“Dissemination and management of knowledge is essential for
scientific enterprise and sustainable development. For several
decades, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical
Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, has paid special attention to the
needs of developing countries to foster, through training and
research, the progress of science. The Centre long ago realized the
importance of information retrieval systems on the Internet,
including the distribution of in-house preprints, yearly activities
and public access catalogs.”
“On a technical level, Linux provides us with a cost-effective
alternative for promoting distance electronic collaboration…
Based on the Linux OS, virtual laboratories and the extensive
use of digital communication tools can help reduce scientific
isolation, while filling the need to transfer knowledge to
developing countries in the Southern Hemisphere in an unprecedented
way…”
“Following these principles, we have started building prototype,
on-line scientific tools to further enhance electronic
collaboration and to support the use of web navigation and database
search by e-mail. Below, we describe two tools that Salam ICTP
offers the low-bandwidth scientific community. Both packages use
state-of-the-art technologies and software developed in-house, and
are distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).”