The Multimedia Database Systems Group at RMIT is one of Australia's leading centres of research in electronic document management. The group develops systems (such as the Structured Information Manager - SIM) for document management and undertakes consultation within the wider area of database management and information retrieval. The group consists of eighteen full-time staff, ten postgraduate students, and a number of summer students.

Structured Information Manager

Structured Information Manager

The Structured Information Manager is an information retrieval system which is designed to manage multi-gigabyte collections of documents containing text, images, and other kinds of data. SIM adheres to a number of international standards, including Z39.50 and ISO 8777, and stores documents natively in SGML, XML, MARC, RTF, and ASCII formats. SIM is used by government and non-government customers both in Australia and internationally for a variety of applications, including bibliographic and full-text retrieval, legal statute management, and intra-net document delivery. The SIM suite of products include the SIM Database Server, the SIM World Wide Web Server, and a powerful Scripting Language. Click here for more information about the SIM product range.

Some publicly accessible Web sites powered by SIM include:

• Tasmanian Legislation - Tasmania's Consolidated Legislation Online.
• Australian Taxation Office - A collection of taxation related resources.
• Macquarie Publishing - The Macquarie Dictionary plus much more...

Aspect Computing Inc

Industry Support

Aspect Computing is an Australian marketer and distributor of the SIM product range. Aspect Computing is an Australian based and owned information technology services company with operations throughout the world. Established in 1974, Aspect employs over 1000 staff in Australia (and 150 outside Australia) and services clients in 66 countries through 15 offices around the world. Aspect staff are located in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Singapore, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, the USA and Canada.

RMIT Department of Computer Science

MDS seminars

Research

Research in the group is supported by a number of sources. The Australian Research Council (ARC) established the Key Centre for Knowledge Based Systems in 1989 at RMIT and The University of Melbourne. The Key Centre supports research both within multimedia database systems and deductive databases and contributes significantly to the work of this group. The ARC also supports major research projects within the group through an ARC Large Grant and an ARC Collaborative Grant. Weekly seminars are held within the group; more information can be found here.

Through RMIT's membership of the World Wide Web Consortium, MDS is an active participant in the W3C processes and continues to research and develop technologies based on W3C standards.

Other Points of Interest

SGML and XML users can download a free copy of the Ace scripting language, a part of the SIM product range.

Information about MG, a public domain research prototype text database system which is available here