•

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al friends saw an opportunity to market
and distribute information in a new
way. Jeff Lawson, who was studying
computer science at U-M, came up
with the idea of selling class notes over
the Internet.
In 1997, he was joined by boyhood
friends Michael Krasman and Brian
Levine, originally from West
Bloomfield and Farmington Hills, and
later by Jeremy Lappin, who they met
in Ann Arbor.
The group moved from their frater-
nity house into offices in Ypsilanti in
January 1998, expanding to include
online sale of class notes from six
additional Big Ten campuses. Last
September, Versity.com announced
acquisition of $11.2 million in ven-
ture funds for expansion to 90 cam-
puses next spring.
Described in their announcement as
"the fastest-growing national academic
community and resource for lecture
notes online," the company now has a
veteran business executive (Chuck
Berman) as CEO, and has relocated to
Silicon Valley. Founders Jeff Lawson and
Jeremy Lappin serve as chief operating
officer and chief financial officer.

V

-.0!-NotA

Argus

Louis Rosenfeld used his master's
degree in information and library
studies to develop a niche Internet-
related business. Originally from New
York, he has lived in Ann Arbor since
his student days in 1983. -
He was a researcher at U-M and
found that the Internet was "indispens-
able for doing research and communi-
cating with other researchers. I became
interested in that medium as it became
more and more apparent that it would
enable companies to share information
across wide area networks."
With the introduction of Internet
browsers in 1994, Internet use became
easier and Rosenfeld saw a new
opportunity "helping companies orga-
nize their information so people can
find what they're looking for. You can
always create it faster than you can
organize it," he explains.
Today his company, Argus
Associates, serves as information
architects for corporations such as
DaimlerChrysler, AT&T and the
Weather Channel. As consultants,
they educate companies on how their
Internet sites should be structured,
navigated and searched, developing
policies and procedures that make
sense for their organizations.
In addition, Rosenfeld and his part-
ner, Peter Morville, are co-authors of

it in m

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