DENVER, USA: Sun Microsystems has announced that Columbia University will use an open source Sun solution to run its digital preservation project, and also that the University of Zurich is deploying Project Wonderland projects to advance an ambitious global eLearning initiative.

Designed to help simplify the implementation of open source technologies and achieve cost-effective interoperability, the Sun Open Computing portfolio includes Sun Open Storage, OpenSolaris Operating System, Sun Open Archive solutions and the OpenSPARC T1 processor.

According to the press release, Columbia University Libraries has selected Sun's Storage Archive Manager (SAM) solution to expand its digital library. The Libraries is combining the SAM management software with Sun servers and storage and tape technologies to enable a coherent and comprehensive technology infrastructure that will ensure the survival and continued accessibility of its vast collection of materials.

"We are at a time of extraordinary technological and social change, when we need to implement systems and services capable of supporting 21st century teaching, learning, research and scholarship. Our goal was to find the right technology vendor to help us build a cost-effective and expandable system to support Columbia's growing digital collections," said Robert Cartolano, director, Library Info Tech Office.

"Sun Microsystems provided everything we needed in one place. We were very impressed with their technology model, their commitment to open source and open systems, and their extensive experience in large-scale storage."

Making ShanghAI Lectures a Reality with Project Wonderland

Sun and Virtual Learning Labs supported the University of Zurich's ambitious ShanghAI Lectures in building a 3D virtual learning world based on the Project Wonderland open source toolkit.

The lectures take place in a mixed reality setting, combining video streaming and virtual worlds, to enable students worldwide to actively participate in presentations and lectures on embodied intelligence and biologically inspired robotics.

"We used the open source Project Wonderland toolkit to develop a virtual 3D environment, and it has proven to be ideal for our purposes," said Professor Rolf Pfeifer, director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Zurich.

"Students and faculty from almost 40 universities worldwide are now able to meet and mingle in our virtual classroom and share cutting-edge research on natural and artificial intelligence through our virtual classroom."

The ShanghAI Lectures on embodied intelligence are being broadcast by videoconference from Jiao Tong University in Shanghai to universities across the planet, complemented by 3D collaborative virtual environments and other community-building activities to promote interaction and cooperation among the participants.