REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 24, 1997 — MSN™ , The Microsoft Network online service (http://www.MSN.com/) , today announced that a new group of popular CompuServe forum managers are bringing their expertise on forums and communities to MSN. Joe Reynolds, eFriends Inc.’s Neil Shapiro, and Online Services Corp.’s Joseph Katz, who together have more than 35 years of forum management experience, will create 11 forums for MSN. Adding to the ten new MSN computing forums announced last week, these forums will address education, outdoor recreation and new-age spirituality issues, further strengthening community among members of MSN.
“This is a very exciting time for the MSN community,”
said Laura Jennings, vice president, The Microsoft Network.
“By attracting the foremost experts in their respective fields, we’re providing MSN members with one of the most valuable and resource-rich communities online today.”
New MSN Forums
The new forums, which will fill out the twenty new forums coming to MSN this fall, are scheduled to launch this November in the Communicate area of MSN. They will offer advice columns, live chats and community bulletin boards on topics ranging from lifelong learning to astrology. The following are the forum topics:
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Education
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Home schooling
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Lifelong learning
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High school
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Outdoors
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Hunting and fishing
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Firearms
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Water recreation
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Astrology
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New age – mind and body
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New age – spirituality
Education Forums
Dr. Joseph Katz is a distinguished professor emeritus in English at the University of South Carolina. He has published several books, including
“The Portable Stephen Crane.”
Katz has been online since 1984 and has been a forum administrator since 1988 on CompuServe, where he worked with several education-related forums. Katz brings his forum expertise to MSN as part of a contract with Online Services Corp., which will create fresh forums on topics related to education, including home schooling, lifelong learning and high school education.
“The projects I’ll be involved with on MSN would benefit any educator,”
said Katz.
“I’m sure that the enthusiasm around online education forums will spread quickly to teachers and parents as the new MSN forums develop.”
Outdoor-Recreation Forums
Joe Reynolds, a pioneer in the area of developing online recreational communities, will be managing four outdoors-related forums on The Microsoft Network. For nearly 10 years at CompuServe, he directed the expansion of a single, small outdoors forum that eventually encompassed 10 forums covering everything from fishing to outdoor adventures. Reynolds has received special recognition for his work in producing Outdoor Bytes magazine and was also East Coast editor for Field and Stream. He resides on Maryland’s eastern shore.
“I’m especially looking forward to the opportunity to build an outdoor-recreation community on MSN,”
Reynolds said.
“The HTML format is perfect for presenting quality content about the outdoors, and MSN is the perfect venue for creating communities based on a whole range of outdoors-related topics.”
New-Age Spirituality Forums
Neil Shapiro, founding editor in chief of MacUser Magazine, was the world’s first, full-time forum manager on a commercial network and one of the first to open a forum to the public. He began hosting Apple II forums on CompuServe in 1980, and in 1991, he opened the first forums dedicated to new-age philosophies, beliefs and ideas. His new forums on MSN will address the topics of astrology, new-age mind and body, and new-age spirituality.
“It is this ever-changing world of metaphysics that I hope members of The Microsoft Network will be able to learn about in our new forums,”
said Mr. Shapiro.
MSN brings Katz, Reynolds and Shapiro on board just a week after announcing the arrival of Don Watkins, Ron Luks, Dawn Gordon and Michael Schoenbach, some of CompuServe’s most popular former forum managers. All new forum managers are independent contractors for MSN. The addition of the forums announced today brings the projected total number of MSN forums to more than 100 by the end of the year.
Signing Up for MSN
CompuServe members who want to interact with their favorite forum managers can easily do so by signing up for MSN. Users can visit (http://www.MSN.com/) to order a CD-ROM with MSN 2.5, the upcoming release of The Microsoft Network. New users of MSN who have the Microsoft® Windows® 95 operating system and a modem can try the new MSN with a free* one-month trial by calling (800) FREE-MSN (373-3676) and requesting a CD. CompuServe members who participate in the trial membership and thereafter subscribe to MSN by Dec. 31, 1997, will receive a special T-shirt.
MSN Background
The award-winning MSN is the second-largest online service in the United States, offering valuable services, rich communications and communities, and compelling entertainment on the Internet. MSN also provides hundreds of special-interest forums and bulletin boards and such high-quality services and Web programming as the Microsoft Encarta® multimedia encyclopedia, the Expedia™ travel service, Star Trek: Continuum® , Disney’s Daily Blast SM and Disney’s Family.com SM , the Slate™ online magazine, the CarPoint™ online automotive service, the Microsoft Investor online investing service, and up-to-date news and information from MSNBC News. The MSN home page can be reached at (http://www.MSN.com/) . Additional press information is available at (http://press.MSN.com/) .
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.
*MSN offer: For users of the Windows 95 operating system only. One-month free unlimited trial is available to new members of MSN in the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada only. A credit card is required. MSN premium charges, access charges (if access is purchased from a provider other than MSN) and local phone and/or long distance toll charges may apply. Access availability may be affected by local market network activity and capacity. Offer expires Dec. 31, 1997.
Microsoft, MSN, Windows, Encarta, Expedia, Slate and CarPoint are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.Star Trek: Continuum is a registered trademark of Paramount Pictures.
Daily Blast and Family.com are service marks of Disney Online.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
The Microsoft Network is operated by Microsoft Corp. on behalf of Microsoft Network LLC.
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.
