http://www.ums.ac.uk

For the past few months the Ulster Medical Society has had a presence on the worldwide web. It was not launched with any ceremony and so far it is not listed by a Google search but it is there. The site has been kept simple to ease construction and the pages have been kept small to reduce loading times. Only 50% of web surfers will wait more than 8 seconds for a page to download and while we would hope and expect that the Fellows and Members of the Ulster Medical Society would be prepared to wait longer than that to access their society's website, we would not wish to put off non-members who might happen by. So what will the members and the non-members find at ums.ac.uk? There are four main sections which deal respectively with the Ulster Medical Society, the Ulster Medical Journal, local medical history, and other local medical societies. The first section is more or less complete and contains a brief description of the Society along with more detailed information about the annual programme, membership, administration and contacts. This section and the others will be kept up to date as necessary. The second section is very similar but there is one major innovation-starting with that from the last issue (Vol 71 No. 2) the editorial content of the journal has been made freely available for download article by article. The downloads ise the portable document format (PDF) which means they can be viewed and printed in a consistent manner on many different types of computer. The third section currently contains a few pages dealing with people, places and organisations but clearly this section could be expanded enormously. Some articles are complete but longer ones are offered as a precis on the website with the whole being available for download. Very long items such as the Transactions of the Belfast Clinical and Pathological Society are offered as a download only. Local medical historians are welcome to contact the site maintainer to coordinate the development of this section. The fourth section has not really got off the ground but a framework is in place and if local medical societies would like to submit some information about themselves it can be considered for publication. Details are on the website. The Society's site should be useful and be used. You are invited to view it and offer your criticisms and …