Hg-net Mercury Network

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(for/para: Hg-net Red Mercurio; si has configurado tu idioma preferido, utilice el selector de idiomas arriba)

The "Hg-net - Mercury Network" ( Hg-net (external link)

) - created in 1997 - had been one of the first thematic and bilingue networks dealing with artisanal mining in the Internet, mainly focusing on adequate mercury use by artisanal mining.

Nine years have passed since the creation of the Hg-net, nine years during which the Internet has evolved and changed. In it's early days, the Hg-net was just a single webpage with a listing of all member's email addresses, and email was the main networking tool: between members and with guests. In these days the Internet had still less than 10 million webpages and "Spam" wasn't an issue.

Later in the 2000 and according with it's growth, the Hg-net evolved to an interactive website, driven by own custom-made software (powerful opensource tools were not yet available). But several of the interactive features of Geco were already available to users. As the Internet became a increasingly a wild junge, full of viruses and troyans, it became more and more dificult to maintain the custom-software; with downscaled limited interactive features the Hg-net was condemned to lose leadership - and to disappear sooner or later.

The objectives of the Hg-net were:

free information exchange about use and effects of mercury, with special emphasis on small scale gold mining;
help to distribute results of investigations and projects;
join efforts, avoid duplicate activities and optimize resources.

All three goals fit perfectly into the wider and more integral scope of the Geco Platform. The third objective in particular calls for "joining efforts and avoid duplicate activities".

Thus, as the former "administrator" of the Hg-net, I've taken the decision to propose the "official"closure of the Hg-net, and to integrate (during the next weeks) the Hg-net files into the Geco (no information will be lost). This might allow for a re-animation of networking on a new, wider and more stable platform and within a wider approach. As such, the closure of the Hg-net is by no means a "funeral", it is more of a "resurrection" by integration and fusion with the Geco Platform.

I'll try to contact (in the next weeks) all former members of the Hg-net, inviting them to join and support the initiative of the new Geco Platform (in case they still work on this topic).

Best regards,
Felix