i-mind education systems, inc., announced the release of the underlying architecture that drives the i-mind education hub, code named “Otto.” The “Otto” engine is an educational framework or “backplane” that is compliant with leading educational standards and based on Internet technologies. i-mind will deploy this Enterprise JavaBeans-based system into select Florida and California schools this fall; it will be broadly available early 2000. Capable of running on any modern operating system, the framework provides interoperability among legacy administrative systems, Internet-based content delivery technologies, and instructional productivity tools. i-mind uses Citrix Systems, Inc. application server software as its cornerstone. i-mind education systems is a charter member of the SchoolTone Alliance (formerly WebTone), an organization devoted to improving the educational futures of children. Tracking the work of the Schools Interoperability Framework, the IMS Project, and the AICC’s recommendations for Computer-Managed Instruction, i-mind’s first product, code-named “Otto” (named after Nicolaus Adam Otto, the inventor of the four-stroke engine), is an interoperability framework that runs on school and district servers. It links existing teacher management systems (such as attendance, scheduling, and resource management systems) with new systems, especially those that provide “line-of-business” information to teachers, parents, and students. Otto leverages Internet-enabling technologies such as XML, LDAP, and the Internet Mail Consortium’s iCalendar specifications, to make systems available on any browser-enabled device with scalability and security. www.i-mind.com