Despite all of these difficulties and excitement, we have realized that building up a climate change site on the World Wide Web/Internet was an innovative and interesting idea, worthwhile to further enhance and develop. Of course, this example should be followed by other countries in order to improve the idea, raise new issues, and bring new points of view to light.

An advantage to this would be a rapid increase of information availability, as can be foreshadowed by the amount and quality of information currently available on the Web. Another very interesting feature is the very low costs that are involved in building a Web site: the work is labor intensive (an advantage for developing countries) and involves the purchasing of only a few computers and cheap software (depending on availability of Internet connection).

As pointed out before, the existence of a climate change site has proven profitable in the Brazilian case, enhancing Convention scope in the country. It works as a tool to help actual implementation of the Convention in the country, increasing awareness and facilitating involvement of experts and institutions.

Due to the amount of work envisaged, however, assistance is needed for further development. There is a necessity for additional software and automated tools (editors, translators, etc.), Internet expert support, and information support (provision of up-to-date information on related sites, for instance).

Some difficulties were faced, and others still remain. As the site was developed during late 1995, there was not a good knowledge of Internet -- more precisely about the Web -- in Brazil. There were few Brazilian sites and there was not much information available on Web or Internet, so we faced lack of appropriate tools and books in the beginning of the work. Another problem faced was the lack of human resources to handle the amount of information available (to digitize information on climate change, to look for related information in the web, etc.). These efforts are very time consuming. Another related and difficult issue is how to achieve better structuring of the site as so many interesting views and data can be presented and shared in several different formats.

An additional problem that deserves attention is how to publicize the existence of the site. This is a critical issue, seeing as most of the functionality of the idea behind the site as a place for performing a collective job relies on people´s awareness of the site. If we fail to publicize how to access the home page, we will lose most of the power of the idea because we will not be able to get feedback from experts and people interested in climate change issues. In this sense, how to keep magazines and newspapers informed periodically in a way that they can provide news to the public in general and how to find ways to reach different kind of people (grassroots, stakeholders, opinion-shapers, etc.) through different media types are very important issues.

Finally, we should pay particular attention to some critical issues when establishing a national climate change web site. Just to quote a few: quality of telecommunication system (old telephone exchanges, bad lines, etc.), availability of a good Internet server facility (or provider), good support on computer-related issues (mainly on the server side), and availability of individuals with some expertise on HTML language. Most importantly, we should be aware that some people will have some degree of difficulty in becoming used to a new paradigm (Internet culture); nevertheless, they should be encouraged to proceed and to develop their skills in order to profit from and provide assistance to the project.