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Several of our WWWebDisk beta testers have told us that Marketscape's
WebCD seems to be a similar product to our WWWebDisk: that they are
both CD-ROM/WWW systems that cut through the bandwidth bottleneck.
Although seeming similar, WWWebDisk and WebCD are completely different
animals. They are complementary rather than competitive. Here's why.

Marketscape's WebCD is an excellent Web/CD-ROM publishing tool for
designing a complete website and transferring it to CD-ROM. The end
user can connect online with the web server using uni-directional
LiveLinks recorded on the local WebCD. However, as the WebCD website
code is on the CD-ROM, and LiveLinks are unidirectional, the WebCD web
server can neither dynamically reference WebCD CD-ROM content nor
re-arrange or re-order the website. It is not possible to make changes
to the website content or layout after the WebCD CD-ROM is recorded.


Marketscape's WebCD is best described as a static client-driven Web
CD-ROM system.

WWWebDisk is a dynamic server-driven hybrid CD-ROM/WWW system. 

An end user's mullti-platform WWWebDisk CD-ROM is best thought of as a
local repository for a website's contents as well as a website on a
disk. The web server can dynamically integrate high bandwidth content
from the local WWWebDisk CD-ROM with low-bandwidth commands or content
from the server. And there is no difficulty in changing website
content and, as WWWebDisk works with any browser, there are no
restrictions on integrating any multimedia format.

There are, in fact, no restrictions on any content integration -
whether from disk or server - and WWWebDisk does not require any
modifications to the content format. Plus WWWebDisk can be used with
any authoring multi-media authoring system. 

WWWebDisk acts as a very thin transparent layer adding nothing but
functionality. These non-trivial features are not available together
on any other current system. 

All WWWebDisk CD-ROM content can be re-arranged from the WWWebDisk
server and integrated dynamically with content from the WWW server.
This is achieved using open standards on the WWWebDisk CD-ROM combined
with the WWWebDisk/SE server extension. These two WWWebDisk components
interact to give a dynamic WWW experience that completely sidesteps
bandwidth requirements and the static website on a CD-ROM.

WWWebDisk is not a publishing system: it is targeted at organizations,
content providers, and web masters who already have a WWW toolbox,
authoring system, or want to select their own method of designing a
website. WWWebDisk CD-ROMs work on all client platforms - all flavors
of Windows, Mac, and Unix systems - and the server extension,
WWWebDisk/SE, is available for all major server platforms.

In conclusion: 

Marketscape's WebCD is the ideal publishing system for producing
complete static web sites on CD-ROM with one-way LiveLinks back to the
web server.

WWWebDisk is not a publishing system but is the only hybrid CD-ROM/WWW
implementation system for web masters and content providers wanting
web sites that can operate standalone but also provide unconstrained
dynamic interactivity between end user WWWebDisk CD-ROM content and
their web site server - whilst complementing their current multimedia
tools.

A Netherlands patent for the WWWebDisk technology was awarded in late
March 1997. Patents are pending in other countries.

Visit our page at http://clix.net/webdisk or send me a mail for a demo
WWWebDisk CD-ROM.

Norman Dyer
--
WWWebDisk                                        normandy@clix.net
Kruislaan 419/Unit 41                      http://clix.net/webdisk
1098 VA Amsterdam                           Tel: +31 20 560-8456
The Netherlands                                Fax: +31 20 560-8457