For the so-called "digital natives" who have grown up with digital technology, watching videos on YouTube or looking at pictures on wretch.cc is part of the daily routine. But did you know that TELDAP has also developed the feature-rich VCenter and iPicBox platforms to provide powerful video and picture sharing services? The TELDAP e-Newsletter is honored to have been able to invite administrators of these platforms Wang Hsiang-An, Wang Yu-Cheng, and Zheng Jun-yuan of the Digital Archive Architecture Laboratory (DAAL, http://daal.iis.sinica.edu.tw/) at Academia Sinica’s Research Center for Information Technology Innovation to share their views with readers on how results of archiving and e-learning can be used effectively utilized through using information technology.

Information Technology Services Open Pathways for Archiving
If you're a "veteran" reader who has worked on archiving from the first phase of the program, you should be no stranger to the Digital Archives Technology Development Team. Wang Hsiang-An says that with the painstaking research and development efforts of the experts at the Academia Sinica’s Institute of Information Science, image retrieval, audio retrieval, ancient Chinese character formation, 3D objects, and other advanced technologies have long become more than science fiction pipedreams. With the services of the Technology Development Team, collecting organizations can leap technical hurdles to complete tasks such as establishing archival websites and databases and managing archival data.
After TELDAP entered its second phase, the Research and Development for Digital Archives and e-Learning Technologies Project took on the task of developing channels for the distribution and management of archives content. The achievements of TELDAP have taken shape in a wide variety of media, with video playing an extremely important role. Through the efforts of the technical element team, software service mechanisms have been continually developed, allowing archival organizations to share the results of their projects not only through their own databases and websites, but also through video and image sharing platforms that are in sync with current trends and the demands of society.

Using Video Platforms to Broaden Possibilities for Archives
Over the past few years, the common denominator between websites like the universally-known YouTube or the Chinese-language champion Tudou has been that they allow Internet users to search for and enjoy videos. VCenter is another video platform developed by the Technology Development Team for archival organizations and society at large. VCenter allows bridges to be erected between archive content, the video sharing platform, and the public, allowing collecting organizations to avoid the cost of establishing their own online video platform.
As the sources, quality, and nature of the content provided by archival organizations are quite different from that of the typical homemade video clips from the public, VCenter must provide a higher standard of service to meet the needs of these organizations. For example, VCenter provides a Project Management Platform, and with an approved application, can provide FTP batch upload service, allowing collecting organizations possessing video content to rapidly upload video data. Collecting organizations can also use VCenter’s Web Service to present uploaded video content on their own websites with just a few simple steps. And with clear intellectual property information, archival organizations can confidently share digital content through Creative Commons and other outlets, hastening the distribution and utilization of digital resources.

Video platforms are a convenient way to disseminate information, as demonstrated by the video above, an introduction to the achievements of the Council for Hakka Affairs produced by the TELDAP Program Office. 
Another thoughtful service provided by VCenter is an easy use watermark and subtitle editing system. In the past, the file conversion process made using video editing software to edit subtitles time-consuming work. But through VCenter’s subtitle editing function, anyone who can type can incorporate subtitles into a video clip, and the low learning curve makes it easy to get started.
Maybe you have seen archival videos of relatively recent news; this archival content is often comprised from an entire day's worth of television news reports, with only a single news item of one or two minutes long needs to be pulled from hours of video. It may not be quite so bad as looking for a needle in a haystack, but it is an significant and tiresome project. With the video bookmark function provided by VCenter, you can mark a section of a long video that you think is important, allowing you to get the information you need quickly.
From this overview of VCenter’s special features, we can see that in addition to content consisting mainly of archival video, VCenter is a video platform that provides user-friendly technical services. But with pictures still being more common among all the information circulating on the Internet, the Technology Development Team has developed the iPicBox picture sharing platform to expand its name recognition among such platforms and public participation.

Expanding Social Participation Through Image Sharing
At the time when the Internet began to take off, there were already users willing to share personal photos over the vast reaches of the Internet with net-friends they had never met in person. Compared with video platforms, online photo albums have been around much longer, and their popularity persisted. Wang Yu-Cheng, based on the behavior of internet users, offers his analysis of why there are more online photo album platforms than video: because photographic equipment is widespread, whether it be in the form of a dedicated digital camera or a mobile phone, these personal imaging tools can help Internet users to produce images rapidly and in large quantities, and then upload and distribute them. In comparison, the difficulty of working with video, both in terms of shooting in postproduction, is higher than for static visual imagery; therefore, in the digital video world, video that is broadly popular is still mainly "copyrighted content that has undergone careful production." Although homemade video clips are also highly popular, the number of visits they receive is always lower than that received by works of the type noted above, particularly commercial works. And as taking a snapshot is simple even for newcomers, anybody can create in this medium, so although the possibility of users uploading photos that infringe copyrights cannot be completely eliminated, it is less common than the uploading of copyrighted video.
Compared with the local wretch.cc and Flickr, Picasa, and other image sharing platforms commonly used internationally, what makes iPicBox unique? Compared with TELDAP’s popular, professionally-oriented Cyber Island, iPicBox, completed in 2009, comes closer to the typical Internet user in terms of content generation and appeal, and also involves typical users contributing their own photographs. In comparison with typical commercially-oriented online photo albums, Wang Yu-Cheng says, where iPicBox does more than the others is in terms of “the preservation of original image files." When managing a user's image files, almost all typical online photo albums compress the files for easier maintenance and faster upload and download speeds. Even if they have a high-resolution image file management function, member fees will be charged to offset the cost; just as in all things, there is no such thing as a free lunch. But iPicBox will store a user's files in their original sizes, and if another user has a reasonable need to use the same image, all he needs to do is become a member in order to directly download a high-resolution file from the photo album, making it unnecessary to send a series of emails, saving time and mental energy.
Compared to VCenter, although iPicBox is less archive-oriented in terms of content composition, the Technology Development Team has introduced new concepts. Due to the wide variety of the pictures contributed by Internet users, a number of which can be linked to archives, in the future the Technology Development Team will allow keywords related to the images provided by users to be used to find corresponding results within archival content. For example, if a user uploads a photo album with the keyword “Danshui” in the title, the system will automatically generate results related to Danshui from TELDAP; when visiting iPicBox, you can not only enjoy the pictures uploaded by other users, but also experience "information encountering" with the help of the system by being linked to TELDAP results. Do this kind of soft method, archival and cultural content can be part of users' lives in a relaxed context, expanding social participation.

Kaleidoscopes of Video and Images 
Despite having only just begun, VCenter and iPicBox have received 50,000 visits during the first quarter, and through the introduction of the Open ID concept, the barriers to usage have been lowered, allowing more people to explore the sites casually. The Technology Development Team is also currently working to develop mobile versions of VCenter and iPicBox, which will allow you to enjoy archival video and images on a smart phone in the future.
There's a saying that people in the e-learning industry often use in presentations: “Text is less than a table, a table is less than a picture, a picture is less than video, and video is less than a performance.” The robust development of information technology has revolutionized the production and display of knowledge. VCenter and iPicBox are new platforms for the display of the archival results of TELDAP; why not visit these websites to join us in a kaleidoscope of video and images?

Using iPicBox’s built-in photo album sharing tool, you can quickly share memorable moments on your blog. Above is a slideshow of photos from TELDAP’s participation in a press event before the 2009 Licensing International Expo.