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New Version of CECID Hermes and ebMail Released and
Used by HKSAR Government
Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China - 28 January
2005 - Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development
(CECID), The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is pleased to
announce that a new version of our two open source ebXML
software, Hermes and ebMail have been released to the ebXML
community, www.freebXML.org. The new releases are already
being used by the HKSAR Government in one of its joined-up
service projects.
In the latest version of Hermes, Hermes 1.0 has added
a customizable message dispatching mechanism and improved
its SSL (Secure Socket Layer) support to make configuration
simpler and more flexible. ebMail 1.2, the new version,
supports multiple party IDs handling in ebXML message.
Hermes 1.0 has been adopted by the e-Government Infrastructure
Service (EGIS) project to provide secure and reliable connectivity
between the HKSAR Government and the business community.
Under the Hong Kong Digital 21 Strategy, EGIS is established
as an open-standards-based, scalable and flexible service
delivery platform for Government-to-Citizen (G2C) and Government-to-Business
(G2B) transactions. The purpose is to achieve service integration
and transformation towards citizen-centric service delivery
with seamless information flow among participating service
providers. Business partners who need to connect to EGIS
may use the open-source ebMail 1.2 or Hermes 1.0 to exchange
electronic documents with B/Ds.
About Hermes (www.cecid.hku.hk/hermes.php)
Hermes is a Business-to-Business (B2B) Messaging Server
which provides a standardized, reliable and secure infrastructure
for enterprises to exchange business data on the Internet.
Developers from 80+ economies have downloaded Hermes’ source
code. Hermes has many successful use cases, most of which
are innovative, cost-effective applications used by enterprises
for exchange of business documents such as POs and invoices.
Some local users of Hermes include MTRC, OOCL, Sony, HMV,
bigboXX.com and HKSAR Government's Marine Department. Besides
accreditation by the ebXML Asia Committee with Level 2
and 3 ebXML Asia Interoperability Certificates, Hermes
has won Certificates of Merit (Product Category) at the
6th HK Computer Society IT Excellence Awards and the Asia-Pacific
ICT Awards 2004 (R&D Category).
About ebMail (www.cecid.hku.hk/ebmail.php)
ebMail is a desktop e-mail client which helps organizations,
small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SME) in particular,
to engage in B2B e-commerce activities. This lightweight
toolkit enables trading partners to exchange business documents
cost-effectively through email, or ebXML Message Service
(ebMS) over Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). ebMail
is a trimmed-down ebMS handler which does not require any
application server software and dedicated Internet connection
to use ebXML. It allows a user to compose electronic documents
offline through graphical user interface (GUI), and send
and receive documents when the user is connected to the
Internet. Some users of ebMail include HKSAR Government's
Department of Health, Hong Kong Observatory and Dagang Net
of Malaysia.
Hermes and ebMail are professionally supported by CECID.
Different support packages covering installation, connectivity,
integration, enhancement and plug-ins development are available
to cater to different needs. Visit www.cecid.hku.hk/open-source/ to learn more about the support.
About CECID (www.cecid.hku.hk)
Established in January 2002, Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development
(CECID) at the University of Hong Kong conducts e-commerce research and development
with the vision of helping organizations increase their competitiveness in
the global economy. CECID develops e-commerce enabling technologies, participates
in important international e-commerce initiatives, supports e-commerce standardization
for Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific Region, and transfers e-commerce technology
and skills to the community. With projects primarily funded by the Hong Kong
Government's Innovation and Technology Commission, CECID is an active member
of OASIS and the ebXML Asia Committee. The Center also collaborates with
a number of lead technology users in the Asia-Pacific Region on turning R&D
results into real-life business applications. CECID's contributions to the
community include its code donation of Hermes and ebMail to freebXML (www.freebxml.org)
and the production of an in-depth design and management guide on XML Schemas
for the Hong Kong Government. CECID is currently developing a plug-and-play
Internet appliance for secure and reliable transmission of electronic documents
based on ebXML/ Web Services.
PR Contacts for Press and Analysts
Dorris Tai (cwtai@cecid.hku.hk)
Business Manager
Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development (CECID)
Dept. of Computer Science
The University of Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2859 2818
Fax: +852 2547 4611
URL: www.cecid.hku.hk
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