The Internet as Tool for Addressing Global Problems

The World can be seen as a complex network of globally interwoven systems. The first diagram is based on the UN program on Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change.

Computer Networks

Several different computer networks have been developed which are now in the process of becoming globally interlinked through the Internet.

Growing Connectivity

The rapid growth of this network can be seen in the comparison between the two maps (Jan 1993 vs Feb 1994), and in the extrapolation to the year 2001 when basically everybody everybody could be connected through the Internet and a Global Brain could emerge.

Acces Tools to the Internet

Many different ways exist to access and use the Internet as a Global Information System. Through the World Wide Web and especially with the Mosaic interface, we can get access to many Information servers Information servers around the world. We can zoom-in to any of these areas to obtain more details, and we can do that as an exercise after the demo.

Online Examples

For example we can get fast access to the DEMOGRAPHY & POPULATION STUDIES SERVER of the AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.

International Organizations

From there we have a link for example to the Gopher server of the United Nations and their POPULATION INFORMATION NETWORK (POPIN)

Most major international organizations are on the Internet today like the World Health Organization (This server is in Switzerland).

Internet Starting Point

At this point it probably would be best to start the exploration of the Internet, one good starting point is here.

Local HungerWeb Server

But you can also start from a local access point that is directly relevant to the topic of this conference. We can also talk about those issues by e-mail... or listen to the birds of Zimbabwe...

Gottfried Mayer-Kress (gmk@pegasos.ccsr.uiuc.edu (NeXT-Mail welcome))