Groupee

Infobox_Company
company_name = Groupee, Inc.
company_
company_type = Private
foundation = 1996
location = Seattle, Washington
num_employees =
industry = Internet software
products = Online communities, Internet forums
homepage = [http://www.groupee-inc.com Groupee, Inc.]
[http://www.groupee.com groupee.com] [http://www.ubbcentral.com ubbcentral.com]

Groupee, Inc., formerly known as Infopop Corporation (and before that, Madrona Park), is an internet software firm based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1996, it moved to Seattle in 1999. Groupee was named one of the 35 "Best Places to Work" in Washington State by Seattle Magazine.Fact|date=March 2008 It is privately held.

Products

Current Products

* UBB.threads (formerly WWWThreads) - A PHP/MySQL based internet forum system acquired by Groupee in 2001. Replaces UBB.Classic and the original UBB.Threads.

* Eve Community - A hosted Java/MySQL based community system targeted towards enterprise customers. It is made up of four modules:
** Forum - A Java-based internet forum system first released in 2002 as a descendant of OpenTopic but used a MySQL database instead of Oracle. UBB.x became part of Eve in January 2004. The forum module has only been minorly updated since the creation of Eve community, remaining with the final UBB.x version numbering and largely the same feature set from 2003. It remains extremely stable due to this.
** Chat - A live chat room system that was launched with Eve in January 2004. It currently requires flash to use and is the second version of the chat software.
** Premium Membership - An integrated payment system to allow premium memberships to an online community.
** Private Web Directories - A system to secure the contents/files on your website. Grant access to any users or groups via the member management system.

* Groupee Network - A new service in 2006, it contains features common to social networking sites. It began private beta testing beginning in October 2006. The invite-only status was lifted in April 2007, though the network is still in beta testing. The network is again in invite-only mode, while it becomes more music-focused.

Past Products

* UBB.classic (formerly Ultimate Bulletin Board) - Groupee's original internet forum system written in Perl and using a flat file system. End-of-lifed on June 15, 2006.
* OpenTopic - A hosted Java/Oracle based internet forum system launched in 2000. The last version (3.1.0) was released in March 2004. OpenTopic has been replaced by Eve.
* buzzcast - An HTML e-mail campaign creator/list management service, launched in February 2002 and discontinued in August 2003.
* Groupee Web Hosting Service - Hosting included with the Eve Community.

Product Naming

The OpenTopic product was the initial hosted solution by Infopop. It was largely replaced by UBB.x, a separate product that was an update to the OpenTopic software. UBB.x was more targeted to small to mid-sized businesses and communities who wanted a hosted solution at a premium price.

UBB.x then went through 4 major versions. In early 2004, UBB.x was integrated into the Eve platform. The module system of Eve was introduced with the announcement that many modules would be made available; UBB.x was one of the initial modules. Since the initial Eve Alpha testing in late 2003 the number of modules increased from 2 to 4 and no third party modules have been announced by Groupee or integrated with the software as originally planned. As of January 2008, the forums module remains at the same version numbering it did in late 2003.

In 2005, along with a planned corporate rebranding, Eve was renamed Groupee Community.

A new Groupee Community "2.0" product was announced in January 2005 with an initial beta test announced for September/October 2005. It was originally meant to end-of-life the current Groupee Community upon its release. The initial beta period was missed and the product evolved into a completely new service behind the scenes.

In May 2006, Groupee Community was renamed back to Eve Community and will remain an available product, now targeted to large enterprises. The new Groupee Network has no relation to the previous Groupee Community, now Eve Community, or the defunct Groupee Community replacement.

The last major general update to Eve Community, as of April 2008, was in January 2005.

Future Development

Much of Groupee's focus is now split between the Groupee Network service and Eve. The majority of Eve development now occurs as customizations to meet the needs of individual enterprise customers.

History

"Groupee, Inc." was originally known as "Madrona Park", an internet software firm, founded in 1996. Its first software internet programs included the widely popular UBB Message board (now known as UBB.classic). "Madrona Park" became "Infopop" in 1999, while moving its headquarters to Seattle, where many other software and internet companies had relocated to, including "Microsoft". In 2001, the company acquired WWWThreads, and renamed the product UBB.threads. In the year 2005, the firm became known under its current name, "Groupee, Inc."

Management Team

*Ted O'Neill - CEO & Chief Groupee
*Rosemary O'Neill - President & Chief Fashionista
*Lori Hope, CPA - COO & Chief Conductor
*Barry Kaplan - CTO & Chief Craftsman

External links

* [http://www.groupee-inc.com Groupee, Inc] - Groupee, Inc.
* [http://www.groupee.com Groupee.com] - Groupee social network
* [http://www.eveforenterprise.com Eve for Enterprise] Eve Community homepage
* [http://www.ubbcentral.com UBBCentral] - Zone for UBB.threads
* [http://account.groupee.com Groupee Universal Login Service] - Zone for Groupee's universal login system

References

Crocodile Cafe may have a buyer, Groupee Venues, Inc., "Seattle Times" - http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/347455_crocodile16.html

Crocodile Cafe building's future in doubt, "Seattle Times" - http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/354609_croc12.html