Our mission
(March 17, 2005)
The Science Dissemination Unit of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, has been created with the broad aim of disseminating ICTP scientific contents and programmes throughout the world, via electronic, digital, satellite and other information and communication tools, to more people than are able to visit the Centre.
Among other things, the new unit aims to:
- make available scientific contents produced at the Center by on-line means, for example via i-Rooms, and link up with other Universities, Research Centers and scientists in developed and developing countries who have similar interests;
- improve the free electronic Journal Delivery Service (eJDS) prototype;
- help to make available ICTP preprints electronically (e-Pub);
- prepare a web archive of synchronized videos and digital lectures delivered by renowned guest lecturers and archive them in public repositories to allow advanced searching, manipulation, and mining.
SDU at a Glance
The SDU is a concrete example of helping to bridge the digital divide in developing countries and across the north-south divide, in terms of applying low-cost open source information and communication (ICT) technologies for the dissemination, support and internalization of the science.
The SDU addresses these main issues of great concern in the scientific community:
- The dissemination of scientific data and information.
This is necessary for the advancement of research and education in order to provide contents that contribute to the benefit and well-being of society and to promote international scientific and technological activities. - The scientific, technical, social and ethical issues related to the development, implementation and management of ICT specially in developing countries.
- The integration of all new and old on-line services to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and exchange of scientific information via the use of today's ICT.
- The networking and e-publishing for development, including Copyright issues, e-Libraries and the digital contents.
The SDU also addresses infrastructure limitations and the ICT skill shortfalls of staff in universities, Research Centres, Scientific Academies and Ministries of Science and Technology throughout the developing world by providing low-cost access to computer networks with the support of a Networking Programme for Technical Assistance and Training in ICT, both on-site and in Trieste.