Project leaders Mark Resmer of California State University and Steve Griffin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gave participants a visual presentation of some of the system's proposed features and offered updates on its specifications and design requirements. The IMS project has successfully recruited additional commercial and educational investment partners including Apple Computer, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, IBM, International Thomson Publishing, and KPMG Peat Marwick.
Partners also benefit from early access to code developed for the prototype.
Monday's presentation gave NLII member representatives an opportunity to put into context the complex capabilities promised by the IMS's developers and planners. According to Steve Griffin, while the IMS is currently front-ended by the Web, its design will be both flexible and adaptable to new technology developments. Focus groups are currently being held at institutions of higher education with faculty, students, and other stakeholders to gather additional perspectives. Beta testing among IMS partner institutions and NLII sustaining members is expected to begin in November. A document that helps prospective beta sites evaluate the criteria for participating in the beta test program will be developed and distributed to the partners, the NLII membership, and other institutions that may be identified as having strong potential for serving as beta test sites.