here is the newswire PR
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Monday January 12, 7:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Excite, Inc.
Excite Chosen to Give Free Web-Based Email Addresses to an Entire Generation In Britain by UK NetYear
Makes Same Offer to US Government to Give Every Child in the 'NetGen' Era Free Life-Long Email
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- In a dramatic move, Excite, Inc. (Nasdaq: XCIT - news) today announced that the company will issue a free Web-based email address to every school child in Britain as part of the UK government's NetYear initiative to provide Internet connectivity to every pupil in the United Kingdom (UK) by the end of 1998. Ten million UK schoolchildren are expected to get lifelong email accounts through the year with ExcitePost.
Committed to bringing the next, and subsequent, generations to the Net, Excite today also issued its support in a challenge to the US government to give free Web email addresses to every school child in America in support of Al Gore's previously stated goal to ''connect all schools in America'' by the year 2000. (In his State of the Union address to Congress in February 1997, President Clinton issued the challenge to connect every classroom and library in the U.S. to the Internet by the year 2000. In a February 8, 1997 Radio Address to the Nation, Clinton and Gore reissued their call for NetDay volunteers, pointing towards NetDay '97, on April 19th.)
Joining forces with the UK NetYear initiative as the program's exclusive email provider, Excite and its email partner WhoWhere? ( whowhere.com ), will provide all UK school children, teachers and schools instant free life-long Web-based email addresses immediately. UK NetYear anticipates that an estimated 5 million school children, teachers and schools will participate in the first 6 months and will get, at a rate of just under one million a month, Internet access and Web-based email accounts. Excite and UK NetYear will work together to create a registration process to facilitate sign up for service. Students and teachers can get more information about signing up for ExcitePost at excite.co.uk.
As more schools continue to get Internet access through the UK NetYear initiative taking place throughout 1998, Excite will roll out its ExcitePost service of lifelong Web-based email addresses. Excite is also providing training materials so that people know what email is, how to use it, and how to get the most out of the service. This material will also be provided free of charge and will be suitable for use in UK schools. Excite will extend this effort to other countries if they undertake efforts similar to those of the UK government.
Excite challenges US government to empower children online
''This initiative shows how private companies can work together with the government to move critical initiatives such as making sure that all school children have equal access to technology,'' said Joe Kraus, senior vice-president and co-founder, Excite, Inc. ''We fully support the equity and empowerment children will gain from having their own free Web-based email account for life, and we are proud be part of such an undertaking.''
''We also hope that our government understands the value of Britain's NetYear initiative and undertakes a similar initiative in the US as we see the government as key to bringing critical Internet tools such as email to children across America. We offer our support, dedication and email addresses to provide all US schoolchildren with email accounts if Washington steps up to driving the process as part of their own 'wired' campaign that has been going on for a few years,'' continued Kraus. Excite will continue to pursue and work with the US government in support of all school children having free Web-based email access.
Student-friendly ExcitePost lets kids communicate and collaborate
In Britain, student-friendly ExcitePost lets kids communicate and collaborate. Working closely with UK NetYear, Excite and its email partner WhoWhere? will create and maintain a filtered and controlled environment for students to use their Web email to send messages back and forth, maintain pen pals with other students around the world, do primary research and stay in touch with their schoolmates and teachers.
ExcitePost is designed to protect students' privacy with the most comprehensive spam blocking features currently available in the free email industry. Student accounts will be designed to permit people who identify themselves as student-aged only to receive mail from people to whom they've sent messages, or whom they've entered in their address book. In addition, Excite will provide training materials to teachers to help them understand how to educate students in the proper use of email. Lastly, people who identify themselves as student-aged when they register will not be delivered unsolicited ''junk mail'' to their addresses by Excite and its partners. Excite will solely sponsor this effort through carefully controlled sponsorship and advertising, made available to only a select group of advertisers.
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