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GL INN Media Corporation

Who Are We?

Since 1986 when we first started in business, until now, GLINN has been involved in the gay/lesbian community. Today, GLINN Publishing Corporation maintains the largest gay internet presence in the world --- in number of sites and vastness of content. A search on Alta Vista using the keyword "GLINN", for instance, will bring up over 1,200 of our pages. We are working toward the goal of becoming the largest in the amount of web traffic as well.

Although GLINN has web sites that sell merchandise and generate other income, the focus of GLINN is to provide news, a wide range of informational resources and entertainment for the gay/lesbian community. Visiting our web sites will reveal a vast range of interesting and exclusive content.

GLINN is an acronym for Gay/Lesbian International News Network. GLINN was located in Milwaukee, WI from 1986 until September of 2001 when it moved to Key West , FL.

The news service was originally launched on a direct dial computer bulletin board system back in 1987 (Photo 1 1987, Photo 2 1990), and today is the largest gay/lesbian news web site in the world. GLINN.COM also serves as a gateway to all of our other web sites. We still have the GLINN direct dial bulletin board system which is now on the web itself (www.glinn.net), and available by Telnet (bbs.glinn.net) though the news service moved to its own domain in July 1996. The BBS was also our Milwaukee 33.6k dialup for local Internet access.

As of June 2001, GLINN has 25 web sites online or actively under construction. We own a total of 30 domain names. GLINN Publishing (now GLINN Media) has also expanded its area of operations which include many business activities.

In addition to strictly virtual operations such as online shopping and our gay adult site, gay media database, guides and news, we also have more substantial business operations in the "real world" though they are all connected with the Internet in one form or another.

GLINN Network One - America's Gay Owned and Operated Internet Service Provider, was founded and operated by GLINN Publishing for two years. Due to our inability to raise capital to expand the service and make it profitable, it was necessary to sell this portion of our business. GLINN sold the dialup accounts but did not sell the name. We exited the ISP business, but recently we have decided to begin selling 33.6k dialup service in the Milwaukee area. See our web site at dialup.glinn.com for more information.
GayData.Com offers free access to the internet's largest and most updated listing of GLBT publications. We offer a News Distribution Service and other business to business services related to the gay/lesbian media.
GayRealms.Com offers web site hosting, domain name registration, DNS hosting, and other services that we originally offered with GN1.
Gay Toons Syndicate -- The syndicate provided artist representation and syndication and maintained a web site of gay/lesbian cartoons, comic strips, clip art and other materials. The site offers exclusive and original E-Toons that visitors can send out as free electronic greeting cards. The site has been sold.
GLINN's Gay Card Rack --- The greeting card site was sold.
GayGlobe -- The Portal to the Gay Globe, is intended as a major start page site with free email, a search engine and many other resources including exclusive gay media database and gay history databases.
Other major business activities in formation stages include "Reality Street" an online multi-player web game, "Gay Tunes Studio" a record label and web site, plus others in planning stages.

History

GLINN started out back in 1986 as a typesetting and graphics business. We did the phototypesetting, photostats and other production work on both of Wisconsin's gay publications -- In Step Magazine and Wisconsin Light -- for six years. Although we got out of the typesetting business when laser printers started getting economical for small publications, we shot photostats for Wisconsin Light. until September 1996. We also developed their black & white film made contact sheets and finished prints. We also helped out with news photography and other tasks. We had a vertical process camera and complete photographic darkroom until 1997, when we gave it all away and switched to digital still cameras and camcorders.

Before laser printers, typesetting was done with large phototypesetting machines which used film strips, strobe lights and lenses, and photographic paper in long rolls. The body copy for publications was typeset using three Compugraphic CompuWriter Jr.'s, and headlines were typeset using a Compugraphic CompuWriter IV. After a quantity was typeset, the paper magazine was removed and the photo paper processed in a large automated developing system. These machines were originally direct entry, but later we purchased computer interface boards for them which allowed them to be driven by computers.

The Wisconsin Light, a very well respected publication, was produced in our offices for 6 years. The typesetting, together with the photostats shot of photographs which we also processed, were sent through waxing machines which put strips of wax on the back of the paper. The type and photos were then pasted up onto heavy layout boards. This was done on layout tables (partially shown here) which included light boxes.

In 1988 we founded one of Milwaukee's largest gay computer bulletin board systems, which was called the GLINN Multi-Board Super System. The name was later modified to the GLINN Internet Services BBS. The name GLINN comes from a news service we founded called the Gay/Lesbian International News Network.

The GLINN BBS is the only gay BBS in Milwaukee that offers free access including access to gay adult images. We've been collecting images since 1988 and now have over 6 GIGs of images plus 12 adult CD-ROM disks. We have 14 more CD-ROM drives which we are filling with disks that will be online shortly. We also produce some of our own. More information is available by clicking on GLINN BBS.

In 1990 we founded the GLINN Community Voice Mail System which provides community information 24 hours a day, and offers totally free personal ads. It also provides voice help for the BBS. The voice mail system is available at 414-289-8780. We have operated the voice mail system all these years totally out of our own funds.

In July 1996 we launched our first web site at www.glinn.com as the home for our news service. It also includes a Wisconsin Gay Guide and other materials. On February 1, 1997 we launched our second web site, www.gayadult.com, GLINN's Gay Adult Entertainment Club. This adult site features original models and helps to pay for the news service and other things we do for the gay community. Although containing adult material, the site has a restrained and classy design. We are careful that no x-rated material is available to underage web surfers. Today the Gay Adult Entertainment Club is an interactive cam and chat site, with a Free Cam and Chat for all visitors, and 12 live cams for paid members.

From that beginning we gradually registered more domain names and created new web sites. The sites were hosted by an ISP in Milwaukee called Axisnet.Net, which later was bought out by Midwest Communications. In early 1998 we purchased two Ascend Pipeline 50 ISDN Routers and had a 128k ISDN line installed into our offices.

The ISDN served us well, but with all of our sites, especially with the adult site, it was very busy. Then after we launched our national dialup business and with the traffic of our email servers, the line was pretty much maxed 20 hours a day.

In September 1998 we upgraded our connection to a full T1 line which is directly connected 8 blocks away to an ATM/Sonet network of a major backbone provider. In addition to increasing bandwidth the number and quality of our computer systems have been constantly upgraded. We also launched our 56k Milwaukee dialup and installed Primary Rate ISDN circuits for that. (A PRI ISDN line has 24 64k channels and typically runs over a T1 local loop.)

You can learn more about our involvement in the gay/lesbian community at our news site and in our Wisconsin Gay Guide, both of which have extensive photo sections. We also have the most complete online coverage of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Weekend in Washington, D.C., and we have extensive coverage planned for the upcoming Millenium March in our nation's capitol.

Virtually all of GLINN's web sites were created and developed by GLINN CEO Dan F. Schramm. This page and most of the original content on our range of sites was written by Dan F. Schramm. All pages are done by hand coding.

Dan F. Schramm was also CEO of Quaterra Communications Corporation and has invented a number of products for the deaf and hard of hearing. He has won U.S. government research and development contracts, and has won awards from the State of Wisconsin. He has also been written up in daily newspapers. If you'd like to learn more, visit www.glinn.com/quaterra.

If you would like to know more about me, see some photos of me and some historical events I have participated in, and see some photos from my vacations in Key West, Florida,you can click on my name and go to my Dan F. Schramm personal home page, and stuff like that if you really care. You can also send me an email message with any questions or comments you might have. Thanks.

sysopdan@glinn.com

Mailing Address:

GLINN Media Corporation
1107 Key Plaza, Box 306
Key West, FL 33040

Office Telephone: 305-849-5020

Thank you kindly for reading this page.