UNESCO Knowledge Portal Assessment & Recommendations for 2004-2005

1. UNESCO Knowledge Portal Assessment& Recommendations for 2004-2005 Based on interviews with UKP’s main stakeholders CI – BPI, April 2004

2. Purpose Method Assessment by project Assessment by topic Recommendations for 2004 - 2005 Directions for 2006 - 2007 Table of content

3. Seven cross-cutting web projects illustrated a visionary concept, the UNESCO Knowledge Portal (UKP) 21 interviews were conducted with the UKP’s main stakeholders, at the level of sub portals and technical infrastructure Giving the subjective characteristic of this method, the results of this study : help underline the strengths and weaknesses, on which the future of UKP should be built can not help evaluate the impact of these projects on the Organization as a whole. Purpose

4. The interviews aimed to get feedbacks on the experience regarding the following aspects of project building: Portal purpose Audience definition and evaluation Content Technical Architecture Organizational design Management Marketing Method (1/2)

5. The interviewees were: Direction of Project: R. Cluzel, M. Schmidt, A. Plathe, I. Nuk WebWorld: A.Plathe Education: S. Fernandez Lauro, B. Combes, I. Nichanian, F. Jouot-Belhami Digi Arts: M. de Corral, T. Wagner, J. du Toit, D. Lee Communities: M. Lourenço, M. Crutescu, S. Roberts Oceans: P. Pissiersens, B. Sims UNESCO Heritage Portal: D. Ziyasheva, P. Leoncini Bartoli, M. Couratier, N. Boumaiza, A. Addison, M. Santana, J. Robertson-Verhnes, S. Roberts; GIS: A. Candau, S. Arico DIT: D. Pelissier, C. Yates-Gainche, E. Lannaud BPI/WEB: V. Defourny, E. Fazzino, R. Cadiou Method (2/2)

6. Global organization Specific teams, under the supervision of the Communication and Information sector, managed each of the following seven projects Assessment by project

7. DigiArts, the portal of new digital media arts, covers a new topic for the organization. Its development was apprehended putting emphasis on networking since the conception of the project: new communities are now actively working with UNESCO because of this project DigiArts team acquired a thorough experience onWeb project Marketing, mixing on-line and offline events to promote its activities Assessment by project – Digi Arts

8. Ocean Portals team managed brilliantly the delegation of content production and feeding, allocating time, money and human resources they disposed of, adequately. This experience of network construction and animation should be shared with all web teams Nonetheless, the portals look and feel do not correspond to the one of UNESCO’s portal. No content links are activated, from the ocean portals to other parts of UNESCO’s portal, or vice versa. This structural independence is questionable. Assessment by project – Ocean portals

9. Higher Education sub portal provides information on Higher Education worldwide, such as indispensable resources for teachers, teacher trainers, researchers and students as well as links to all UNESCO Conventions on the recognition of qualifications Assessment by project – Higher Education

10. Early Childhood Education subportal focuses on UNESCO’s strengths in terms of early childhood: training/capacity building, networking/partnership building and information/documentation It experimented interesting ways of understanding its public needs. This approach could serve as a basis for experience sharing and the development of a general framework for audience monitoring Assessment by project – Early Childhood Education

11. Both Education sub portals, Higher Education and Early Childhood Education, developed networking with its communities Meanwhile, those projects remain very specific to the Education sector Assessment by project – Education sub portals

12. UNESCO Heritage Portal treats a strategic topic for UNESCO, dealing with all sectors activities It failed to achieve a tangible result because of a lack of leadership and an Information Structure which lead to technical heaviness Assessment by project – UNESCO Heritage Portal

13. Communities developed relevant databases for the use of all sector’s activities With no specific budget it developed one of the most useful and universal tool for the organization’s portal, sub-portals and cross-cutting project Assessment by project – Communities

14. Webworld is the Communication and Information sector’s website It remains difficult to understand why this sub portal was initially chosen to illustrate UKP’s vision and ambition, such as described in 31 C/5 Assessment by project – Webworld

15. Globally, the 31 C/5 text, referring to UKP, presented a vision and 5 sub portals which did not illustrate with coherence this vision Each UKP sub portal is coherent with the global objective, as each created new content, aggregated partners and experts knowledge, reinforced UNESCO’s mandate through relevant actions Meanwhile, UKP lacks of global coherence, as there is no consistency between all sub portals Assessment by topic

16. Cross-cutting projects were not yet apprehended as other media support for the organization : No systematized audience studies, tests, definition were conducted prior to the web projects development Except, to some extent for Digi-Arts, Ocean Portals, and earl Childhood Education. Assessment by topic - Audience

17. Ensure quality of content, currently uneven among sub portals Harmonize cross cutting projects ‘Structure of Information’ to avoid disparity and so facilitate users navigation FacilitateInformation Sharing, using a better technical infrastructure along with a better communication among web teams and/or sectors Assessment by topic – Content & Structure of Info.

18. Most web teams encountered technical difficulties, with the CMS and with the possibilities of exchanging information from one subportal to another Assessment by topic – Technical Architecture

19. Most teams complained of a lack of time and resources Workflows are not always optimised Teams suffered from administrative slowness and its effects Tools and procedure to use the intranet as a support for content development would be useful. Assessment by topic – Organizational design

20. Many teams asked for additional support, from a dedicated team, such as BPI/WEB. Independent from the Sectors structure, this team could help them harmonizetheir site in accordance with what the rest of the organization has done or is doing. Assessment by topic – Management

21. UKP’s destiny UKP sub portals are autonomous the one from the other and lack of global consistency when presented together UNESCO’s portal as a whole gives consistency to the sub-portals by giving them an illustrative role of sector’s cross linking possibilities, supported by sectors content Consequently, each sub portal should be re-integrated in the portal tree to ensure better visibility, coherence and consistency Recommendations for 2004-2005 (1/6)

22. Definition of unesco.org direction and global vision UKP suffered from a lack of global strategy and clear policy. This drive is still needed and should include UNESCO’s portal as a whole, Consequently, a logical framework for the portal should be implemented, based on the state of the art and on audience surveys. Recommendations for 2004-2005 (2/6)

23. A central role for BPI/WEB UKP suffered from a lack of global monitoring Most teams asked for a dedicated team in charge of coordinating UNESCO’s web activities, demands and support BPI/WEB was designated to be in charge of these tasks: web teams recognized its growing role and clear legitimacy to endorse it. Consequently, the Logical Framework should serve as a basis for a common understanding of roles, policy and tools. BPI/WEB could then engage define monitoring policy and tools Recommendations for 2004-2005 (3/6)

24. Web team training for a UNESCO web culture Part of the allocated budget should be dedicated to staff training on specific aspects of web communication: Project development Webmastering Content production for the web Marketing and communication Recommendations for 2004-2005 (4/6)

25. Communication policy and organizational design for information flow UNESCO will take the opportunity, of its web activity organization and development to structure its communication policy and organizational flow by allocating teams within each sector defining the rules for the centralization of information Recommendations for 2004-2005 (5/6)

26. Technical structure improvement The global technical structure should be improved so to facilitate cross linkages, navigation and user satisfaction CMS performance should be improved Search tools should be implemented Data sharing should be facilitated Guidelines should be available to all on Intranet Recommendations for 2004-2005 (6/6)

27. By the end of the 32 C/5 biennium the organization should be well equipped to move a step forward, in 2006-2007, and become a well structured communicating agency, aware of its audience environment, trained to work with Internet and ready to share knowledge. Directions for 2006-2007 (1/3)

28. UNESCO’s portal will be ready to develop a comprehensiveknowledge management culture and system and so, become the clearing house the UNESCO Knowledge Portal aimed to be In order to achieve this goal: Integrate tasks and systems into a unique tool Set workflows procedures to share files, ensure documents are well and easily validated, … Get support from external consultants to help in the implementation of this project: technical developments should come along with internal training and communication to help the evolution of the internal web culture Directions for 2006-2007 (2/3)

29. A Communication and Marketing function should be implemented as a support to all sectors, to ensure UNESCO’s portal wide visibility Internal Marketing: a lot of work has been done in the sense of portal potential but it has not been marketed yet. This marketing process should be organized along with the consolidation of intranet tools External marketing: global communication should be made outside to stimulate targeted audience to visit and participate to the portal(Public relations, On-line ad campaigns, Search engines registration ,Collaborative work with worldwide on-line and off-line medias, Specific web brochures for international committees…) Directions for 2006-2007 (3/3)