[huridocs-tech] HURISEARCH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact:
Peter Gorman (U.S.)
+1 781 304 2495
pr@fastsearch.com
Sven Arne Gylterud (Europe)
+47 23 01 12 75


HURIDOCS DEPLOYS FAST ENTERPRISE SEARCH PLATFORM TO POWER GLOBAL HUMAN 
RIGHTS NETWORK

FAST's Powerful Search Platform to Support International Exchange of Human 
Rights Information and Resources

OSLO, Norway­7 June 2004­Fast Search & Transfer™ (FAST™), the leading 
developer of enterprise search and real-time alerting technologies, 
announced today that HURIDOCS, a global network of human rights 
organizations and activists, has deployed a hosted application of the FAST 
Enterprise Search Platform (FAST ESP™) to power HURISEARCH 
(www.hurisearch.org), a non-profit human rights search engine.

With FAST ESP, HURISEARCH provides a single point of access to human rights 
information published by more than 1,300 non-governmental organizations 
(NGO) worldwide in 77 languages. This helps activists capitalize on a 
wealth of existing information in support of human rights.

Valuable information from human rights organizations, pertaining to 
policies, ongoing efforts, funding, and new initiatives, has become 
increasingly difficult to access. Many human rights organizations lack the 
expertise and the necessary funds to build complex web pages. As a result, 
relevant content and information from these organizations is typically 
omitted from search results or relegated to the end of search listings 
where few people look. Through its use of FAST ESP, HURISEARCH is taking 
advantage of standard ranking and indexing principles to provide its users 
the most relevant results.

"We wanted to create an un-biased, global human rights database that would 
be fed by the human rights community for the human rights community, 
providing participating organizations with all the resources they need to 
support their cause," said James Lawson, member of the Board of HURIDOCS. 
"FAST's scalable and highly-accurate enterprise search platform makes it 
easy for human rights activists to find exactly the information they need 
to make their efforts towards human rights more effective."

HURIDOCS is a global network in which human rights organizations can 
solicit advice and support, participate in training courses, forums and 
meetings, and contribute in the development of tools. Participating 
organizations include special interest groups such as women and children's 
rights groups, professional organizations such as medical practitioners or 
legal professionals, lobbying and policy centers, academic institutions, 
and some government agencies.

"For more than twenty years, HURIDOCS has strived to provide human rights 
organizations with access to the information they need to carry out their 
missions," commented John M. Lervik, FAST's chief executive officer. "FAST 
is doing its part in making the world a better place. By enhancing 
HURIDOCS' capacity to manage, share and act on information, FAST is 
supporting the organization's mission to strengthen the effectiveness and 
credibility of human rights organizations around the world."

FAST ESP is offered through the FAST Data Search™ suite of enterprise 
search solutions, which includes FAST Data Search™ for Site Search; FAST 
Data Search™ for Compliance; FAST Data Search™ for eCommerce; FAST Data 
Search™ for Intranets; FAST Data Search™ for eDirectories; and FAST Data 
Search™ 360. The FAST Data Search product suite supplies a complete 
information retrieval solution ideal for key vertical markets and 
applications including e-Commerce and Internet Portals, Financial Services; 
Government; Life Sciences; Media and Publishing; and Telecom.


About HURIDOCS

HURIDOCS (Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, 
International), established in 1982, is a global network of human rights 
organizations concerned with human rights information. The idea of HURIDOCS 
was developed as from 1979 during informal consultations among persons 
working within international human rights organizations. They realized that 
information and communication technologies are being used by commercial 
companies and government agencies, sometimes in aid of committing human 
rights violations. They saw that the community of non-governmental human 
rights organizations needed to familiarize themselves with these tools and 
would most benefit from using them in an appropriate and compatible way. 
Please visit www.huridocs.org for more information.


About FAST

FAST creates the real-time search and filter technology solutions that are 
behind the scenes at the world's best known companies with the most 
demanding search problems. FAST's flexible and scalable integrated 
technology platform elevates the search capabilities of enterprise 
customers and connects people to the relevant information they seek 
regardless of medium. This drives revenues and reduces total cost of 
ownership by effectively leveraging IT infrastructure. FAST's powerful 
enterprise search technology solutions are used by a wide range of global 
customers and partners, including AT&T, Cardinal Health, CareerBuilder.com, 
Chordiant, CIGNA, CNET, Dell, Fidelity Investments, FirstGov.gov (GSA), 
Freeserve, IBM, Knight Ridder, LexisNexis, Overture, Rakuten, Reed 
Elsevier, Reuters, Tenet Healthcare, Thomas Industrial Networks, T-Online, 
US Army, Virgilio (Telecom Italia), and Vodafone.

FAST is a Norwegian based company publicly traded under the ticker symbol 
'FAST' on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The FAST Group operates globally with 
presence in Europe, the United States and Japan. Additionally, the FAST 
Group has business partners and customers in a number of other locations, 
such as Brazil, Canada and Australia. For further information about FAST, 
please visit www.fastsearch.com.

© 2004 Fast Search & Transfer ASA - Fast Search & Transfer, FAST, FAST Data 
Search, FAST ESP and the FAST four-colored logo are trademarks of Fast 
Search & Transfer ASA. All rights reserved. FAST disclaims any proprietary 
interest in the marks and names of others. All other trademarks mentioned 
in this document are the property of their respective owners.



========== HURIDOCS-Tech listserv ==========
Send mail intended for the list to <huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.
Archives of the list can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/maillist.php
To subscribe to the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>,
with the following text in the message: subscribe huridocs-tech
To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to <majordomo@hrea.org>,
with the following text in the message: unsubscribe huridocs-tech
If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org>.