We have encountered a number of new, challenging, and at times perplexing concerns and questions as we developed our World Wide Web (WWW) site and prepared this issue of Impact.

Should we send kids to the dark side of the Internet?
As we began to prepare this issue of Impact, we wanted to know how youth were using the WWW. Were they looking for information about alcohol and other drugs? Were they visiting chat rooms and communicating with people throughout the world? Did they know about the explicit sexual graphics and content at some sites? Were they learning about alcohol, tobacco and other drugs from information available at the many sites that directly deal with those substances? We knew that youth could find the pro drug use information available on the WWW just as easily as we did. We wondered about the ethics of inviting students to explore these sites if they were not already aware of them. We chose to survey and interview students instead of asking them to explore sites we knew would encourage high risk actions.

Should we include links to sites that support messages counter to our beliefs?
Early in our eloration of alcohol specific information disseminated through the Internet we discovered that some of the most interesting sites were sponsored by producers of alcohol. We guessed that some of these sites might also be very intriguing to young people. The only restriction to accessing some of these sites is a statement appearing on the screen informing the user that they must be 21 years or older to enter. (We guessed that this might not be enough of a deterrent for some youth.) This led us to another question to consider... Should our WWW site link to these sites prepared by the alcohol industry? We decided to provide information about these sites in Using the Internet: A Guide to Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Prevention Resources, a publication for prevention professionals and advocates, but not link to these sites directly through our WWW site.

What percentage of our communications budget and time should be committed to telecommunications?
Choosing to design, develop and maintain a WWW site requires financial and human resources. Many of the Minnesota Institute of Public Health (MIPH) projects, including MPRC and the Star of the North Prevention Coalition have adjusted budgets and staffing to ensure that this new service can be easily accessed, provide current and helpful information, and be professionally maintained. We believe that our current investment of time and energy will soon begin to pay dividends by allowing us to provide information more efficiently and quickly to many of our clients. We anticipate significant value of our WWW site to be realized in the very near future.

How do we ensure the same quality assurance standards for our WWW site information that we expect from our printed communication mediums?
In order to ensure that our electronic communications are accurate, well designed and easily used, we have developed specific quality assurance standards that will be followed whenever new information and resources are added to the MIPH WWW site. We expect that our electronic services will be of the same quality that we seek to maintain with our print materials. We know that there will be more questions and issues to consider as we move forward with our telecommunications efforts. We are excited by the possibilities and respectful of the challenges presented by the Internet. Come visit us at http://www.miph.org and let us know if we're meeting your needs