BIOME Launch 2nd Nov 2000 a personal review by Rod Ward

The official launch of BIOME was held at the Royal Society in London. The day was well attended with approximately 100 delegates from a range of national and international bodies and an expert panel. The launch marked the culmination of the work on the BIOME Hub http://biome.ac.uk as part of the RDN http://www.rdn.ac.uk and the move from the one OMNI gateway http://omni.ac.uk to the 5 gateways which make up BIOME i.e.: OMNI, BIORESEARCH, VETGATE, AGRIFOR and NATURAL SELECTION.

Proceedings were opened by Paula Manning (BIOME Service manager), who introduced the speakers for the morning More photos here
	Karen Stanton the Director of Information Services at the University of Nottingham, gave an Introduction to the BIOME Service
Mr Michael Wills, Minister for Learning and Technology gave the keynote address "A vision of the developing role of the internet in the delivery and support of education and knowledge" More pictures here
	Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London gave a humorous presentation "Me, memems and the net: a geneticists view of the internet" which drew some interesting parallels. More pictures here
The final speaker was Dr Denis Blight, Director General of CAB International, who spoke on "Information management in the agricultural and veterinary sectors. More pictures here

The afternoon was spent on workshops focussing on the particular gateways and addressing wide ranging issues for hubs and subject gateways.

There were also several displays

The day was also a social occasion with a range of discussions over lunch and a wine reception.

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Last updated: 2.11.00