Information Technology
Your key to new web sites
Compare or rank - stats on every nation
A new website offers statistical data on all nations of the world in 80 categories. Users may compare any two countries of the world and learn about the length of their road systems or how much electricity they consume. One may discover, for example, that the railway network of Croatia is 1.87 times longer than that of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The site also features a ranking tool that can present the top and bottom five countries in each of the 80 categories. For example, the world's top five countries in terms of fertility are Mali, Niger, Somalia, Uganda and Yemen. Women in these countries give birth to over seven children on average. In contrast, fertility rates are the lowest (do not exceed 1.17 births) in the five Central and Eastern European countries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Romania and Slovenia. Data on this site is mainly taken from the 1998 edition of the CIA World Factbook although other sources provide fresher updates. In the future, new features will be introduced to the site including interactive world maps, multiple comparisons and interactive movies. See: http://www.your-nation.com/.
Global network of experts
Environmental Expert.com is an on-line environmental information service centre committed to provide a marketplace for environmental information and expertise. Here, engineers, managers, producers, purchasers and marketers in the environmental sector can easily keep abreast of new developments. Environmental Expert.com offers consulting services backed up by a global network of over 350 environmental experts based in 26 countries, serving governmental, industrial, and commercial personnel who seek business, technical, educational, legal, legislative, regulatory, product and procedural environmental information and expertise. Besides providing consulting services, the website has a Publication Centre where environmental institutions may freely advertise their publications and visitors may consult and purchase selected environmental reports organised in categories. Under water quality, for example, one may find reports such as "Tools for microbial water quality assessment of South African rivers." The site also has an Environmental Software House, where selection of environmental software products can be purchased and trial versions downloaded for free. Visitors of the site are notified of upcoming conferences, seminars and other environmental events. They can also search a web directory of 750 links to information resources organised in 24 categories. See http://www.environmental-expert.com/.
Who is who
A rapidly growing database of environmental experts is available on this website produced by Environmental Networking Facilities (ENF). More than 500 environmental experts have already entered their names, contact information, field of expertise, publications and other useful data. Membership is free until the end of the century for pilot user group members. Other members start paying USD 49 (to cover operating costs) once ENF is fully operational, which will be within a few months. The Who is Who database is searchable by name or keyword. For example, the result of a search on "Central and Eastern Europe" was 48 experts and 27 Ph.D. studies.
