This had aroused much interest in the future style of international meetings among scientists. At the second Congress held in December 1995, the access numbers exceeded 120,000. The first and second Congress were organized by Mie University School of Medicine. However, it has proven to be difficult for one medical school to accommodate many participants. We realized that it was necessary to have support from a variety of institutions to hold the virtual meetings on the Internet.
Scientists can save their precious time and budget if they exchange information electronically.
So, they may be expected to exchange scientific information more often on the Internet than through conventional meetings. Many scientists have also started to use the Internet for their scientific activities. The present meeting is the first one outside Japan, and possibly the first such event organized in North America.