Public health watchdog embraces the web
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/journal.isa
Volume 356, Number 9237 07 October 2000
The web is a "magnificent tool" for teaching and research, enthuses
Eberhard Wenzel, deputy head of the School of Public Health at Griffith
University in Queensland, Australia, and longtime consultant on public
health issues. Wenzel maintains several websites dedicated to various
aspects of public health, including a wonderful compendium on
indigenous peoples. He is also cofounder of International Public
HealthWatch, a list service that "monitor[s] international and national
government organisations regarding their public health action, not their
public health talk".
Setting his sites on public health
In 1996, Wenzel was "stunned" by the resources available on the
nascent web--and was particularly impressed by the WWW Virtual
Library (VL). Unlike commercial catalogs, the VL is run by volunteers
who compile pages of links for particular areas in which they are
expert. "I liked the concept that sites should not contain
advertisements and that services should be offered free of charge.
Independence and commitment are two key qualities which make the
VL one of the best resources on the web for certain topic areas", says
Wenzel.
There was no "public health" category at the time, and Wenzel "had no
idea" how to set up a website. "I ended up playing around with
Netscape Composer and developed websites for myself and my
students. The sites were simple, but full of information and links, and
the students liked them." An academic in Germany who was
knowledgeable about web page authoring heard about the sites and
offered to help. "He was good with HTML; I was good with content.
Together, we set out to design a global public health site", recalls
Wenzel. The site grew, and 6 months later, the team offered it to the
VL. It was accepted as the WWW Virtual Library: Public Health site.
Insights
- Eberhard Wenzel's Website http://www.ldb.org/index.htm
- International Public HealthWatch http://www.ldb.org/iphw/index.htm
- WWW Virtual Library Public Health http://www.ldb.org/vl/index.htm
- WWW Virtual Library Circumpolar Peoples
http://www.ldb.org/vl/cp/index.htm
Wenzel has been maintaining this website by himself since 1997 and
along the way developed the other sites. But although he spends about
2 hours daily checking for new resources and updating existing ones,
"that's not sufficient to keep everything updated", he admits. His efforts
to enlist the support of colleagues have not been successful so far, but
Wenzel remains committed. "I do feel that these resources and
services need to be 'out there', particularly at a time when international
governmental and non-governmental organisations do not offer
something of comparable quality", he concludes.
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Reprinted under the fair use doctrine
of international copyright law:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
**********
Eberhard Wenzel MA PhD
International Public HealthWatch
Griffith University
School of Public Health
Meadowbrook, Qld. 4131
Australia
Tel.: +61-7-3382 1026
Fax: +61-7-3382 1034
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web-site International Public HealthWatch at:
http://www.ldb.org/iphw/index.htm
Please accept my resignation. I don't care to belong to any club
that will have me as a member.
Groucho Marx
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