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CSIRO CORPORATE MEDIA RELEASE 95/58

CSIRO GETS INTO GEAR FOR SUPERHIGHWAY

CSIRO is encouraging its staff to take 'driving' lessons - to learn the skills necessary for navigating the Information Superhighway.

It's all part of the ambitious 'Universal Access' project underway in CSIRO. The project aims to provide each of CSIRO's 7600 staff members with a link to the international electronic network, giving them access to the enormous store of scientific information available on the Internet. Using the latest, and often cheapest, in software, the scientists can also communicate with other researchers, both here and overseas, access management information and instantly transfer computer files anywhere in the world.

The three-phase project initially involved setting up computer links between all of CSIRO's 70 sites and, secondly, installing a set of seven high-quality, low-cost computer software packages (nicknamed the CSIRO "Tool Kit") on staff members' computers. The third stage of the project, now in progress, involves holding seminars in every CSIRO office to demonstrate how each software package in the Tool Kit works and emphasising to scientists the huge benefits of using the system.

Dr Ron Sandland, project director and Chief of the Division of Mathematics and Statistics, believes that allowing scientists to access the available information and communicate electronically will greatly improve communication within CSIRO.

"For the first time we can have lively internal debates on policies and directions where management, staff and unions can contribute with the immediacy of email. We can now access many of the best and cheapest scientific data stores in the world, and we can present the nature and benefits of our own work to a potentially immense audience."

Scientists have been quick to begin using the Information Superhighway. A recent report on the internal communication of CSIRO found that email was rapidly becoming the preferred method of communication with other scientists and management after face-to-face conversation. The Universal Access project is expected to be completed in October, leaving one of Australia's most dispersed and complex organisations with low-cost, high quality access to the Information Superhighway.

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