GEMISIS 2000-an approach to multimedia service delivery

The number of organisations developing or actually delivering multimedia services is growing on a daily basis to such an extent that we are now truly on the cusp of creating the Information Society. However, many of these are being launched without careful consideration of the marketplace or indeed, with the necessary structures in place to guarantee longevity of service. In this respect, this paper presents a model which has been developed by the GEMISIS 2000 project and which is offered as a general blueprint. GEMISIS is an umbrella for projects that exploit the Information Super Highway with an emphasis on the needs of users rather than on the specific exploitation of technology. It has established a state of the art network to facilitate multi-media services delivery in the Greater Manchester region with a set of partner organisations able to exploit compatible aspirations in order to deliver a portfolio of services. This paper describes the objectives, partnerships and service model that has led to the construction of the GEMISIS network and the delivery and development of its services