Developments in European information issues: Networks and relays – Services – Products, December 1998

ECHO - the early years

ECHO (European Community Host Organisation) was set up at the beginning of the 1980s to introduce the concept of electronic information and on-line communication to users unfamiliar with the technology. It later became part of the IMPACT programme launched in 1988 to stimulate the development of an information services market, continued under its follow-up IMPACT II, and more recently supported by the INFO 2000 programme promoting multimedia technologies. Acting as a test-bed, it hosted a range of free on-line databases which were piloted there to assess their commercial potential, as well as mounting a self-guided training course in CCL and information files on available databases and providers. Some of these remained freely available on ECHO, others disappeared into the reject bin, while a number, such as Jusletter (monitoring and summarising legal decisions and developments) or BIOREP (biotechnology) migrated to commercial hosts (NOMOS and DIMDI respectively in this case) or to Eurobases, the EC's other official databases host which offered a subscription service.

An indication of ECHO's success is its expansion from 16,000 users recorded as recently as 1994 to 40,000 registered users in 1998. This number does not of course take into account the many users who searched without registering. The most heavily used of the ECHO databases have been: TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) - the exception to the free access on this host; CORDIS - the suite of R&D related databases which moved in 1996 to its own host while still remaining free; and EURODICAUTOM, the multilingual database of terminology and abbreviations.

As users became more electronically sophisticated, ECHO's role expanded to include CD-ROM and the Internet as well as traditional on-line sources. Increasingly it has moved towards web technology, where the I*M Europe web site, supporting the actions of DGXIII in promoting electronic and multimedia information, is its public interface. ECHO databases with web front-ends can be accessed via this site. A step along the route to the web interface was the WATCH (Windows Access to Central Host) interface which superimposed a simple search screen over the telnet connection, providing an easy graphic alternative to the menu search option.

By 1998 EURODICAUTOM and TED between them accounted for 85% of ECHO connect time and increasingly the preferred access route was via the web. A number of databases - less frequently used but highly demanding in resources to maintain - were discontinued over the course of this year. Some of the more useful ones are now available elsewhere. Examples are ECOSOC containing opinions of the Economic and Social Committee in full text, now available in a variety of other ways. Similarly ELCID and EMIRE are now once again available through the web site of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.

The move towards web-based provision and the withering of the ECHO infrastructure was trailed at last year's Online Information meeting so the decision to close ECHO since it had fulfilled its function was not unexpected. While the I*M Europe site will continue to be developed, what remains to be seen is precisely what will happen to TED which is to become the responsibility of DGXV. Currently the plan would seem to be free access with a different interface but unsupported by help desk facilities. Full details will be given as soon as known.