Building Online Communities Since 1982 |
80 East 11th Street
New York, NY 10003 (212) 777 5463 |
UNET was founded by James Monaco in 1992 to develop technologies and products that would unite old and new media. From 1992 through 1995 the company concentrated on working with magazine partners and television stations to develop online and web-based services for their audiences. TV Guide was our major partner during these years as we developed a series of prototypes for what was to become TV Guide Online. We also worked with the New York Times magazine division (Golf Digest), Discover magazine, United Media, and WFSB, the CBS affiliate in Hartford CT, among others.
During this period we also pioneered online/CD integration, running the online updater for Creative Multimedia's Blockbuster Video Guide to Movies and Videos. This was also one of the first e-commerce services: users paid via credit card online.
In 1996 we turned our attention to developing communications servers for the World Wide Web, applying our ten years of experience with Minitel and BBS chat systems to the Internet. (An early version of our chat software had been a major feature of the TV Guide Online prototype.)
KeepTalking, our chat server software, is now up to version 4.0 and remains the only commercially available pure web chat server. In a head-to-head comparison with iChat, Microsoft Chat, and others, ZD Internet magazine concluded, 'KeepTalking wins for ease of setup. . . . We liked the ease of administration.'
Hundreds of KeepTalking sites are now active on the Web, the software having proved very popular with radio stations and colleges and universities because of its simplicity, friendliness, and flexibility.
In late 1996 we set up a demo system for KeepTalking called Amanda's Table. Purely through word of mouth the site became enormously popular and users soon asked us if they could pay for membership. (They wanted to be able to reserve their screen names.) Amanda's and its sister systems now charge $4.95 per month for loyal members-even though access is still free to guests. These services are among a very small number of websites that are able to charge for access.
In 1997 we formed a partnership with our old friend Aleen Stein's Organa LLC to develop DVD-Video and DVD-ROM products. We now host Organa's site, which sells not only Organa's best-selling CDs and DVDs (Lulu, P.A.W.S.) but also discs selected by Aleen--a founder of the industry at Voyager--to appeal especially to connoisseurs of the medium.
In 1997 we also launched WWW.artfilm.org, the website of the Program for Art on Film, managed by veteran expert Nadine Covert. The site features the most complete database of films about art and architecture available anywhere. 1997 also saw the launch of Vent magazine's website. Publisher Marta Limbaugh's vision was that the website would lead the print product: Ventmag.com thus brought us full circle to our founding "intermedia" principle.
In 1998 we joined forces with Douglas Pratt, the longtime publisher of the highly-regarded Laserdisc NewsLetter, to build DVDLaser.com. Featuring thousands of Doug's pungent reviews of movie discs the site is now a leading destination for the rapidly-growing numbers of DVD aficionados.
1998 marked a turning point in e-commerce and we were there with Chipzone.com, our Playstation accessories store. Also in 1998 we began work on the Elvis Sinatra DVD-Video, a unique music disc exploiting all the features of this interesting new medium.
In 1999 we relaunched ElvisSinatra.com to serve as the central store for a range of Elvis Sinatra media products: traditional audio CD, DVD-Video, VHS tape, SACD -- and t-shirts. We developed Peconic.org as an information and community center for the South Fork of Long Island. We also relaunched Readfilm.com to serve as a center for media products derived from James Monaco's book How To Read a Film. These include:
- How To Read a Film, fourth edition (book)
- The Dictionary of New Media (book)
- How To Read a Film: multimedia edition (DVD-ROM)
2000 saw the long-awaited release of the How To Read a Film: multimedia edition DVD-ROM and of the DVD-Video Elvis Sinatra: (Mostly) Live featuring the jazz and humor of George Leonard.
As we enter our tenth year we look forward to strengthening the links among our various media sites and exploring the relationships among media types.
Our aim is, as it has been, to build communities of interest and serve them with whatever media work best for communications and information.