Title: A web community to foster science in developing countries: www.ictp.it

Authors: Enrique Canessa, Carlo Fonda, Marco Zennaro, Katepalli R. Sreenivasan

Addresses: Science Dissemination Unit, ICTP – The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, Trieste 34014, Italy. ' Science Dissemination Unit, ICTP – The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, Trieste 34014, Italy. ' Science Dissemination Unit, ICTP – The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, Trieste 34014, Italy. ' Science Dissemination Unit, ICTP – The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, Trieste 34014, Italy

Abstract: The experiences with the new ICTP website, aiming to satisfy the need for a modern and appealing image, as well as provide tailored online information and services to its scientists (in-house and around the world), are discussed as a case-study of an emerging web-based international community. This approach, which to our knowledge has not been similarly employed by the scientific community in the past, keeps in mind the special audience and the uniqueness of the ICTP scientific structure and organisation. The present approach is a decentralised architecture that offers space and freedom for creativity specific to various scientific programmes, while managing a minimal amount of common structure. The new website was developed using open source technologies and web standards certified by W3C.

Keywords: web architecture; web based communities; accessibility; open source; web standards; online communities; science dissemination; developing countries; International Centre for Theoretical Physics; ICTP; online information; web services.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2006.010308

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2006 Vol.2 No.2, pp.172 - 182

Published online: 13 Jul 2006 *

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