About

SimLink was a system designed for the deployment and use of Java-based downloadable plugins within the BuddySpace instant messaging system. It supported a mechanism to share state in the group chat environment of BuddySpace, enabling the design of plugins whose current state was synchronised among all participants in a group chat session. For instance, one of the sample plugins allowed participants to play a networked game of Chess, with the game’s progress viewable by participants not involved in the game.

In practice, SimLink allowed multiple users to share control of simulations and other software with a much lower bandwidth penalty than raw screen-sharing would entail.

Team

SimLink design and implementation:
Chris Denham

Project principal investigator:
Marc Eisenstadt

BuddySpace client architecture & implementation:
Jiri Komzak

Website design and implementation:
Harriett Cornish & Damian Dadswell

Acknowledgements

From 1st February 2004, work on BuddySpace was funded by the European Union Sixth Framework Programme under Integrated Project 2205, “ELeGI (European Learning Grid Infrastructure)”, which fell under the heading of EU Information Society Technologies Priority 2.3.1.12 (Technology-enhanced learning and access to cultural heritage).

Earlier sources of funding were crucial in the original creation of BuddySpace. In particular, we gratefully acknowledged funding support from the Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT) Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC), which was sponsored by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under grant number GR/N15764/01.

Portions created by or assigned to Jabber.com, Inc. were Copyrighted (c) 1999-2000 Jabber.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Portions Copyright (©) 1998-1999 Jeremie Miller.

BuddySpace included software developed by L2FProd.com.