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UNESCO Guidelines. Information management and resource sharing enhancedthrough the cooperative development and dissemination of CDS/ISIS and IDAMS as public domain software packages.Training of information and informatics specialists and users.. 2002-2003. Source: UNESCO programme and budget 2002-
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1. CDS/ISISaFree Software X CDS/ISIS Regional Meeting for Latin America and Caribbean
3-5 February 2003, La Havana - Cuba
Davide Storti – Communication and Information Sector UNESCO
2. UNESCO Guidelines Information management and resource sharing enhanced
through the cooperative development and dissemination of CDS/ISIS and IDAMS as public domain software packages.
Training of information and informatics specialists and users.
3. 3 About this presentation UNESCO’s activity report
Coming up
UNESCO 2004-2005
Distribution and
Development policies and partnerships
4. 4 UNESCO Activities Development and dissemination of CDS/ISIS, IDAMS, Greenstone and related utilities
Maintenance of the distribution network
IDAMS (more centralized distribution)
CDS/ISIS (7 new distributors appointed)
Maintenance of UNESCO Web and FTP sites
UNESCO Free Software Portal
but also
Software for E-learning, expert systems, …
5. 5 UNESCO Activities Focus on CDS/ISIS
6. 6 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, today CDS/ISIS basic tools
7. 7 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, today Winisis/MicroIsis
8. 8 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, today We work towards a comprehensive set of tools
And to increase information exchange capabilities
Most UNESCO’s software is based on Bireme’s DLL
Web interfaces work through WWWISIS
9. 9 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, today The new CDS/ISIS web page is finally online
Will soon integrate the database of distributors and CDS/ISIS related websites
Distribution policy was unchanged (Argentina, 2000)
New distributors appointed on demandAlgeria, Antigua, Botswana, Burkina Faso, RP China, Mongolia, Poland
Distribution from HQ continued, also dispatching requests to national distributors
10. 10 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, today Newer language versions of Winisis were developedAmong which, Ukranian, Arabic, Portuguese, Dutch.
In co-operation with the The League of the Arab States Winisis 1.4 Arabic Enabled was released
More software documentation English, French, Spanish, but also Russian, Arabic and Chinese
11. 11 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, today 12 training seminars were organized by UNESCO HQ in Côte d’Ivoire.
A training seminar was organized in Nepal.
Other training seminars were organized in the Arab States by the Arab League Documentation Centre.
Many training workshops/seminars are held each month but we don’t have information about that.
Negotiations for other training seminars are ongoing.
12. 12 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, today Training may vary from the CDS/ISIS application
A recent training workshop in Sri Lanka, focused only on web interface construction with GENISIS, integrating web notions (webserver, javascript, etc)
Training of trainers is a very important activity
The workshops in Sri Lanka and Nepal were conducted by resource persons trained by UNESCO
But also HQ answers to + 3,000 questions per year
13. 13 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, today Looking forward a different partnership model
Embracing the Open Source development model
Will of gathering a group of institutions/people to take care of CDS/ISIS under the umbrella of UNESCO
Attempts were made in 2000 and 2001
Eschborn, Germany
Rome, Italy
How to find a really common ground
14. 14 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, coming up Release of 2003 edition of UNESCO Information Processing Tools Cd rom
Latest CDS/ISIS products and documentation, most of them with the source code
IDAMS (English, French and Spanish)
Training courses
On CDS/ISIS, on wwwIsis, on GENISIS, etc
Support to organizing institutions
Identify and train local resource persons
Courses tied to upcoming projects
15. 15 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, coming up Ready-to use content platform (MLCM - INFOTERM)
Online distribution of all UNESCO CDS/ISIS products
Online list of agreed distributors
More dynamic web page
FAQ (in future, Help Desk i.e. Oraculo?)
More comprehensive Worldwide news
New CDS/ISIS sites directory?
16. 16 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, coming up Studying a Thesaurus management system
In co-operation with FAO, Infoterm, WTO.
Other partners interested
Development of Complex script support
With the Initiative Babel UNESCO’s project
SIL International (USA) OS project,
Graphite rendering technology
Graphite enabled “editing control”
Integration to Mozilla browser: direct involvement into Mozdev
17. 17 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, coming up Presentation of a CDS/ISIS OS project
4/03: Technical advisory group
4/03: project Timeframe
4/03: UNICODE support (strategy)
6/03: Formatting language implemented
6/03: Search language implemented
Development of ideas (I.e. federated DB)
Server/Client basic interactions defined (choice of protocol…)
11/03: First minimal application
12/03: Testing complex script technology
18. 18 UNESCO CDS/ISIS, coming up Forming a technical advisory group for CDS/ISIS management
Participation: institutional/personal
Limited number of members
Funding research activity to sustain the OS project
This assembly can support this through a recommendation
New attempt at the Eschborn meeting (Germany, April 2003)
The group may be supported by a consortium of agencies.
UNESCO, BIREME, FAO, IFAD, INFOTERM, GTZ are already interested
Group may include alternate basic system developers (Bireme, Unesco, OpenIsis, ICIE)
19. 19 UNESCO CDS/ISIS 2004-2005
20. 20 UNESCO CDS/ISIS 2004-2005 Main line of action:
Strengthening capacities of communication and information professionals and institutions
Strategy
Institutions and experts to identify integrated
approaches to addressing training needs
and strengthening institutions …
21. 21 UNESCO CDS/ISIS 2004-2005 … Strategy
Close co-operation with donors, stakeholders and professional organizations in co-financing, assessing best practices and evaluating training activities
Training of trainers to ensure long term impact of UNESCO’s action
Priority: women, young professionals
In developing countries and countries in transition…
22. 22 UNESCO CDS/ISIS 2004-2005 … Strategy
Important element of strategy:
The provision of support for the production of information processing tools based on the model of the open source software
As a key means to dissemination of
information and knowledge
23. 23 UNESCO CDS/ISIS 2004-2005 Continued support to CDS/ISIS and IDAMS activities
However, budget could be reduced
And be more oriented to regional activities
Consolidation/establishment of field partnerships
Take advantage from other UNESCO CCT projects
Initiative Babel
Free software portal as collaborative tool (if approved)
24. 24 UNESCO CDS/ISIS 2004-2005 Concept of IsisServer services definition and documentation
Priority to multilingualism
Integration of Graphite fonts support
Consider existing CDS/ISIS applications:
Most of them will continue to work like that.
Data conversion tools provided where needed.
Improved and new data exchange tools
Bi-Trilingual web pages (Help desk?)
25. 25 UNESCO CDS/ISIS 2004-2005 Switch from CDS/ISIS all-in-one integrated application to:
26. 26 CDS/ISIS Development Policy Find a starting point
Open a technical advisory group
Sharing the workload/costs
UNESCO is not a financing agency
Stand-alone projects could be supported by external partners
Use of collaborative environment
27. 27 CDS/ISIS Development Policy Develop the idea of quality assurance.
Respect of ISO norms for basic software development
And for end-users applications
Certification system for CDS/Isis compliant applications
CDS/ISIS driving license for local trainers
Today CDS/ISIS is part of the curricula in Egypt universities
28. 28 CDS/ISIS Development Policy Dev group should ask itself fundamental questions
What does it make Isis… Isis?
Versatile
Small and powerful
Runs on small systems
Multilingual
Very good indexing system
Powerful formatting language
But that still refers to a centralized application approach
29. 29 CDS/ISIS Distribution Policy Current implementation
Reduced HQ capacity to respond to CDS/ISIS demand
Passive distribution network
Non-existing (or underground) interregional exchange
Insufficient exchanges with HQ = reduced visibility
30. 30 CDS/ISIS Distribution Policy Some Keypoints
Internet as effective distribution tool
Reduced cost for CD reproduction
Aptitude vs CDS/ISIS applications in the market
Active play-role:
As active partners
Recognition of their support to CDS/ISIS activities
Distribution to remote areas
Local needs monitoring and implementation (local language)
Direct link with CDS/ISIS OS project management
31. 31 CDS/ISIS Distribution Policy Main question is:
Distributors of what?
Beyond the idea of CDS/ISIS as a single, integrated software
32. 32 CDS/ISIS Distribution Policy Switch to services
Example or Control: creating a healthy environment for CDS/ISIS products development and distribution
Think WORLDWIDE!
33. 33 The challenge of FS/OS How to convince institutions to use FS
Examples: UNESCO, ISSN-CI
Analyze big OS/FS projects: Red Hat, Mozilla, Suse, etc
Keyword is: Infrastructure
34. 34 The challenge of FS/OS Open source or Free Software?
UNESCO programme and budget says Open Source
Free software is also mentioned
35. 35 The challenge of FS/OS The license dilemma
Many projects use multiple licenses (Mozilla):
LGPL
MPL (Mozilla)
CPL
36. 36 Conclusions Create a Technical Advisory group
Created and coordinated by UNESCO
Create international co-operation through projects
Switch distributors concept to “service provider” (not necessarily linked to UNESCO but linked to an international group of providers)
Continue “normal” UNESCO activities
Training, etc, etc.
37. 37 Conclusions? No Inicio!