GIGO

A Daily Look at Science

There I was thinking I'd have a nice relaxing holiday with our double-issue end of year NZSM safely out of the way, but no....

A friend had established a highly successful Web site which sought to glean the best writing on art, literature and philosophy (http://Cybereditions.com/aldaily), and was keen to see us produce a sister site which would cover the most thought-provoking, well researched items covering science and technology in the form of features, book reviews and analysis.

Well, never let it be said that I could pass up a chance to further the spread of science appreciation, even if it was only a couple of days before Christmas....

Thus was born SciTech Daily Review, which provides links to a selection of background features, book reviews and essays from the ever-increasing number of publications available online. (Go take a look at http://ScitechDaily.com)

The New York Times described it as a "porthole" site, where the view is concentrated into a specific area of interest, and said that this approach represents a major new Internet trend. Not bad for a site that had been online at that stage for three days!

It's an appropriate development for us, what with our keen interest in general science and technology issues -- you can't run a magazine like this for eight years without being keen -- and our specialist Web skills.

As more and more information is made available, we all need better tools for research, whether as a specialist looking at a microscopic area of knowledge or as a general member of the public endeavouring to keep informed about the world and its doings. The Web has vast potential for helping out right throughout that spectrum, but with it comes the need for a better understanding of how we go about looking for information, organising it and assessing it.

So it's pleasing to see "research skills" recognised as an important part of the school science curriculum, though I still get the occasional request from university students to "tell me everything you know about...".

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.