The idea of establishing a Web Site started as simple as possible, trying as a first step to present the tentative summary of the National Communication on the Internet. This promptly pointed to the necessity to explain additionally what the National Communication stands for. It could simply be explained as the initial Brazilian commitment under the UNFCCC. People would still, however, want to know what it really means! We thought that we should therefore explain a little bit about the Convention, and consequently thought of also making the whole text of the Convention available on the Internet in Portuguese.

We also realized that another possibility is open through the use of Internet: easy access to all existing information on the web. For instance, it is possible to link to other sites and to present very basic remarks on climate change or other environmental issues.

The idea was evolving and becoming more complex every day. A complete set of different opportunities were just a (hot)link away!

The first decision that was taken was related to the choice of languages to use in the site. It was understood that a definition of the site´s scope would go along with language choice. It was decided that as the main objective was to reach all Brazilians interested in climate change issues, the site would be developed in Portuguese. The necessity of technical cooperation and expert review and the accompanying need to make the site accessible worldwide brought up the language problem, however, and led to a decision to that each page should be also written in English. Finally, the creation of a free-trade block in South America (the MERCOSUL, or MERCOSUR in Spanish) joining Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay set down the necessity of making the site available also in Spanish. This would facilitate the cooperation with almost all other countries in Latin America, therefore also defining a regional scope for the site.

These further definitions were also leading to further difficulties. In order for the site to have a wider scope, web pages should be developed simultaneously in the three chosen languages. It was decided to build web pages in the three languages having the same content to the extent possible. Some kind of customization would be necessary in a very few cases (for instance to show phone numbers for domestic access or from abroad) or for other concerns (like legal text available only in Portuguese). This decision implied the need for translation facilities and skilled personnel.

Two new fronts were also open to be explored.

The first front was related to the need to search for information related to climate change or environment available on Internet. We started looking for sites that we thought would be interesting to access from the Brazilian climate change home page. The main idea was to transform our site in a focal point for the whole process for the preparation of the National Communication; however, we also realized that the site should be viewed as a meeting point on broader climate change issues. A person interested in answering a question concerning some climate change issue (or a closely related subject) should try to solve it browsing our site as a first stop.

In this regard we looked for national sites that could have climate change related information in Portuguese and made links to home pages of participating institutions. Two national sites were very interesting concerning the work to be done during preparation of the National Communication: the INPE - National Institute for Space Research (MCT) site, which has several pages showing Amazon forest satellite imagery, and the EMBRAPA - Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Ministry of Agriculture) site, which features maps of savanna burning in Brazil during the dry season. Similarly, we looked for climate change related information in English/Spanish, especially sites that had similar aims (such as those of the UNFCCC secretariat, the IPCC, and the USCSP). We also linked to the home pages of relevant institutions.

The second new front pertained to a desire to facilitate the communication process between all members of the team in charge of the preparation of the National Communication, who are located all over Brazil. This was done through the creation of e-mail lists which put together involved experts, coordination unit personnel, and other individuals interested in contributing to the preparation process. The latter could be accomplished through receiving comments, suggestions and recommendations, preferably in a way that would allow the information to be somehow classified.

Under this framework, the implementation of the site was begun in October 1995, with the first skeleton of the structure being completed by December 1995. Internal testing (through the MCT Intranet) and further site development (such as the addition of clickable´ maps) began in January 1996, with work proceeding into February. The information disclosure unit started announcing the existence and availability of the site upon completion of this phase, still mainly focusing on testing the site and receiving suggestions and criticisms. This was done through personal communication to selected people in the UNFCCC secretariat, the USCSP and the GEF, as well as through CC:FORUM. We also publicized the site´s existence to a few people within Brazil, with the same aim of testing and improving the initial version of the site. We received some comments and suggestions as a result of these efforts, and this phase of the implementation was considered to be over.

The next step was taken in the direction of broad disclosure. We wanted both to experience the difficulties of the process of making people aware of the existence of the site and to get more general impressions about the job and the path we were following. This second phase began in March 1996 with the registration of the site in the main Brazilian search engines (especially Cadê?, .br and Yaih?) and international search engines (especially Alta Vista and Yahoo). We also publicized the site through the USCSP newsletter and through a short note distributed at the second Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC. As part of this process of interchange of information, links were established from our site to the sites of the USCSP and CC:INFO (a program of the UNFCCC secretariat). This phase will be completed in the future with a press release to formally inaugurate the site in the Ministry of Science and Technology in Brasilia.