Walrus suicide. Once you get past giggling over the Monty Python-esque absurdity of it, you have to wonder. Could it be the cold water? The unending diet of oily fish? The daily humiliation of carrying those tusks?

These are questions begging to be asked as one sits in on an exn story meeting. The producers are talking about what they’re up to. There are features in progress on whether forensic science can determine if Edgar Allan Poe really died of rabies rather than his legendary love of alcohol; on the linguistic evolution of Klingon, which now has its own dictionary; on the Galapagos-like qualities of Pelee Island; and, of course, on the recent developments causing large numbers of walrus to hurl themselves over cliffs to their deaths. It’s definitely not National Geographic, and it’s online.

Back in the dark ages of 1994, when the word ‘cyber’ was thankfully a little less in vogue, Discovery Channel Canada was the first Canadian broadcaster to launch a Web site. www.discovery.ca logs an average of one million user sessions a month, but as of the 13th minute of the 13th hour on Oct. 31, the first Discovery Canada site will be joined by exn, Exploration Network which features a theme park area with high interactivity hopes.

When Labatt Communications divested ownership of tsn, rds and Discovery to NetStar in March, the crtc required expenditures by the new owners, including a new $6.9 million western broadcast center in b.c., two new mobile production vehicles totaling $10 million, and the development of a new Web site for Discovery. exn fulfills that commitment.

At a cost of $5 million over five years, exn has a mandate to become the most popular Canadian Web site for information on science, technology, adventure and the natural world. The broadcaster has spent $1 million for start-up, including the purchase of a designated Avid suite, a Beta-quality digital camcorder and video server, and nine new full-time people working in what the new exners like to call their ‘holodeck.’

The staff, who have been developing the content and technology since June, includes five producers and a senior producer, a graphic illustrator, scheduler and Internet co-ordinator.

Sinking such costly resources into the still largely uncharted revenue-generating ability of the Web is not without risk. Ken Murphy, Discovery’s vp of production and administration, says, at the onset, a combination of advertising and sponsorship will be the means by which exn returns some of the expenditure.

‘It’s still not clear how we’re going to garner revenue, or if,’ says Murphy. He doesn’t, however, rule out the possibility of subscription, should exn prove popular enough, or the site’s potential ability to draw new viewers for Discovery.

‘By year three or four, when we understand the model better, we hope to see that there’s a business in it,’ he says. ‘We believe that if the site is fun and exciting, if there’s sufficient media interest, it might play a role in stimulating people to watch Discovery programming.’

While most broadcaster Web sites are primarily higher-tech viewer’s guides, a way of drawing audience traffic, Discovery intends exn to be a different sort of animal. Some of the content will hinge on or expand upon Discovery programming, but the team of ‘cyber-journalists’ will be producing original material daily, material which will be found only on exn. Down the road, as exn evolves, it’s suspected that www.discovery.ca will shift focus and serve as more of a straight programming guide.

exn, as users will experience it on Oct. 31, will have three primary areas. The news section will feature short science news stories, updated daily. Augmented as necessary by digital images and audio and video files, the stories will expand upon existing news which might not get much airtime or ink in the traditional media. The team hopes to eventually break stories of their own.

The second part of the news section includes features – comprehensive and investigative reports giving a different spin to issues which may or may not have appeared on Discovery.

‘If we’re looking at a story that was inspired by a Discovery story, it’s important that we remember our medium,’ says Bruce Cowley, senior producer. ‘We have to look at the essentials and how we can apply it to the site. Sometimes stories that make it on @discovery (Discovery’s flagship science newsmagazine) won’t work for us.’

The online medium poses interesting possibilities for traditional journalists. One reporter, researching and comparing the science and ethics behind two new abortion drugs, notes that the ability to hotlink her feature to specific scientific studies and reports adds great depth for readers looking for a comprehensive overview.

All features and news will be archived on the site and searchable by headline and key words. The team hopes that exn will become an authoritative source of information for researchers, and quirky enough to attract those with only a casual interest in science.

The second area of the site is the yet-to-be-titled theme park, featuring interactive games and quizzes. exn hopes partnerships with entities like Environment Canada, the Canadian Space Agency and the National Research Council will result in leading-edge interactive components showcasing java, Shockwave, video, real audio and vrml.

Discovery Link-Up will be the site’s third segment, featuring The Red Chair (which features discussion groups, message boards, viewer mail and the ability to find out what’s on Discovery right now in your time zone) and EXN Link-Up.

EXN Link-Up will complement programming on Discovery. As an example, for the channel’s new aviation series FlightPath, EXN Link-Up will provide an archive of aviation information as well as links to aviation pages from around the world.

There will be another build-up for a big exn launch in January to coincide with a new season of Discovery programming. In the meantime, the team will be ironing out bugs and building more content.

‘We’re hoping someone’s going to break it between now and January,’ says Internet co-ordinator Kim Silk-Copeland. ‘Then we can see how the system handles lots of hits.’

No doubt, everyone’s going to be logging in to find out about those poor walrus. You can find exn at www. exn.net.