Started four years ago, as a 100 per cent British Government funded organisation, One World has slowly become autonomous seeking more funds from corporate sources. Also, One World earns through its advertisers and its NGO partners, who pay an annual maintenance fee for hosting their site on the One World portal.

One World had only a few Indian NGOs listed on its portal site. So it wanted to increase the presence of NGOs from different parts of the world. And with the launch of its India office early this year, a new page has been opened for Indian NGOs. Simultaneously, it has also opened offices in Africa and plans more in South America and south east Asia. ``By the year 2000, the mix of partners and contentsof One World will be more global,'' says Peter Armstrong, director, One World, who was recently in India.

One World spans the entire gamut of NGOs from small voluntary organisations, like Katha, which works for Delhi's slum children, to international donor agencies like Oxfam and the UK Department for International Development. ``One World receives nearly three million hits per week. It will be a high profile single window on development and human rights-related information from India,'' he says.

``This is the first such venture in India that will give a platform to all partner organisations, environmentalists and other people working on sustainable development,'' says Armstrong.

One World, he says, should not be confused with an Internet service provider (ISP) like Videsh Snachar Nigam Limited. It is not a designing firm either. ``Instead of taking on the actual designing of Web pages, One World will help NGOs find cheap designing option,'' says Armstrong.

The One World Online strategy in India istwo-fold. ``The first is to increase Web content of Indian NGOs and the second is to train NGOs in the creation, hosting and maintenance of Web sites,'' says Anuradha Vettachi, co-director of One World.

The first goal of increasing the Web presence of Indian NGOs includes a three-stage build up--training voluntary organisations in the use of the Net, Web content creation and upkeeping; bringing them on as One World partners and ensuring they update their sites; and highlighting their material on different parts of the One World supersite. Since the launch of the country office, One World has already found six new Indian NGOs to become One World partners, Armstrong says.

The second prong of the strategy is is training, says Armstrong. One World will train 10 personnel from partner NGOs throughout the country so that each organisation will have staff members who can independently manage the organisation's Web site. ``This training includes designing individual pages, putting links, building the site andfinally uploading it to an Internet server,'' says Armstrong. By the end of the year the aim is to train 25 people all over the country, he adds.

The organisation will also build up an independent resource group of freelance Web designers who can work with the NGOs and provide them with inexpensive Web solutions.

The One World community is already 400-strong, and with the India office adding to it, One World hopes to increase its tribe.