The Hellenic Chronicle, Thursday, December 21, 1995

CAMBRIDGE -- As the information super-highway gains speed and popular acceptance, the Hellenic Resources Institute (HRI) is forging new ground with the Hellenic Resources Network (HR-Net). HR-Net was established by two members of HRI and after one year, the HR-Net Group consists of over 20 students and professionals. In October, 1995 HR-Net was formally made public via the Internet and the World Wide Web at http://www.hri.org.

HR-Net was created in order to achieve the following objectives:

To make the wealth of information available on the Internet easily accessible to important Greek public policy making institutions, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC and the Greek Parliament.

To enable Greek public policy to make its positions and announcements electronically available to the dynamic and ever expanding global Internet community (which is currently estimated to number between 15 and 40 million members world-wide). Many of Greece's neighbors, including FYROM and the Kosovo shadow-state are already making aggressive use of this opportunity in order to promote their positions.

To allow Greek public policy improved access to the distinguished community of Greek academics, researchers and professionals living abroad, as well as the ability to communicate its positions and initiatives to a growing and dynamic part of the Greek Diaspora.

To facilitate increased communication and cooperation between Greeks by permitting their greater participation in the Internet. this is accomplished by offering:

• electronic communication services (such as electronic mailing lists),
• electronic information services (including a novel Hellenic personal electronic newspaper),
• access to a vast and easily searchable archive of electronic news and information which pertain to Hellenic affairs and is updated daily,
• easy navigation to valuable Internet repositories of foreign policy-related information (such as the US Department of State Foreign Affairs Network), and World Wide Web (WWW) access, development and expert technical support to Greek individuals and organizations.

HR-Net is based with Hellenic Resources in Boston, and will expand to the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens, Greece. These locations will support Hellenic Resources Booths which will be terminals connected to HR-Net through the Internet.

The project is currently supported by the Greek Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education. Initially HR-Net Booths will be located in the Greek Parliament and the Greek Embassy in Washington, DC. HR-Net is built in a modular fashion, ensuring the possibility of expansion. HR-Net's experts collect daily information and news pertaining to Greece through e-mail for the purpose of channeling it to all interested parties.

Currently, the information that can be found on HR-Net includes news from Greece, and news about Greece whose origin is beyond the Greek borders; the next phase of development will focus on expanding its information base to other areas. The advantage offered by the placement of HR-Net on the Internet is the capacity for rapid communication between HR-Net sites and Greeks around the world.

One major component of the HR-Net is a World Wide Web site with Web pages for organizations such as AHIPAC and The Greek Institute, with planned expansion with pages of the Macedonian Press Agency based in Thessaloniki, "Oikonomikos Tachydromos," the Greek Consulates in Boston and Montreal, The Center for Hellenic Studies at Temple University, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and others.

The facilitation of this rapid communication is aligned with the larger mission of the Hellenic Resources Institute: To mobilize Greeks for causes serving their national interests, and keeping Greeks abroad informed of current events that are of national and international importance.

To visit HR-Net on the World Wide Web use the URL http://www.hri.org. The HR-Net Group is available by email at [email protected].

The Hellenic Resources Institute can be reached by mail at P.O. Box 380912, Cambridge, MA 02138, or by email at [email protected].