E L E C T R O N I C

Surfing the Net

  The Internet (the Net) and the World Wide Web (WWW) have become a part of everyday business for the EMTC Network and are quickly becoming vital tools for all environmental training professionals to stay on top of the information curve. This column of Insight will bring you information about new Internet sites all around the world which contain invaluable information on various aspects of training, and environmental training in particular.

  The Net was established more than 30 years ago to serve a community of scientific and technical researchers. The World Wide Web has its origins in the European Particle Physics Laboratory (also known as CERN), Geneva, Switzerland, where in 1989 two physics researchers, Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau, were developing a system to distribute research information across CERN's global computer network. They created a single-user Internet interface which led to the Web. The development of the Web is no less momentous for publishing networked information than Gutenberg's printing press was for publishing books.

  The Web is one of the fastest growing regions in the Internet because it is revolutionizing how people publish and retrieve information. The Web can provide images, film or video clips, sound clips, or text to a vast array of users in a consistent and understandable manner. The Web is a multimedia (i.e., text and graphics) information system that distributes different types of data to different types of computers in a unified format. Widespread growth did not start until browser applications (such as Mosaic, in early 1993, and more recently, Netscape) became available to the general public. In the span of five years, the Web has emerged as the largest single networked information system ever to span the globe. What began internally at CERN in 1990 has grown from some 500 different web servers or "home pages" in late 1993 to 6,642,000 Web sites as of July 1995. The number of home pages has been doubling every three to five months.

The Sites

Check out the new EMTC Network home page at http://www.rec.org/REC/Programs/EMTC/. Using the resources of the Regional Environmental Center, this site provides the most complete information on the EMTC Network's mission, goals and objectives, products and services, individual member institutions, including contact addresses, and a catalogue of environmental training courses. From here, one can also download the full versions of monthly Training, Management, and Funding, EMTCNET Digests, and other products. The home page, operational since late April, is still under heavy construction and will be regularly updated.

Environmental Management Training and Education Network provides you with short articles about specific programs or special upcoming events; dates, course descriptions, locations, and costs for featured courses; and other technical training courses available to you in the coming months. Course listings include U.S. Department of Energy and EM-sponsored programs, as well as courses offered by other U.S. Federal agencies and commercial vendors.


REC * EMTC * PUBLICATIONS * INSIGHT * SUMMER 1996

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