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NDT on the Internet Rolf Diederichs - NDT.net, Kirchwald Germany. Internet: http://www.ndt.net, email: rd@ndt.net Contact

Abstract

In the last years many NDT organizations have set up Websites to provide information. However, the overwhelming amount of information makes it very difficult to find the most useful information on a specific theme in a reasonable time. Website owners have to face the problem of how to be maximize visible, that means how to get many visitors to a Website.

It is widely recognized that an Internet center point of a specific theme can present information much better than individual Websites. Of course the success of information providers rely on an excellent Website structure, that means a clear navigation and advanced search capabilities are an essential precondition. NDT.net offers all NDT Publishers of Conferences and Journals a free Internet publishing service for abstracts and full-text articles. That means NDT.net create and host the electronic addition of conference proceedings or other publications free of charge. Internet users can search through one connectivity NDT Database which can be obviously be more effective than a regular Internet search.

For the past 5 years, NDT.net has been an innovator in the new information society, providing abstracts and full-text presentations of several conference proceedings and papers. In addition to a comprehensive NDT Database, NDT.net offers an electronic journal with monthly issues featuring topical professional articles, exhibitions, a discussion forum, etc. Today over 20.000 readers a month access its 500 MB plus content and download gigabytes of material. Join this Knowledge Base at http://www.ndt.net.

15th WCNDT Proceedings on the Internet and CD-ROM

The 15th World Conference on Nondestructive Testing in Rome October 15-21, 2000 published its Proceedings on the Internet and on CD-ROM. This revolutionary publishing project is produced by NDT.net and is available at http://www.ndt.net/wcndt2000. About 750 conference papers, a total of about 4000 printed pages will cover a wide range of NDT information worldwide, benefiting the entire NDT community. This electronic publication makes the information much more easily accessible than the printed word. Internet publishing offers WCNDT authors the opportunity for much greater exposure than traditional publishing. The CD-ROM will be available worldwide, making the information much more easily accessible than the printed word.

Team Work via the Internet:
The WCNDT'00 CD-ROM was developed by a NDT.net team thousand of miles distance between them. This shows the capability of the Internet as a world-wide NDT communication tool for technical collaboration. With help of the Internet we were able to provide already in Rome the CD-ROM to all participants. Printed Proceedings are usually only many months later available. Of course it was a big learning process to deal at the first time with such huge number of papers and to solve the problems of authors different paper formats. Sometimes 10 people worked in India during a most critical stage on this project, thus to keeping the deadline. More than a gigabyte of data was shifted through the world, Authors from 50 countries => Italy => Germany => India (H. Wolf with his people even with no Green Cards). Editing of Keywords (search descriptors) have been also provided via document exchange to the Canadian NDTnet team (E. Ginzel). This success is attributed to the power of the Internet and it represents a simple example of the "miracles" of this new technology that have revolutionized the way we communicate with each other. At this place many thanks to all authors and the team for their excellent work.

Articles and Abstracts

NDTnet is presented as an electronic Journal with monthly issues featuring topical professional articles. One of our main goals is to provide an objective service for worldwide users. Submissions from all countries are welcome. Especially now, this new structure for global interaction is needed. Whatever the size of a company or a nation, wherever you are in the world, NDTnet makes it possible for you to participate in the world wide market.

NDTnet offers all Authors and NDT Publishers a free Internet publishing service for abstracts and full-text articles. That means a host of the electronic addition of conference proceedings or other publications on this Internet Database free of charge. Internet users can search through one connectivity NDT Database which can be obviously be more effective than a regular Internet search.

Today A more or less disorder of information Difficult retrieval of information Rarely uses of Search or Database NDTnet is the first server which provides a huge of information easily to retrieve.

Proposal Collaboration is for all beneficially The public can easily find NDT information. Societies may provide their own Homepages, however do not need to establish an expensive database work. NDTnet is a commercial unit which operates a public access NDT database. With a customized database query form the access can be integrated at all society homepages.

The database provides about 1000 full-text articles and totally about 4000 NDT abstracts in June 2000. Some examples are listed here:

• 15th World Conference on Nondestructive Testing in Rome October 15-21
• 2nd International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurised Components 24-26 May 2000, New Orleans, USA
• 1st International Conference on NDE in Relation to Structural Integrity for Nuclear and Pressurised Components 20-22 October 1998, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Annual Conferences of the German Society for NDT DGZfP 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000.
• NDTISS '99 - International Symposium on NDT Contribution to the Infrastructure Safety Systems, Nov 1999 in Tores, Brazil.
• 7th European Conference on Non-destructive Testing (NDT) is organised in Copenhagen 26-29 May 1998.
• Abstracts of the 14th World Conference on Nondestructive Testing (14th WCNDT) 8-13 December 1996, New Delhi.

  A Content Power Search keeps this comprehensive information easily retrievable.

Virtual Library

This Virtual Library is World Biggest NDT Resource in Education, Marketing and Science. Gathering specific information is the principal goal of most Internet users. NDT people can use traditional search engines for full-text Internet searches of the Internet, or use the simple "link directories" sometimes provided by NDT Institutes or Societies. Traditional searching can be useful in some cases, but its limitations are well known. Manually updated "link directories" lack even the often rudimentary filtering capabilities of the popular search engines, and are frequently out of date and riddled with "404" (file not found) messages.

NDTnet has developed a comprehensive database which overcomes these obstacles. Our Virtual Library is now a true database with intelligent features like searching in Methods, Site Type, Filters etc., and different sorting options. As of April 1, 2000, the database contained over 12,000 pages from 600 sites. Best of all, 300 commercial sites are included at no charge to the companies, thanks to NDTnet Exhibitors and Sponsors a huge Buyers Guide.

Here's how it works: Anyone can Submit A Site with its details (Keywords, Methods) immediately to the database, that means its done 'on the fly'. Notification of the new entry is then sent to the NDTnet Editor Board, who will verify that the site is a legitimate NDT site and categorize it appropriately. Within days, the NDT Crawler will fetch and index the site, thus providing full-text search capability. The crawler automatically re-indexes the entire site and verifies links as part of the weekly update process. That means no more "file not found." Site owners can also submit changes to existing site listing. The Editor Board will check changes for errors before passing it along to the Database.

One can search all server content which have been seen by this robot via one search query. Even for PDF files a full-text search is possible. For instant the CD-ROM of the German NDT-CE Symposium in 1999 Munich was offered at the DGZfP server, however no search was provided at this homepage. Since the NDTnet robot tracks the content of the DGZfP Homepage every day, a search was now possible in remote with the "global search form" at NDTnet.

Discussion Forum

Discussion Forums are a great advantage of the Internet. NDTnet maximizes opportunities for users to meet and expand their networks of professional contacts. Technical communities form newsgroups to communicate various announcements, inquiries, etc. Usually, a specific question is posted and then answered by newsgroup readers within a few hours. The NDT newsgroup was chartered in 1995, "sci.technique.testing.nondestructive", and about 2 to 3 messages are posted daily. This newsgroup does not allow advertising but nevertheless banal, repetitious advertising is always a big part of the posts. The users of the newsgroup are more or less anonymous, this make discussion often very difficult.

With the disadvantages of the newsgroups in mind, NDTnet operates an own Web-based Forum, moderated by Rolf Diederichs. Somehow it is an "Ask The Experts Forum" for Discussions on NDTnet Articles and other NDT topics. Furthermore a "profile" icon in the forum in an attempt to compensate for the lack of face to face contact in cyberspace.

The NDTnet issue February 1998 focused on UT and NDT in Civil Engineering, especially in testing of concrete. As usual, this was the focus of the monthly forum. One article related to NDT for concrete was "The Impact-Echo Method". In conjunction with this article Mr. Streett served as a coordinator for comments on concrete for the February 1998 Forum of NDTnet. He was a Virtual Session Chairman. A lively discussion on the impact echo technique took place. You could read a lot of criticism by German experts of the BAM Berlin. In May 1999 the Impact Echo topic was again a dispute between experts of this field.

Another example how NDTnet, the Internet, serves as new information democracy was clearly visible after the train accident June 3. 1998 in Germany in that 100 people died. When NDTnet noticed the cover politics of the Deutsche Bahn which was backed by many TV channels, NDTnet coverage the train accident in its June 1998 issue. To get the trues even more public Rolf Diederichs agreed an interview with Focus-TV, explaining the necessary of NDT to assure safety and reliability. The DB was aware that rail wheels of this type should be tested with ultrasound every 2-3 days, the implementation of such a system was not pursued aggressively enough. Even though the necessity for more stringent testing was known, there seemed to be no sense of urgency to do anything about it, although state of the art equipment and technology were available. Also in the NDTnet Forum experts used the opportunity to discuss better solutions in testing of railway wheels. Of course the "old" media and structures disliked the role that NDTnet played in this story. Criticism by DGZfP and other involved institutions came up promptly and punishment of this private press followed.

In its reporting of news, and its editorial content, NDTnet is and will continue to be, independent. NDTnet's purpose is to make information available, not to protect any company or organization from criticism, not to try to cover up errors, our own, or those of others.

NDT Newsgroup

Newsgroups are like electronic bulletin boards: a place to ask questions, to answer questions, or make announcements. The NDT Newsgroup (sci.techniques.testing.nondestructive) was created in July 1995, after it was proposed by M. Jones (one of this paper co-authors) in 1994 and being campaigned for and put to a vote (over 180 people from 16 countries voted in its favor). The Newsgroup has a mailing list, which is maintained electronically by the server and it allows subscribing individuals to participate in the Newgroup activity without any special access software. There is no cost associated with the subscription and an average of 2 to 3 messages per day are posted to this Newsgroup. Announcements of opportunities, technical inquiries, availability of capabilities, call for papers, request for proposals, employment announcement, etc. are commonly posted on this electronic message board. The charter of the NDT Newsgroup does not allow advertisement.

For over 4 years, NDTnet have tried to support this discussion forum with monthly reviews of the NDT Newsgroup. In recent months the majority of posts have been blatant advertising, spam posts, multiple Home Page advertising of the same sites, etc. and a decline in actual discussion. Additionally, the structure and available features of the newsgroup do not compare favorable with web-based boards such as the NDTnet Forum. For these reasons NDTnet have decided to discontinue the monthly activity reviews, however, will keep the web interface to the Newsgroup on this page. This interface provides search facilities for an easy search and convenient retrieval.

Exhibition

The NDTnet Journal with its NDT online Exhibition offer all the services companies need for efficient, inexpensive, worldwide Internet Marketing of NDT Product. Advertising on NDTnet is more than just Publishing a Piece of Paper. An Ad on NDTnet, the leading NDT Internet publisher, can be a much better value than the same Ad published via "Old Media". To begin with, you start off with a large, targeted audience. Just as print magazines have circulation figures, an Internet magazine can provide you with statistics of their " hits" and unique hosts. For example, during the month of May, 2000, over 20 000 users loaded about 600 000 files of totally 2 Gigabytes.

The NDTnet exhibition offers keyword search, fast feedback, and other features. The user can click on an icon "More information on this exhibitor" and access a database of all online publications (articles, news) the exhibitor has published on NDTnet.

Over the years, the number of exhibitors has increased significantly, bringing about the need for a structure that incorporates and easy way for users to search for NDT products and services. NDTnet now features even more advanced database functions such as:

• Automatic sign-up creates an exhibition stand on the fly.
• Password protection lets exhibitors make changes and do routine maintenance.
• The new stand offers more features for the same price.
• Cross-referencing of showcases, articles, press releases and homepage topics.
• Search of exhibitors' homepage.
• Search form with multiple fields and different output options.
• Search by list of keywords.
• A Virtual World Map with locations of all exhibitors.
• NDTnet Forum and Library highlights an icon with a link to the stand.
• Targeted banner advertising.

NDTnet's Internet Crawler making Exhibitors' Homepages visible! Every day, a robot combs cyberspace, building the index for this NDT Internet Search Engine. This robot is applied in the exhibition too. Since indexing all exhibitors' remote pages (homepages), the exhibition offers a full-text search for the selected homepage. Exhibitors' products are just a mouse click away. NDTnet disseminates product information quickly and delivers visibly to a wide audience.

More Departments

In addition to the above described departments NDT.net offers more monthly updated dapartments:
Nondestructive Testing Encyclopedia
This step from the Ultrasonic Testing Encyclopedia to an NDT Encyclopedia recognizes that NDTnet (formerly UTonline) moved to an NDT Journal. The material will be continually improved, more words, and of course the other NDT methods will be added soon. It is a online Study Guide or just for use on demand.

International Events' - Worldwide Map
ALL NDT events are updated monthly. A World Map is a great help to get a clear overview of all locations.

NDT Literature
This department provides information on Books and Journals, as well a Table of Contents service for periodicals related to NDT.

News
Monthly News and links to News (News Elsewhere), and of course an archive back to NDTnet's first issue is provided. Here is also published the NDT topics of the Cordis Database, CORDIS is the European Community R&D Information Service.

Conclusion

Since January 1996 NDT.net has been an innovator in the new information society, providing abstracts and full-text presentations of several conference proceedings and papers. In addition to a comprehensive NDT Database, NDT.net offers an electronic journal with monthly issues featuring topical professional articles, exhibitions, a discussion forum, etc. Today over 20.000 readers a month access its 400 MB plus content and download gigabytes of material. NDTnet is more than just Publishing a Piece of Paper!

© AIPnD , created by NDT.net

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