CRDF Awards $75,000 to Support Secure & Flexible Media Sharing Online

ARLINGTON-VA—2/23/05—The U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) has awarded $75,000 to Texas-based Abamedia, and the Keldysh Institute for Applied Mathematics in Moscow, under a pre-commercial R&D competition. This award will support the development of online software tools that will allow users to search archives, museums, and other portals for video, audio and still photo (media objects), for secure and legal use in classrooms, presentations, and other communication.

"One of our founding goals is to enable U.S. and Eurasian organizations to develop new commercial ventures based on cooperative research and development; and help move that research to the marketplace for mutual economic benefit,” said CRDF Senior Vice President Cathy Campbell while attending the U.S. Russia Technology Symposium, a forum which supports transatlantic partnerships and promotes Russia’s science and technology potential.

"CRDF is proud to support this project whose work could revolutionize the multi-media industry, and is indicative of the synergy possible through international technical collaboration.”

About the Project
The software named SNAPSE™—short for Significant Number of Applications, Pictures, and Sounds for Everybody, will facilitate media object licensing, e-commerce arrangements, and allow media object owners to receive royalties in a manner similar to the ASCAP/BMI system developed for conventional radio stations.

"SNAPSE™ was created to meet the need for a new technology that bridges the gap between desired media usage, theft prevention, and revenue generation,” remarked Abamedia CEO Mitchell Johnson.