The industrial gas specialist Messer is now hosting a German encyclopaedia at www.gase.de focussing on oxygen, nitrogen and other gases.

With the new, free Internet encyclopaedia “GaseWiki”, Messer wants to establish a comprehensive reference work dealing with all aspects of gases and how and where they are used. The industrial gas producer's objective is to increase interest in chemistry and technology, especially amongst school and university students. Industrial gases are as important as water and power in the production of a large number of products, and they are used in an environmentally friendly way which conserves resources. “We have consciously chosen a knowledge platform on the Internet,” says Diana Buss, spokesperson of the Messer Group. “This medium's speed and diversity often means that learners prefer it to classical reference works. Nonetheless, we still value the latter, of course, and will continue to support publishing houses with our contributions.”

Large and small competitors on the market are also requested to pass on their general knowledge of the production and application of industrial gases in “GaseWiki”. As the provider, Messer has decided to include a neutral logo on the encyclopaedia's web pages. The aim of this is to encourage other industrial gas producers to fulfil the common, corporate educational mission which companies in Germany have. “GaseWiki” is available on the Internet to all users free of charge at http://www.gase.de. This URL had previously been used for Messer's German subsidiary – which has operated under the name Messer Industriegase Deutschland since May 2008 – while a contractual ban on using the brand still applied.

“GaseWiki” lives through knowledge

In no way is “GaseWiki” attempting to compete with its bigger role model “Wikipedia”. “GaseWiki” is a collection of pages intended to be brought to life by their use to pass on knowledge of topics relating to gases. Every visitor can do more than just read the pages: they can also alter them and add new pages. In addition, topics and words in “GaseWiki” can also be linked to other Wikis on the net.