Creating New Opportunities for Business

One E-commerce Idea
In 1996, PeopleLink, Inc., an incubator company under Ideal Labs (founded by Bill Gross), asked Symbolic to jointly develop an anonymous voice, voice mail, and messaging service, offered primarily through Internet chat rooms.  It would allow participants to have telephone conversations or send voice mail using their Internet names or "handles".  The goal: anonymity until participants feel safe exchanging their real names and telephone numbers, while providing a means to know each other better via a voice rather than a keyboard conversation.

Leads to Enhancements
In 1999, eCall, Inc., a spin-off of PeopleLink, asked us to develop an improved service, BeeCall. It lets users talk and exchange voice messages with anyone on the Internet via a microphone-equipped PC.  Any two users, who have downloaded the free software and have launched the application, can speak interactively.  Individuals and companies can also embed a BeeLink icon in their Web pages to provide voice services.

Symbolic has just completed development of eCall's newest offering, BeeHives.  This new chat room facility allows members to join multiple interest groups.  Within each group, members, their interests, and their on/off-line status are displayed.  Chats are interactive voice conversations, initiated by highlighting another active user's name.  Voice messages can be left for any inactive interest group member.

Since the inception of these products in 1996, Symbolic has played a key development role, taking responsibility for the application, backend integration, and administrative tools.
For these applications, Symbolic's development role included:

• Web page development: HTML, CGI, JavaScript, PERL, C++, Visual Basic
• Cybercash integration (credit card verification): Visual Basic, JavaScript, Java, C++
• SQL database design and development