About

The project - www.arcticportal.org

 

The Arctic Portal provides a comprehensive gateway to the Arctic on the internet, increases co-operation between both public and private parties across the Arctic and grants exposure to Arctic related information.

 

The Arctic Portal is an endorsed IPY-Project nr. 388 lead by Iceland’s Senior Arctic Official in consultation and co-operation with other members of the Arctic Council and its Working Groups, Permanent Participants, Northern Forum, UArctic, The Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, The Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of Roshydromet, The International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry and others.

 

Initially, it was mainly focused on the needs of the Arctic Council and its working groups and it is already functioning as such, with an integrated calendar of events, integrated document library and an integrated project directory, advanced search, interactive mapping, homepages for AC projects, etc.

 

The initiative has received wide support among parties that deal with Arctic and Nordic matters, professionals, institutions and politicians.

 

 

IPY Legacy

 

The Arctic Portal is now being broadened, with IPY providing an important focus for its development in coming years. An agreement has been made with the IPY International Programme Office on using the Arctic Portal as a venue for IPY activities and projects providing integrated calendar, web-casting, project websites and workspaces, data management, mapping portal and other functions.

 

The results of IPY projects will be introduced on the Arctic Portal, keeping it open as an interactive instrument for follow-up IPY-activities, education and outreach. The aim is to create a venue in hyperspace at the disposal of the Arctic Community, which would become a part of the IPY legacy. As a result some important IPY projects have set up their internet presence on the Portal, including: Arctic Hydra; Elat; Kuuvik River Expedition and APECS.  Teachers within IPY is currently in the process of being incorporated and more have requested assistance.

 

Firm long-term co-operation has been formed with important IPY projects and organisations including but not limited to IPY Canada, IPY Russia and Team-IPY USA.

 

The Arctic Portal was the host for web-casting from numerous IPY opening ceremonies on and around March 1. 2007 and recordings from these events can be accessed and viewed on the Portal.

 

 

New Websites on the Portal

 

In the past months some important partners have joined the Arctic Portal, establishing their web presence through the Portal. These include: IASC - International Arctic Science Committee; ICR - The International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry; APCES – Association of Polar Early Career Scientists; CBMP – The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program and AMSA – Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment.

 

Many other projects and groups are in the process of creating a presence on the portal including IPY projects, as well as the Teachers within IPY, and last but not least the Northern Forum.

 

In the process of enabling partners to utilize fully the opportunities of the Portal staff from ICR in Norway, Yukon First Nations in Canada and IASC Secretariat in Sweden have been to Akureyri for training and sharing of knowledge. This has proved highly valuable for better co-operation and has in both cases helped speed up the setup face and helped the Partner increase the value of their website.  Similar training sessions have taken place with the co-ordinators of APECS at their meeting in Stockholm and by using virtual tools.

 

 

Special events on the Portal

 

Web-casting is becoming and important venue for communicating special events to the wider audience. The Arctic Portal has facilitated numerous virtual events over the past months which are now available on the Portal for viewing. These include: numerous events in co-operation with ICR and the Saami Council; Breaking the Ice conference in Akureyri; APECS workshop in Stockholm and now most recently the Arctic Energy Summit. Upcoming is web-casting the major IPY event in St. Petersburg, Russia in July 2008 in co-operation with IASC.

 

The Arctic Portal will be the venue for the Northern Research Forum, a biannual venue which is now sponcered for the next 4 years by the Icelandic companies Eimskip and Glitnir in co-operation with the University of Akureyri. 

 

ICR has recently signed an agreement in Russia which grants access to mapping data throughout the Russian north. The Arctic Portal interactive mapping tool will be used for the presentation and interpretation. The first map, covering the district of Yamal, is already up on the Portal. Further data covering Northern Norway and Finland, which has been identified and adapted, is to be included soon.

 

The Northern Forum has provided the Arctic Portal very valuable mapping data, especially from its Russian partners, which is currently being adapted for us in the Mapping Portal. Co-operation is being established directly with the Russian partners, through the initiative of the Northern Forum.

 

 

Next development phases include:

 

Websites to more IPY projects will be provided with Web-casting from IPY venues and enhanced use of the Interactive Mapping Portal contributing to the success of the International Polar Year. Tools will be further developed to post and present interactive data with emphasis on IPY projects as well as Arctic Council projects making them accessible and visible throughout and thus aiding their scope of education and outreach.

A “Virtual Classroom” will be developed, creating a tool for Education and Outreach in the Arctic, focusing on interactive communication, Web-casting and Internet based Conferencing and interactive graphical tools and maps in education in co-operation with the UArctic,  the Teachers of IPY, the Northern Forum, Indigenous Groups and others.

- Development of an IPY Hyperspace Venue

 

- Web Cast, Web Conferencing, Web Presentations, Forums, etc.

 

- Language conversions

- Coordination and content retrieval from low-tech websites

- Dissemination of information on Global Warming

- Development of an educational and outreach tool

 

- Interactive Mapping with accumulating data……..

 

The Arctic Portal will assist and enable groups with limited financial capabilities to make information available to others across the glob.

 

 

The company

 

The non-profit company Nordurslodagattin ses – Arcticportal, has been established as the operator of the Arctic Portal, based in Akureyri, Iceland.

 

The board of the company is:

 

Ragnar Baldursson, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland, Arctic Affairs, Chair;

 

Jon Haukur Ingimarsson, Steffansson Institute, Iceland;

 

Lars Kullerud, University of the Arctic, Norway;

 

Dr. David Hik, Executive Director, Canadian International Polar Year Secretariat, Canada;

 

Kristján Kristjánsson, Chairman of IASC,

 

Halldor Johannsson, Arctic Portal Project Manager, Iceland.

 

 

Funding

 

The Arctic Portal has received funding to date from:

 

Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Icelandic Ministry of Industry, The Township of Akureyri; The University of Akureyri, The Nordic Ministerial Fund, CAFF, PAME, IASC and Statoil.

 

The Arctic Portal is looking for long-term sponsorship which provides the means to establish it as a major venue for Arctic affairs on the internet.