DAILY SUMMIT TO BRING GLOBAL POLITICS TO LIFE

Manchester, August 06 2002:  The British Council today announces that The Daily Summit has gone live at www.dailysummit.net

The web site will provide news and views live from the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which runs in Johannesburg from 26 August – 4 September 2002. It will also offer opportunities for debate, discussion, and interaction about the summit with its international audience.

“The Daily Summit is built using web log software,” explains site editor, David Steven. “It’s a fast, effective and incredibly cheap technological solution. It forces you to focus on what users really want – which is fresh and relevant content. We’re already updating the site throughout the day, seven days a week. Once the World Summit starts, we’ll be building the site live from Johannesburg – bringing a unique perspective to the most important international political event for many years.”

“The Daily Summit is a bold experiment for the British Council,” says Director of Science, Lloyd Anderson. “Tony Blair was the first world leader to pledge to attend the World Summit. Now there are over 100 world leaders and 65,000 delegates attending. I commissioned this web site because I wanted to bring alive what will be a controversial, vibrant and, hopefully, groundbreaking event. The Daily Summit will open a window onto the Summit, while acting as a gateway to a large number of other resources. It reinforces the British Council’s co-operation with British government departments on international environment and sustainable development issues.”

The Daily Summit is an ‘instant’ website, built in just two weeks, according to designer, Abigail Hanson. “The beauty of web logging software is that you get instant results,” she says. “We’ve been getting visitors from around the world even before today’s announcement. It shows that there’s huge interest in this summit. We’ve had to make sure our web servers are up to the task – as this site is going to grow and grow!”

ENDS

Background for editors:

For more information on The Daily Summit, to arrange interviews with the team, or to discuss content syndication, contact Jane Frewer on +44 1202 849993 or David Steven on +44 7939 038832

The World Summit on Sustainable Development will be one of the largest and most important international meetings ever held. It will focus on the interface between human society and the environment. A United Nations event, it will bring together thousands of participants - including Heads of State and Government, other government delegates, business leaders and representatives of civil society - to promote concrete commitments to implement sustainable development.

The British Council aims to win recognition abroad for the UK’s values, ideas and achievements, and to nurture lasting mutually beneficially relationships with other countries. It works closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but operates at arms length from government, enabling it to build long-term international relationships.

The Daily Summit will be updated every day between now and the summit. It will be live from Johannesburg from 23 August – 5 September 2002. It has editorial independence from the British Council. Views expressed on the site cannot be attributed to the British Council and do not represent British Council policy.

The site has been built using Blogger Pro. More information is available at www.blogger.com