Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2000

CUHK Project Enhances Multimedia Services on the Internet Multimedia resources ar e currently available i n different formats, bit-rates, a nd l anguage s. Thi s diversity po s e s obstacles in the management and deliver y of multimedia resources in a distributed e n v i r o nme n t. The De p a r t me nt o f Information Engineering initiate d the project OPERA (An Open Platform for Mu l t i me d i a Re s ou r c e Exchange) t o provide a more convenien t an d cost- effective environment for managin g and delivering Internet multimedia contents. OPERA is a software-based platform that can work seamlessly with the present Internet architecture. For Internet users, OPERA'S Universal Multimedia Resource Locator replaces existing multiple URLs and automatically redirects the request to the user's desired resource type. To transfer OPERA technologies to the local industry, a consortium o fISPs and Internet Con t ent Providers ha s b e en formed. Existing members include several ISPs, portal sites, and non-profit-making organizations such as the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Hong Kong Space Museum. Promoting Software Development Partnership to Advance Component-based Software In May the University joined forces wit h Flashline.com Inc., the company runnin g the premier software component portal, to de l i ve r t op - o f - t h e - l i n e s o f t wa re p r odu c t s , services, a n d resources t o businesses and organizations worldwide. The Open Component Foundation (OCF) o f the University's Centre for Innovation an d Technology wil l work with Flashline.com Inc. to promote the process of component-based development. Developing software with reusable components o rbuilding blocks o f code instead o fwr i t i ng t h em line by line dramatically increases the productivity of the programmer an d results i n highly stable an d flexible s y s t ems. P r o v en benefits o fcomponent-based development i n c l ud e faster t ime - t o -ma r ke t , streamlined d e v e l opme n t, and mo re reliable and flexible systems. Expo 2000 Re p r e s e n t a t i v es f r om c omp o n e nt vendors, software companies, and quality assurance consultancy organizations in the US, India, Singapore, and Hong Kong gathered i n Ho ng Kong t o introduce component technologies an d software qu a l i t y a s s u r a n c e mo d e l s a t Op e n Component Expo 2000, which took place on 24th Au g u s t a t t he Ho n g Kong Convention an d Exhibition Centre. The expo was organized by the Open Component Foundation, which was set up b y the University an d sponsored by the HKSAR government's Innovation a nd Technology F u nd t o p r o v i d e a publicly accessible object s o f twa re repository portal for promotin g a cost-effective way of enhancing the quality of locally developed software. Three keynote speakers: (from left) Prof. Kenneth Young, CUHK; Prof. K.F. Wong, principal investigator of OCF; and Mr. Y.C. Cheng, acting director of Information Technology Services CHINES E UNIVERSIT Y BULLETI N Autumn . Winter 2000 62