The IDAMS project has a long history in UNESCO

1. The Project • The IDAMS project has a long history in UNESCO • Its results are among the most tangible products of the Organization; • It is part of the Regular Programme of UNESCO; • Received visible support from the Participation Programme, from national and international institutions; • It is implemented under the supervision of the CI/INF Division.

2. Existing IDAMS versions • Result of thework ofmany personsaround the world, • Design and architecture, algorithms, documentation, layout of results constitute a solid basis for future versions, • WinIDAMS 1.0, available since April 2001 has been distributed from UNESCO through Internet to over 6600 users/institutions in more than 180 countries, • WinIDAMS 1.2 is now available in English, French and Spanish, and it will be ready soon in Arabic and Russian. • We plan now to give a new impetus to this really successful collaborative venture.

3. Objectives (1) • To produce, keep up-to-date and disseminate a free open source software package, • for data management, data archiving and data exploration, with report generator facilities, • by transforming IDAMS into a toolkit, into an evolving, inter-related set of end-user and developer services.

4. Objectives (2) • Development of the new IDAMS package will be based on co-operation with a wide, open, international developer community. • OpenIDAMS will be disseminated to a large worldwide user population. • An e-publication facility will be set up for assisting co-operation,to share ideas, methods, techniques and experience.

5. The final product • The final package should be an easy to use, permanently advancing information processing system, a toolkit • designed to assist institutional, corporate and individual users (decision makers, managers, professionals, researchers, teachers, students, developers, etc.) • in performing the standard three-phase statistical information analysis procedure.

6. Beneficiaries The community taking advantage of the final product of the OpenIDAMS project will be much wider than the one benefiting from the current IDAMS project. We can describe this enlarged community • by type of users and • bytype of institutions/organizations to which they belong to.

7. Beneficiaries by type of users • End-userswith general data management and exploration needs; • Statisticians, data exploration specialists; • Software developers; • Future professionalsand their teachers; • End-users of specific applicationsbased on the OpenIDAMS toolkit. For the current user community WinIDAMSwill be maintained and kept up-to-date, they can switch to the new toolkit whenever they need to do so.

8. Beneficiaries by type of institutions (1) • Decision makers, managers and professionals in national and local governmental institutions as well as in international organizations; • Students, teachers, researchers and other professionals in universities and other educational institutions; • Managers and professionals in social, cultural and public service institutions and enterprises; • Professionals in research institutes in all fields of science; Public or private institutions wherever applicable.

9. Beneficiaries by type of institutions (2) • Managers and professionals of private and public enterprises in all social and economic sectors (including production, trade, service, administration, banking and finance, etc.); • Professional staff in non-governmental organizations; • Software developer organizations involved in producing statistical information management tools; • Professionals involved in statistical information processing in any other institutions.

10. Main actors (1) • OpenIDAMS will be developed and disseminated using the free/open source software practices and principles which materialize through the free/open source software developer and user community. • UNESCO is the originator and will be the motivator, organizer and supervisor of the project, assisted by • an international pool of experts and institutions represented by • an international governing board and a core network of institutions and individuals.

11. Main actors(2) (foreseen co-operation) • European Commission, • Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, • Free Software Foundations, • Francophone Agency, • International Organization for Migration, etc., • universities, research institutes, • similar open source projects (software development, utilization, financing) Inter-sectoral co-operation within UNESCO.

12. Expected impact (1) • Data exploration and publication capacities will be fostered by providing standard and flexible information processing tools and know-how for a large public in all UNESCO Member States. • Software developer potential will be increased by the mobilization of a wide expert community, leading edge technology and methodology being made accessible to them. • The project will allow a great number of specialists to join their global professional community and would assure the presence of many institutions on the global scene.

13. Expected impact (2) • Substantial increase of the number of organizations and professionals benefiting from the project. • Anew type of cooperation among people of many countries, linked in a virtual community by advanced information technology. • Improvement of the management of services to the population, be they public or private services.

14. Resources • The free software community (individuals and institutions worldwide) can be considered the main resource of the project. • WinIDAMS must also be maintained and supported simultaneously with starting and keeping control of the OpenIDAMS project. • In spite of the mobilization of an external capacity larger than ever before, UNESCOmust and will allocate sufficient financial and human resources.

15. Methods of collaboration • The existence of today’s virtualmeeting facilities makes it possible to launch this project, which needs intensive communication within a broad virtual community. • It should be stressed, however, that state-of-the-art services are far from the real “information highway”. • UNESCO and the core institutions are supposed to make efforts for providing tools for standing virtual meetings. • The lesson learnt during the project preparation is that real meetings are needed anyway.

16. Components (1) OpenIDAMS will consist of • Self-contained toolsfor statistical information processing (ready-made solutions) and • Building blocks for constructing specific applications (tailor-made solutions)

17. Components (2) • Reasonably comprehensive general purpose data management, data archiving and data exploration package(s) with user-friendly graphical interface(s); • Set(s) of standard application modules implementing data and document management, archiving and exploration functions; • Set(s) of recommended user interface primitives; • Tailor-made packages for specific applications; • User and developers’ documentation.

18. Implementation principles (1) The technological platform • should guarantee the longevity of OpenIDAMS, • assure that IDAMS will be usable on a broad range of machines and operating systems (portability), • by a large user community. Project standards must be kept very high The source code • should serve as a model of good programming and • should be subject to continuous revision and improvement.

19. Implementation principles (2) The project • should provide innovative approaches, challenges, state of the art software engineering, visibility and recognition. • should sensitively follow key information technology developments. Portability, i.e. compatibility with different systems is of maximum importance. Windows, Unix, Linuxoperating systems and their variants are considered as target platforms.

20. Architecture (1) • Complete separation of the application control and the application modules (which implement statistical, data management and archiving techniques): • Documents and document access modules are on the document server, • Application modules are on the application server, • Control modulesconstitute the controlling client (which is also a client in relation to the document server). • This is a typical 3 Tier Client/Server Architecture, in full conformity with the Web Services Architecture concept and standards. • Servers and client(s) can also be on the same computer.

21. IDAMS DOCUMENTS DATA CONTROL SCRIPTS REPORTS PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS EXTERNAL DOCUMENTS Components of high priority Components to be implemented later or in parallel DOCUMENT ACCESS MODULES PROJECT ACCESS DATA ACCESS CONTROL LANGUAGE INTERPRETER REPORT ACCESS CONTROL MODULES APPLICATION MODULES USERS PROJECT MANAGER DATA MANAGEMENT SUPERVISOR ARCHIVE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPERS INTERACTION MANAGER DATA EXPLORATION END-USERS GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE REPORT MANAGEMENT DOCUMENT SERVER(S) Architecture SERVER SERVER CONTROLLING CLIENT(S) CLIENT CLIENT SERVER APPLICATION SERVER(S) CLIENT

22. Programming(1) • A mixed language open model would be attractive for several reasons but it has also drawbacks in many respects (e.g. portability problems). • In order to achieve the goal of maximum portability and to maintain a consistency, • the use of one carefully selected main languagewas chosen in the reference implementation(s), • leaving the door open also for the use of other languages which correspond to structural and functional requirements of the system.

23. Programming(2) Javahas been selected for the role of the main language, it seems to be the most reasonable general platform • that can meet all implementation requirements, • assuring an instrument and a framework for all components and features envisaged in OpenIDAMS, • also for those written in other languages. Java is a multiplatform language in which a program can be • written and compiled once and • executed in any hardware/software platform (with appropriate Java Virtual Machine) Advantages are even more relevant if the effort required to develop the Graphical User Interface.

24. Programming(3) Java is a very rich language • with primitives to support services that in traditional languages are provided by third party libraries, • completely Web aware with full support for distributed computing and Web services development. From the programmer’s point of view, there is a clear agreement in the user community: that Java is easier and safer than C++. Using Java, we can rely on free and sophisticated integrated development environments (IDEs), e.g. NetBeans, Eclipse JDT.

25. Standards • Internal OpenIDAMS application standards, • Internationalizationenabled (Unicode), • Standard file and document formats, • Standard graphical user interface features, • Web Services interface standards, • Communication standards, • Metadata language standards(DDI, RDF, …), • Project implementation and evaluation standards.

26. Project workflow Project Initiation Phase • establish formally who will be the initiators(architects, designers, coders and testers of the project "kernel”), • produce the “kernel”. Project Opening Phase • preparationfor the execution phase, • going open, publishingthe project. Permanent Project Execution Phase - main objective • grow with new membership, • remain stable, • gradually die from lack of participant interest.

27. Initiation Phase • Creation and formalization of the OpenIDAMS Technical Steering Committee; • Setting up the initial core network of institutions; • Market survey; • Review of available components; • Definition, Design and Refinement of the "kernel"; • Implementation of the "kernel".

28. Opening Phase • Selection of a particular license, • Establishment of adequate communication systems, • Selection and implementation of a suitable version control system, • Establishment of an effective involvement/recruitment strategy, • Establishment of appropriate governance structures and institutional designs, • Promotion of project credibility, • Launching OpenIDAMS openly as a free/open source project.

29. Permanent Execution Phase • Development of standard IDAMS application modules, • Development of standard IDAMS user interface components, • Development of general purpose IDAMS package with graphical user interface, • Development of IDAMS based packages for specific applications, • Further development of IDAMS components and packages

30. Management and organization Main actors in the initiation and openingphase • UNESCO Secretariat, • OpenIDAMS Technical Steering Committee, • a core network of institutions. Actors with different role • supporting institutions. Actors in the permanent execution phase • the global free/open source developer and user community.

31. UNESCO Secretariat • Being the conceiver, the UNESCO Secretariatis the organizer and supervisor of the project, • Related tasks are to be assumed by the Information Society Division of the Communication and Information Sector (CI/INF), • Within the Division by IT professionals specialized in software development.

32. Technical Steering Committee(1) The OpenIDAMS Technical Steering Committee (OpenIDAMS TSC) • takesdecisions about tasks and • has authority to make changes to established operational rules. Mandateof the TSC • set and validate system specifications and features; • design the "kernel", monitor, participate in coding, testing, documentation • assure conceptual integrity of the design and architecture,

33. Technical Steering Committee(2) Mandate of the TSC (continuation) • make decisions about the design and the technical standards; • provide technical guidelines; • define working method details (working rules, among others); • assure peer-review; • establish mechanisms for conflict resolution; • review proposals for inserting new features; • do and stimulate fund raising.

34. Core network of institutions • Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería "Julio Garavito" (ECI), Colombia, • Consorzio interuniversitario per le Applicazioni di Supercalcolo per Università e Ricerca (CASPUR), University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy, • Cairo University, Faculty of Computers & Information, Egypt, • ALECSO, in co-operation with the Cairo University, • Baku Scientific and Training Centre, Azerbaijan republic, • Russian State Hydrometeorological University, Russian Federation.

35. Supporting institutions • United Nations Economic Commission For Africa (UNECA) • Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) • Institutions (universities, research and software developer organizations, etc.) • Individuals (data exploration and information technology professionals) Developer and user community

36. Working methods Agile Software Development – combination of specific software development and project management practices with an explicit organizational perspective that enables teams to deliver software products in volatile business and technology situations: • modularity- kernel and plans for its future development and extension are organized around small, manageable pieces, • iterative/incremental development, • parallel development, • rapid development process.

37. Working rules • What actions are required, prohibited or permitted, • What sanctions are authorized if someone breaks these rules, • Formally written rules or norms of behaviour understood and shared by a community, • Followed at least most of the time, • Three levels • Operational, • Collective-choice, and • Constitutional-choice rules

38. Operational rules Operational rules define what actors can or cannot do at certain levels of authority within the project community hierarchy • direct the daily decisions and actions of actors involved in an open source project, • specify how new module submissions are managed, • how new design strategies are defined, • when new versions are released, etc. Two important areas (1) the system of peer-review and (2) established mechanisms for conflict resolution.

39. Collective-choice rules Collective-choice rules • specify who is eligible to craft or change operational-level rules, • define the procedures for changing established rules. Project leader who • has total authority over making and changing operational rules and can do this at any time; Project oversight body - a committee of core developers who • make decisions about the operations of the project and • have authority to make changes to established operational rules.

40. Constitutional-choice rules A kind of project Constitution • defines who is eligible to create or change Collective-choice level rules, • specifying who (or what positions in the project community) possess these rights, • outlinesprocedures for making changes in collective-choice arrangements.

41. Project schedule • Availability of the OpenIDAMS “kernel” (produced by the UNESCO Secretariat, the OpenIDAMS TSC and already committed core institutions) - by end of March 2005. • First version of the standard OpenIDAMS application modules and user interface components (based already on contribution from the global open source developer community) - by the end of the year 2005. • First release of the general purpose OpenIDAMS package with graphical user interface along with OpenIDAMS based packages for specific applications– by the end of the year 2006.