Announcements

PortMusic

An informal collective of industrial and university software developers has announced its intention to create a set of portable, easy-to-use software interfaces for audio input/output, MIDI input/output, and other low-level music software tasks. The collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) and libraries, which will provide a standard interface similar to C's standard I/O library but for audio, MIDI, time, sound files, and so on, is to be called "PortMusic." PortMusic includes PortAudio, developed by Phil Burk and Ross Bencina, a free, open-source, cross-platform audio API. PortAudio enables users to write C programs that can perform real-time audio input/output on most major platforms, without modification. A very similar-looking API, PortMidi, has been designed for MIDI, and the intention is that a standard audio file API will also be developed. Port Audio runs under Windows, Macintosh, Unix, and Linux, with versions for SGI and BeOS under development. PortMidi runs under Windows, with ports to other systems in progress. More information on PortMusic is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.cs.cmu .edu/~music/portmusic. The latest release of PortAudio may be downloaded free of charge from http://www.portaudio.com. It is sufficient for commercial applications, but is also simple enough to be useful for teaching purposes, and a tutorial for programmers—and numerous example programs—are also provided. For more information on PortAudio, contact Phil Burk, electronic mail philburk@softsynth.com.

Fourth International Contemporary Music Contest "Città di Udine"

The City Council of Udine, Italy, together with TauKay Music Publishing House, has announced the fourth International Contemporary Music Contest "Città di Udine." The closing date for submission to the competition is 30 April 2002. The competition has two categories: music for chamber ensemble with or without tape, and electroacoustic, analog, or digital music. Pieces submitted may have been performed previously but must be unpublished. Prizewinners will be announced in June 2002 and a concert of prizewinning and shortlisted pieces will be given, and recorded, in autumn 2002. Further information is available from Settore Attività Culturali ed Educative del Comune di Udine, viale Ungheria 15, 33100 Udine, Italy; from the TauKay Music Publishing House pages on the World Wide Web, www.taukay.it; or by electronic mail to vittorio.vella@ taukay.it.

Scholarly Journals Assist Researchers in Developing Countries

The International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) has completed the first phase of the Program for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI). This initiative is designed to provide wider access to and dissemination of scientific and scholarly information and knowledge to and from developing and transitional countries. As a part of this initiative, EBSCO Publishing is making available scholarly, full text databases, general and subject-specific full text databases, and bibliographic data-bases. Computer Music Journal is one of the scholarly journals included in the scheme. The first phase of PERI benefited researchers, scholars, librarians, and affiliated professionals in sub-Saharan African countries and the scheme is being extended to a range of countries in Africa, Asia, and Central America. The INASP program provides more information on its work at the World Wide Web site http:// www.inasp.org.uk. EBSCO also carry detailed information at their site: http://www.ebsco.com.