A 'Web Without Frontiers': Building European Partnerships on the Internet

The starting points for this paper are the growing trends for information professionals in agriculture and related fields to engage in cooperative activities, and for them to draw on opportunities offered by the Internet. The authors argue that Internet technologies, especially the world wide web, provide opportunities for organisations to collaborate as never before, to create concrete joint information products and services, and all through a process that promotes "ownership" among the participating agencies. Aside from the resulting service or product, involvement in these joint efforts can build and strengthen "networks" or "communities" of interest which may, in the longer term, contribute as much to international development cooperation and understanding as the original web sites that spawned them. Using examples from development agencies in Europe, the motives and aims of different organisations are explored. Four important trends are identified as influencing the ways in which organisations cooperate on the Internet -- increasing decentralisation, growing reliance on databases, greater attention to content, and the emergence of thematic "gateways." Finally, some management lessons and thoughts on the future use of the Internet are discussed. [author]