By-products / CD-ROM / Online

International Organization Information / Research: 2003 (Part #6)

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Yearbook Plus (CD-ROM version): The production processes for the 9th edition (2003) were considerably facilitated by the experience of the 2002 (8th edition) which had required the implementation of new interface software. As with that edition, it included the 4th edition of the Who's Who in International Organizations (2003). Work, and testing, is being completed in September 2003 with a view to production in October 2003 The CD incorporates all 25,979 organization descriptions in English from the 2003–2004 book version and an additional 17,371 bodies of secondary interest. Concerns remain regarding the copy security

Yearbook of International Organizations (Online version): Continuing interchange with SAUR (and through them with GALE) has resulted to many improvements in the access facilities to this version. UN agencies continue to form a significant part of the subscribers. Access to the Who's Who in International Organizations is part of the subscription. SAUR recognizes the online format to be of growing importance in comparison with the book version. As a result of agreement with SAUR, the images from the UIA's World Guide to Logotypes (1997) were included in the online organization profiles as a further means of enhancing the quality of the service.

Concern has been expressed to SAUR regarding the continuing demands on UIA staff time (in the person of Tomáš Fülöpp) in handling special connection problems of subscribers but especially adjusting the usage statistics (which may well be counter-productive to some sales), access features and user friendliness to facilitate the task of GALE sales personnel. It is clear however that many changes are appropriate in response to the increasing standardization of facilities within the wider online environment. GALE currently obtains 30 percent of its revenue from online services – possibly a future expectation in relation to UIA

International Congress Calendar (online version) : As previously indicated, the online version has not yet been activated under subscription because of a combination of technical problems (notably the challenge of closer integration of the Calendar data with the distinct format of Yearbook data on events identified in organization profiles) and the unsatisfactory nature of the business model to ensure its viability. There is an active demand for this facility and it therefore represents a useful source of future revenue. It is planned to be activated, in some form, in time for the October 2003 Associate Members meeting

Republication of UIA historical publications Progress continues on the work (partially outsourced to Delphi in Slovakia) in processing UIA historical publications – notably with a view to its centennial celebrations.

• UIA journal: All versions of the UIA periodical (La Vie Internationale, 1912-21; Bulletin des associations internationales, 1943-44; Bulletin mensuel de l'Union des Associations Internationales, 1951-53; International Associations, 1954-76; Transnational Associations, 1977-2001) have now been scanned into image form – totalling some 35,000 pages. Note, as such they cannot be effectively used because of the size of each image file or effectively searched.
  • These image pages are in process of being converted into searchable text in MS Word format. The current situation with this process is as follows: -- Completed: (and transferred to Brussels): 1953-1955, 1957-2002 (and the 1910 Congress proceedings) -- Not yet completed: 1943, 1944, 1951, 1952, 1956 as well as 1912, 1913, 1914, Congress 1911, Congress 1913 The next stage is to convert these pages to PDF format (for ease of distribution under online subscription or on CD-ROM). This is in principle a low-cost, rapid process. Completed test versions are being used to refine the access process with a view to permitting access online under subscription in addition to any possible CD-ROM version. The issue will be whether to commence marketing the product in its "rough" form, with limited facilities, indexing and interlinking, or whether to improve the product to increase its attractiveness, or some combination of these two strategies (eg various versions, subsets by theme, etc). .
• These tests will also make it possible for more concrete discussion of options with regard to the future of any online version of the current issues of Transnational Associations (see below), which could be integrated into the same format.
• Links to individual articles in past issues of Transnational Associations will be provided from the online bibliography of research papers that forms part of Volume 4 of the Yearbook. Subsequently efforts will be made to design an access procedure via subject groups independently of that provided via the online databases.
• Recent discussions with SAUR indicate some interest in marketing this facility, possibly in conjunction with online access to the Yearbook. It may prove more appropriate to allow SAUR to market the product but to treat it as a UIA product. The possibility of marketing a CD-ROM of 5 back issues of Transnational Associations is also under consideration.
• The approach to be taken will be affected by the scope of any future contract for the publication of Transnational Associations (see below).
  
  
• UIA Yearbooks: SAUR is now advertising an online version of the UIA's historical Annuaire de la Vie Internationale (1905-1911; 5,000 pages). These may be placed on CD-ROM in the future. Currently they are in MSWord format and merit conversion to PDF format as indicated above.

Multimedia products As indicated previously, following the production for demonstration purposes of poster-size maps (of networks of organizations, problems, strategies, etc) generated from the online facility, further work on these products is now envisaged in relation to a new marketing approach.

• The main focus of such work is currently with respect to Volume 5.
• These facilities could play a key part in the UIA's participation in some future international meetings. The hiring of a new part-time assistant may help to advance this possibility.

Website and database access Considerable work continues to be done to improve the look, feel, organization, navigation, currency and integration of the UIA's static and dynamic websites – notably in relation to the needs of online subscribers and the new facilities (historical publications, etc). This is important in developing the image of the UIA on the web, notably as it affects UIA ability to market its publications and services.

• As indicated above, the subscription online access service to the Yearbook is being positioned by SAUR as an important complement to the hardcopy and CD-ROM versions. The free databases (problems, strategies, etc) integrated with it continue to be conceived as an important marketing tool.
• Unfortunately some essential work has had to be delayed because of demands on the time of Tomáš Fülöpp. This situation has now been partially alleviated by hiring a part-time person to reduce other demands on his time.
• Regular update procedures have now been standardized.
  

Requests for information The Secretariat continues to receive numerous e-mail demands for information. Some of these take the form of requests from Associate Members for which the extraction can be charged. Others involve much time by various staff members, which is justified under the heading of public relations services. The quality of UIA response is now expected to improve as a result of hiring a part-time person to handle this process. As discussed previously, the UIA is in an awkward situation in seeking to strike a balance between free or discounted distribution of such information (notably to academic researchers and NGOs in the light of the UIA statutory mandate), commercially-rated distribution (notably to commercial bodies and consultancies acting for them), and refusal of such requests (notably to bodies liable to set up competing database and publication services). Demands may be for:

• mail address labels
• e-mail addresses
• organization profiles
• reproduction of statistical tables
• data sets from which statistical tables are generated
• specially configured data sets (eg links between organizations)

Independently of the question of exploitation of the data, a key concern for the UIA is to avoid excessive "spamming" of international organizations (long overloaded by unsolicited requests), both in their interest and in UIA's interests (to avoid prejudicing the UIA's ability to solicit information from them for the Yearbook). The UIA's current conservative policy has been justified by the rate of reply to its questionnaires but it was one factor in the failure of UIA to garner support for its bid for the .ORG domain in 2002. A major concern is any implication that the UIA becomes identified as a source of spam to international organizations. Recent discussions in the online publishing community have proven the UIA conservative approach to be valid. Additionally, savvy commercial operators realize that spamming potential clients is not in their interest

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