EEA EIONET the Telematic Network European Environment Information

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 Sp. A. , European Dynamics S. A.

EIONET Origin and Facets EEA • 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 EEA • 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: EEA The Famous Pyramid of Information Document management Decision Judgment DSS Data Warehouse Databases VALUES Analysis (Indicators) TOOLS Integration (Ontology) Data & Observations 1 4 6 TEXT 1 8 9 7 DATA 3 1 INFO

Multiple EIONET Projects EEA • 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

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 - EEA

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 EEA Public wwwservices and news broadcasting EEA 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 NRC Phare NFP NRC Extranet: Password access Euro. Intranet 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 EEA

Phare EEA NRC Set-up at each EIONET node EEA 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 EEA • 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 Suite. Spot servers IRC/CIRCLE from European Dynamics

EEA EIONET LAYERED SERVICES PUZZLE Public News Web. Casting Replication Project Management Certificates Calendar Directories Messaging DNS Data Warehousing CIRCLE LDAP TCP/IP Wires SMTP Vertical Applications Cataloguing and Searching Document Sharing Web Z 39. 50 Data Modelling Conferencing HTTP Agents IIOP Databases Boxes API CORBA

CIRCLE Interest Groups EEA

CIRCLE Services 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-etc, ittag-nfp, sysadmin – Functional mailboxes at nodes EEA

User Publishing EEA 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)

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 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 Trust. Factory (1999) EEA

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 NFP NFP EEA NFP

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 EEA

Helpdesk and training EEA After the training the users. . " • Four levels of helpdesk – 1 st level is IG leader/secretary: allow users, control access, structure library and discussions – 2 nd level at EEA helpdesk@eionet. eu. int – 3 rd level at European Dynamics – 4 th level by vendors • Training programme • EIONET Newsletter appears 3 times year.

Online Databases EEA • 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 EEA Report Warehouse ETC EEA NFP “Data - Information- Knowlegde”

Currently: Ad-hoc overlapping dataflows on email, floppy, fax, letter EEA The Public and Decision-Makers Euro. Stat EC DG EEA OECD UNEP ETC DG NRC NFP and other National Authorities

1999: Report to Data Warehouse on NFP EIONET Server EEA The Public and Decision-Makers Euro. Stat 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 EEA The Public and Decision-Makers Euro. Stat EIONET Server EC DG DG EIONET Server EEA OECD UNEP ETC EIONET Server NRC Database Server NFP and other National Authorities

EIONET Interface to Other Networks • • • EEA 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 FP 4: including IRENIE – FP 5 to start in December 1998 – EIONET can provide an intergrative platform • Networks of energy, agriculture, forests, . . . EEA

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

Information Locators “Best Available Information” • • EIONET Directory Service Catalogue of Data Sources G 7/GELOS EDEN EEA

Situation with www. eea. eu. int EEA • 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

Reference Centre EEA • 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

SUMMARY EEA • 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