Tsunami - Web photo reunites toddler with father

A Swedish toddler was reunited with his father at the end of December, just days after being found alone in the aftermath of the deadly tsunami that devastated Asia. The boy was found after the storm subsided and was taken to a hospital in Thailand. His photo was posted on the Internet the following day. This was seen by the toddler's uncle and within days the child was reunited with his father.

This is one of the happier stories to come out of the awful disaster that hit Asia - and it is a story that reveals just how powerful the Internet can be in bringing the world together on a humanitarian level.

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E-tickets to save airline industry $3 billion a year

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has recommended making electronic tickets universal, instead of traditional hard copies. At present, 17% of tickets sold by IATA companies are electronic, but the industry body wants the ratio to rise to 40% this year and to 100% by 2007.

"The move [to electronic ticketing] will save the airline industry $3 billion a year," an IATA spokesman told reporters in December. An electronic ticket costs $1 to produce compared with $10 for the regular variety.

The IATA also plans to help passengers download and print bar-coded boarding passes from their personal computers, using the latest technology.

One other saving that can be made by airlines is more quirky - apparently washing an aircraft regularly reduces the friction and saves 12 tons of fuel per year, per aircraft.

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Doctors finally give Internet a chance

It's been a long time coming, but doctors are beginning to consider making the Internet a key part of their practice. The American Medical Association (AMA) and 13 other medical groups representing 500,000 physicians have signaled their intention to go electronic. There's also a trial going on in Florida in which doctors are being reimbursed for online consultations. Around 1,000 doctors and 100,000 patients are taking part.

Medicine is one of the few modern business sectors that hasn't yet embraced information technology - mainly because of the difficulty and expense of making computer systems compatible. Another reason cited is many older doctors are comfortable with manual record keeping and see no reason to change.

But this is far from the case with 62-year-old Dr Joseph Heyman, a member of the AMA board of trustees. "I have a totally paperless office," he says. "I don't buy into this business that older doctors are too old to change."

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Google puts 15 million library books online

Google is to put 15 million books from seven of the world's top libraries online. The libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the New York Public Library, and the University of Oxford, including the Bodleian, will be put online in a project expected to take six years to complete. Google estimates the cost will be more than $100 million.

"Even before we started Google, we dreamed of making the incredible breadth of information that libraries so lovingly organize searchable online," says Google co-founder Larry Page.

Books and periodicals will be scanned and made available for search using Google. Copyright material will not be displayed, however.

"We believe passionately that such universal access to the world's printed treasures is mission-critical for today's great public universities," says Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan.

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Call to digitize Scotland's hidden cultural treasures

Scotland should release its hidden treasures to the world, says Mark Jones, chairman of Scotland's educational digital archive "Scran." He wants all cultural bodies in Scotland to be funded to create presentations of their artifacts and display them on a special website.

Alan Blunt, chief executive of Scran, says that the only way that Scottish people will see their nation's treasures - when the majority are in storage - is to make them available online.

"How many of the 130,000 or so items of the national galleries do they show? There is no point having thousands of paintings in storage ... [when] they could be digitized."

Scran, a charity funded in 1996, already offers access to hundreds of thousands of images, sound files, video clips, and textual guides from more than 350 museums, art galleries, and media archives.

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ASIDES

What if you bought a car like you buy a computer?

Like all car makers, General Motors doesn't have a help line for people who don't know how to drive. You're expected to have this ability before you sign the dotted line. Things would be very different, however, if you bought a car like you buy a computer...

HELPLINE: "General Motors help line, how can I help you?"

CUSTOMER: "I got in my car and closed the door, and nothing happened!"

HELPLINE: "Did you put the key in the ignition slot and turn it?"

CUSTOMER: "What's an ignition?"

HELPLINE: "It's a starter motor that draws current from your battery and turns over the engine."

CUSTOMER: "Ignition? Motor? Battery? Engine? How come I have to know all of these technical terms just to use my car?"

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