On Friday, as Computergram was bedding down for the night, over in San Jose, Mayor of the City Susan Hammer was formally opening the non-profit Center for Software Development. Attendees at the ceremony saw demonstrations of new computer software and hardware technology, including pen-based mobile computers, business software, virtual reality systems and animation and games, all using software like that developed by members of the centre, which was created to help software firms and individual developers to bring better software to market more quickly. It was originally formed by the City of San Jose, Novell Inc. and the Software Entrepreneurs Forum and now involves many other computer, software and support companies. Developers can now test their software at the centre on and with a wide variety of hardware and software donated by members such as IBM Corp, Sun Microsystems Inc, AT&T Co, Intel Corp and Go Corp. It also houses the Software Industry Resource Center, a repository of business and technical information, including a database of firms that help and support software companies – investors, lawyers, accounting firms and marketing and technical partners. An International Lab helps adapt products for sale abroad.
