window on the world

plural windows on the world

1. idiomaticSomething which provides information about or interaction with a variety of people, places, events, or things outside of one's immediate sphere of experience.

   [H]is main concern was to reaffirm the enduring value of museums as windows on the world.

   2006 July 26, "Obituary: Professor Frank Willett," Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 3 Dec 2017)

   3 more examples

   In short, China's pragmatic post-Mao leaders value Hong Kong as a window on the world and a source of foreign exchange, investment capital and expertise.

   1979 April 30, "Business: Hong Kong's Golden Link," Time (retrieved 3 Dec 2017)

   Perhaps the clearest example is the growing popularity of personal computers that give people a window on the world. The Internet and commercial network services provide all kinds of information (good and not so good), and interpersonal contact through electronic mail, various discussion groups, and message boards.

   1998, William A. Sherden, The Fortune Sellers: The Big Business of Buying and Selling Predictions, ch. 1 (reprinted in the New York Times)

   (subtitle) The North-South Institute, a once-venerated foreign policy think-tank, quietly shuts down.

   2014 September 18, Carol Goar "Another Canadian window on the world closes," The Star (Canada) (retrieved 3 Dec 2017)