Native American Herbal Tea Company Finds Customers Using Latest Video Technology
The Commerce Department's innovative video technology program enabled the Native American Herbal Tea Company in Aberdeen, SD, to conclude agreements with two European companies that will open hundreds of outlets in Europe. "As a rural-based company, this technology allows us to compete against more experienced firms who tend to be more familiar with the nuances of conducting trade," said company President Richard Vallie.

Find a Nursing Home Online on the Medicare Website
Good for the Health Care Financing Administration! It's set up a website just for Medicare. You'll even find a version in Spanish. One exciting new feature is a database called Nursing Home Compare. It contains information on every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home in the country. You can locate nursing homes in your area and find information about compliance with Medicare and Medicaid regulations.

Uncommon System for Naming Species Answers Common Need--and It's on the Internet
"Taxonomy has an honored history in science," said Roy McDiarmid of the US Geological Survey, "but the time had come to make this technical specialty more accessible to a broad public and scientific audience." Five other federal agencies agreed and in 1998 they won Vice President Gore's Hammer Award for developing the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. "...we believe it will make an important contribution in understanding the array of life forms that share the globe with us."

Federal Computer Week: Using Technology to Reinvent for Results
As director of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government, Morley Winograd serves as custodian of the Vice President's vision to empower citizens through technology. Winograd said Access America, which is a core NPR plan to deploy commonly requested services online through kiosks and similar systems, is the best example in the program of putting technology into service for the public interest.

National Library of Medicine Announces High-Technology Medical Awards to Support 24 Next Generation Internet Projects
If you think the Information Highway can do a lot now, just look at what's coming down the pike in the medical field. The National Library of Medicine has announced awards to support the Next Generation Internet (NGI) program. "The availability of the NGI will lead to a whole new set of applications that are based on the ability to control, feel, and manipulate devices at a distance, said Michael J. Ackerman, Ph.D., coordinator of the projects. "To get an idea of what we foresee, one need only read the terms used in the descriptions of the projects: telepresence, tele-immersion, teletrauma, telemammography, internetworking, and nomadic computing." NGI, announced in the fall of 1996, combines the resources of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, NASA, and the National Library of Medicine.