ObjectWeb, an international consortium dedicated to open-source infrastructure software, and Guangzhou Middleware Research Center (GMRC), a leading Chinese middleware research institute on middleware, announced that GMRC joined ObjectWeb to reinforce the consortium presence in China.

GMRC is dedicated to research, development, education and promotion of middleware technologies including J2EE servers, application development and integration, portals, integrated platforms, security, management, pervasive middleware and RFID middleware. It will actively promote the use of ObjectWeb projects by governmental organizations, technology providers and academics.

Dedicated to federation of R&D efforts on building infrastructure software, ObjectWeb distributes middleware under open-source licenses that grant everyone free distribution rights in return to sharing core technology enhancement. ObjectWeb has a significant presence in China with an active community of over a hundred professionals working on localization of software and documentation. The expansion of ObjectWeb activities in Asia is supported by the consortium co-founders INRIA, Bull and France Telecom and by several members. The French Ministry of Industry also facilitated contacts at an international level.

As interest for open-source software in China is growing fast, this new membership is expected to foster the adoption of open-source middleware by mainstream companies and organizations in Asia and to tighten open-source based collaboration between industrial and academia players at an intercontinental level.

GMRC and ObjectWeb will conduct by the end of 2004 pilot experiments targeting the integration of ObjectWeb's middleware components and platforms, such as JOnAS, the J2EE application server from ObjectWeb, in "LongTeng," GMRC's middleware platform. Within the next 6 months, GMRC will identify open-source initiatives to conduct in Asia with ObjectWeb. With this goal in mind, INRIA, the French national institute for research in computer science and control that hosts and represents ObjectWeb's, and GMRC will exchange scholars and engineers and develop shared-knowledge targeting the enhancement of ObjectWeb's open-source code base. GMRC is also willing to contribute to the Chinese localization of ObjectWeb projects and to host architecture meetings in Guangzhou.

The Chinese government has strategically invested in core information technologies such as middleware, which become a central element in e-commerce, e-government or e-learning in China. "As one of the best developed cities in China, Guangzhou gives great attention to the development of the IT industry. GMRC is our strategic investment to core IT technologies. We hope the cooperation between GMRC and ObjectWeb will play an important role in promoting middleware research and materializing middleware technology in various areas. We will continue to provide support to GMRC as we have been," said Shi Zhang, director of High Technology Sector for Guangzhou Science & Technology Bureau.

"We are honored to contribute to the development of middleware on the Chinese market. In GMRC we find a strong partner backed-up by the South China University of Technology, the Guangdong Information Industry department and the Guangzhou Science and Technology bureau who are committed to success and excellence," said Jean-Pierre Laisne, ObjectWeb chairman and Linux & open source strategy manager for Bull. "After fruitful discussion with GMRC, we are now committed to join forces and develop a strong and long lasting community of professional and academics in middleware in South China."

"As a leading middleware research institute, GMRC provides the core technologies required by China," said YueHua Ding, managing director of GMRC. "ObjectWeb has a proven track record of developing and promoting leading edge middleware technologies. We strongly believe that ObjectWeb will make significant contributions to China's middleware technology growth."