Chapter Eight – Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Nine

E-Advantage and Hi-Quality, well this explains the silly path that I went down in 1999 with naming conventions! Here are a few more good names:

• Jiti Builder – Just In Time Information Builder, metadata for Microsoft Office
• Hi-Checkit! – Custom metadata validation
• DocCentral – All Product Documentation
• Hi-Visibility – Search Engine Submission Program
• JTagGen – TagGen for the Java Platform
• Hi-Verify – Information Theory and Analysis of text to validate metadata

While these names may sound corny at best, that does not represent what the industry though about us. Here are some quotes from magazines regarding the quality of our products and their feature set.

• "TagGen's integration with FrontPage is not the only thing that makes it stand out. It also lets you build custom collections of meta tags, customize the rule base used to analyze tags, check the spelling of your tags, and refer to a useful summary of how and why using meta tags can -- legitimately -- improve your search engine positioning.", ZDNet
• "HISC Online - The Authority on metadata for knowledge management/ web site promotion" HotBot and Netscape Directory
  

It is clear that the same standards existed in 1999 that did from day one. If there was a product to be built then it had to be built correctly. HiSoftware’s approach, from the beginning, was to educate our users on the company, our products and the business reasons for using the products. The legitimacy established by our quality products was an essential and central driving force. In 1999 it was all about @HISC, this was where you could find out all about metadata and cataloging information. We also worked with the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College to provide modern business case studies to the students. It was a fun project and the students did OK.

In 1999 there was an odd occurrence happened. As I stated earlier, we had worked closely with the states, federal government, corporations and libraries. We had become well respected in our space, and if you wanted to know metadata you needed to be working with Hiawatha Island Software. That’s when it happened. The online pornography industry figured out that our tools were seriously helpful for all kinds of Web based searching and metadata along with planned and perfected information theory mechanisms would in fact make it easier for their customers to find them. The porn industry was somewhat appreciative and began recommending us online and everywhere. This was a public relations predicament. Hiawatha Island Software did not want to be known as a company that helped people find pornography in libraries. Working with some people in the pornography industry we educated the people using the metadata tools on how to rate their content to help assure that kids would not stumble onto their content in libraries! It worked; we modified our tools and received benefits all around.

In 1999 there were a few more happenings that are noteworthy. First, Hiawatha Island Software became Hiawatha Island Software Company LLC and raised our initial rounds of venture capital. Here is a quote from a book that tells the story of the Island;

"Drs. Mary and Abraham Jacobi were among the more prominent owners of Hiawatha Island. Abraham purchased Hiawatha Island in 1867, designing a cottage on the Island "as close to the water as possible so the sound of the waves lapping the shore, rhythmic and soothing, was always audible." The Drs. Jacobi honeymooned on Hiawatha Island, and spent many happy times there. Their first son Ernst, was born on Hiawatha Island, August 3, 1875. Sadly, Ernst died shortly before his eighth birthday, of the dreaded disease diphtheria. Afterwards, Dr. Jacobi had a five-ton block of granite erected on the end of Hiawatha Island as an enduring monument to his sons' bright but short life. The inscription reads: Ernst Jacobi, born on Hiawatha Island, August 3, 1875; died in New York City, June 10, 1883. After the death of their son, the Jacobi's maintained their commitment to children's advocacy and medical research with renewed vigor, providing brilliant research, insights and advances in children's medicine. Dr. Abraham Jacobi served as the President of the Association of American Physicians and Honorary President of the International Medical Congress. Dr. Abraham Jacobi is considered to be the founder of pediatric medicine in the United States. He is also the namesake of Jacobi Hospital in New York, New York. The monument to Ernst still stands on Hiawatha Island today. (The Great and the Gracious on Millionaire's Row; Lake George in its Glory, Kathryn E. O'Brien, North Country Books, Inc. 1978)


Next was addition of new employees, the employee count was up to:
- One full time engineer
- One part time engineer
- Two Quality Assurance and Engineers
- Two sales people
- One Part Time graphics person
- One part time accountant

We also entered into new relationships adding:

- Agreements with Microsoft
- Agreements with Washington State
- Agreements with the Federal Governments Advanced Search Facility
- A Budget that showed a 200% Growth plan for the following year

It was December 31, 1999; I stood on the third floor of my house. The contractors had framed in the new offices, there were several rooms being built:

- Conference room
- Restroom
- Kitchenette
- Four New office Spaces

As a totally unfinished floor this was much work. I remember walking amongst the work area; no one was around as it was New Years Eve. I was monitoring the servers as we were all curious if the Year 2000 bug would hit Hiawatha Island Software. I had Champagne and it was good. I thought to myself that this would be one of the last times that I would enjoy Hiawatha Island Software in a quiet and contemplative way. Soon HiSoftware would be bigger than I could imagine. Soon we would have over 40 products; soon we would be doing custom work for the Whitehouse and the Clinton Administration. But that could wait, because the smell of fresh paint and fresh cut wood was a reminder enough of the changes that would come, I did not need to remind myself!


Oh check out HiSoftware website from founding in 1996 till now. http://web.archive.org/web/*/Hisoftware.com