Here is a newpaper article about TeleGrafix
that may be of interest to some of you.
You can see that Pat is a survivor in the
harsh business world, even when friends
told him NO!
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TeleGrafix Isn't Daunted By the Web's Incursion
By Peter Behr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 6 1997; Page F15
The Washington Post
Imagine how communications pioneer Guglielmo Marconi
felt when radio came along to render his wireless telegraph
obsolete.
That's about where Patrick Clawson and his colleagues at
TeleGrafix Communications Inc. found themselves several
years ago when the World Wide Web burst on the scene.
At the time, TeleGrafix's RIPscrip software was favored
by thousands of computer bulletin board operators across
the country as a fast, easy method for dressing up
subscribers' computer screens with artwork, logos
and other adornments.
Then came the Web explosion in 1994, offering a sexy
new way to transmit not only text -- but also video,
sounds and point-and-click commands -- over the
Internet. Suddenly, anything that wasn't on the Web
and created with its unique software technology
seemed passe.
Bulletin board operators began attaching themselves
to the Web and RIPscrip sales withered.
"It was a tidal wave," said Clawson, a broadcasting
industry veteran who had purchased a large stake in
TeleGrafix in 1994 and become its president and
chief executive, just as the wave struck.
Now TeleGrafix is trying for a comeback. On
Dec. 25 the Winchester, Va., firm released a product
on which its hopes are pinned, a test version of a
RIPscrip package that lets Internet users tap into
university and government databases using simple,
eye-catching Web-like graphics and commands.
Many of these big computer systems have been
linked to the Internet for years. But they have not
been easily reached via the Web because of the
high cost of converting the systems to the Web
format, Clawson said.
Moreover, even if there are connections, the Web
merely takes users to the doorway of these older
data storehouses. Many of today's new Web
aficionados would be lost inside, because difficult
"telnet" computer technology commands must be
typed to search for files, copy information and
carry out other tasks.
TeleGrafix's new product, RIPtel Visual Telnet,
is meant to correct that problem. You don't need
to know the commands; everything is reduced to
point-and-click simplicity.
The $9.95 RIPtel browser version goes on users'
machines. The institution maintaining the database
also needs special software, called RIPaint,
which costs $49.95. Copies can be ordered over
TeleGrafix's Web site at http://www.telegrafix.com.
A commercial version of RIPtel should be ready
in February, he added. Making a viable business
out of this will be an uphill struggle because of
the Web's burgeoning popularity, some experts said.
"They've been overtaken," said Kristina Kowitz,
software manager at CompUSA's computer store
in Vienna. Most newcomers to the Internet are
learning the basics, not digging into sophisticated
databases, she said.
RIP software "might make sense" for older
systems on the Internet, said Marc S. Usem, an
industry analyst with Salomon Brothers Inc., who
has yet to review TeleGrafix's products. But
that's not where the future lies. "It's the Web."
But the small company, owned by Clawson
and two founders, chugs on.
Launched in Huntington Beach, Calif., the
company has moved to Winchester, near
Clawson's Berryville, Va., home.
Clawson has been financing some expenses
with his personal funds and credit card
accounts. The pressures can be horrendous.
The new software's speed and efficiency will
help it catch on, said Jeff Reeder, who left
computer maker AST Research Inc. in California
to become one of TeleGrafix's founders in 1992
and remains a key technical guru.
Current technology on the Web transmits
certain types of images as many thousands
of colored dots, one by one. This means
lengthy waits for the Web user while all
those dots arrive. RIPscrip instead transmits
formulas for drawing images. The formulas
are translated by the users' computer into
colored geometric shapes on the screen.
Rather than, say, sending every dot that
makes up the border in a company's logo,
a Web site would transmit a formula
saying, in effect, draw a rectangle of
such-and-such size and color and put
in such-and-such place on the screen.
It's not a good way to ship detailed
photos over the Net, but it's fine for
graphics and text, Reeder said, and
much faster. An image that requires
80,000 bits to reproduce in a Web
format can be drawn with just
4,000 bits using RIPscrip, Clawson said.
The new RIP software offers a full palette
of colors, multiple text windows, mouse-clickable
buttons and accommodates photos in its windows.
Despite RIPscrip's advantages, Clawson said,
he has had a terrible time finding outside funding.
"We've had, to date, over 100 companies slam the
door in our face," he said. A dozen media and
computer company executives he counted as
friends turned him down, he added. "Myopia,"
he calls it.
But he has found support in two widely separated
places. Japan's Ministry of International Trade
and Industry has put $700,000 into creating a
Japanese version of RIPscrip, to open further
the Internet to Japanese speakers.
And Winchester had selected TeleGrafix as the
first official tenant in its "CyberStreet Technology
Zone," a part of the city's historic downtown
equipped with advanced telecommunications
facilities and earmarked for infotech firms.
Once approved as tenants in the zone, companies
are eligible for tax abatement and reduced utility
charges.
"We're paying half as much as in Huntington Beach,
for twice the space," Clawson said.
Now, Clawson said, he needs sales, not just support.
The challenge is to find a niche of users who want to
tap the specialized information inside university and
government databases and who are eager to have an
appealing, graphical alternative to the old Telnet
commands, he acknowledged. Then these users need
to persuade system operators to adopt RIP commands.
Otherwise, they may just have built a better buggy whip.
© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company