Sat Aug 26 23:06:59 PDT 2000 — Internal testing of our new web based email and application service is complete. Using ‘Twig’, you can send and receive email and manage email in folders in your home directory in a way that is compatible with other shell based email packages. It’s even got an email spell checker.
Twig also includes contact management, a to-do list, a note-pad, Usenet newsreading (read Sonic.net discussion groups from elsewhere on the net) and a calendar and appointment manager. While the tools are not as responsive as similar desktop applications like Outlook, the universal availability works great for people who use Sonic.net from many different PCs and locations.
This is our first deployment of what the industry is calling ‘application services’, so I suppose we’re now an ASP as well as an ISP. I would maintain that email, news, web hosting and the other things that we’ve been doing for years are all applications, and only those short sighted industry pundits who were recently un-shackled from their desk-tops and unleashed upon the Internet would believe that somehow deployment of a tool that’s similar to one found on the desktop moves you beyond being a simple ‘ISP’. Go figure.
Give it a try at the following URL. Let us know by posting to the sonic.help newsgroup if you find any bugs. You can find this group in the ‘News’ section within Twig. -Dane and Nathan