Who: More than 120 companies and organizations representing a broad spectrum of information technology and consumer electronics businesses, Internet service providers, security technology companies and members of the worldwide recording industry.

What SDMI is: A forum for these industries to develop the voluntary, open framework for playing, storing and distributing digital music necessary to enable a new market to emerge. SDMI is working on two tracks. The first has already produced a standard, or specification, for portable devices. The longer-term effort is working toward completion of an overall architecture for delivery of digital music in all forms.

What it is not: SDMI is not producing a single format, technology or design. The SDMI framework allows a variety of competing technologies and download formats to be used within its system.

Leadership: Leonardo Chiariglioni, executive director of SDMI. Chiariglioni is head of Television Technologies at CSELT and founder of Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG), Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA), and the Open Platform Initiative for Multimedia Access (OPIMA).

Principles: SDMI’s work is based on the core principles that copyrights should be respected and that those who wish to do so should be able to use unprotected formats. This flexible approach will enable a new market that works for consumers, artists, manufacturers and content providers.

Additional Facts: SDMI member companies have been meeting since February in locations ranging from Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York, London and Tokyo.

In order to produce the portable device specification, SDMI members have met 11 times in the past four months. The approximately 200 people attending these meetings spent about 4,800 days or 24 work years in meetings on this standard.

Key Dates: December 15, 1998 – Initial announcement of SDMI formation. February 26, 1999 – Organizing meeting, appointment of Executive Director Leonardo Chiariglione, work begins. June 28, 1999 – SDMI’s Portable Device Specification finalized. July 13, 1999 – SDMI’s Portable Device Specification published.

Web Site: www.SDMI.org