Annodex Foundation launched at linux.conf.au

24th January 2006

		Annodex Foundation launch at Linux.conf.au

A new open source software foundation, the Annodex Foundation, was launched at the Australian Linux
Conference held in Dunedin, New Zealand this week.

Annodex is an open source technology that allows the creation of audiovisual content as 'webs' of
audio and video, which are fully integrated with the text-based search and surfing capabilities of
the World Wide Web.

Increasing activity and uptake of the open media technology Annodex has spurred its open source
development community into creating the Annodex Foundation, making it sustainable outside its
originating organisation, the CSIRO.

"The Annodex  technology is an open framework for media content that enables audio and video to be
shared as hyperlinkable and searchable Web resources allowing for Web 2.0 conformant media
applications," says Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, head of the Annodex  development team at the CSIRO ICT
Centre.

"Annodex has been developed by the CeNTIE project within the CSIRO ICT Centre, but with a strong
involvement of the open source community, in particular the Xiph.Org Foundation."

Dr Gautam Tendulkar, General Manager, Commercialisation for CSIRO ICT Centre says that Annodex has
now reached the stage where it requires an independent organisation to support the developer and
user communities. 

"Like other maturing open source projects, the Annodex community has therefore organised itself
into a Foundation," says Dr Tendulkar. 

"The CSIRO is actively supporting the Annodex Foundation with resources and is a member on the
foundation's advisory panel. We are proud to be contributing the open source software and open
Annodex standards into the foundation and will continue to research into further Annodex-based
technology." 

The Foundation currently has about 35 founding members and has elected a managing committee, which
is headed by Jeff Waugh who is a  member on the Gnome Foundation Board and has experience in
running a  foundation.

"By having a single group coordinating the software development, we can create a set of
international standards which will support a common language amongst content developers and insure
the growth of the software," says Mr Waugh.

"The Annodex Foundation has been created in the same spirit as other foundations based on free and
open source software to support the growth of the Annodex community.".

Annodex has been developed by the CSIRO ICT Centre and the Centre for Networking Technologies for
the Information Economy (CeNTIE). CeNTIE is supported by the Australian Government through the
Advanced Networks Program (ANP) of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts.

Further Information:

Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, ICT Centre
02 9372 4180
silvia.pfeiffer@csiro.au
Jeff Waugh, Annodex Foundation
jdub@gnome.org

Media Assistance:
Daniel Legovich, ICT Centre
02 9372 4605
Daniel.legovich@csiro.au
www.csiro.au


Media Release


CSIRO Australia
Australian Science, Australia's Future