Paper presented at the Sixth Water Information Summit: Breaking The Barriers Let Water Information Flow! Waterweb Consortium and IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre September 9-12 Delft, The Netherlands 2003. Presents a case study of the aims, development and functioning of Sanitation Connection (Sanicon) an Internet subject gateway for sanitation information. Considers aspects of Internet portals in general and the issue of information overload. Discusses the reasons for the development of Sanicon and its main design features, the usage of Internet resources, the tools available for measuring usage and the limitations of usage statistics. Considers the different ways in which content is selected and presented in Sanicon, the arrangements for editorial direction and the financial resources required for such an initiative. Presents the issues to be considered in planning an Internet-based subject gateway based on the Sanicon experience.
4. Main Portals Ltd (1999). Main portals: guide to the main internet portals.
5.
5. van Halm, Johan (2002). Information gateways. New Library World, 103 (1177) 222-224.
6.
6. Suman, M. (2002). Understanding civil society portals: online content and community models for the CSO sector. Association for Progressive Communications.
7.
7. Ibid.
8.
8. Paynter, N. (2003). Sanicon status report. F. Odhiambo. Geneva.
9.
9. Goldberg, J. (1995). Why web usage statistics are (worse than) meaningless. 2003.
10.
10. Ibid.
11.
11. van Halm, op. cit.
12.
12. WEDC and IRC (2000). Terms of reference for topic partners. Loughborough, Loughborough University, 11.
13.
13. Ibid.
14.
14. University of Nottingham (2000). OMNI guidelines for resource evaluation. OMNI, 2003. http://omni.ac.uk/agec/archive-evalguid.html.
