOPhone video conferencing product allows us to extend our product into a full-blown office collaborating solution.”

“GeoCities brings people together on the Internet to share mutual interests and passions as part of a virtual community and is home to the most popular collection of free home pages on the Web,”
said David Bohnett, GeoCities founder, president and CEO.

Adding the rich

multimedia conferencing capabilities of NetMeeting to our Web site offers our users an exciting new way to communicate and share information with each other.

The NetMeeting SDK provides a single source for conferencing application programming interfaces (APIs) supporting the Win32®
API, the OLE Component Object Model (COM), and ActiveX
™technologies. Developers can use these API services to add conferencing support to Win32-based applications, to Visual Basic®
programming system applications, and to Web pages using languages including Visual Basic, Scripting Edition and JavaScript-compatible scripting languages that support ActiveX Scripting. The SDK also contains sample source code that demonstrates the use of the NetMeeting conferencing capabilities for developers.

The NetMeeting SDK for Windows 95 is available for download free of charge (other than the cost of connect time, if any) from the Microsoft Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/msconf/ . The SDK supports 14 language versions of NetMeeting, including Brazilian Portuguese, simplified Chinese (Mainland), traditional Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish.Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

Microsoft, NetMeeting, Windows, Win32, ActiveX and Visual Basic are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

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