PREFACE


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The Austrian Federal Ministry for Environment, Youth and Family, and the Austrian Federal Environment Agency held an international workshop, "Internet for Environmental Communication", May 30-31, 1996 in Vienna. The workshop was organised by the International Society for Environmental Protection (ISEP).

Attended by more than 40 environmental communication officers of governmental agencies and NGO services, coming from 20 European countries and Canada, the workshop served as a follow-up to an earlier workshop, "Environmental Communication Strategies", held in The Hague in September 1995.

The objectives of the workshop were:

Single presentations and subsequent discussion dealt with the following main items: Eleanor Zazulak of the Canadian Treasury Board gave an overview on the development, experience and strategy of the Canadian Government with the use of the Internet. Jane Keys of Greenpeace showed how environmental Internet campaigning of NGOs is working, and Kevin Grose of the World Conservation Union presented the use of the Internet as a communication and information exchange tool within the IUCN.

Johannes Mayer of the Austrian Federal Environment Agency presented the WWW-Server of the Agency and demonstrated the online access to Austrian air quality data. Andreas Tschulik of the Austrian Ministry of Environment presented the structure of the Ministry's Server which offers information to the public according to the Austrian Federal Environmental Information Law from 1993. Konrad Zirm of the Austrian Ministry of Environment highlighted European Environment Internet Initiatives like the development of a Environmental Data Catalogue (Umweltdatenkatalog) in German speaking countries with an implemented Environmental Thesaurus. This project became the basis of the ongoing development of a European Catalogue of Data Sources including a European Environmental Thesaurus, initiated by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in Copenhagen. The European Topic Centre on Catalogue of Data Sources is located in the Land Niedersachsen in Germany in cooperation with ISEP as a Technical Secretariat in Vienna. Werner Pillmann presented ISEP's and CEDAR's strategy for the distribution of environmental information.

On the other hand, technical details of building up and using a Server were discussed. E.g., how to attract people to a Server without using heavy graphics, and basic questions like copyright, and data protection issues turned out to be of general interest. Other important items were how to handle large amounts of e-mail messages in daily communication, and up to which level interaction and feedback from users of a public information system can be managed.

We hope that based on this Workshop, a European information network of environmental communication officers has been started and will develop for the benefit of many environmental initiatives.

Werner Pillmann

Vienna, August 1996


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