What does EXPONET mean?

What does EXPONET mean?  -  http://www.exponet.info/index.php?lng=EN

EXPONET – virtual philatelic exhibition – is an Internet space designed for storing, exhibiting, searching and studying the electronically displayed philatelic material (exhibits). You find here number of interesting philatelic presentations that can introduce and document various areas of philately together with many competitive exhibits (prepared according to the rules of FIP), often highly rated on regular exhibitions. EXPONET is a non-competitive exhibition promoting the philately as well as inspiriting and instructing the visitors to create own stamp exhibits. For exhibitors it is a way how to simply present their collecting and study results and display them to the philatelic public. In contrast to the physical stamp exhibitions, the exhibits are permanently placed at EXPONET without any damage to the exhibited materials. The virtual exhibition is available to visitors from around the world with an easy access from their home or during the trips. EXPONET contains both the currently existing as well as older no more existing exhibits.

Basic functions of EXPONET
The new EXPONET solution has been especially aimed at the user-friendly searching and displaying of the virtual exhibits. You can select a proper language for communication (currently Czech, English and German, but it is possible to add another ones). Homepage gives you a direct access to the most recently supplemented or updated exhibits.
The most important way of searching the exhibits follows your philatelic interest and combines up to four basic criteria simultaneously: territory, subject, time period and EXPONET exhibition class. These criteria are further divided into three levels enabling an easy short-listing of the researched exhibits to each visitor. The result should be a list of exhibits matching your expectations about what you want to see. If you click on the title of any exhibit, you select it and immediately see its preview (see also Browsing of an exhibit).

For better orientation we recommend that visitors first get acquainted a little with the structure of the selection criteria.
Territorial classification – means the territory significantly treated in the exhibit. The top level of the criteria has been reserved for the continents followed by the individual states, their groups and regions in lower levels, considering the regional units or time frame of the particular territory. The territories with a larger number of exhibits (placed in EXPONET) have been structured in more details, respecting historical-political development (territorial and time focused one).
(See Selection of exhibits by territory)
Subject classification – includes the basic classification by philatelic subjects considering all postal history, postal products, as well as in thematic topics. The potential interconnections of the traditional, postal history and even thematic exhibits have been considered.
(See Selection of exhibits by subject)
Time period – the top classification considers three time periods defined by the milestones of UPU foundation in 1874 and the WWII end in 1945. These three periods has been further divided into shorter time eras.
(See Selection of exhibits by time period)

EXPONET exhibition class – this criterion has been primarily based on the generally used exhibition classes at regular philatelic exhibitions, but it was necessary to modify slightly the classes to highlight the fact, that not all the exhibits displayed at EXPONET are the competitive exhibits exactly matching the criteria for standard philatelic exhibitions. This affects also older (originally competitive) exhibits created years ago not complying with the currently valid regulations. In addition, a number of competitive exhibits was assigned to different exhibition classes on the different stamp show and their unique classification might be therefore difficult. We also see EXPONET as a perfect place for presentation of the special exhibits created for an explanation of certain philatelic area or for promotion of philately. Therefore we use a special term “EXPONET exhibition class” to prevent any misunderstanding about the exhibit classification. The size of the exhibit has not been considered important at a top level of this criterion. The size of the displayed presentations you can choose in the lower level and select one-frame exhibits next to 5-frame or even many-frame ones. Similarly, the Youth exhibits are not differentiated at the top level of searching, but are available at the lower level.
(See Selection of exhibits by EXPONET class)

EXPONET respects the fact that some of the displayed exhibits can not be simply categorized into a defined structure, no matter how precise it is. That is why we use multiple criteria classification more or less matching the visitors´ expectations for each exhibit. Our goal was a flexible selection and access to the exhibits allowing application of different points of view including the exhibits meeting the required criteria only partially. We recommend to all the visitors to make themselves familiar with the EXPONET selection criteria structure for better orientation.

Searching for exhibits
To search for exhibits, use one of the options in menu at the top of the left column of the screen. For more information and tips see SEARCHING FOR EXHIBITS ON EXPONET.

Browsing of an exhibit
For a description of the options for watching exhibits, see BROWSING EXHIBITS ON EXPONET.

Explanation of some specific terms of EXPONET

What does it mean EXPONET exhibition class?
EXPONET exhibition class is based on the generally used exhibition classes at regular philatelic exhibitions, but it was necessary to slightly modify the classes to accept the fact, that not all the exhibits displayed at EXPONET are the competitive exhibits exactly matching the criteria for standard philatelic exhibitions. This affects also older (originally competitive) exhibits created years ago not complying with the currently valid regulations. In addition, a number of competitive exhibits were assigned to different exhibition classes on the different stamp show and their unique classification might be therefore difficult. We also see EXPONET as a perfect place for presentation of the special exhibits created on purpose for an explanation of certain philatelic areas or for promotion of philately. Therefore we use a special term “EXPONET exhibition class” to prevent any misunderstanding about the exhibit classification. The size of the exhibit is not limited by the FIP competition rules, and therefore you can find both exhibits of the standard range (5 or 8 frames of 16 sheets) or one-frame exhibits as well as a much larger ones.

What does it mean exhibit registration number?
The exhibit registration number identifies the exhibit. It is mainly used for system administration, but may be also used by regular visitor, when he (she) repeatedly visits the same exhibit – allows its quick finding. Its numeric value is displayed in the upper part of the exhibit. It also matches with an old EXPONET...
http://www.exponet.info/index.php?lng=EN