Earth Update / Space Update - a Digital Library for the rest of us

Reiff, P. H., T. Ledley and C. Sumners

The explosive growth of the internet has widened the gap between
"Information Elites" and those who do not have access to personal computers
and fast internet gateways. The "Public Connection" project
(http://earth.rice.edu) has sought to reach these novices via simple to use,
point-and-click museum exhibits. Originally funded by the NASA Digital Library
Technology Program, the Earth Update software is funded by NASA's Office of
Earth Science under the ESIP program. These exhibits allow one-click updating
of images via the internet, but using a captive display program so that the
visitors can not reach the often objectionable material available on the web.
Over a million visitors have interacted with our exhibits on display at several
museums around the country, as well as a similar number accessing our web
sites. The largest percentage of users is children, but the software is used by
visitors of all ages. We now create many of the images in our system by
directly accessing the various data sets at the data centers. This paper
demonstrates the exciting products and shows produced by the Public
Connection project, bringing Earth and Space Science data to the public in
entertaining as well as educational venues. 

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Presented at the Fall American Geophysical Union Meeting, 
San Francisco, CA., December 15-19, 2000