Between GIN and TWIN: meeting the information needs of the Third World

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Abstract
A hard‐fought victory for the developing countries at the UN Conference on Science and Technology for Development is the accord on the establishment of a Global Information Network (GIN). However, due to the lack of interest on the part of the industrialized countries and absence of financial support, it seems that GIN will remain a paper agreement. But even if GIN was established, it would do little to fulfil the real science information needs of the Third World. A better alternative for the developing countries would be to share locally produced science and technology information amongst themselves and develop a Third World Information Network (TWIN) to meet their specific needs and requirements. There are indications that such a system is randomly evolving in the Middle East.