Universal Networks: About Us (History)

About Us
Our history at internet speed...

This article is woefully outdated, but still provides insight into the events that eventually brought us to where we are today. Emerging from the humble beginnings described below, Universal Networks web sites now reach tens of thousands of people every month.

  Universal Networks (then called TWN Media) was founded in June of 1996 with a mission of creating and marketing a "online network of sites". After several unsuccessful attempts, Uninet decided to change directions and give people website components. To carry out this mission Uninet Perl Co. (then called TWN Perl Co.) was founded, and it has since grown into a popular resource of open source web tools and affordable design services.

  May of 1997 was a month of continued growth for us as hits went to around 110 a day, and we lauched another script, GuestCall, guestbook. GuestCall, along with our original two scripts - Count+Stat and StatsPlus - are still the most popular of our tools.

  In June of 1997, our company, still under the name TWN Media, opened TWN Ad Networks, for the purpose of selling ads on our site. The problem with TWN Ad Networks was it didn't have any sales reps, and because of this, it didn't sell any ads. In September of 1997 we disolved TWN Ad Networks, and went on the search for a ad network to join.

  As TWN Media celebrated 1 year of service, we were also looking for a company to replace TWN Ads (or maybe we shouldn't say replace, since TWN Ads never sold an ad). And just when TWN Media was thinking they should just stick with TWN Ads, we found Burst! Media, LLC, and worked with them to start selling ads on Uninet's web sites. Burst! Media and Uninet continue to work together to this day.

  As TWN Perl Co. became the center of attention here it was, as you would expect, expanded upon. In October of '97 TWN Perl Co.'s site was redesigned, in November we intoduced Go2It!, and in December we introduced CStat Digit Center (now the Web Tools Network Digit Center). December also brought on our very first application for Microsoft Windows, called Holiday Rush, a free christmas gift for our loyal users.

  1998 brought lots of change for us, first with the launch of ReadyForm, and then later in the year with a new name and a new look - Universal Networks™ (Uninet). The name change represented our completely renovated focus from 1996 when we were founded.

  Within a year of the name change, we had moved to our new domain name (Uninetsolutions.com), launched another free program - MailIt! 99, and repackaged all of our free Perl scripts under the GNU General Public License (an "open source" license).
  This year (2000) looks to be even more exciting, with several new scripts, including Project Abacus (the successor to Count+Stat and StatsPlus) on the horizon. We also have big plans on a soon to be unvailed web-dev network. Right now, we are expanding in all kinds of directions, and we need to know if they are the right ones. So if you don't mind, please write us at service@uninetsolutions.com, and tell us.

Company Timeline

Date	Event
June 1996	TWN Media Ltd. founded
August 1996	"The Web Network" website opens
October 1996	"The Web Network" website is revamped.
December 1996	"TWN97", larger network of bulleten boards, and ezines planned
February 1997	"TWN97" goes live, moving to a new home on serve.com.
March 1997	CGI/Perl developements begin
April 4, 1997	TWN Perl Company formed
April 7, 1997	TWN Perl Company site launched
April 10, 1997	StatsPlus, and Count+Stat Hosted Edition (Now called No SSI+ CStat), join Count+Stat as the second and third free scripts
May 5, 1997	GuestCall, Guestbook launched as third script (Count+Stat Hosted Edition not counted, its a version of Count+Stat)
June 1997	TWN Media Ltd. closes services other than TWN Perl Co. and SmartSearch
June 20, 1997	TWN Media Ltd. launches TWN Ads Network to sell ads on TWN Perl Company's site
July 1997	SmartSearch re-designed
August 1997	TWN Media Ltd. celebrates one year of online service
September 1997	TWN Perl Co. discontinues Count+Stat Hosted Edition
September 1997	TWN Ad Network closed, TWN signs up with Burst! Media to sell ads
October 1997	TWN Perl Company's site, and SmartSearch get a new look
November 1997	Go2It! Navigation script launches on TWN Perl Company's site
November 1997	TWN Perl Co. reintroduces Count+Stat Hosted Edition, under the new name of No SSI+ CStat
December 1997	TWN Perl Co. gives away a free holiday game for Windows ®
January 1998	TWN Perl Co. continues to prosper as it enters the new year
Febuary 1998	CGI Yellow Pages, a directory of Perl/Shell scripts opens
Febuary 1998	SmartSearch closed to be redesigned
March, 19 1998	First major redesign of TWN Perl Company site
March, 19 1998	New Multimedia area launched
March, 19 1998	ReadyForm 1.0 launched
April, 1998	Server down for a record 8+ hours during prime business hours.
April, 1998	TWN Media Ltd. Moves TWN Perl Company to twn.perlscripts.com.
April, 1998	TWN Media Ltd. disolves the SmartSearch project.
April, 1998	TWN Media Ltd. closes CGI Yellow Pages, renames the project to "Web-Site Resource Yellow Pages", and starts re-designing the site.
June, 1998	Due TWN Media Ltd.'s change of focus since it's founding, TWN becomes Universal Networks™ Communications Company (Uninet™) to better represent it's focus.
June, 1998	The TWN, Uninet, and Perl Company names are trademarked.
June, 1998	Uninet creates "The Website Network", or TWN project to merge various web site design resources
August 10, 1998	"Web-Site Resource Yellow Pages" renamed Resource-It! as it nears the final planning stages.
August, 1998	Another major web site reworking for the new Uninet name.
August, 1998	TWN Perl Company split in three parts (see next two entrees), and renamed Uninet Perl Company.
August, 1998	TWN, The Website Network lanched to replace the TWN Perl Company Media Center.
August, 1998	Uninet name replaces the Perl Co. name on web site consulting division.
August, 1998	All Uninet Perl Company scripts now licensed under the GNU GPL.
January, 1999	We are now located at Uninetsolutions.com!
Febuary, 1999	We have started phase one of a renovation of our entire system (the website, tech support, etc.). We introduced a new "portal" like front page.
March 17, 1999	MailIt! 99 (first release) launched.
March, 1999	We continue our renovation with various modifications, including new images for the front page.
November 20, 1999	We finished the web site renovations we started in February.
December, 1999	The Resource-It! project is disolved, to be replaced with a web-dev e-zine/portal site in the new year.
January, 2000	We have exciting new traffic projections for Y2K, it looks like we should get over 2.3 million hits (235,000+ unique visitors) this year.
June 7, 2000	GuestCall 2000, a much advanced successor to the original GuestCall, is launched
October, 2000	Development of the SAFARI Content Management System is announced.
June 25, 2001	The innovative FaithTree.com Christian portal and metasearch engine is launched.
September, 2001	SAFARI's development code is placed in SourceForge.net CVS under the GNU General Public License
October 5, 2001	Open for Business, the Open Source migration journal, is launched with great success.
December 31, 2001	SAFARI, now known as SAFARI IssueWorks, is released in beta form.
May, 2002	Open for Business is reorganized to offer more original content and news summaries. With the changes in effect, popularity skyrockets.
July 2, 2002	Uninet's Open for Business unit joins with LinuxandMain, LLC; DeviceForge, LLC; and KernelTrap.org, to create LinuxDailyNews, a news portal aimed to provide easy access to each member site's content.

TRB