Since its early beginnings in 1994 as one of the first jointly developed US-Russian Internet services, the F&P project has grown to represent a consortium of over 150 organizations and individuals working to promote US, Russian cooperation and exchange. Our web servers accommodate more than two million accesses each month and the various email listservers and other communication services handle over one million transactions each month. The service has received a number of Internet awards and honors including designation by the Ventana Press as one of the top 30 sites on the Internet and numerous other ratings among the top 100, top 200, top 1%, top 5% of all services on the Internet. It has attracted funding from several sponsors including the US State Department, NATO, the International Science Foundation, Sun Microsystems, and most recently the Ford Foundation. While never our aim, it has attracted attention from the highest levels of our governments and was selected in 1996 to be featured in the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission meeting as an example of the Internet's usefulness in fostering scientific exchange.

We have recently launched a new version of Friends and Partners which we invite the reader to view at the following URLs:

Russian site:      http://alice.ibpm.serpukhov.su/friends/
US site:              http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/

The Friends and Partners idea has grown to include other nations during the past year. During the summer of 1997, we launched the new Friends and Partners China project with a friend in Beijing, Dr. Rongsheng Xu of the International High Energy Physics Institute who is one of the pioneers of Internet development in that country (he established the first Internet connection in China); and we also launched a few months later the Friends and Partners Romania effort - working with friends in the Transylvania region of that country. We are currently working on similar ventures in Georgia, and, hopefully soon, in Uzbekistan.

Prepared by;
Greg Cole
Director
Center for International Networking Initiatives
The University of Tennessee System
2000 Lake Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37996
(423) 974-7277
423-974-8024
FAX: (423) 974-8022
gcole@www.friends-partners.org
gcole@friends-partners.org
http://www.friends-partners.org/friends/