Openmaru
 | |
| Company type | Studio ofNCsoft |
|---|---|
| Industry | Web application |
| Founded | 2006-08-01 |
| Headquarters | South Korea |
Key people | T.J. Kim,CEO Bom Jun Kim,Chief Director |
| Products | Springnote,myID.net, LemonPen,Lifepod, RollingList |
Number of employees | 100 |
| Website | http://www.openmaru.com/ |
Openmarustudio is an Internet service development studio of game companyNCsoft,which is well known forLineage,Lineage II,andGuild Warsamong otherMMORPGs.Openmaru was established in August 2006 to expand on its business by entering theWeb applicationand productivity field in developing and offering new Internet services instead of limiting the company's potential to justonline gaming.
Currently available services from Openmaru includemyID.net,LemonPen,Lifepod,RollingList,andSpringnote.
History
[edit]Company
[edit]NCsoftis a well knownonline gamingcompany based inSouth Koreathat is well known for games such asLineage,Lineage II,andGuild Warsamong many more successful online games.NCsoft Corporationwas founded in 1997 followed by the commercial launching ofLineageinSouth Koreathe following year. In 2000,NCsoftexceeded the record of 100,000 concurrent users for the first time inSouth Koreaand soon became a registered member ofKorea Stock Exchange.NCsoftcontinued to set new records withLineage,by having record of 300,000 concurrent users for the first time in the world in 2001. This eventually led to the establishment ofNCsoftNorth America (also referred to as NC Austin) in Austin, Texas with game designersRichardandRobert Garriott.[1]
Global expansion is continuing with moresubsidiarycompanies already established inChina,Japan,UK,andTaiwan.Openmaru was established in August 2006 as a new studio separate from the already well set up gaming division ofNCsoft.NCsoftis also getting into theconsole gamingmarket and has signed an exclusive game development deal withSony Computer Entertainmentin 2007 to develop games for thePlayStation Network.[2]
Name
[edit]The name 'Openmaru' comes from two wordsopenandmaru.Opencomes from the English wordopen,while the wordmaru(Korean:마루) comes from Korean, meaningplatform.Thus, the combination of the two words implies the meaningOpen Platform.
Vision
[edit]As implied in the name, Openmaru envisions various services open to the public throughuser-generated content.Though many are interested as to whyNCsoftdecided to get into theWeb serviceandapplicationfield,NCsoftstrongly believes thatonline gamingis an Internet service available for and aimed towards everyone. Thus following the same philosophy, Openmaru was created to focus on a new field of Internet services that will be available for and aimed towards everyone.
Products
[edit]Springnote
[edit]Springnoteis a freeWYSIWYGwiki-based online notebookweb application.Springnotetakes the fundamentals ofwikiin terms ofcollaboration,fast and easy editing,wiki markups,keyboard shortcuts,andlinking.Springnotecan be used for a wide variety of purposes - from writing notes, scheduling, and plan projects, among many other possible scenarios.Springnoteis always in write-mode, enabling users to immediately edit pages that are saved through anautosavefeature. Also, any developer can develop various applications using theSpringnoteAPIand share them with others.
myID.net
[edit]
myID.netis an ID provider based on an ID authentication technology,OpenID,that allows the use of various services with one single digital identity.OpenIDis a decentralized, free and open standard that allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single digital identity, eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each site.OpenIDis gaining popularity from many organizations likeAOL,BBC,Microsoft,Google,IBM,VeriSign,andYahoo!among many other organizations acting as providers.[3][4][5][6][7]All services provided by Openmaru supportOpenIDauthentication.
Lifepod
[edit]Lifepodis a web hosted schedule management calendar service similar to usingMicrosoft Outlookon the web. It consists of a schedule system, address book, and things to do.
RollingList
[edit]RollingListis asocial networkcommunity for sharing information and experiences.RollingListlets users share lists on their own tastes for books, music, movies, games and so forth, which they can then share with others.RollingListallows users to socially interact with others that share the same tastes while helping broaden their own horizons through the creation of lists.
LemonPen
[edit]LemonPenlets users highlight and mark, save, or leave comments on web content for personal usage, or to share this information with others.LemonPenalso has memo features are also available along with automatic saving of highlighted content from websites to a personalized page.LemonPencan be installed to a blog, used as a plug-in forEgloos,and installed as aFirefoxextension.[8]
Sponsored Events
[edit]Winter of Code (WoC)
[edit]
TheWinter of Code (WoC)is an Openmaru sponsoredopen sourcemovement inSouth Korea.The WoC is aimed towards college students along with a total of 9 companies, organizations, and groups includingNCsoft.[9]This program allows for students to become mentees that are guided by mentors (or experienced programmers) for about 4 months. This program is concluded with an event that allows students to share their experiences and results of their open source projects to other participants of the WoC. The first WoC began preparation in September 2006 and was held from early January through the end of March in 2007. The WoC movement is held during the same 4-month period every year.
Alternative Language Festival
[edit]TheAlternative Language Festival(Korean:대안언어축제) is a conference that is sponsored by Openmaru allows for the exchange of information on differentprogramming languagesheld inSouth Korea.Through differentprogramming languages,developers of different backgrounds program together and learn from each other. This is complemented with various activities along with programs and lectures. The Alternative Language Festival was first held on September 1 through September 3 in 2006 and is held every year.
References
[edit]- ^"History of NCsoft: Milestone".NCsoft.2007-12-12.Retrieved2008-05-28.
- ^"History of NCsoft: History, 2007".NCsoft.2007-12-12.Retrieved2008-05-28.
- ^"How do I get an OpenID?".OpenID Foundation.Retrieved2008-03-20.
- ^Riley, Duncan (2008-01-18)."Google Offers OpenID Logins Via Blogger".TechCrunch.Retrieved2008-03-20.
- ^Brian Krebs (2007-02-06)."Microsoft to Support OpenID".The Washington Post.Retrieved2008-03-01.
- ^"Technology Leaders Join OpenID Foundation to Promote Open Identity Management on the Web".2008-02-07. Archived fromthe originalon February 10, 2008.
- ^Bergman, Artur (2008-02-07)."OpenID Foundation - Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign and Yahoo".O'Reilly Media.Archived fromthe originalon 2008-03-24.Retrieved2008-03-19.
- ^"Internet highlighter LemonPen meets Egloos".Yonhap News.2008-05-08.Retrieved2008-05-08.
- ^"Conclusion of Winter of Code 2007".ZDNet Korea.2008-03-25.Retrieved2008-05-08.