During that period, the site delivered its first interactive option known as the Thread Section. Arnon Gal-Oz was the first member to sign in after me. He rapidly provided great ideas to improve the site and told many other developers to join in.
Introducing the Universal Thread
From one forum, we decided to create additional ones thus the name Universal Thread came in. The domain came in quite short after that as universalthread.com. To respond to an ever growing request from several members to add more features and flexibility to the engine, the site turned commercial and several persons known later as consultants got involved. Among the first involved, we had renown developers and consultants such as Arnon Gal-Oz, Tom O'Hare, Nick Neklioudov and Paul Vlad Tatavu.
VFUG
First flyer of UT
In August 1996, the idea of forming a virtual user group saw the light of day. The first three involved were me, Arnon Gal-Oz and Tom O'Hare. The group was known as VFUG. At that time, the VFUG was tied within the Universal Thread infrastructure. It combines some of its features under the same server. In order to provide a greater expansion of both products, the VFUG engine was separated from the Universal Thread later on. The group is still running and can be found at http://www.vfug.org. The group is now managed by Arnon, Tom, Barbara Paltiel, Carl Warner, John P. Chambers and Colin Keeler.
The timeline
Over the years, the Universal Thread has expanded to remain up to date with the latest technologies and to better serve the developers community. Several engines got added to the product such as a the Conference Coverages (May 2000), the Visual FoxPro Zone (January 2001), Universal Thread Magazine (June 2001), Web Service (November 2001), the .NET Zone (January 2002) and the User Group Meeting Tracker (December 2002).
Where did it start?
After 7 years at the University of Quebec, where I was working as a computer technician, I decided to strike out on my own. This was driven by my desire to pursue new ideas and maintain a high standard of technical excellence. Thus in October 1993, my consulting company was born.
Many wondered where the name Fournier Transformation came from. The idea came during a FoxGang party, at Martin Schiff house in Orlando, while I was discussing it with Ted Roche and Whil Hentzen, two well known persons in the FoxPro community which were also attending DevCon. Ted came up with the name which I found extremely good.
While doing some consulting for several companies in Montreal, I wanted to share my ideas with other FoxPro developers in the world. I created my first Web site in 1993 where all this great adventure started from. It was a Web site related to FoxPro which included latest news about the product as well as some classified ads.
Quite quickly it became apparent that this was of interest to a large number of people. Suggestions to add more content came in from all over the world. There was then a need to turn the site dynamic. As mentioned previously, this later turned into the Universal Thread.
First issue of UTMag
Universal Thread Magazine
The Universal Thread Magazine was a great venue to the line of products related to the Universal Thread. It provides a monthly release of a great online magazine which includes great technical articles on various topics. Renown authors from the industry are regular writers to the magazine or contributors providing great content for their readers.
The magazine covers various facets such as technical articles, interview, conference coverage and book reviews. The magazine offers some special advantages such as being delivered in English, Spanish or Portuguese. This provides a greater exposure for writers involved in our magazine. In additional to its professional layout, the magazine is offered online, offline and as per an article basis.
I personally congratulate all persons involved in the magazine especially Claudio Lassala who believed in the idea of creating the join effort from RapoZine to UTMag and later on to a complete merge and Martín Salías, our Editor in Chief, who now manages the magazine entirely while working a lot on the Spanish infrastructure in regards to it. Martín is surrounded by a great team which includes Rodolfo Duarte, who's in charge of our translation team. An impressive number of persons are involved to translate the magazine from English to Portuguese to Spanish.
First coverage picture
Thanks for a great support
I got significant help from various renown people from the industry. Over the years, this has helped me and my team a lot to improve our line of products. A great thanks to Jean-René Roy, Maryse Roy, Bernard Dessureault, Dominic Tremblay, Nick Neklioudov, Evan Delay, Claudio Lassala, Martín Salías, Gérald Santerre, Sergey Berezniker, Ken Levy, Yair Alan Griver, Randy Brown, Mike Stewart, John Koziol, Arnon Gal-Oz, Tom O'Hare, Scott Becker, Paul Vlad Tatavu, Barbara Paltiel, John P. Chambers, Robert Pierce, Hans-Otto Lauchmann, Armin Neubert, Jan Vit, Igor Vit, Rick Strahl, Rod Paddock, Cetin Basoz, Jos Pols, Sylvain Larin, Éric Moreau, Hilmar Zonneveld, George Tasker, Nadya Nosonovsky, Rock Legendre, Bett Massi, Cyndi Winegarden, Markus Egger, Claude Fuchs, Bill Anderson, Kevin McNeish, Russ Swall, Whil Hentzen, Rodolfo Duarte, Doug Hennig, Joe Lawson, Alex Feldstein, Pablo Roca, Isaac Venegas, Luis María Guayán, Craig Berntson, José Luis Santana Blasco, Plinio Fermin, Marc McCasland, Dragan Nedeljkovich, Garrett Fitzgerald, Les Pinter, Cathi Gero, Wayne Myers, Vlad Grynchyshyn, David Foderick, Pablo Van Diest, Willy Marroquín, John Gordon, Juan Calcagno, Erik Moore, Edward Pickman, Mike Helland, David Frankenbach, Jim Booth, Jim Nelson, Nancy Folsom, Larry Miller, David Stevenson, Terry Thurber, Rich Simpson, Bonnie Berent, Morgan Everett, Cathy Pountney, Hector Correa, Kamal Patel, Lisa Nicholls, Christof Lange, Plamen Ivanov, Venelina Jordanova, Mike Levy, Bob Archer, Thomas Whiteley and all the others who got involved.
First coverage with video
Great Events and Timelines
Among some great events and timelines, we can highlight the following:
Boss, de plane! de plane!
Communities
It has been known for a while now in various areas that communities is of great importance to the success of several products and companies. Microsoft focuses a lot on that terminology since the last two years. The same is true on the Universal Thread. The Universal Thread Web site is offering its interface in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Members can also participate in foreign forums such as the Visual FoxPro Portuguese Edition and the Visual FoxPro Spanish Edition forums. Within that line, the same applies to the Universal Thread Magazine. Being able to adapt to foreign customs is one aspect of the Universal Thread that will continue to evolve.
To Level Extreme
Level Extreme, a company located in Bathurst, New Brunswick, acquired Fournier Transformation on November 27, 2003. Level Extreme has taken over the management of Fournier Transformation and will continue on the ongoing evolution of its renown Universal Thread.
