PackInfo-World will enable the worldwide packaging community to take full advantage of new opportunities made available by global electronic commerce. PackInfo-World will strengthen and accelerate technology transfer, improve technical and business communications, facilitate cooperative ventures nationally and internationally, accelerate industry growth, create a monolithic image of the industry to the world, and empower each participating individual, company and organization by providing instant access to a plethora of information, goods, services, and other business resources that will increase professionalism, productivity and profitability.

It is our goal to emphasis content over form. We desire to provide a true forum to exchange information about the packaging industry. We do not want to become just a "Packaging Mall" where suppliers display their wares. Some of this information will be provided by organizations and companies, but the heart of the present will be a series of discussions groups, called PackTalk, where individuals can ask questions, announce new capabilities, or describe solutions to problems. These discussions will be maintained and indexed over time. Individuals will be able to search these discussions to find areas of interest.

PackInfo-World is being developed under a joint effort of the World Packaging Organisation and the Institute of Packaging Professionals.

Packaging concerns are global in nature with many similar or related problems through out the world. For this reason, the World Packaging Organisation has specifically designed PackInfo-World to address the international nature of the packaging industry today. But there are also specific national issues and concerns which only apply to national or regional areas. PackInfo-World has also developed a national forum below the international level to address these areas of speciality interests. At the current time, the national forum is directed toward the United States, and sponsored by the Institute of Packaging Professionals. This US national forum is called PackInfo-World/US.

The concept envisioned by the WPO is for PackInfo-World to provide an umbrella framework over the international forum, with individual national organizations providing local forums. Information will be shared and exchanged. The prototype of this organization is in place and operational. It is the goal of the WPO to replicate the equivalent of PackInfo-World/US in other counties and regions as both the need and information become available in these areas.

PackInfo-World is an emerging concept which has yet to be fully developed. The concept of a information forum which is both free to the user without being dominated by advertisers has never been tried quite like this. We want to encourage individuals, companies, and organization to participate in this exchange of ideas and information. We want to make it easily and inexpensive. We want to help get people on-line with a minimum of computer expertise.

Two important features we are working on are specifically designed to assist people and organizations to more fully participate in the PackInfo-World concept.

First, we plan to develop a procedure for anyone involved in the packaging industry worldwide to develop their own world wide web at no cost, and to host this page within the a part of the PackInfo-World structure.

Second, and more importantly, we will be working with the various national organizations in each country to replicate a national information forum to enhance that countries' competitiveness in the global packaging community.