Y2Kwebcast.com, a guide to live Web-based video and audio, debuted this week with streaming video and audio links to large and small Year 2000 celebrations around the world.

Developed by the nonprofit International Webcasting Association (IWA), the Millennium Web site offers a free one-stop central multimedia portal for visitors to experience a multitude of New Year celebrations. Events occurring in all time zones may be seen by clicking on the appropriate hour (broken down into Greenwich Mean Time/GMT).

While the Y2K site celebrates the Millennium, it also showcases streaming audio and video technology from international broadcasters, individual companies, organizations, and individuals.

"Webcasting will bring home the unique impact of the Millennium to Internet users in every part of the world," said Tom Britt, chairman of the IWA's "Y2KWebcast" initiative, and CEO of Channelseek. "This Web site is both a celebration of how we celebrate this unique benchmark in human history -- and a rallying point for the streaming media industry to showcase its extraordinary advances to the world."

Events for the New Years Eve (December 31) are being assembled daily. Some events now listed on the Y2K Web site include:

• Office Workers Y2K Party -- "The greatest party of the century" with music, classic movies, chat rooms moderated by BindView.(English)
• Eastern Europe-East European Live TV Webcast 2000-TV stations from Romania, Moldavia, Hungary and Serbia (English).
• Cairo, Egypt -- "The 12 Dreams of the Sun," a Millenium night extravaganza from the pyramids in Egypt, performed by outdoor performance master Jean Michel Jarre.
• San Francisco, California -- Treasure Island Oldies Show -- the New Year's Eve Rock & Roll Party of the Century.
• Tonga, South Pacific -- The First Millennium Party-Ring in the new millennium in the Kingdom of Tonga, the first country to see the year 2000.
• Orlando, Florida -- MGM Studios at Disney World. -- The Millennium Countdown at Walt Disney World with live performances from Cheap Trick, STYX, LFO, and Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Paris, France -- Eiffel Tower live Webcam. A view of Paris as the Millennium dawns in the City of Lights

The International Webcasting Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the art, science and business of Webcasting over the Internet. Sponsorships and donations made to the "Y2KWebcast" initiative are supporting the newly formed "International Webcast Foundation" that will support educational and other worthwhile webcasting proposals worldwide.

Founding sponsors of the initiative are: Channelseek, GMV Networks, INTERVU and Microsoft. These companies are all IWA members and support the advancement and adoption of webcasting worldwide.