In May 1998, I approached the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in my capacity as the Director of the Australian Science Archives Project, now the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre (Austehc), with the idea that Technology in Australia 1788-1988 would make an ideal Web publication. The Academy agreed as sales of the book had virtually ceased and only a relatively small number had been sold to libraries and interested organisations and individuals. By making the text of the original book freely available online it would be readily available to the increasing numbers of Web users, in particular the growing number of primary and secondary school teachers and students. The next task was to cost the project and locate the most appropriate funding source.

However, the vision for the project was much broader than a simple transference of the text into a Web format. Austehc saw it as an opportunity to systematically increase the coverage of Bright Sparcs Web register of people engaged in Australian science, technology and medicine, to more truly reflect the contribution of technologists, engineers, inventors and the industrialists that put these ideas into practice. Also, we saw it as an opportunity to develop our long-planned sister site to Bright Sparcs, Australian Science at Work (a Web register of Australian scientific societies, research organisations and industries engaged in research). The vision was that the comprehensive index to the book would act as a gateway to both the narrative text in Technology in Australia and the relevant entries in Bright Sparcs or Australian Science at Work.

The Academy went to the Australian Research Council (ARC), under the Learned Acadmies Special Projects Scheme with an ambitious three-year proposal that would:

• enable the development of the database and Web technologies to facilitate the publication of the book online;
• enable the ugrading of the Bright Sparcs and Australian Science at Work database and Web technologies to facilitate the interlinking of the resources;
• fund the research, writing, editing and uploading of new entries in Bright Sparcs and Australian Science at Work;
• allow the new resources to be systematically introduced to schools and across Australia and begin the process of feedback and evaluation;
• allow the new resources to be systematically introduced to the industry and research groups mentioned in the book with the view to making them more aware of their technological heritage; and
• enable Austehc to locate further archival, museum and published historical evidence that documents the achievements mentioned in the book.

By 2 May 2000, following the receipt of funding from the ARC for the first year of the project, the first two goals were achieved and the online version of the book was launched at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Acknowledgements

• Members of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, History of Technology in Australia Online Steering Committee
• Staff of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, in particular Gordon Brown and Joy Dudine
• Web Designer - Denise Sutherland
• Austehc staff - Robin Stephens, Helen Morgan and Joanne Evans
• Processors - Ailie Smith, Silvana Stephens and Susan Dennis

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering