Who would not welcome something that sets out "to stimulate collaboration between researchers, organisations and projects", especially if it hopes to be "particularly handy for newcomers to the EU research scene"? Unfortunately, the announcement from the EU's Research Information Centre does not live up to the reality of the web site it is touting.
The IST World Web Site can't even get its registration process right. You end up in a permanent loop. Actually, it isn't clear if you are supposed to be able to sign up. The relevant page has the title "Will be available in next version !!!". Makes you wonder if anything else works on the site.
In reality, what you get is a search engine. Nothing wrong with that. But it hardly lives up to the hype of the announcement. It looks suspiciously like the playing of some IT experts. You have to wonder if they talked to any of the newcomers to EU research that they say are part of the target audience.
All this is not what you would call encouraging from the EU's leading IT programme, and one that we usually hold up as a model of how to use the technology to spread the word.
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