***Forums down as we launch new services

[Shayne Wagley_2]

Hello everyone,

Hewlett-Packard would like to thank you for being a member of the IT Resource
Center (ITRC) community and for contributing to its ongoing success. We are
excited to announce the addition of many new beneficial features in the newly
designed forums, scheduled for release May 4, 2000.

The forums will be READ ONLY starting May 3,2000, at approximately 6:00AM
PST/2:00PM GMT, until May 4. During this time, you will be able to view the
discussion threads, but you will not be able to add any new content to the
Forums. Sorry for any inconvenience!

The new forums will include the following features:

1. NEW RATING MECHANISM: A points system will help build a more effective
feedback mechanism into the Forums. This will enable you and your peers to
quickly understand which response was most helpful in solving a person's
question. This will also help the ITRC team identify and reward the stars of
the IT community.

2. NEW PUBLIC PROFILE FEATURE: This publicly-viewable element will act as a
signature. Your profile will highlight your activity in the Forums (e.g: points
earned, last messages written). This new feature also gives you the opportunity
to add personality to your profile by selecting a cartoon character to
represent you in the forums.

3. FORUMS MOVES TO ITRC COMMON LOGIN: The Forums login & registration is now
consistent with the Maintainer and Planner. In order to take advantage of these
new features you will need to login to the forums using your ITRC Maintainer
UserID or Email and your password. If you don't have an ITRC Maintainer UserID
and password yet, you will need to re-register to access the newly designed
ITRC Forums.

4. AREAS OF INTEREST MESSAGES: Receive customized daily emails informing you of
new discussions taking place in the Forums. Now, whether you're interested in
earning more points or simply reading the messages you'll have a better
understanding of the activity that occurred in the discussion areas that day.

For those interested in having a sneak preview of what to expect in the newly
designed forums, please view the PowerPoint slides attached.

We hope you enjoy the newly designed forums, please tell us what you think of
the new forums by submitting feedback via the Forums home page.

Kind regards,

Shayne & the rest of the ITRC Forums team
Hewlett-Packard Company