Communication is a central aspect of all our lives. Today, our modes of communication are highly dependent on technologies such as the Internet, wireless networks, phones, and computers. The sites listed here below explores the ways these forms of communication are part of our lives and highlights some new directions in communication technology. WordIQ Dictionary and Encyclopedia offers this definition: "Communication is the process of exchanging information usually via a common system of symbols." The website explains some of the key process involved in communication and describes different forms of communication, such as animal communication, interpersonal communication, and computer-mediated communication. Also taking a broad view on communication, this world history website provides some background on the mathematical theories that are used in designing telecommunications systems. The articles highlighted on this website from the Center for the Study of Technology and Society attest to the far reaching influence of communication technology. As research on the Europe website suggests, we have moved into not just developing technology that mediates interpersonal communication (such as phones) but also creating "intimate and personal connections with and through new technologies." This NSF website also highlights some recent discoveries in Computer Information Science and Engineering. Finally, this article from First Monday discusses the far-reaching effects these new developments in technology and globalization are having on language and learning.

"The Access Grid is an ensemble of resources including multimedia large-format displays, presentation and interactive environments, and interfaces to Grid middleware and to visualization environments". The Access Grid differs from desktop-to-desktop tools that focus on individual communication. These resources are used to support group-to-group interactions across the Grid for activities such as large-scale distributed meetings, collaborative work sessions, seminars, lectures, tutorials and training. The Access Grid is now used at over 150 institutions worldwide. Each institution has one or more AG nodes or "designed spaces" that contain the high-end audio and visual technology needed to provide a high-quality compelling user experience. The nodes are also used as a research environment for the development of distributed data and visualization corridors and for the study of issues relating to collaborative work in distributed environments

This website provides information on the human activities that change the earth's climate. Starting with a summary of the history of climate science, it provides information under the following headings: climate data, influences on climate, models & theories of Climate, social relationships. Additional resources includes useful materials such as reflections on the scientific process, timeline of milestones, list of external influences and links to other Internet resources. The whole site can be downloaded onto a CDROM free of cost.

A meta-search engine is a search tool that searches the databases of other search engines and/or directories. ZapMeta is one such meta-search engine and it is a tool to simultaneously search multiple search engines under one interface. Along with web search, ZapMeta currently offer a directory based on data from The Open Directory Project and Product Search powered by Pricegrabber. ZapMeta supports basic Boolean expressions and operators, phrase, truncation, proximity and advanced field-specific searches. Help is available for searching.

A website created by the Science Museum of Minnesota with NSF's support, this interactive and multi-sensory educational teaching tool helps the people learn about the ways in which robots (and humans) move, think, and exist throughout the process of experiencing the world. Visitors, starting with virtual Low Life Labs, may move to one of the four main labs: Moving, Sensing, Thinking or Being. Each area provides a set of activities and a brief description of the concept and idea that each activity is actively exploring.

The PC Technology Guide (or PCTechGuide) is a website providing technical articles and tutorials with diagrams describing internal components of personal computers and the peripheral devices. The topics covered are the motherboards, processors, storage devices, Input-Output devices, communications & networking, multimedia. The "How To" tutorials available here cover the commonly performed PC tasks and many system maintenance activities. It also lists general reference resources like glossary, dictionary, thesaurus, product guide, product reviews etc. As its name implies, the website is more oriented to the PC technologies than specific products. While its focus is current technology, it conveys a degree of historical perspective as well.

Optics.Org is an industry service provided by SPIE - the international society for optical engineering. The Optics.Org database is offered jointly by SPIE, and NASA's Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Abstract Service. Presently, "Over 1,400,000 technical citations and abstracts" are included in this searchable database. In addition, the site provides links to search optics patent and standards, a free weekly newsletter up-to-date with the latest global photonics news in R&D, patents, business and applications.

The Berkeley Wireless Research Center joins students and faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) at the University of California at Berkeley with the Gigascale Silicon Research Center "to support next generation wireless communication systems and expand the graduate research program in the wireless segment." The research focuses on "highly-integrated CMOS implementations with the lowest possible energy consumption and advanced communication algorithms." The website provides information on the facilities and its history, as well as a general overview of the Center in PowerPoint. A few select publications, presentations and theses are posted online. Access to some recent publications is restricted, but the What's New section provides an overview of current work.

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) identifies as "a leader in defining the future's high-performance cyberinfrastructure for scientists, engineers, and society." Initiated as part of the National Science Foundation's Supercomputer Centers Program, NCSA now works with research centers across the U.S. to build cyberinfrastructure, tools, and applications for grid computing. Visitors to the website can browse through the various research projects by topic areas such as cluster computing, cyberinfrastructure, education, data analysis, grids, and visualization. The Projects page also highlights feature stories and programs. Other sections provide additional information about the partnerships and facilities, as well as a history of NCSA.

Sandia National Laboratory's Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center (ISRC) responds to "challenges impacting national security and US economic competitiveness." Research areas include: Economic competitiveness, engineered collectives, high consequence systems integration, intelligent systems modeling & simulation, and robotic vehicles. In other words, their technologies can be used for automated biomedical devices, mechatronic technology for oil and gas pipeline inspection, landmine detection and removal, and shipbuilding. The website includes descriptions and pictures of their robot vehicles, robot modeling and simulation projects, as well as other software and hardware technologies they have developed. Various publications and information on the facilities are also posted online.

Michael Hall, an adjunct lecturer in the University of Maryland's Honors Program, offers this website with various articles addressing "the considerable variety of uses for computing and related forms of electronic technology in teaching." The articles range from general to theoretical, along with "some instructive examples of specific applications of technology to teaching and learning." Hall warns that some of the links may be inactive given his inconsistent monitoring of the website. Nonetheless, he offers a wealth of resources, which are divided into sections. The General section offers links to organizations with information about conferences, publications, and general discussions of teaching with electronic technology. Some examples include Evaluating Web Resources, Internet Research Ethics, and Teaching with Electronic Technology. The list goes on and on, with the remaining sections offering links on institutional support available for teachers, and other Internet resources. The pull-down menu provides a somewhat more manageable way to explore the resources by topic.

CITIDEL aims to be a center that will serve the computing education community in all its diversity and at all levels.this will include computer science, information systems, information science, software engineering, computer engineering, and all other variations of title and substance in these and related fields. It works closely with professional associations and publishers such as ACM and the IEEE Computer Society.

Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (EET) is a collection of short multimedia articles on a variety of topics related to the fields of instructional design and education and training.

National Foundation of Indian Engineers (NAFEN) is a registered professional society & an apex body of highly qualified Engineers, Technocrats, R & D Specialists, Academicians, Leaders of Corporate World & Decision Makers, promoting Science & Technology and other areas of societal interests like Energy Conservation, Environment Control, Total quality Management in Education & Industry, Project Management, Art & Culture. The Foundation is managed and governed by a Governing Council consisting of eminent industrialists, distinguished Parliamentarians and Leading Economist of high repute. NAFEN aims to Promote Science & Technology & Disseminate useful knowledge in Hi-Tech Areas & Management.

The Online Books Page is a website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It contains an Index of thousands of online books freely readable on the Internet, Pointers to significant directories and archives of online texts, Special exhibits of particularly interesting classes of online books and Information on how readers can help support the growth of online books.

This site is an open academic community effort to create the ultimate meeting place for researchers to allow for interaction between them to avoid duplications in doctoral dissertations. The site is in its very beginning and many functions are currently being developed. It invites the researchers to join and provide information about research in theis universities.

As the Web grows, websites continue to come up with ways to annoy users. This website identifies the top10 ten design mistakes that affect the web users.

ISIHighlyCited.com is a freely accessible web site is an expert gateway to the most highly influential scientists and scholars worldwide. It provides information about the people behind the scientific accomplishments in 21 broad subject categories in life sciences, medicine, physical sciences, engineering and social sciences. These individuals are the most highly cited within each category for the period 1981-1999 The information for each researcher consists of the Biographical information, Full listing of publications and Bibliography enhanced by links to the full bibliographic information indexed in the ISI Web of Science. At this site one can - Search for the top researchers by name, category, country, or institutional affiliation; Identify key individuals, departments and laboratories; Locate colleagues and experts. It is a valuable tool to identify individuals, departments and laboratories that have made fundamental contributions to the advancement of science and technology in recent decades.

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is an independent, public interest organisation which aims to increase public awareness on science, technology, environment and development. The Centre was started in 1980. For more than two decades, CSE has been creating awareness about the environmental challenges. Searching for solutions that people and communities can implement themselves.

The Einstein Archives Online provides the first online access to Albert Einstein’s scientific and non-scientific manuscripts held by the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and to an extensive Archival Database, constituting the material record of one of the most influential intellects in the modern era. The site allows viewing and browsing of approximately 3,000 high-quality digitized images of Einstein’s writings. The site also enables access to the online version of the Albert Einstein Archives Finding Aid, a comprehensive description of the entire repository of Albert Einstein’s personal papers.

Each month, scientists answer new scientific and technical questions on a variety of topics. Brief backgrounds on the scientists and related links are provided. The website is by the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Wireless telephones are hand-held phones with built-in antennas, often called cell, mobile, or PCS phones. These phones are popular with callers because they can be carried easily from place to place. This site by FDA & FCC, provides information about Wireless Phones, RadioFrequency Energy, Base Stations, Safety Standards and much more.

This is a searchable database of Universities around the world.The listing of Institutions is now based on the "World List of Universities 1997" published by the International Association of Universities (IAU). Database is maintained by Klaus Förster, reproduction and distribution are permissible for non-profit purposes only, but no changes are to be made to these documents without the author's written consent.

IBM Microelectronics offers a full range of silicon system integration solutions for designers and builders of next-generation applications and devices. The informtaion is provided in different sections viz. Chips: Making Semiconductors, Interconnect: Packaging Semiconductors, Technology Breakthroughs. The website describes how chips are made, connected to and protected from the outside world, so that they can function in their ultimate applications. It explains how recent advances in copper, silicon germanium, silicon-on-insulator, and low-k dielectric technologies affect consumer devices and network performance.

USENIX is the Advanced Computing Systems Association. Since 1975 the USENIX Association has brought together the community of engineers, system administrators, scientists, and technicians working on the cutting edge of the computing world. Over the past decade, the Program Committees from many of the USENIX conferences and workshops have given out Best Paper, Best Student Paper, and Best Presentation awards. this website gives a list of these awards, with links to the actual papers. Access to the papers in this compendium is provided to non-members of USENIX also.

MathTools.net is a "link exchange for the technical community" hosted by MathWorks. In other words, anyone in the technical community who registers with the website can add a link, update a link or view the links already posted. The links are organized by the following categories: MATLAB, Excel, C, C++, Java, Fortran, Visual Basic, Applications and Industry, and Learning and Education. A section on Recent Links lets you view the links submitted in the last 30 days. Each link entry includes a brief description of the website, a rating option and information on total visits from the MathTools website. Mathtools.net also offers a free monthly newsletter, which is sent free of charge if you register with them. Archived editions are available online without registering. Registering is free and necessary if you want to update or submit a link. A disclaimer notes that although MathWorks reserves the right to remove or refuse any link, they do not "control the content posted on the Links submitted, and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity, or quality of such content.

EEVL (Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library) and online engineering meta-resource hosted by eLib (Electronic Library Programme), JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), and the University Library and Institute for Computer Based Learning of Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh) (see also see the September 20, 2001 Scout Report). This section focuses on Mathematics and can be browsed using the following subject categories: General, Algebra, Analysis, Applications to Science and Engineering, Computer and Information Sciences, Mathematics education, Geometry and Topology, History and Foundations of Mathematics, Numerical Analysis and Optimization, Probability and Statistics. A news section provides a link to their One Stop Industry News Service, covering topics in Engineering, Mathematics and Computing Industry, as well as other recommended websites for news in these fields. The Top 100 page provides a listing of sites accessed most frequently in the EEVL Mathematics section. Links to universities and other educational resources are also provided.

MindSwap is the website for a research group within the University of Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Laboratory (MIND LAB). They claim to be "the first site on the Semantic web." They explain that they are first because: a) their website builds on an older website that used a toolkit based on a web ontology language called SHOE, developed at the University of Maryland; b) they hope you will start here for all your semantic web needs, since this site "harnesses many Web technologies (HTML, XHTML, XML, PHP, CSS, etc.) and couples them with Semantic Web languages (RDF, RDFS, DAML+OIL, OWL)" as well as other tools; and, c) it is the first "Owl-compliant" website to date. From this website, visitors can learn more about the Semantic Web and projects of MindSwap. Various papers, photos, demos and downloads are available. Links from many of the pages will let you either let you see the Semantic Web markup or take you to pages describing how the pages are created and the tools that were used. It's a great way to learn about "many of the ways Semantic Web technology can be used to provide new capabilities on the Web.

About.com provides this overview of Nanotechnology. The section begins with a definition of nanotechnology and goes on to review some commercial applications of nanotechnology. The site also provides a brief history of the beginnings of nanotechnology. The Article Archive provides links to articles about the latest advances in nanotechnology. From their subject pages, you can view links to other online resources on the history, research methods, key people, and terminology in nanotechnology, as well as more information on the industry and applications of nanotechnology.

The National Centre for Biodiversity Informatics (NCBI) Collects, analyses, predicts, and disseminates information about Indian biota and its environment. The websites is not yet complete but is gradually building an impressive electronic catalogue of known Indian flora, fauna, viruses, microbes, fungi and even threatened and invasive species. Baseline information of over 72,000 of the known 90,000+ Indian faunal species is accessible. Searches can be conducted using their species common or scientific names or synonyms. The website also has information on sacred groves and conservation sites and a detailed feature on water birds in India. The site also allows you to download ‘SAMPADA’ – a software developed to digitize specimen data. One can access data and digital images of biological specimens, herbariums and culture collections deposited and maintained by museums and collection facilities. It is also building a database of Indian is a useful database of Indian and South Asian taxonomists. This is useful database for those working on different aspects of the biodiversity of the Indian subcontinent.