----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Posted on behalf of my colleagues at SEDAC & CIESIN:
We are pleased to announce the beta release of a World Wide Web
Interface to the CIESIN Gateway system.
We invite you to visit the Gateway site at WWW URL:
http://wwwgateway.ciesin.org
We welcome you to examine the system and use the built in
feedback mechanism provided, as often as needed, to inform us of
suggestions, likes and dislikes, and problems encountered. The
interface provides all the documentation you will need to
exercise its capabilities. You only need access to a WWW
browser which supports forms and tables. We recommend
Netscape v1.1N or later, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Mosaic
2.O or later (PC only).
If you have any questions concerning the use of the system, please
contact CIESIN user services at 1-517-797-2727, or send an email query
to:
[log in to unmask]
The CIESIN Gateway provides you information about data bases
useful for the study of global change, sustainable development,
and human interactions in the environment. Gateway links you to
the NASA Global Change Master Diretory, the NOAA Environmental
Directory, the CIESIN Information Cooperative, and other useful
directories. We hope that you will find this search tool helpful
in discovering data and information resources available world
wide.
Please feel free to cross-post this message to other relevant
mailing lists and newsgroups.
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Background Information
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The World Wide Web interface to the CIESIN Gateway has been
developed by the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center
(SEDAC) which is operated by CIESIN for NASA's Mission to Planet
Earth Program. SEDAC is one of nine Earth Observation System
data centers. SEDAC's mission is to develop and deliver
information products and services that integrate social and
natural science data in ways useful for decision making. CIESIN
has also been designated as World Data Center-A for Human
Interactions in the Environment by the International Council of
Scientific Unions.
The CIESIN Gateway is a metadata search system which enables
users to identify data bases, information systems, and other
resources pertinent to the study of global environmental change,
human interactions in the environment, and sustainable
development. Thousands of entries of socioeconomic and natural
science resources are available. Gateway retrieves resource
locators that have been registered at various sites throughout
the Internet. These include the Global Change Master Directory
which is maintained by NASA, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) directory, the SEDAC human
dimensions directory, the CIESIN Information Cooperative, and
others.
The CIESIN Gateway was the winner of the 1995
Computerworld-Smithsonian Award for Innovative Technology in
Environment, Energy & Agriculture. To date, access to the CIESIN
Gateway has been through downloadable client software that is
available on-line at http://www.ciesin.org/gateway/gw-home.html.
Direct access to the CIESIN Gateway using the World Wide Web is
being developed in phases. This first phase patterns the
interface after familiar WWW search engines such as InfoSeek and
Lycos. Gateway users request information through free-text
searches. We feel that this simple and familiar interface will
enable the broadest number of users to take advantage of the
information available. Later phases will introduce more
sophisticated capabilities similar to those available in the
Gateway client.
If you have any questions concerning CIESIN or Gateway, please contact
CIESIN User Services at 1-517-797-2727 or send your email query to:
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Regards,
Bob Chen, SEDAC Program Manager and SEDAC Gateway Team Members
------------------------------------------------------
Frederick Zimmerman
Research Scientist, Environmental Research Institute of Michigan
Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
4251 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Phone: 313/741-4657 | Fax: 313/663-6622
e-mail: [log in to unmask] | WWW URL: http://sedac.ciesin.org/
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