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I am very glad about the decision to publish the WCNDT 2000 proceedings on
the Internet.
It was always my goal to come to this point and in recent years NDTnet has
been moving in this direction by providing several
conference proceedings as full-text samples. Many of you will remember that
we published about 25% of the ECNDT '98 contents.
Some may wonder if this could contribute to a decrease in conference attendance. Even if a few people aren't able to attend a conference "in the flesh," Internet publication actually increases total participation. WCNDT 2000 will gain more than 10 000 virtual attendees! The information revolution is here, the Internet is here to stay, and NDT has the opportunity to be a leader in providing online conferences. Our common goal is to promote NDT in the best possible way, not hang on to the last century! Many thanks to Mr. Giuseppe Nardoni, president of the ICNDT and the AIPnD who laid the groundwork for this project in ICNDT meetings and talks with colleagues of other NDT societies around the world. Obviously the NDT societies faced the situation that unlike traditional book publishers, the key to our success lies in cooperation and collaboration with 'new' online publishers on the Internet. It is my hope that this project will be the icebreaker, and I'm looking forward to building the trend with other NDT conferences like ECNDT 2002 Barcelona, WCNDT 2004 Toronto and many more! Hope to see you in Rome, Rolf Diederichs |