WELCOME

Welcome to our first Newsletter of 1996. It has been a busy few months. The Virtual Museums International (VISEUM) project received funding from the European Commission and is now moving into high gear. This project is an exciting one for ACT due to its high profile and international nature. To quote from a recent publication from the European Commission: "The cultural heritage in Europe´s Museums and Galleries is one of the EU´s greatest assets. Access to it through communication networks is worth billions." Locally, the BC Virtual Museum has been busy digitizing portions of their collections, which will provide Canadian content for the VISEUM project.

In other company news, the NetXchequer, ACT´s billing server is approaching completion and plans are well underway for the establishment of a new Arts and Cultural web site. An Industry Advisory Board has been established for ACT, to help plan for future public financing.

At the National level, the federal government´s Information Highway Advisory Council has resumed activities and CANARIE has just announced another funding competition for this Fall.