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Penn State and Internet2 Announce Release of Academic File-sharing Open Source Code


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  • From: Lauren Kallens <>
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  • Subject: Penn State and Internet2 Announce Release of Academic File-sharing Open Source Code
  • Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 19:00:12 -0400

Penn State and Internet2 Announce Release of Academic File-sharing Open Source Code

AUSTIN, TX - September 28, 2004 - Plans for secure, high-powered, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technology for academia has come one big step closer to fruition when today Penn State and Internet2(R) announced the release of open source code for their collaborative software project, LionShare.

Funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, LionShare merges electronic file-exchange capabilities with information gathering tools into one dynamic application.

Gary Augustson, Penn State's vice provost for information technology said, “This is a technology that promises to significantly improve the way institutions collaborate and support each other's academic endeavors, while simultaneously ensuring a secure authenticated computing environment for researchers who use its file-sharing capabilities."

This week's LionShare source code release will provide all interested programmers and developers with the opportunity to contribute valuable feedback and suggestions. At the same time, Lionshare partners including: Internet2, Simon Fraser University of Canada; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will continue to fine-tune the project software which is slated for official beta release for universities and institutions this upcoming January.

"We knew we had something special here, but there was no way we could have anticipated the enthusiasm that LionShare has generated,” commented Michael Halm, the project's lead architect and manager. "Organizations from around the world have contacted us with questions about the technology and requests for the open source code release date, and many groups have expressed interest in collaboration. We're pleased that the code is now available."

Several educational and research institutions have expressed interest in Lionshare’s unique capabilities for resource exchange - including its ability to transfer audio, video, scientific simulations, text, documents, research papers, Web resources and a variety of other learning activities.

“LionShare has enormous potential," remarked Loukas Kalisperis, professor of architecture at Penn State. "With this single application, collaborating faculty can build digital repositories such as 3-D architectural image collections, Web-based video archives and art collections. Faculty will also have a range of tools at their fingertips for managing and exchanging their own personal collections, in addition to having access to large-scale data repositories throughout the United States and Europe."

Kalisperis is among a number of scholars and scientists who have offered their suggestions to team members as project plans unfolded this past year. Feedback from faculty at Penn State and other institutions is enabling developers to enhance the software's features with cutting-edge security, authentication, and password handling capabilities - plus a high performance text search engine and a technology (developed by Simon Fraser) that will make secure, single-search inquiries of certain worldwide digital repositories possible.

The continual dialogue with developers and potential network users has significantly furthered the development of the technology.

"With the source code release on September 30, interested programmers and application developers can now access the code to use and/or modify for their needs and specifications,” added Halm. “Feedback from programmers, as well as our peer institutions, will be essential in our efforts to further the development of the software. These efforts will culminate in the launch of an academic file-sharing network that researchers will be able to test and use this January."

To learn more about LionShare and to access the new open source code - or to join the developers community, go to http://lionshare.its.psu.edu/main/.


About LionShare
The LionShare project, funded by Andrew W. Mellon, is a collaboration between Penn State and partner organizations including Internet2; Simon Fraser University of Canada; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI). The LionShare project grew out of VIUS (Visual Image User Study), an experimental software development project designed to assist Penn State University faculty with digital file management.


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  • Penn State and Internet2 Announce Release of Academic File-sharing Open Source Code, Lauren Kallens, 09/28/2004

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