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Kiva Networking
Kiva Networking is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) which provides Internet access, email and web services. Kiva opened in March of 1996, was later acquired by eGix, Inc, who was in turn acquired by Cincinnati Bell.
Contents
History
In March of 1996, the Herald Times newspaper and its parent company, Schurz Communications, decided to buy the assets of InterSource and employ many of its staff. A.J. Mast, who was a photographer for the HT, was chosen to manage the new company. For a short time, they remained in InterSource's office, located on Auto Mall Road. In November of 1996, the company moved into its current location, which occupies the 4th floor of Graham Plaza downtown.
The Internet boom of the late 1990s lead to massive growth for Kiva. During this period, Kiva had as many as 51 employees and had offices in Indianapolis and Hagerstown, Maryland. Kiva led the community in the technology boom, by being the first to deploy DSL, and by consulting for many of Bloomington's most noted companies. In 2000 Kiva formed a company called KTI, which managed the construction of a redundant fiber optic loop running from Bloomington to Indianapolis, down to Columbus and back to Bloomington.
On August 1, 2002 the company was purchased from Schurz Communications by MTGI, a holding company run by Bruce D. Myers. For the first time, Kiva was an independent company and had much more flexibility. During the MTGI ownership years, Kiva was operated by Bruce D. Myers as President and CEO, Kelli Hartman as Director of Sales, Marketing and Client Services, Christopher Dickens as Director of Client Technology Services and Patrick Bohannon as Director of Internal Technology.
From 2002 through 2006, Kiva shifted its focus from its traditional ISP services to its technology consulting and I.T. Services.
In 2003 Kiva started to deploy their 'Kiva Everywhere' campaign, which has led to the installation of many wireless access points in restaurants and other popular places around Bloomington.
In 2006, Kiva merged with eGix, Inc., a Carmel based telecommunications company. As a result of the merger, Kiva added dialtone and Voice over IP capabilities to its wide mix of services.
In August of 2006, Kiva won the acquisition of HoosierNet, Inc., including agreeing to continue service to all their current customers and assume all active contracts HoosierNet had with its suppliers. Initially Kiva kept HoosierNet's services running as they were and over the next two months slowly integrated HoosierNet accounts and services into Kiva accounts and services.
Kiva/eGix lost its mail server in the last part of November, 2007. Stored mail was inaccessible until restored on December 19, 2007.
Kiva/eGix websites now forward to evolvebusinesssolutions.com and no longer exist as standalone entities as of March, 2009.
The name
The word kiva itself comes from the Hopi language and refers to an underground room that was used for communal purposes and community gathering. It was chosen after John Shireley noticed the word on a CD and thought that its meaning applied well to the purpose of the company.
