The GOLD system addresses teachers, school heads, students and parents and creates the conditions for the circulation of teaching experiences, materials produced by the schools and School Educational Plans (the school year programme) (Piani dell'Offerta Formativa - POF) .
GOLD is a database with specific functions that can be used by schools to propose their own experiences and products.
On the basis of established significant criteria published in Internet, experiences will be examined by groups of experts of territorial centres or of Regional Institutes for Educational Research (Istituti Regionali per la Ricerca Educativa - IRRE), according to a distribution on the territory that is still to be defined also in relation to the reform processes of the Italian school system. Schools that receive approval of their experiences will be assigned a password so that they can put their experience and all related materials directly on line and update it if their experience goes on.
The GOLD system is subdivided into different and independent sections with specific softwares and documentation standards.
It originates form a series of experiences, projects (MM project - European SchoolNet) and international collaborations (ISPRA) which have been activated by the BDP in the last few years.
GOLD represents the systemic structure, the standards, instruments, methods and services developed by the BDP and available for all Italian schools.

The system proposes the recurrent concept of "documentation units". Indeed, The GOLD system defines a series of information resources represented by the documentary units related to the "innovative knowledge" produced by the schools and reorganised in order to be disseminated, consulted and used in particular by the schools (not only teachers and school heads, but also students).

Three typologies of resources have been identified:

1. Plans of Educational Offer (Piani dell'Offerta Formativa-POF)
2. Teaching experiences
3. Teaching materials

The GOLD system can represent, just to use a metaphors, "the mine of ideas", "the deposit of row material" which keeps the industry of knowledge alive. This industry is supposed to make products that don't present the same characteristics, it is rather expected to enhance and underline the diversity and the peculiarities of the various experiences.

• Research functions on documents, materials and products that have been selected as very significant. Such functions are available for all Internet users.
• Updating functions on line of documents, materials and products. Such functions is available only for schools that have been authorised to add their materials and experiences after having successfully passed the selection. This function permit to schools to update regularly and autonomously their materials on line.
• Consultation functions either of "catalogue cards" or "iperdocuments" within the database. The consultation function makes it possible to copy on a personal computer all or part of the material for the direct use of schools.