That Unidentified Flying Objects are appearing in record numbers all around the world is an undeniable fact. For those who wonder what this increased UFO activity might mean it is essential that they keep up with the most current news and sighting reports possible. Due to the dedication of a vast number of investigators and interested people, the Internet has become the single greatest source of information about the UFO phenomena. Regrettably it can also be the greatest source of misinformation and hoaxes but, with a little care, the facts can be more easily separated from the lies.

Undoubtedly the most significant website dedicated to spreading information and documentation of mysterious sightings is MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network. Comprised of thousands of people worldwide, this organization is dedicated to "The Analytical and Scientific Study of the UFO Phenomenon for the Benefit of Humanity." This work includes pouring through all the reports of unusual sightings around the world and trying to determine just what caused it. In their efforts to avoid sensationalism MUFON has been accused of being a debunking organization, however, their focus is actually to instill as much fact as possible in their conclusions.

One of the features offered on their website is a listing of all the reports sent to them. Conclusions are shared after an investigation of the facts has been performed. A daily check of their Last 20 Sighting Reports will help keep you informed of the latest breaking news about what is being reported to MUFON. These reports often contain raw footage, pictures, and audio whenever it has been provided with the report.

In conjunction with UFO Stalker, MUFON provides a link to a real-time map of the latest 25 sightings reported, with links back to the case file at MUFON. They also provide links to other reporting agencies including the National UFO Reporting Center and the Center for UFO Studies. There are articles media concerning past UFO cases so that one can peruse a vast amount of information about the phenomena and add to your own understanding of the widespread scope and major implications of such mysterious worldwide occurrences. This awareness from an organization that attempts to present the most factual information is doubly important in regards to how little information is shared with people by the governments that are supposed to protect them.

While a great deal of their information is provided by MUFON, the website About.com also provides a very exhaustive section on the UFO phenomena. Unlike MUFON, About does not investigate cases but catalogues and reports on a wide range of information regarding the potential alien connection to UFO's, crop circles, abductions, and the hoaxes that try to divert people away from the facts. About also takes reports from several of the other major UFO reporting centers and presents it in article format for easier consumption by the curious and intrigued. They provide a good working basis for UFO Basics, both current cases and famous historical sightings and encounters, and information of what can best be gleaned about the extra-terrestrial life forms we may be dealing with.

It is a well-known educational axiom that Knowledge is Power. Keeping informed and up-to-date about the greater mysteries that are reported in our sky and on our planet can provide one with a better understanding of what may be a crucial underlying aspect of how we interact with our governing agencies. It may also provide us with a glimpse of a much larger and more populated universe than we might have originally imagined.

Unknown objects continue to be seen in the skies over our planet. Their origin and purpose remain a mystery that begs to be solved. As is common among humans, they turn to their governments for answers. But, despite numerous official investigations, any answers that might have been found have not been disclosed. We are left with the ubiquitous statement that, "they are no threat to national security." This answer is both devoid of factual information and frightening in its vagueness and implication. When governments fail to provide, it is left up to the individuals to seek after the knowledge that has been denied them through official channels.

As the last United States Airforce investigation, Project Blue Book, was being wound down to its conclusion in December of 1969, a civilian group in Quincy, Illinois was being formed. Such investigators as Walter Andrus, John Schuessler, and Allen Utke began the Midwest UFO Network. With a membership comprised in large part from former associates of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, they began in May of 1969 to develop a means by which they as civilians might be best able to apply scientific research to the investigation of these increasing trespasses in our airspace by these unknown craft.

As the organization grew and extended its influence across the country, it soon became known as the Mutual UFO Network to indicate its cooperation with other civilian UFO research groups. Currently consisting of nearly three thousand members worldwide. Regional directors are responsible for the investigations of reported UFO sightings in their areas to coordinate field research and interviews, and share their findings with the rest of the network. MUFON holds an annual convention where researchers can gather and discuss the best ways to investigate and report on their findings.

MUFON, while the largest civilian UFO investigation network, is part of the UFO Research Coalition which includes J. Allen Hynek's Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR). They seek to fulfil the MUFON mission statement of scientific UFO studies for the benefit of humanity through investigation, research, and education. They share funds and resources so that sighting can be as fully investigated as possible and the results known. They feel it is as important to identify and inform about misidentification of natural objects as they are to probe those sightings that cannot be fully and rationally explained.

MUFON maintains a vast quantity of information freely available online to help educate people on the UFO phenomena. It includes not only observed classifications and data on unknown objects but information on how best to identify the natural things and manmade objects that are easily misconstrued by the uninformed. They encourage the population of this planet to join in the hunt for answers and provide instruction on how best to gather all possible information on sightings and how to report them. Discussions on the possible origins and intentions of these objects are given an open-minded acceptance so that the government-influenced stigmata can be eliminated. They hope that by sharing this knowledge it may help determine just what it is that leaves us looking to the sky and wondering what it was we just saw go by.

Official and government agencies of UFO study have run the gambit from absolute denial to releasing sighting reports to finally disbanding their study groups. You would think that with such powerful militaries studying the phenomena of unidentified craft in our skies they would have actually found something out but according to their own conclusions they are still clueless. There is a movement growing to turn over the study, if not full investigations, to a new set of seekers.

College students are for the most part, young, bright, and able to see without the constraint society has put on people as they grow accustomed to the status quo. The Niagara County Community College of New York, a state run school, has suggested that since their area of the country averages over fifty sighting reports a month (that's nearly two per day) that the subject should be allowed as a serious elective study course at the college. Philip Haseley, an anthropology professor at the school, feels it is a "serious area of study" and should be included as a mainstream topic. "(A sighting) happens to millions of people (around the world)," he said. "It's about time we looked into this as a worthy area of study. It's important that the whole subject be brought out in the open and investigated."

Just because Professor Haseley is also the head of the Western New York Mutual UFO Network does not diminish the validity of his call for serious study of the phenomena of UFO's by college students. His group of investigators already use the best possible scientific manner in their field investigations, including radar, meteorology, and astronomy to gather their evidence of aerial anomalies. Who better than the intelligent, knowledge seeking students of the College to analyze this data and use their fresh new insights into attempting to piece this puzzle into a scholarly conclusion.

More colleges and universities might lend their support to gaining the extra resources and minds of their young people to examine their own area's sightings. There were over four hundred sighting reports taken by the British Ministry of Defense last year alone, before they decided to quit bothering themselves with unknown objects intruding into their airspace. If the world governments and military already know what these objects are, they should come clean with that knowledge rather than try to sweep it under the rug. If they are still stumped for an explanation, why not let the youth that will make up the next generation of leaders get involved in research that has the collegiate oversight to assure good, useable data in dealing with what has become a worldwide epidemic of UFO sightings and encounters.

With the topic becoming a serious collegiate course, the era of offhand ridicule of witnesses can come to an end. By allowing serious study and investigation at the university level, there should be less hesitation on the part of witnesses to share their experience. With luck, this more serious approach should improve the process of winnowing out hoaxes and give greater credence to those events that can be labeled as real even if they are as yet unexplained.