June 24, 1997

(WINTER PARK, FL) - As the world awaits the transition of Hong Kong to Chinese rule next week, Orlando-based new media firm GlobalMedia Design, PBS Online and a new, as yet unnamed, web development company cover history as it unfolds through an innovative web documentary.

"Hong Kong '97: Lives in Transition," located at (http://www.pbs.org/hongkong/), brings to the Web richly detailed, first-person diaries from 15 Hong Kong residents. The diarists come from all walks of Hong Kong life and their backgrounds mirror the diversity of the city. From artists to business owners, students to grandparents, foreign residents to those born and raised in Hong Kong, the diarists provide intimate dispatches as this historic event unfolds.

The site also includes an extensive history of Hong Kong, a photo tour of the city and opportunities for site visitors to post questions to the diarists and discuss the events occurring there.

"Hong Kong '97 is truly history in the making, and Web visitors are able to experience that history with unparallelled immediacy," said John Hollar, executive vice president of PBS Learning Ventures.

Launched in late May, the site has drawn over 80,000 visitors and has received numerous online awards (including the USA Today Hot Site, Yahoo Weekly Pick, Project Cool Sightings, and Scout Report Selection awards). NY Newsday complimented the site's "clever angle and topnotch reporting", the San Jose Mercury News describes the site as "an extraordinary Web project", and USA Today Online noted that the site is "the kind of thing that just couldn't happen without the Web".

GMD partnered in the development of the site, the brainchild of producer Brian Clark, with a new organization, headed by Marc N. Weiss. Weiss, who acted as executive producer of the project, created the PBS series P.O.V. and is also president of P.O.V. Interactive, where he developed the award-winning Web site "Regarding Vietnam: Stories Since the War" (http://www.pbs.org/pov/stories/).

"We knew that the Hong Kong handover would be the focus of the news media," comments Clark. "We saw the opportunity to approach the same topic as documentary filmmakers would, instead of the way news reporters would."

GlobalMedia Design (http://www.radzone.org/gmd/) is a cyberspace ventures firm based in Orlando, Florida, whose activities include software development, new media design and content production. The company's projects include the Orlando community webzine The Slant, filmmag.com, the Radiation line of website tools and the Rank This! guide to search engines. GMD has offices in New York City and Greensboro, North Carolina, in addition to its design headquarters in Winter Park.

[Editors note: The "new, as yet unnamed, web development company" is what became WebLab (http://www.weblab.com/), the organizers of the Web Development Fund.]