Finding families
The very simplest websites are often the most important. A simple database and search interface, like the one at www.refugjat.org/englishindex_e.html , easily demonstrates how the web can make a difference to people's lives. Refugjat.org allows Kosavar refugees and their families to search for news of missing relatives and friends. The site's information has been gathered by a Macedonian relief organisation called ADI (Association for the Democratic Initiatives) which exchanged information with refugees already in the camps. To assure individual safety, only refugees' names, their place of origin and the town they registered in are available over the site, but ADI has provided a contact number with access to further details.
Auction aid
Support for refugees, both Kosovan and Serbian, is also appearing on the web. Raccoon Inc, and New York-based Women in Black are organising a web-based auction of work from artists and photojournalists from around the globe and are looking for donations and submissions. The online auction will be held on July 31 at http://auction.balkansnet.org with all proceeds going to Women's groups in Belgrade and Kosovo.
Dark knowledge
The first full eclipse in Britain since 1927 is nearly upon us, and those wishing to see it can look to the web for help. Accommodation can be found at sites like www.thisistheeclipse.co.uk and travel information at www.highways.gov.uk/eclipse99/index.htm
Guardian Unlimited has also launched an eclipse documentary and is seeking submissions of pictures and accounts of past eclipses. The documentary will feature the original reports from the Manchester Guardian on the 1927 eclipse as well as an article by the astronomy officer at the Royal Observatory an Greenwich. The site will also host a live webcast on the day.
Powerful incentive
Although Britons still have to pay by the minute to access the web a wealth of small financial incentives keep appearing to help plug us in. Powergen is offering £30 cash back for anyone prepared to change both their gas and electricity accounts to a new web-based service. The company also claims it can save some customers up to 20% of their current bills and provides an online bill calculator to help demonstrate this.
Who needs satire?
Zealous American Christians have always been an easy target for the satirist. The only problem is when the sites unwittingly become funnier than the parody. Landover is an imaginary American town deep in the virtual Bible Belt and www.landoverbaptist.org/home/mainx.html is its local online paper. The site attempts to do for Christian websites what the likes of the Onion has been doing to American news. It's both well-observed and more than a little puerile, but only half as funny as some of the sites it attempts to send up. Far more kitsch than the Landover Baptist site is the over-earnest www.capalert.com which presents itself as a Christian Analysis of American Culture but is more like a berserk reaction to anything even mildly off-centre. Not only does Cap Alert attempt to record every single, swear word, fight scene and sexual reference in films like The Muppets In Space but its online reviews describe South Park as "incredibly dangerous" and a film like Notting Hill as "vulgar".
IT drive
The Container Project is a bold attempt to take technology into marginalised communities by filling a shipping container with 15 computers, an internet server and portable power generators and driving it into deprived areas. The container will be driven around the UK for four months before being shipped to Jamaica where a set of similar projects have been set up. The Container hopes to nurture new media culture and link up all the communities it is trying to help.
Chill out
The multi-media drop-outs of the Big Chill have just relaunched their website at www.bigchill.co.uk to coincide the launch of their new record label. Big Chill (logo shown right) has made itself popular at outdoor festivals and the content-rich website is surprisingly full. It now contains information about forthcoming events, online ticket sales and a blissful net radio station.
More than a game
With computer console and arcade games industries now claiming to earn more bucks than the American movie industry, many people are beginning to take the games world very seriously. Eyebeam is an online digital forum which is trying to apply academic analysis to the games world. The online critical symposium runs until August 20 and will be followed by a book and "real world" conference in New York in November.
In sight
Shooting People is a daily email service dedicated to the independent films industry in this country. Bulletins offer gossip about upcoming productions and film festivals.
Six of the best Web grooves
Just the music
www.groovetech.com
Drum n' bass
www.datanetworks.ch/~breakbeatlounge
Strictly underground
http://interface. pirate-radio.co.uk
Corporate clubbing
www.cream.co.uk
Big night out
www.clubber.mcmail.com
Big night in
www.gaialive.co.uk
