Transcript EIONETthe Telematic Network

EEA
EIONET the Telematic Network
European Environment Information and
Observation Network
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European Environment Agency
European Commission DGIII - IDA Programme
European Commission DGIA - Phare Programme
Finsiel SpA., European Dynamics S.A.
EEA
EIONET Origin and Facets
• EIONET was set up at the same time and on
basis of same legislation as the EEA in
1990.
– EEA became operational in 1994.
• EIONET is both an organisational network
and a telematic network.
• Here we only speak of the latter.
– It became operational in 1997.
General Business
Requirements for EIONET
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• Support integrated analysis of state of
environment and reporting on it
• Streamline dataflows, remove duplication
• Public access to documents and databases
• Vehicle for coordinating international and
national initiatives
• Integrative platform for applications and
linking to other economic sectors
• Project coordination, manage info overload
From Data to Decisions:
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The Famous Pyramid
of Information
Document
management
Decision
Judgment
DSS
Data
Warehouse
Databases
VALUES
Analysis
(Indicators)
TOOLS
Integration
(Ontology)
Data &
Observations
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1 8 9 7 DATA3 1
INFO
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Multiple EIONET Projects
• EIONET began as Intranet (IDA-1 1995-97)
– Virtual Private Network on public Internet
• EIONET became an Extranet (1998-)
– Accommodate new partners flexibly, integrate
– Connect with suppliers and customers
• EIONET on public Internet (IDA-2)
– Public access to best available information
– Improve information by exposing it
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Phasing of EIONET
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15 Member State NFPs 1996-1998
9 European Topic Centres 1997-1998
3 EFTA country NFPs 1998-1999
13 Phare countries 1997-1999
Capacity building for national EIONETs
1998• Applications through DGXIII 1999-
EIONET Zones
Core Extranet
of 40 nodes
Public
International institutions
NRC
NGO
Media
R&D
projects
Full EIONET
of 600 nodes
ETC
Partners ETC
NFP
EU
Institutions
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Public wwwservices
and news
broadcasting
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Phare
Phare
Topic Links
Contractors
Special Interest Networks
Scientists
Semipublic
Internet
EIONET the Mother of Intranets
ETC Partner
NRC
EEA
Intranet: Replication of data
and physical network security
Phare Topic Link
ETC
NFP
EEA
Phare
NFP
NRC
NRC
Extranet: Password access
EuroIntranet
Contractors
Linking National and
European Interest Groups
National Environmental Extranet
NRC
Data
warehousing
Document
sharing
NFP
CIRCLE
Document
sharing
EIONET Extranet
Replication of
selected data
CIRCLE
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NRC
Phare
Set-up at each EIONET node
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ETC
NFP
Extranet
CIRCLE server
Internet
General
public
Electronic publications
State of environment reports
Public discussion fora
Links to other nodes
Search engines
Router
Public server
Directory
Email
Newsgroups
Document management
On-line database
Firewall
Local
LAN
Technologies Selected
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• Internet backbone
– From public Internet to TEN-34?
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UNIX Computers of Digital, HP, IBM, Sun
Routers of Cisco
Firewall of IBM
Netscape Communicator/Composer
Netscape SuiteSpot servers
IRC/CIRCLE from European Dynamics
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EIONET LAYERED SERVICES PUZZLE
Public News
WebCasting
Replication
Project Management
Certificates
Calendar
Directories
Messaging
DNS
Data
Warehousing
CIRCLE
LDAP
TCP/IP
Wires
SMTP
Vertical
Applications
Cataloguing and Searching
Document Sharing
Web
Z39.50
Data Modelling
Conferencing
HTTP
Agents
IIOP
Databases
Boxes
API
CORBA
CIRCLE Interest Groups
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CIRCLE Services
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Messaging
“If the only tool you know is a hammer, the world soon looks like nail.”
• Email contributes to information overload
– Encourages unstructured communication
– Organisation of material left to recipient
• EIONET was not built for email,although
email has an important role in time-critical
announcements and distributing URLs
– Mailing lists @eionet.eu.int
• nfp, etc, ittag, ittag-etc, ittag-nfp, sysadmin
– Functional mailboxes at nodes
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User Publishing
Don’t print, don’t email, but...
• …upload - share - search!
• EIONET has become a major document
management project
– One-button publishing with CIRCLE
• Users control content
– Especially for drafts, bypass the webmaster
– Faster turnaround, quality assurance easier
– Project homepages (interest groups in CIRCLE)
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Conferencing
African village metaphor: “The world is one big meeting.”
• New ways of working together needed
– Meetings are very resource-consuming
– Communication needs escalate
– Virtual conferences and videoconference help
• Connecting discussions with documents
– Announce postings in newsgroups
– Conduct threaded discussions on documents
• Done with CIRCLE NNTP interface
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Directory Services
The ultimate solution for the address database problem
• Distribute to NFPs and beyond
– Address database, CDS, and DS integration
– How to manage external contacts problem
• LDAP an essential part of CIRCLE
– Usernames/passwords in a common pool
– Created and maintained at each node
– Replicated between sites
• Certificates via TrustFactory (1999)
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Replication
Bandwith is a problem - the missing European backbone
• Mechanism to transport selected files from
one server to another automatically
• Built-in in directory services and CIRCLE
NFP
NFP
NFP
EEA
NFP
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Search
• When we have 40 nodes and several
projects on each of them, how do we find
information?
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On each IG there is a search facility
Across IGs there is currently nothing,
To search multiple nodes there is only CDS
Push technology pilot by Tieto
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Helpdesk and training
After the training the users...."
• Four levels of helpdesk
– 1st level is IG leader/secretary: allow users,
control access, structure library and discussions
– 2nd level at EEA [email protected]
– 3rd level at European Dynamics
– 4th level by vendors
• Training programme
• EIONET Newsletter appears 3 times year.
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Online Databases
• Improving by exposing
– Generate lots of hits
– Legacy databases from CORINE are receiving
web front-ends, new ones built direct to web
• Data Warehousing
– Consists of data extraction, cleaning, mining for
patterns, web access
EIONET Distributed
Data Architecture
Operational
Databases in
Member Countries
Distributed
Data Warehouses
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Report
Warehouse
ETC
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NFP
“Data - Information- Knowlegde”
Currently: Ad-hoc overlapping dataflows
on email, floppy, fax, letter
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The Public and Decision-Makers
EuroStat
EC
DG
EEA
OECD
UNEP
ETC
DG
NRC
NFP and other National Authorities
1999: Report to Data Warehouse
on NFP EIONET Server
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The Public and Decision-Makers
EuroStat
EC
DG
DG
EEA
OECD
UNEP
ETC
EIONET
Server
NRC
NFP and other National Authorities
2001: Automated Dataflows between Data
Warehouses on Multiple EIONET Servers
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The Public and Decision-Makers
EuroStat
EIONET
Server
EC
DG
DG
EIONET
Server
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OECD
UNEP
ETC
EIONET
Server
EIONET
Server
NRC
Database
Server
NFP and other National Authorities
EIONET Interface
to Other Networks
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Integrate to the networks of other sectors
Provide a platform for participation
Avoid duplication of work
Host activities that complement EIONET
EEA coordinates, locates, links, supports,…
Users identified but not restricted
Other Networks to
Integrate with
• Telematics Applications Programme of
DGXIII
– 26 applications in FP4: including IRENIE
– FP5 to start in December 1998
– EIONET can provide an intergrative platform
• Networks of energy, agriculture, forests, ...
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EEA
More Other Networks
• Special Interest Networks may carry “Best
Available Information”: Quality control?
– BALLERINA
• International conventions
– Clearing-House Mechanism of the Convention
on Biological Diversity in Europe
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Information Locators
“Best Available Information”
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EIONET Directory Service
Catalogue of Data Sources
G7/GELOS
EDEN
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Situation with www.eea.eu.int
• Present EEA homepage is a document store
– 300,000 hits per month (January 1998)
• What is the balance between electronic and
paper publishing? 200%
– Languages and translations
– All deliverables direct to web
• Online database access sorely needed!
• Beyond documents into news broadcasting
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Reference Centre
• One-stop-shop for electronic information
• Link to information held by others
• So far, web has been an afterthought just
used for wider dissmination of paper-based
products
• Towards continuous updating
• Topical arrangement
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SUMMARY
• There are multiple EIONETs
– Gradually opening up, merging with Internet
• Core services now around Internet-based
document management -- success
• Existing ad hoc dataflows are being tackled
• Information for the citizens next