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Personal e-Motion Pte Ltd
IndustryEducation, Publishing, e-Learning
HeadquartersSingapore
Websitewww.koobits.com

KooBits is the technology enabling platform for the creation of ebooks, digital scrapbooks, photo montages, and facilitates digital storytelling, elearning and teaching ideas.

History

Beginnings

Personal e-Motion (PEM) was founded [1] in November 2003 by Professor Sam Ge Shuzhi, Dr Chen Xiangdong and Mr Stanley Han [2] (engineering graduate from National University of Singapore). Realizing the future of and opportunities for elearning and ebook software [3] markets, the team of entrepreneurs came up with PEM Book (later renamed as KooBits), an ebook creating and publishing software. Just within 20 months of its launch in the market, KooBits software was adopted by more than half of Singapore’s Primary schools and numerous International Schools such as Australian International School Singapore and United World Colleges. In schools, students were thankful for the injection of a fun and engaging learning tool, and teachers feedback that students started to write more proactively [4] because writing[5] was no longer on paper, but on a cool ebook canvas [6] . Previously located in 7 Prince George’s Park, an incubator in the National University of Singapore (NUS), PEM has since shifted to its own office in TradeHub21.

Now and the Future

KooBits was the winner [7] of both the Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2008 [8] elearning category and Infocomm Singapore Awards 2008 [9][10] elearning category. Mr Stanley Han was awarded one of the top 25 Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs in Business Week 2008 [11][12] .

KooBits has been powering elearning companies and organizations in the South East Asia region, China, Maldives, Kuwait, and has acquired a base of more than 90 schools in Singapore and several hundred training centers in Indonesia. KooBits is also in collaboration with Popular Holdings.

KooBits received support from Media Development Authority (MDA) [13][14] in the development of Future Media [15] and was one of the companies selected to receive funding in Interactive Digital Media [16] projects. MDA also helped Personal e-Motion secure Venture Capital (VC) fund from Accel-X Pte Ltd. KooBits is also part of the FutureBooks[17] Partner Network initiated by MDA to develop Singapore-based learning from user-generated content to delivery across multiple platforms. PEM raised its first round of VC investments in July 2009 through NUS Enterprise ’s network of Business Angels and Venture Capitalists. KooBits provides the platform for the creation of ebooks for Young Reporters Training Camp program of Youth Olympic Games 2010, an initiative by the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA)[18]), Singapore.

Technology

KooBits is a multimedia creation and publishing platform that enables users to create digital projects. KooBits allows easy integration of a wide range of digital media, and equips other websites and applications with Interactive Digital Media capability, enabling users to create, integrate and distribute interactive digital content.

Product Development

Like its offline predecessor, the latest online KooBits Editor is a platform that allows users to create ebooks, ecards, scrap books, video books, photo montages and more. Users can create books in the 4 main languages used in Singapore – English, Chinese[19] , Malay[20] and Tamil. KooBits provides the arena in which the KooBits community is established; people can publish, share and comment on books created. The books will appear in the KooBits Library widget which currently has a Facebook version. An iPhone application for KooBits is in development and will be ready by May 2010. This application will also work on the iPad.  

Features

In Advanced Media Fusion, KooBits functions as a digital node for a diverse range of multimedia interfaces to communicate on one user-friendly and coherent platform. Content-Driven Animation allows users to use key words and phrases to trigger images, videos, animation and flash. Users use words to prompt actions in 2D animation characters, for example, a monster chasing a child across the screen as the story unfolds. The Web-Client Synchronization mechanism enables users to create digital content on their own computers offline and access their work online. KooBits has an Advanced Resource Pool allocation algorithm for high performance with real-time rendering of large-sized, progressively-downloading multimedia files and data encoding, and communication algorithms. KooBits has also been developed with component-based capability for the application to be embedded in a third-party environment like Facebook.

Programs

KooBits EDU

KooBits EDU is targeted at schools (hence the name) – including primary and secondary schools, private institutions and international schools – within and outside of Singapore. KooBits EDU comes with a content management system that allows teachers to easily prepare and archive classroom materials, and track students’ progress. Students engage in interactive lessons and use it as a tool to develop both digital literacy and visual literacy.

KooBits Student Internship Program

The KooBits Student Internship Program is designed to give promising students the opportunity to gain invaluable practical work experience that complements their academic studies. Students will learn first-hand the company’s business operation procedures, marketing strategies and business model. Participants will run group-level marketing operations, assist with substantive and meaningful work assignments, and combine their academic study with on-the-job experience.

KooBits Ambassador Program

The KooBits Ambassador Program provides a platform for young writers to create books and future leaders to grow and manage virtual communities. Ambassadors publish and showcase their stories on an exclusive KooBits Ambassadors bookshelf; share tips and tricks on writing and creating wonderful ebooks; vote and comment on books; and lead the growth of virtual communities. Activities such as ebook writing competitions are held to allow promising young authors showcase their creations and encourage more aspiring writers to share their stories online.

N.E.w Author Competition

The N.E.w Author Competition , a nation-wide digital writing competition open to all students in Singapore, was held in 2008 and 2009. Participants had to make use of various digital resources, such as image, video, animation and sound, and create interactive ebooks using the KooBits editing platform. The competition was designed to help students learn more about Singapore and its history, and to breathe new life into them by transforming these stories into ebooks. More than 2000 ebook entries were submitted from 80 schools. The books are available for viewing in the KooBits Facebook library widget. The N.E.w Author competition was jointly presented by Zhonghua Primary School, Personal e-Motion Pte Ltd, and supported by Nexus (Central National Education Office), MOE NE (Ministry of Education (Singapore) - National Education Branch), MDA (Media Development Authority of Singapore) and the NYAA (National Youth Achievement Award) Council.

References

  1. ^ Venturing Out to Start Businesses
  2. ^ ebooks software - Infocomm Singapore Portal-Success
  3. ^ Self-Made Foreign Talent Keep Us Sharp
  4. ^ NUS startup launches product KooBits which enhances learning process for children
  5. ^ S'Pore Program Helps Kids Write E-books
  6. ^ NUS start-up produces new software to boost creativity in primary schools
  7. ^ APICTA-SiTF 2008 – Jakarta, Indonesia
  8. ^ KooBits Wins Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2008
  9. ^ NUS Press KooBits Wins Infocomm Singapore Awards
  10. ^ KooBits Wins the InfoComm Singapore Awards 2008
  11. ^ Business Week Asia Young Entrepreneur
  12. ^ IDMPO Entrepreneurs Nominated for Business Week’s Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs
  13. ^ Five Digital Media Projects Set to Draw $70m Investments
  14. ^ Five New Media projects awarded S$7.6 m funding by MDA
  15. ^ Singapore MDA Taps Industry Leaders To Shape Future Of Books And Virtual Worlds
  16. ^ 33 digital Media Projects Win $14m Funding
  17. ^ FutureBooks
  18. ^ Minister Speech About KooBits MICA
  19. ^ 16 所 小 学 采 用 最 新 软 件，让 二 年 级 学 生 创 作 电 子 书
  20. ^ Kini tidak susah hasilkan buku penuh animasi
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