System User
		ArchNet is an exciting project being developed at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning in close cooperation with, and with the full support of The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture is a private, non-denominational, international development agency with programmes dedicated to the improvement of built environments in societies where Muslims have a significant presence. The goal of ArchNet is to create a community of architects, planners, educators, and students. The community can help each other by sharing expertise, local experience, resources, and dialogue. Members are urged to take on a pro-active role in the community. Imagine the wealth of knowledge and history created in the various schools of architecture around the world. ArchNet hopes to tap that knowledge and provide a mechanism by which these valuable tools can be disseminated. ArchNet will provide an extensive, high-quality, globally accessible, intellectual resource focused on architecture and planning issues and includes restoration, conservation, housing, landscape, and related concerns. It is to be achieved by providing on an accessible server, images, Geographic Information System and Computer-Aided Design databases, a searchable text library, bibliographical reference databases, online lectures, curricular materials, papers, essays, and reviews, discussion forums and statistical information. The structure will be designed to offer each user a personal workspace tailored to his or her individual needs. From this space, they will be able to contribute their own findings and research to the larger site. The website will aim to foster close ties between institutions and between users. Through the use of online forums, chat rooms, and debates, it is hoped that the site can encourage and promote discussions amongst participants. ArchNet will be accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. It will be a bottom-up system, in which information will eventually flow directly from the user to a continually expanding database which can be shared by all. The system will be designed to promote ready intercommunication and maintenance of an international scholarly community of ArchNet members. ArchNet is envisaged as a borderless network of institutions contributing to, and learning from each other, which would have considerable influence in the way that architects and planners are educated and practice. New computer and telecommunication technologies have great potential for supporting communication and collaboration among architectural and planning students, faculty, scholars, and practitioners throughout the world. ArchNet will provide opportunities for realising that potential. Membership is free and your personal information will be kept confidential. Registration only takes a few moments and is necessary for those who would like the ability to be able to contribute to ArchNet. Members can contribute by adding their individual image collections and files in their personal workspace; they can add events to the Digital Calander; post a topic or a response in the Discussion Forum; create a Group Workspace with other members from around the globe; work with their institution to create an Institution Workspace to make student work and faculty research available to the larger community; and, add to the academic directory or link to web resources in the Reference Section of the Digital Library. To find out more how you can contribute please go to the Help Module. Site Structure (pdf) || Site Access (pdf) Legal Notes Contact ArchNet