• Internal dissemination to teams and organisations in authorised areas
• External dissemination via an integrated website to the public
• Knowledge Exchange and Communication
• Project Management
• Profiling persons, teams and organisations

The image of a joint taskforce is optimal when above activities are performed in one ‘Internet’ location. The project managers and members can easily access documents and items from any location. Besides Knowledge (documents, items and discussions), the organisations and persons are important, especially in a Network of Excellence. Topshare supports excellent profiling and communication options to link the entire Network (Persons, Teams and Organisations) in a flexible manner to the documents and items. Topshare has a specialised Search engine, for items, attachments, persons, teams and organisations separately or jointly. This gives the users the option to search on skills.
Topshare replaces the regular e-mail giving the same and more options for communication. For instance, comments on research results can be added directly, enabling multilateral discussions. Knowledge Exchange and Communication is stimulated if questions and answers are added in the context of the original documents. In time, a Knowledge Archive is built giving the additional advantage of rapid introduction of new persons coming into the project. The users receive once a day an e-mail notification about the changed and added items. With the use of the Rich Text Editor it is very easy to compose and publish items with an intuitive layout. These items can easily be sent by e-mail for Newsletter purposes or placed on the integrated website(s) or any other website.
A very important aspect is that the users actually use the system because

• An obvious gain comes from centrally stored and easily searched data, preventing searching the E-mail or Shared disks.
• The learning curve is very fast. At present the system supports 3 large EU projects proposals (NoE and IP) without training sessions. For instance, one NoE has been set up in 5 days and within 4 weeks 500 persons have registered and are fully involved in preparation of the proposal headed by the Scientific committee and WP coordinators. All communication has been done via Topshare and the feedback is very positive. A few simple guidelines and on-line manuals have provided sufficient information to enable use of Topshare.

The message is clear: Complex projects like the FP6 NoE's or IP's need a centrally Internet based environment to handle the content, the communication and support the project management. Topshare International BV is experienced in this field and its concept is well received.

Ir. Marten H. Renkema
Managing Director Topshare International B.V.