About the FIRE Project

The FIRE Project was begun in July 1995 as a community service project from the Firetrench Consortium.

The objective of the project is to develop new ways of making information available, quickly and easily, electronically, via the Internet.

The FIRE Project is staffed by volunteers organized into two activity groups.

One activity group is technology-based and tasked with the design, development and maintenance of the technology on which the second group will deliver the on-line and off-line information resources. This includes development of Artificial Intelligence systems to turn raw information into useful knowledge.

The second activity group operates through British-based Nighthawk Publishing and is tasked with the editorial management of information loaded onto the project's technical platform.

Together the two activity groups are delivering a rapidly expanding archive of on-line information that can be accessed via the Internet and where most of this information is available free at the point of reading.

The FIRE Project is delivering a range of blended multi-media information.

Each FIRE Project Internet Portal serves a specific community or group of topics.

At each Internet Portal there are headline information services available specifically related to the community served by that portal. Most Internet Portals carry a news column and syndicated news feeds.

Behind the FIRE Project Internet Portals is an intelligent Central Information Resource. The CIR is made up of a colony of intelligent databases and other applications, holding the archives of information, that are available to all of the Internet Portals.

The FIRE Project is producing some advanced technology but has created Internet Portals that look comfortingly like traditional Internet websites, so that readers visiting the portals do not have to learn new skills. In fact, navigating through the archives is easier than navigation in a typical Internet website and very much faster.

The FIRE Project makes extensive use of automation techniques and this is enabling readers to contribute information to the archives without having to learn new computer skills. As a result unique archives are developing and the information is still available free to the readers.

The Artificial Intelligence systems locate related information every time a reader accesses an item of information. The reader is then able to spend as much time as is desired and mine down through the archives, guided by the AI system.