1. EEA EIONET the Telematic Network European Environment Information and Observation Network *** European Environment Agency European Commission DGIII - IDA Programme European Commission DGIA - Phare Programme Finsiel SpA., European Dynamics S.A.

2. 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.

3. EEA General Business Requirements for EIONET 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

4. EEA From Data to Decisions: The Famous Pyramid of Information Decision Analysis (Indicators) Integration (Ontology) Data- bases Data & Observations Judgment DATA INFO TEXT 1 6 8 41 9 7 3 1 VALUES TOOLS Document management Data Warehouse DSS

5. EEA 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

6. EEA Phasing of EIONET 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-

7. EEA EIONET Zones EEA NFP Phare ETC NRC ETC Part- ners Con- tractors EU Insti- tutions International institutions R&D projects Special Interest Networks PublicCore Extranet of 40 nodes Full EIONET of 600 nodes Scientists Media Semi- public Internet Public www- services and news broad- casting Phare Topic Links NGO

8. EEA EIONET the Mother of Intranets EEA ETC Phare NFP NRC ETC Partner Contractors Euro- Intranet NRC Extranet: Password access Intranet: Replication of data and physical network security Phare Topic Link

9. EEA Linking National and European Interest Groups CIRCLE EEA NRC Replication of selected data EIONET Extranet National Environmental Extranet Document sharing Document sharing NFP CIRCLE Data warehousing

10. EEA NRC Public server Extranet CIRCLE server Router InternetFire- wall Local LAN NFP Directory Email Newsgroups Document management On-line database Electronic publications State of environment reports Public discussion fora Links to other nodes Search engines General public Set-up at each EIONET node ETC EEA Phare

11. EEA Technologies Selected Internet backbone –From public Internet to TEN-34? UNIX Computers of Digital, HP, IBM, Sun Routers of Cisco Firewall of IBM Netscape Communicator/Composer Netscape SuiteSpot servers IRC/CIRCLE from European Dynamics

12. EEA WiresBoxes DNS TCP/IP CORBAHTTPIIOPZ39.50SMTP Databases Directories Certificates Conferencing Messaging Calendar Project Management Web Document Sharing Cataloguing and Searching Replication API Data Modelling Agents Public News WebCasting Vertical Applications EIONET LAYERED SERVICES PUZZLE LDAP Data Warehousing CIRCLE

13. EEA CIRCLE Interest Groups

14. EEA CIRCLE Services

15. EEA 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

16. EEA 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)

17. EEA 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

18. EEA 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)

19. EEA 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 EEA NFP

20. EEA Search When we have 40 nodes and several projects on each of them, how do we find information? –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

21. EEA 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 helpdesk@eionet.eu.int –3rd level at European Dynamics –4th level by vendors Training programme EIONET Newsletter appears 3 times year. Helpdesk and training

22. EEA 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

23. EEA EIONET Distributed Data Architecture ETC NFP EEA Operational Databases in Member Countries Distributed Data Warehouses Report Warehouse “Data - Information- Knowlegde”

24. EEA Currently: Ad-hoc overlapping dataflows on email, floppy, fax, letter EuroStatECEEAOECDUNEP NFP and other National Authorities The Public and Decision-Makers ETC DG NRC EuroStatECEEAOECDUNEP NFP and other National Authorities The Public and Decision-Makers ETC DG NRC

25. EEA 1999: Report to Data Warehouse on NFP EIONET Server EuroStatECEEAOECDUNEP NFP and other National Authorities The Public and Decision-Makers ETC DG NRC DG EIONET Server

26. EEA 2001: Automated Dataflows between Data Warehouses on Multiple EIONET Servers EuroStatECEEAOECDUNEP NFP and other National Authorities The Public and Decision-Makers ETC DG NRC DG EIONET Server EIONET Server EIONET Server EIONET Server Database Server

27. EEA EIONET Interface to Other Networks 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

28. EEA 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,...

29. EEA More Other Networks Special Interest Networks may carry “Best Available Information”: Quality control? –BALLERINABALLERINA International conventions –Clearing-House Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity in EuropeConvention on Biological Diversity

30. EEA Information Locators “Best Available Information” EIONET Directory Service Catalogue of Data Sources G7/GELOS EDEN

31. EEA 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

32. EEA 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

33. EEA 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