File sharing made easy

A young Internet company hopes its services on the World Wide Web will replace

express mail service, e-mail and phone calls to help government workers

in scattered locations collaborate on projects.

The seven-month-old North Carolina company called filefrenzy says it

can organize, index and manage files for agencies so that people in different

offices can find information they need easily and work on documents simultaneously.

The company plans to use the Internet to link users to the documents

they need and provide document management services such as indexing, revision

control, check-in and checkout oversight, and access restrictions. "We see

this as a project management tool" for people who need to team up on projects

but are geographically dispersed, said Suzanne Casiello, filefrenzy's chief

marketing officer.

Files would reside on filefrenzy's servers and would be available to

authorized users via the Internet, she said. The company offers multiple

levels of security to control who can see files and who can alter them.

Thus, a team working on a project could let some members read but not download

files, let others read and download, and let others change files.

Access to files can be restricted to just one person or can be opened

to the world, depending on customers' needs, Casiello said. By providing

instant access to files, filefrenzy says it can shorten the time it takes

to complete projects. "It stops having to use couriers" and simplifies keeping

track of various drafts as they evolve toward finished documents, Casiello

said.