The cooperation program “Garden of Digital Life” between TKU’s Information Processing Center and Microsoft Corporation has successfully yielded fruit: the website http://donO.tw is open now. “donO” means “classmate” in Taiwanese dialect, and it is TKU’s first Web2.0 platform which is based on the “Silverlight” of Microsoft RIA technology. It’s opened today (Nov. 3) and it is free. The director of the Information Processing Center, Ming-dar Hwang has explained that except photo album, information, message, and discussion functions, this platform also offers students the functions of creating and joining student clubs. Hopefully it will be more welcome and popular than PTT of Taiwan University and Nameless Little Stop of Chiao Tung University.
TKU’s Founder, Clement C. P. Chang who spares no effort to promote information technology expects that “donO” will be warmly received and used by faculties and students. If so, it will help strengthen TKU’s centripetal force. The Section Chief of Digital Design Section Shu-hua Lee is in charge of the development of it; she has explained that half a year is pretty tight to complete it, but all the colleagues have tired all their best and hoped that all faculty and students own their own interactive digital gardens.
The Information Processing Center has spent about NT$4,200,000 on hardware equipment, enabling “donO” to serve TKU most by providing every TKU member with 1GB photo album space. Anyone can easily become a member if one registers. Non-TKU member can have 256MB photo album space which is better than the 150MB offered by the Nameless Little Stop. Also “minifeed” (the system of good friends’ broadcast) can update the latest information of good friends on a member’s homepage, reinforcing close relationships between friends and organizations. In the future, the Information Processing Center will gradually add Blogs, voting system, multiple functions for homepages of individuals and organizations.
Before it was officially installed on the Internet, the Information Processing Center had invited freshmen from the 4 Departments of Educational Technology, Computer Science and Information Engineering, Information and Communication, and Information Management to try it out. Educational Technology freshman, Jia-yu Liao said that “donO” was powerful, and students’ utilization ratio was very high. They could see each other’s photos, publish information very quickly and successfully. For example, they spread the information about the Uniform Day through “donO” and all classmates wore their high school uniforms in class on that Uniform Day. He hoped that more people would use it and communicate with old friends and make more new friends!
In addition, to encourage more students to use “donO,” the Information Processing Center will hold a Team Photo Album Contest from Nov. 17 to Dec. 31. The first team prize will be 90 movie tickets for Warner Vieshow Cinemas and 7-Eleven gift coupons worth $NT15,000. Next April there will be another “donO” Team Interaction Contest and the first prize will be Shin Kong Mitsukoshi gift coupons worth $NT30,000. ( ~Dean X. Wang )
