Called bized, the new service can be found on the Internet, and reached via your computer and modem. It is said to be easy and fast to access, and aims to become the definitive Internet educational business information service.

The information it will carry can be saved on to your computer or on disc and will include: company case studies and briefings; macroeconomic statistics, including UK share prices, key financial figures from leading UK companies; data tables for 152 countries and a talk-back feature which allows users to contribute.

Bized will also provide answers from leading companies to questions students typically ask, and has a section on resources for teachers and directions to other interesting sites, with advice on how to access them.

Directories will include curriculum development projects such as the Nuffield-BP Economics and Business Project and the Economics and Business Education Association (EBEA) Economics 16-19 Project; publishers and subject associations. Updating is planned to occur on a daily basis. In addition to the Body Shop, contributors include BMW, BP, BT, the Central Statistical Office, the Inland Revenue and the Financial Times.

Bized was initiated by the EBEA and is hosted by the University of Bristol. A non-profit making service, it is managed by a consortium which includes the publishers Blackwell, Education and Youth and Norfolk County Council.

The site was created with education, not sales, in mind, says Anita Roddick. “Students know they are going to be able to find real honest information and not some marketing hype or corporate propaganda that you find on many a company’s web site,” she says.

Carolyn O’Grady * For further information contact: Richard Young, Business Education on the Internet, Centre for Computer in the Social Science, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN. Tel: 0117 928 8478.The bized net site address is http:bisednet.bris.ac.uk:8080Stand F30