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24th May 1994

International Organization Information / Research: 1994

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Prepared for Union of International Associations (General Assembly, May 1994)
See also searchable PDF version (original titles, sub-headings, order and typography); also reports 1959-2006
Document also in segmented format in the Kairos indexed database

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Organization profiles / networks

Yearbook of International Organizations: Work on the 31st edition of this 3-volume series has followed the regular pattern. At the time of writing (April 26th), Volume 1 has been completed with: - entries (including index) transmitted to London for photocomposition - commentary pages composed at UIA.

The number of organizations which should be included continues to increase as does the quality and length of the entries. This issue has been noted in previous reports with an indication of the relatively unsatisfactory solutions to the challenge of getting as much information as possible into the fixed amount of space (ca 1800 pages) acceptable to the printer because of physical constraints on binding a single volume.

With this edition the radical step of not publishing selected entries on international bodies was taken for the first time. Previously entries on internationally active national organizations and religious orders have been regularly omitted. A number of appendices were omitted from the last edition and this practice continued for this edition. In the case of organizations allocated to category E (emanations from other international bodies and places), it was decided to print only the name and address of international NGOs. This approach was not applied to intergovernmental organizations in that category. The number of organization affected was 1.660.

Volume 1 has 68 pages less text than the last edition. The number of entries increased as indicated in Annex I. The response of the publisher, discussed in previous years, is that "overflow" of any kind will have to be carried in future in the CD-ROM currently in preparation (see below).

Work on Volumes 2 and 3 is on schedule for completion in May and June. Due to the fragmentation of a number of countries, notably the USSR, the rise in memberships in international bodies has been considerable. This has affected the range of information that it is possible to include in Volume 2. As a result it was necessary to eliminate telephone information from the addresses of category F organizations (those of category E are already excluded) in the case of membership links.

Mailings for the 32nd edition are already commencing.

Unlike the previous edition, work has not been disrupted by computer or other problems. The absence of a key member of editorial research staff for 9 months, due to an accident, did however reduce the quality of the work done on following up new organizations.

Restructuring the Yearbook: At this point, no further restructuring of the Yearbook is planned until the impact of the CD-ROM initiative is clear.

Annuaire des Organisations Internationales: The last French edition was produced in 1980 with the aid of the French Government. Discussions on the possibility of a CD-ROM based French version of the Yearbook, initiated by the French Government in 1991, have continued through to the present.

Contacts have been developed with other possible partners, notably the ACCT, the Communauté française de Belgique and the Délégation de Québec.

At the time of writing, an amount of 260,000 FF has been transferred to UIA by the French Government. This represents approximately one third of the estimated amount required for the task -- if the translation is to be complete in every detail. The global budget is approximately 1 million FF. The problem is therefore what to do if the remaining two thirds cannot be obtained from some other source.

As noted above, the possibility of using machine-assisted translation has been explored (two systems have been tested) in order to reduce translation costs and to increase the speed at which the translation can be done so as to respect any CD-ROM deadlines for the English version. It is however expected that a more conventional approach will be taken.

It is appropriate to note that the problems for any subsequent edition of the French version are themselves complex:

• It is improbable that equivalent sums of money will be made available by the French Government for a second edition.
• There are major technical problems in identifying which updates to any English edition need to be translated as modifications to the French edition in order to respect the parallelism between the two language versions.

The UIA was requested to make a presentation on the project to the Comité du Suivie de la Langue Française dans les Organisations Internationales in Paris in February 1994. The background document, prepared through many drafts with the Quai d'Orsay, is included as Annex 4.

It was indicated that the matter would be transferred to higher authority following that meeting. It is quite unclear when any decision will be taken. The most sensitive issue was the manner in which the French information would be handled in relation to the english information on the CD-ROM, especially with the likelihood that the English information would be more frequently updated than the French.

World problems / Strategic potential

Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (4th edition): Work on the 4th edition of this 2-volume publication (to be increased to 3) commenced at the beginning of 1993 and was completed in April 1994. The scope of the update and improvements was severely constrained by the budget allocated by SAUR. It has not yet proved possible to obtain supplemental funding from other sources.

• World problems (Volume 1): The editorial work led to an increase in the size of 34.1% more descriptive text with 12.8% more descriptions. To meet the publisher's costing, the type size was reduced to that of the Yearbook, resulting in 1250 pages, some 100 pages more than for the 1991 edition.
  
  Main improvements to Volume 1 were a complete reworking of the cross-references between world problems which effectively consolidated and tidied up many loose ends. The number of crossreferences increased by 49.5% to 120.205. Some 1.676 new problems were added. Many borderline problems were merged into other problem descriptions.
  
• Human development (Volume 2): In order to stay within size constraints, this volume had to be reduced in size by omitting certain subsections on which no work had been done for this edition. Nevertheless the 2-volumes together make 2250 pages, namely 250 pages more than the publisher had budgeted for. The increase was however accepted because of the marketing advantages of some of the improvements.
  
  Main improvements to Volume 2 were the continuing refinement to the human development sections which constitute one third of the volume. Because of the clarification and rationalization of the world problems cross-references it was also possible to crross-reference them from the human values section in Volume 2 for the first time. This was also done for the human development section. This could be seen as a major development in integrating "world problems" and "human development" through "human values".
  
  
• "Actions - Strategies - Solutions": This is the title currently favoured by SAUR for the agreed Volume 3 of the Encyclopedia which is to appear in mid-1995 as a further major development was the agreement with the publisher by the addition of this third volume to the Encyclopedia.
  
  Relevant information in Volume 3 of the Yearbook will be transferred to Volume 3 of the Encyclopedia in order to create more space in the former product and to increase the marketability of the latter.
  
  

  The project is designed to build on existing advantages:

  • -- work done on strategies for the 1986 edition of the Encyclopedia
  • -- information in UIA files, or available, on strategy material from international organizations
  • -- skills developed by the editor of the world problems section of the Encyclopedia Work will start in May 1994 although requests for material are included in mailings to international organizations starting in April 1994. The publication is expected to be some 750 pages (see Annex 3).

A major issue with the publisher has been how this publication is to be marketed. There are obvious merits to linking it to the original two volumes of the Encyclopedia, although SAUR is still reluctant to take the risk of marketing these separately. The lack of creative feedback from SAUR's marketing partners in the USA has not helped matters.

Biographical profiles of leadership

Who's Who in International Organizations: Work on this series had been terminated in May 1992 on the request of SAUR.

SAUR remains very interested in this series. It has been agreed that work should start from mid-April 1994 on a 2nd edition. This would be scheduled for completion in June 1995. Any partially revised information might be included in an intermediary CDROM (eg in April 1995).

It is possible that the UIA might use the opportunity to make better use of the information collected for the Who's Who in Religion which is held in the same database. Many of the individuals documented are active in international religious organizations.

The UIA was fortunate to come to an agreement with a former member of the UIA editorial staff familiar with the UIA style and computer software. The work will be done at her home as the first UIA experiment in a mode of work much discussed as the future of many forms of work. A first mailing has been sent out in April (together with the strategies request).

The editorial team had been dissolved prior to termination of the project on the orginally-named International Who's Who in Religion. At the insistence of SAUR, means of completing the aborted production of the Who's Who in Religion were sought at the end of 1992. A compromise was finally reached to complete the exercise during May 1993, after the pressure of the Yearbook cycle. The former editor returned specifically for that purpose.

This solution is recognized by all parties as being unsatisfactory but SAUR prefered to publish the book under such circumstances rather than to write off the losses in a more embarassing form.

Because of marketing problems in the USA, the name of the publication, which appeared in December 1993, was changed to International Biographical Dictionary of Religion.

Bibliographies: meeting reports / periodicals / studies

SAUR has expressed interest in the production of a Directory of Publications of International Organizations. This could include the following components:

• Publications identified in organization descriptions in the Yearbook and currently presented in the Publications Index (in Volume 1).
• Publications in the various bibliographies of the Encyclopedia, notably that on problems with which international organizations are concerned.
• Publications on international organizations. This relates to the planned UIA project to update its bibliographies of studies of international organizations.

Meetings scheduled / Conference organization / Associate Membership

International Congress Calendar (quarterly): This is the subject of a separate report.

Associations review / journal

Transnational Associations / Associations transnationales (bimonthly)

[NB: Versions of the UIA periodical: La Vie Internationale, 1912-21; Bulletin des associations internationals, 1943-44; Bulletin mensuel, 1951-53; International Associations, 1954-76; Transnational Associations, 1977-2001]

Research / Statistics

Research-related issues developed by the Secretary-General are noted separately in his report.

Those relating to the Congress Department and to the Editor of Transnational Associations are also reported separately. A report on the special study of consultative status relationships with the United Nations will also be made separately.

A checklist of papers is presented in Annex 7.

Current research themes include:

• Transformative conferencing Opportunities to develop innovative approaches to conferencing continue to be explored following UIA involvement in the Inter-Sectoral Dialogue (Rio de Janeiro, June 1992) and the First World Congress towards Spiritual Concord (Alma Ata, October 1992). Both of these resulted in production of UIA documents which have been well-received.
  
  A group partially funded by the UIA played a significant role in the coordination of the "open forum" session at the 13th Congress of the World Futures Studies Federation (Finland, August 1993) and of the facilitation of the Parliament of the World's Religions (Chicago, September 1993) in the light of the Alma Ata event.
  
  New approaches to organization and policy-making: This theme remains a continuing concern currently reflected in papers on metaphor and in the contents of the new edition of the Encyclopedia.
  
  
• Metaphors and catalytic imagery: As indicated by the checklist of publications, this theme continues to be developed in response to various opportunities, (notably in French versions). A paper on metaphor and the language of futures was specially commissioned.
  
  The UIA was represented in a meeting combining the concerns of organization development and therapy which focused on the use of metaphor (Taos NM, March 1993). A UIA paper based on this theme was selected for publication in the conference book of the World Future Society conference (Washington DC, June 1993) where there is active interest in the Encyclopedia and its development of that theme.
  
  
• Interdisciplinarity The UIA participated in a second conference on this theme under the auspices of the Union International des Techniciens de Langue Française (Rennes, December 1993). An abridged version of a paper to the earlier event (Paris, 1991) is appearing in a book in French. The UIA is represented on the international organizing committee of the first World Congrtess on Transdisciplinarity (Lisbon, 1994).
  
  A presentation on associated topics was made to the Institute for Knowledge Processing of the University of Ulm in 1993. More concretely the UIA has been invited to present the keynote address at the Conference on the Organization of Environmental Information (Bratislava, 1994). This follows up much earlier work on this topic, notably coordinated through the UN Library in Geneva.
  
  
• Mapping and visualization This issue remains a continuing concern. It appears that it will be relatively easy (in terms of cost) to include organization charts and any other network maps on the planned CD-ROM.
  
  UIA data was fed into a highly sophisticated network mapping software package during a special one day demonstration in the UK. The resulting maps (see Annex 8) have been used as end papers in the forthcoming editions of the Yearbook and the Encyclopedia in agreement with Saur. The package is very suggestive of the future development of interaction with UIA data. It was suggested that a demonstration version of the package should be incorporated into the planned CD-ROM.
  
  Values Much work has been done on values for the new edition of the Encyclopedia, notably by providing a unique pattern of links from values to world problems and to human development.
  
  On the initiative of Professor Tibaldi, a book was prepared in Italian (Valori Humani, 1994) which carried some aspects of this work.
  
  
• Statistics on meetings and organizations: This issue remains a continuing concern, especially in relation to the commitment to Associate Members.
  
  
• Invitations/Attendance at meetings This forms the subject of a separate note. (Annex 8)
  
  
• Statistical development: This initiative is described in connection with the report on the International Congress Calendar.

By-products / CD-ROM / Online

Compact disk (CD-ROM): This matter has been the subject of long and complex negotiations which have been reported to the General Assembly on previous occasions. The issues are summarized in Annex 5. The current situation is as follows.

Following the unsatisfactory delays in negotiating with Saur's partners in the USA in 1993, it was decided that the UIA would itself experiment with producing a test CD-ROM using its own software. A test disk was successfully produced in October 1993 and shown to Saur. A subsequent demonstration was made in Munich at Saur's HQ. Seemingly this was important to the internal politics of the Saur group -- a client producing a CD-ROM.

It was then agreed that UIA would go ahead and improve the quality of the test version for general marketing. Specific issues were: -- standardizing the functions -- resemblance to other Saur prducts -- production techniques -- software required -- adaptation to Windows It was tentatively agreed that this work would be done in the first months of 1994. To do this two attempts were made to sub-contract portions of the work. These were not satisfactory. It was then decided that the UIA would undertake the necessary adaptation using in-house resources as much as possible. The desirability of acquiring a CD-ROM writer has been recognized, notably because of the independence and flexibility that it offers.

Work on the CD-ROM and associated software upgrades will start in May 1994. Hardware upgrades associated with this process were undertaken in April 1994.

CD-ROM issues (see Annex 5):

• Background: The UIA continues to be faced with requests for direct access to its database. The online opportunities for the UIA seem to necessitate a phase of simple electronic mail before integrating in any database facility -- if that proves to be desirable.
  
  Our publisher, K G Saur Verlag, is however now distributing some major reference works on compact disk and sees this as a necessary new development of the publishing business. This possibility and Saur's interest in it has been noted in this report over several years. It is important to recognize that there has been an initial period of enthusiasm in which a number of those who committed themselves prematurely (including Gale) have had unfortunate experiences. The situation is now much clearer to Saur, although not especially promising. Essentially it is a question of positioning potential products in the CD/ROM market in anticipation of future developments.
  
  Saur is now actively negotiating the means of distributing UIA information in this form. Although the hardware is evolving, as outlined below, libraries and distributors are now committed to the simplest form of optical disk hardware (point (a) below).
  
  
• Optical storage: The hardware for optical disk storage is evolving very rapidly :
  
  (a) CD/ROM: The current widely available form (CD/ROM), especially attractive to libraries, does not allow the user to write onto the disk, and requires expensive means of production. UIA would certainly lose control of any data produced and distributed in this way -- especially through Saur. New software and hardware is now making it quite feasible for publishers (such as UIA) to produce their own CD-ROMs. This is a very tempting option for the UIA with major long-term implications. The investment is however in the region of $10,000. However it remains questionable whether UIA could acquire and maintain the level of technical expertise to do this. Saur argues that it requires a highr level of expertise to produce the kind of user-friendly product required by the market.
  
  (b) CD/WORM: Less widely known is the form in which the producer writes once to the disk and the user accesses it as often as is required (CD/WORM). This form is relatively inexpensive for the producer, permitting tailor-made one-off products, and would allow the UIA to develop its own independent relationship with users. The problem of losing control of the data remains but at least distribution control becomes easier. This could be implemented immediately. The snag is that the technology is evolving so rapidly that it is unclear how long any particular hardware standard will last, especially with the emergence of the third variety below. The UIA has now abandoned consideration of this possibility.
  
  (c) CD/MO: Eraseable optical disks are now being released onto the market. Prices have now decreased to 90.000 FB for a 3.5 in. 128MB machine (156.000 FB for a 5.25 in 600MB). These will almost certainly prove to be a more attractive proposition than either of the above. It will be some considerable time before they reach the degree of standardization and acceptability of the CD/ROM variety. However they offer the immediate advantage that the UIA could copy its data onto such disks, and access it using existing software -- which could be progressively improved.
  
  
• Negotiations with Saur: Since 1991 there have been continuing discussions between SAUR and UIA on the CD-ROM possibility. A first round of discussions, ending mid-1991, was based on proposals from SAUR's Berlin sub-contractor. It became apparent that UIA would derive little benefit from the arrangement. UIA rejected the proposal.
  
  A second round of discussions was then initiated by SAUR through Computaprint (London). This company has been responsible for processing the Yearbook since 1984. In 1986 it became a cousin of SAUR, since both are now part of the REED group. Within REED there is also Online Computer Systems (USA) and a group called REED Opti-Ware (London). It is the USA group which has the CDROM expertise that is being used by REED Opti-Ware with Computaprint as the interface with UIA. In mid-1992 these discussions also reached a point at which SAUR decided to terminate the project because of the costs.
  
  A third round of discussions has been initiated following an exchange of memos. It is clear that SAUR and UIA are confronted with a problem for which the CD-ROM provides a solution. The problem relates to the space demands of the data and the marketing demands for specialized and cheaper publications.
  
  The commitment by SAUR to produce the CD-ROM in 1993 has now been modified for "fiscal" and "marketing" reasons. The intent is now to develop the CD-ROM in the last quarter of 1993 but to produce it in early 1994 -- depending on the Yearbook production cycle. This makes the inclusion of the French edition (see below) on that CD-ROM much more feasible.
  
  A draft contract developed by UIA is under discussion (see Annex I) and signature is expected within the April-May period. This is designed to take account of many of the production and marketing issues of the different combinations of databases that might be placed on the CD-ROM.
  
  
• Principal issues and complicating factors:
  
  (a) Market demand: Saur will go ahead with the CD/ROM development and has already loaned/given a CD/ROM unit to the UIA to ensure some familiarity with the possibilities.
  
  (b) Eraseable disks: It appears very desirable for the UIA to acquire an eraseable disk, if only to resolve and rationalize daily backup and disk space problems, as well as communication with London (for which the current tape unit is increasingly unsatisfactory). This could then be used by the UIA to produce disks for use on other installations similarly equipped (starting with London).
  
  (c) Control of data: The fundamental issue of "giving away" the complete UIA database, in one form or another, remains to be addressed.
  
  (d) Regional and specialized directories: Given the current transformation of Europe, there is a place for a directory of European organizations produced by the UIA, especially in the light of the emergence of interest by other publishers in producing such a volume. The same may be said for various specialized directories (sport, medicine, development, etc). In the past such proposals have been made for paper versions and SAUR has rejected them for marketing reasons. Within a CD-ROM environment these become credible as separately marketed segments of a single disk.
  
  (e) Inclusion of non-Yearbook information: whether the CD-ROM would be limited to the Yearbook or include the Calendar information, etc (f) Inclusion of French version of Yearbook: Whether the French version of the Yearbook (see below) could be included on the same disk. Discussion of this issue with SAUR and with the French Government has proved very complex and has effectively delayed implementation of the CD/ROM has initially conceived in its simplest form.
  
  (g) Segmental marketing: Whether portions of the disk could be separately marketed by use of special software "keys". Especially difficult are the royalty issues in relationship to these possibilities.
  
  (h) Independence from SAUR: The CD/ROM related initiatives offer a unique opportunity to consider operating with a greater degree of independence from SAUR, without necessarily losing the advantages of that distribution network. It is possible that the SAUR product could be limited to a simpler product, with the UIA taking responsibility for the many variants on tailor-made CD/MO products.
  
  (i) Royalties: SAUR is currently offering 6 percent royalties on the list price, arguing that all "editorial costs" are covered by the hardcopy versions (certain production costs will be separately invoiced by UIA). Assuming sale of 100 copies of the CD/ROM selling at approx. 30.000 FB (for the Yearbook part at least), this would mean total royalties of only 1.800 FB per disk (namely a total of 180.000 FB) for a great deal of work by the UIA in responding to the production requirements. Against this would have to be set the advantage of the greater visibility of the UIA products. This needs to be compared to UIA production of its own CD/MO, for which the actual production costs would be very low

Statutes / Legal status

International Association Statutes: This publication was last produced in 1988 and SAUR has no desire to produce another paper version. It remains an interesting product to include on any CD-ROM to enhance the UIA description of international organizations. Politically it is also important in relation to the possible initiatives to "register" international organizations within Europe. Technically the problem is one of finding a minimal cost procedure to get the text onto computer -- scanning being the logical approach. Final details of the CD-ROM contract will determine the extra cost of placing such information onto the CDROM.

Collaborative projects / External relations

Annuaire des Organisations Internationales: See above report under Organization profiles / network

Future development strategy / Proposals / Fund-raising

Long-term strategic issues: The long-term strategic issues were discussed on the occasion of the 1992 General Assembly (see Annex 6).

Publishing / Marketing

Contractual relationships with SAUR: Work continues under long-standing contracts. Both parties continue to express satisfaction with the arrangements, despite the many threats to the publishing industry and booksales in a time of recession and general uncertainty.

New contracts:

• the contract for the 4th edition of the Encyclopedia was signed November 1992
• a contract for a new edition of the Who's Who in International Organizations was signed in March 1994 (see below)
• a contract for a new third volume to the Encyclopedia series was signed in March 1994 (see below)
• a contract for the future CD-ROM publication is in preparation (see below).

Marketing: Sales continue at a satisfactory level despite the general recession. SAUR remains very satisfied with UIA products.

Receipts under Saur contracts increased by 5 percent in 1993 as a result of the adjustment of the contract as previously reported to the General Assembly. These receipts from Saur are in general much higher (16.2 million BF) compared to those from sales through UIA itself (3.1 million BF).

Receipts from sale of publications by UIA itself (through Brussels) remain satisfactory. The sales of the Yearbook are 20% higher than the previous year. As there were no new products in 1993 (compared to 1992 when the Who's Who in International Organizations appeared), the results of the publications gave 3 million BF less than in 1992.

The issue of UIA marketing from Brussels remains unresolved (if it is a real issue). It continues at a very modest level.

A regretable issue raised each year by Saur is the lack of appropriate financial arrangements through which to dispose of unsold copies of UIA publications. The problem is that the cost of shipping them from Germany is quite significant and the lack of guarantee that they can be sold at any price makes it awkward for the UIA to take any position on the matter. Such publications are therefore regularly pulped. Occasionally arrangements have been made with UNESCO, the difficulty being that such arrangements are easily abused resulting in loss of income.

Computer-related infrastructure

Hardware: Investments in hardware have taken the following form:

• upgrade of the network server to a 486 PC in order to increase speed on the network, downgrading the original server to a workstation
• upgrade of the main editorial workstations from 286 to 386 in anticipation of a software upgrade associated with the CD-ROM development. Furthermore 286 machines can no longer be adequately maintained and with the emergence of 486 machines as standard, the price of upgrading machines to 386 was very reasonable at this time.
• purchase of two colour monitors to facilitate certain forms of wordprocessing
• purchase of an eraseable optical disk system to solve continuing difficulties with backups and transmission of data to London for composition.

Software: The upgrade of the core Revelation software to version 3.0 was acquired and has been implemented under test. The full implementation has been deferred to mid-1994 since this will affect various features of the existing system. An upgrade to version 3.1 will then be possible. This will be essential for the CD-ROM environment and requires the use of the 386 machines to take advantage of the larger memory needed to handle larger editorial tasks.

A Windows-based version of Revelation (Open Insight) has been purchased to permit creation of a Windows-based version of the CD-ROM.

Software to analyze networks of relationships has been donated by the Inter-University Project Group of the University of Amsterdam/Groningen/Nijmegen/Twente. It may prove useful in relation to both inter-organization and inter-problem networks.

Tests were conducted on the use of computer-based "translation" of text from English into French in order to assist the editorial process of the French version of the Yearbook. The results were not satisfactory. This machine translation phase would have been done through an external company. UIA would not acquire the software.

A shift to DOS 6.0 is being selectively implemented as a way of solving memory problems for certain editing procedures on 386 machines. Experiments are being conducted with Novell DOS 7.0.

The 3 laser printers are now all configureable as network printers.

Review of system: The services of an external consultant were used to briefly review the system in March 1993 from both a hardware and software perspective to determine whether any improvement could usefully made at minimal cost, especially in relation to the Advanced Revelation software for which there are some memory problems on PCs. The above investments partially reflect the results of that study.

The same consultant was hired in February 1994 to determine what problems might be encountered with the planned upgrade to Revelation 3.1 and transfer of data to CD-ROM. The advice was not satisfactory (due to a commercial misunderstanding) and only marginally useful. It is clear that the cost of such advice is increasingly exhorbitant and that the UIA strategy of relying on in-house resources has many advantages.

Annexes

Annex 1 Yearbook statistics (international organizations by type)

Annex 2 Encyclopedia statistics

Annex 3 International organization action strategies

Annex 4 Annuaire francaise sur CD-ROM

Annex 5 Background to CD-ROM issues

Annex 6 Strategic issues (see Annex 5, 1992 Assembly report)

Annex 7 Checklist of papers

Annex 8 Participation in meetings

Annex 9 NETMAP graphics

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