Challenges to Comprehension Implied by the Logo of Laetus in Praesens
Laetus in Praesens
12h October 1998

International Organization Information / Research: 1998

-- / --

Prepared for Union of International Associations (General Assembly, 23-24 October 1998)
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

Summary

For purposes of comparison and summary, the publication A4 page production of the UIA (excluding research notes and papers) is indicated in the following table

For purposes of comparison and summary, the publication A4 page production of the UIA
(excluding research notes and papers) is indicated in the following table.

Publication page production

Organization profiles / networks

Yearbook of International Organizations:

Organization profiles / networks

Yearbook of International Organizations: Editorial work on this multi-volume annual series has followed the regular pattern:

Organization descriptions and index (Volume 1, 34th and 35th editions). See Annex 1 for statistics on international organizations by type. Work is in progress on the 36th (1999) edition.

The trend, indicated in previous reports, towards exclusion of more categories of entry (and/or paragraphs from entries) has been continued. The response of the publisher, discussed in previous reports, is that "overflow" of any kind will have to be carried in future in the CD-ROM, as produced since December 1995 (see below). Nevertheless it is clear that the coverage of the book decreases progressively in "quality per entry" as different types of organization or paragraph have to be omitted from Volumes 1, 2 or 3.

The possibility of splitting Volume 1 into 1a (Intergovernmental) and 1b (Nongovernmental) contiues to be discussed. Any decision on this depends on Klaus SAUR who opposed it in 1998 because it would naturally increase production costs and the dangers of increasing the sales price are understandable in sensitive book markets.

International Organization Participation (Volume 2):

Classified subjects and index (Volume 3)

Bibliographies (Volume 4): The new bibliographical Volume 4 was successfully produced for the third time in 1998. This new edition of Volume 4 incorporates even more bibliographical material from the UIA Transnational Associations (1970 and 1980) as well bibliographies from a number of researchers on international organizations. Additional material relevant to international organization issues has been included as a result of a modest amount of bibliographical work done on the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential.

Annuaire des Organisations Internationales: building on the French translation experience The last French edition of the Yearbook 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, the Délégation de Québec and the Swiss government.
As indicated above, this initiative is now suspended after production of a CD-ROM according to this philosophy and cessation of French support.

The key question is whether it is worthwhile seeking funding for translation initiatives given the kind of automatic translation that is already available on the web. The UIA has produced a prototype CD-ROM which enables users to generate translations of organization,
problems or strategy profiles into a range of languages at zero cost by directly accessing the Web from the CD-ROM.

World problems / Strategic potential

Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential: Work on the 4th edition of this 3-volume publication commenced at the beginning of 1993. The first two volumes were successfully completed in April 1994. Work on the new third volume, agreed in March 1994, continued from June 1994, and was completed in June 1995 (partially assisted by funds from a UIA Member).

No further work on this publication has been scheduled since then. However the UIA was fortunate to have a contract proposal to the European Commission accepted in January 1997 for a six month feasibility (Definitional) study (see below) based on the problems and
strategies portions of this data.

Of the 477 projects submitted, the UIA's was one of the 80 accepted. The UIA's was subsequently one of 20 to be accepted for further development in a contract signed in December 1997 for (Implementation) work over a 2-year period (Jan 1998-Dec 1999).

The UIA work during the Definitional and Implementation phases to date has resulted in intensive development of some sections of the Encyclopedia databases (see statistics Annex 2). This will not immediately take the form of a hardcopy publication but will have a number of implications for CD-ROM and Web publication (see below).

Biographical profiles of leadership

Who's Who in International Organizations: SAUR remains very interested in this series. Work started from mid-April 1994 on a 2nd
edition of this publication. This was completed in June 1995. No further work has been undertaken. A new contract was signed in August 1998 for a 3rd edition to be published before the end of 1999.

As since the first edition of the CD-ROM in 1995, this information has been integrated into the Yearbook Plus CD for 1998, even though it was progressively outdated. Work has been started in August 1998 with a view to a revised hardcopy edition at the end of 1999. Early information will be inserted in the 1999 edition of the CD-ROM, due out in October 1999. The editorial work for this edition will be significantly facilitated by use of the Web to access personal individual's homepages.

It has been agreed with SAUR that the value of the biographical data could be enhanced by including a link to the Web home page of the individual, if this was available. On the webconnected CD version (as described above), these links would allow users direct access to supplementary information on the individual and even e-mail contact. This would be a significant improvement from a marketing perspective. It also offered the possibility of offering access to biographical data of individuals from their own homepages without necessarily having to appropriate that information into the UIA database. This might ensure adequate biographical coverage of some "low priority" people for whose entry little editorial time could be scheduled.

Although the possibility of including photographs in the hardcopy version was rejected, there was a discussion of ways of providing users with access to images on the webconnected CD, notably if there was an image associated with the person's home page. Specialized Web searches can be done to locate such image files. A distinction was however made between downloading that image for inclusion on the CD and allowing the user of the CD to download the image over the Web by clicking on a URL for it. This approach is clearly preferable.

Brief mention was also made of the future possibility of handling sound ("statement by the Secretary-General") and video (video of Secretary-General "fireside chat") files in the same way. The copyright implications have also been reviewed with SAUR.

Meetings scheduled / Conference organization / Associate Membership

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

By-products / CD-ROM / Online

Of special merit is the fact that advantage is taken of the many links between organizations, documented in the Yearbook, to provide hyperlinks both between organizations and with other databases.

A single version of this CD-ROM was produced but this was provided with separate English, French and German packagings for marketing purposes by SAUR. This appeared to be the best approach to meeting the needs of a French product. It should be noted that users can install the CD in either English or French software (or both).

With the 3rd edition, for the first time, users (with Internet connections) were able to use information on the CD-ROM to click directly into distant websites from the CD, or to send e-mail messages directly to organizations. This dramatic improvement enables users to click on Web addresses in organization entries and be transferred to the homepage of the organization on some distant computer (if the CD user has simultaenous Web access via modem). Similarly, clicking on the e-mail address will open a window allowing the user to send a message directly to that organization whilst consulting the profile in the Yearbook. Over 8,000 organizations have Web addresses in the 1998 Yearbook. Over 11,000 have email addresses.

For the 4th edition, however, three factors led to simplification of the previous editions to include only the English descriptions, the Bibliographies and the Who's Who information. The "internet connectivity" was further developed.

The inclusion of the French text was terminated as a result of the termination of support (since 1996) from the French community, notably from the Agence de la Francophonie and the French Government. An effort to upgrade the Folio software used to offer a more user-friendly interface was abandoned when it was discovered that the upgrade precluded the possibility of non-English interrogation -- a feature of previous versions. Feedback from SAUR indicated that the product was already complex enough. A simplified interface has been included.

World Guide to Religious and Spiritual Organizations: This publication, requested by SAUR, is an extract from the Yearbook, supplemented by additional information and indexes. Work was initiated in August 1995, completed in December 1995, and was published in May 1996. It totals 476 pages. No further work has been done on this publication series.

World Guide to Logos, Emblems and Trademarks of International Organizations: An agreement was reached with SAUR to scan in logos of international organizations from material in UIA files. Some 6,000 logos were treated in this way, starting in August 1996,
and appropriately indexed. The result was published in 3 volumes (each of 400 pages) in June 1997 (see Annex 3). As with the World Guide to Religious and Spiritual Organizations, the work was subcontracted to a former UIA staff member.

Encyclopedia Plus: Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential: Work on this CD-ROM product was initiated in March 1995 and completed in December 1995 with production of the first commercial disks by SAUR. Any further edition will depend on
market response and/or other sources of funding (see below with regard to the European Commission project). A comprehensive prototype was however produced in 1997 as part of the Definitional (feasibility) study for this contract.

Current web status: The facility of this medium has quickly led to the placement of some 11,000 static "pages" of information onto the Web covering every aspect of UIA activity. This amounts to several full size publications in their own right. The scope can be seen by the introductory "home page" (see Annex 4) through which users are transferred to particular categories of information.

This approach offers considerable advantages in the presentation of up to date information on the UIA and its publications to a potentially very wide audience at relatively little cost -- compared to that of conventional brochure publication (quickly outdated) and mailing. The quality of presentation is also very satisfactory when printed from the Web by any user (including the UIA).

In addition to detailed information on the UIA itself, the website currently includes:

The statistics on website usage indicate some 5,000 "hits" per day (see Annex 5). This figure has proved to be very impressive to SAUR, since it implies much more interaction than is possible with traditional marketing methods. As a result the UIA's activities are brought to the attention of a much wider, and geographically more dispersed, range of users -- at relatively low cost, compared to traditional methods. It has however been on the regular editorial work that internet access has proved to be truly revolutionary:

Future CD-ROM production: It has been decided to cease production of DOS and Macintosh versions and to concentrate on the Windows version. It has always been the intention to produce several different CD-ROMs, with more or less of the UIA database information. Exactly what is produced will continue to be partially determined in consultation with SAUR, although the UIA may produce versions for independent distribution (not through SAUR).

Possibilities include CD-ROMs with:

It should be noted that commercial constraints prevent inclusion of many complementary databases on the same CD, even though this would provide an overview consistent with the UIA mandate. Note that using a scanner also implies the possibility of placing texts from back copies of Transnational Associations, early UIA reference books, and other reports onto CD-ROM. Future work will be affected by significant upgrades to Folio (or equivalent) software and the relation to Web initiatives (see below). The latter may even make it less useful to
develop CD-ROM based products.

Future publication on the World Wide Web: It has quickly become evident that:

Placing data onto Internet adds to the existing challenge for the UIA and SAUR of the balance to be found between book (Yearbook, Encyclopedia, Calendar) and CD-ROM. A balance must be found between all three for marketing purposes and in the relationship
with SAUR.

A particular and relatively immediate challenge for the UIA is to determine the ways in which meeting and other data should be placed on the Web, and at what costs (if any) to users. This is especially urgent given the initiatives taken by other bodies in this respect. The key element in any future Web-oriented strategy is direct access by the UIA to one (or more) Web servers. The UIA now effectively benefits from three servers:

Software is now being developed by the UIA (partly as part of the Info2000 contract) to ensure page generation from the full range of UIA databases. This involves:

Of special interest in this context are the implications for dissemination of:

Of special interest is the manner whereby documents placed on the Web are automatically indexed by major computer services and thus become accessible world-wide through search engines at no cost to the UIA. The UIA has now had experience of the effects that
this has and the responses that it evokes. The main issue to be clarified is how payments and security can be organized to make the
dissemination of information as user-friendly and economically viable as possible in a rapidly chaning information environment.

The vast amount of information being placed on the Web by millions of bodies is exacerbating the many problems of information overload. The fundamental challenge is now expected to shift from "information" to "meaning" -- however this is to be understood. From this perspective, much UIA data may in many ways be considered to be relatively "meaningless" when considered as isolated profiles of organizations, problems, strategies, etc. The UIA needs to be attentive to the need for "meaning tools" to increase the value of its information -- and ensure its own survival in an information rich world.

The major advantage of the UIA data lies in the heavy investment in identifying relationships between isolated profiles -- as the basis for building patterns of meaning.

Associations review / journal

Transnational Associations: This is the subject of a separate report where the implications of the planned online publishing from January 1999 are reviewed

[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

Statutes / Legal status

International Association Statutes: Although it was agreed that there was no question of producing another hardcopy publication, SAUR has suggested that if UIA were to collect electronic copies of statutes from international organizations these could be assembled into a CD which SAUR might be interested in producing.

The question would be the investment in collecting the data -- since it would require a significant number before there was a case for releasing a CD. Unfortunately the data for the 1984 publication was
corrupted electronically by tape failure and is difficult to correct. Th UIA will consider this possibility further.

Research / Statistics

Research-related issues are also developed in other reports. A checklist of papers is presented in Annex 8. An increasing number of research papers are now freely available on the UIA website.

In addition to papers prepared in response to particular occasions and conferences, research-related work has also done in the past in connection with the Encyclopedia. Where possible adaptations of research papers have been used in explanatory sections of
the Encyclopedia. The UIA website has enabled many papers to be made available directly, whether or not they have been published in other ways. Commentaries from the Encyclopedia are also now used on the website to orient users.

Current research themes include:

Collaborative projects / External relations

European Commission contract: Information Context for Biodiversity Conservation: In response to a call for proposals in September 1996 within the framework of a DG XIII programme entitled Info2000, a project coordinated by the UIA was approved in January
1997. The Definition Phase (48,107 ECU) of this contract, negotiated on behalf of the UIA and 3 partners by Nadia McLaren, with the European Commission (DGXIII), was signed December 1996, and ran from Jan-June 1997.

The UIA's principal partner is the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) which is a subsidiary of the IUCN based in
Cambridge (UK). The two secondary partners are the Norwegian School of Management (Oslo) and the Stichting Instituut voor Europees Milieubelied (Arnhem).

The Implementation Phase of the contract (228,000 ECU) was submitted in July 1997 and signed in December 1997. It runs from January 1998-December 1999. The focus of the contract is Biodiversity Conservation in an Information Context and involves extension of
the problems and strategies databases of the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential. Both of these now involve extensive linkages to the international organizations database.

The focus of the project (see Annex 6) is a partial integration of data from UIA and WCMC relating to biological conservation. WCMC specializes in data on threatened species and environments. The UIA brings to the project contextual information from the problems and
strategies database. The product will be either on CD or on the Web, or some combination of both. It is specifically required that there should be "multi-media content" beyond the usual text information. To this end some successful experiments using 3D (virtual reality) displays of Encyclopedia and Yearbook data have been conducted (and made accessible on the Web) as noted below.

The requirement for a CD or Web prototype of the final product has meant that the UIA has been able to devote significant resources, funded by the European Commission, to the development of the problems and strategies databases (see Annex 2). In effect these have been updated to the point of justifying a new edition of the Encyclopedia, irrespective of any further funding from SAUR. The "integration" of data with WCMC has been reframed on the basis of the provision of Web hyperlinks from the UIA data to the WCMC, and vice versa, rather than any combination of data within the same data structure. This approach seems to be consistent with the evolution of databases on the Web.

A particular constraint of this project work with the Commission is the requirement that the contractors provide 57.69 percent "matching funds" (to the 42.31 percent received from the Commission). In other words, for the project to be of immediate interest to the UIA, in the
absence of third party funding, it must allocate matching funds from its own resources. This can of course be interpreted to include resources that the UIA would anyway allocate to personnel engaged in work relevant to the project. This includes development of the dynamic web page service. A second constraint is that the UIA and WCMC have to determine exactly under what contractual terms any "product" is produced, given the UIA relations with SAUR, WCMC's relation with its sources, and the need of both parties to "recover costs" -- and demonstrate
economic viability.

The prototype CD produced in June 1997 contained both problem and strategies databases from the Encyclopedia. As part of this Implementation Phase, a project office has been set up in a spare MAI office -- fortunately with the benefit of spare MAI furniture. Computer
facilities have been extended. A significant amount of work has already been done (see statistics (see Annex 2). The contract requires promotional contacts, one of which includes a meeting in New Delhi with Development Alternatives (created by UIA Member, Ashok
Khosla).

World Bank InfoDev project proposal: InfoDev is a World Bank programme to fund projects supportive of use of information by
developing countries. Work on this project proposal ($157,870 or FB 5.525.450) to the World Bank was completed and submitted (May 1998) under the title: Interactive Contextual Environmental Planning Tool (Intercept) for developing countries The project prospection work was done by Nadia McLaren as an activity specified within the Info2000 contract to seek matching funds. The proposal (see Annex 7) is for work running from late 1998 through 2002 as a complement and an extension of the Info2000 work focusing on development in the problems and strategies databases.

In August 1998, UIA was informed that this proposal had passed the preliminary screening phase and entered into the contract negotiation phase. The proposal is for a $500,000 project over 3 years, probably from early 1999. It is designed to complement the work on
the European Commission project. The focus will however be extended from environment to development-related issues -- again by upgrading the Encyclopedia databases. The project also stresses the editorial participation of end-users.

Also written into the contract is Development Alternatives (New Delhi) of which the President is Ashok Khosla (member of UIA), and of which Christian de Laet is Canadian representative. Development Alternatives has also associated funding received from the
Ford Foundation in this InfoDev project proposal.

Both the INFO2000 and Infodev projects are required to demonstrate long-term economic viability. To this end the UIA will be exploring ways of developing a variety of marketing and sponsorship formulae through which its data can be made available in hardcopy, CD, or
web-connected CD formats. The UIA has confirmed to SAUR its sensitivity both to avoiding undermining SAUR-related sales and to publicizing its SAUR-distributed publications. Consultation with SAUR on this matter would continue.

EU Internet Policy Dialogue: The UIA was invited by the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission to make a
proposal to develop an Internet framework for creative dialogue on irreconcilable policy differences using listserver techniques. The preliminary proposal (20,000 ECU or FB 810.000) has been "accepted" in principle.

The UIA was invited by the Unit to participate in an electronic conference on Information and Governance (November-December 1997) and
operated (voluntarily) a listserver for that Unit in preparation for a meeting on 14-16 May 1998 in Brussels. The proposed work meshes well with the current development of the Web server for the Info2000 project.

Other Web-related project proposals:

Future development strategy / Proposals

Long-term strategic issues: The long-term strategic issues were discussed in a report to an earlier Council meeting
(Reflections on a Possible UIA Information Strategy).

Previously recognized cutbacks in the library markets, accompanied by an explosion in the "information business", are now set against unexpected weaknesses in the global financial system. Few care to predict what spreading economic consequences the recent crises will
have. The UIA needs above all to be flexible ("nimble") in its strategic response. These trends complicate any efforts at strategic planning -- even for the largest corporations. It is fortunate that SAUR has proven to be such a stable long-term partner -- in marked contrast
to many who depend on the programme decisions and support of intergovernmental organizations. At the same time it is fortunate that there has been a concrete positive response from the European Commission and the World Bank to ways of building on UIA data. Clearly exploration of new partnership possibilities may prove to be vital to the future sustainability of UIA operations.

The significant investment in a web server is designed to give the UIA new strategic options in the collection, editing, re-disseminating and reconfiguring information. It facilitates the shift from products of unpredictable viability to services that can be rapidly reconfigured.
As with many in the information business, the key question is whether the UIA can develop formula that can render this process economically viable at an acceptable level of risk.

The above developments reflect a new UIA strategic commitment to involve the providers of the information (that it edits and redistributes) in a more interactive "participant-editor" role for which the Web environment offers many possibilities. This reflects a strategic shift
from "publication-for-users" to "user-participation-as-sources". It is hoped to involve international organizations to a greater degree in this new capacity. There are clearly many challenges in appropriately accrediting valued contributors without alienating less-valued contributors. However it is the Web traffic that this participative process engenders which is expected to lead in a variety of ways to sustained income from UIA data.

The issues above arise at a time when:

There is an increasing challenges to conventional organizations and strategies (cf the IMF), and a desperate search for coherent, credible, global strategies adequate to the complex challenges of governance. In this context, the function of the UIA in documenting patterns
of "association" beyond the classic organizational, legal and sociological forms, may prove increasingly significant to new partners and users (as the Info2000 contract is demonstrating).

It can be argued that the UIA's strengths for the immediate future lie in its ability to manage complex sets of data that have additional levels of meaning in their patterns of hierarchies, cross-relationships and subject classifications. It is in this sense that a case can be made for extending the conventional understanding of "international associations" from its limitation to social actors (eg conventionally constituted NGOs) to other forms of association. These might include both electronic associations and patterns of hyperlinks through which meaning is carried in a dynamic global society.

Electronic publishing, whether on CD or web, enables UIA to offer users the full advantage of the cross-reference relationships, within and between databases, in which the UIA has consistently invested -- in contrast with competing products. Such links are translated into
clickable hyperlinks enabling users to navigate much more flexibly than with hardcopy. The UIA however clearly understands the continuing importance of hardcopy.

There are many international initiatives focussed on accumulation of information. Few of them stress hyper linking to the degree achieved by the UIA. Fewer still do this across sectoral and disciplinary lines. The challenge is whether such patterns of hyperlinks can be configured using visualization techniques to support new levels of understanding. The further challenge is whether this can be explored in a manner that is economically viable. The current contract with the European Commission provides a breathing space in which these opportunities can be explored.

In a highly turbulent environment, the challenge of acquiring and maintaining affordable quality personnel remains a key issue that is not susceptible to "quick fixes" -- because of the need for both training and experience.

Web-possibilities: Since late in 1993, electronic publishing has been confronted by the possibilities of the World Wide Web. This has been discussed during previous UIA Executive Council and General Assembly meetings. Such is the simplicity and elegance of the concept, that it constitutes an immediate challenge to any existing publisher, but especially to any organizations (or individuals) with publishing ambitions or information to disseminate -- notably of the kind produced by the UIA. Many of these points, and their implications for the UIA, were been covered in a report for the previous Council meeting (see report on Information Strategy, 1996).

In October 1994 the UIA subscribed on an experimental basis to a service providing access to Internet and the Web. The purpose was to test and offer e-mail access to the UIA, notably for organizations wishing to reply in this mode. In December 1995 the UIA set up its own website (https://www.uia.org) under a subsidized arrangement with Interpac Belgium as part of the marketing programme for the Encyclopedia.

By a fortunate coincidence, a nonprofit information service provider group based in Ghent (which is the Belgian member of the international Association for Progressive Communications -- ECOSOC Category I), was transformed in 1997 into a cooperative"Agora". This cooperative had been looking for a means to operate from Brussels to improve the speed and quality of its services to NGOs, notably those based in the MAI. Thanks to a UIA staff member formally based in Ghent, the UIA has been involved in this process in two ways:

In October 1997, after a testing period, the UIA switched its Web and email to this facility and linked its own internal network directly to it (through a protective firewall to reduce the risk of access by hackers). This has had a quite revolutionary impact on the work of the
UIA as described below.

Publications under consideration with SAUR: During a meeting with Manfred Link of K G SAUR, it was stressed that, from a SAUR
perspective, new publications needed to conform to the range of subject matter in which SAUR had competence recognized by librarians (art, history, economics, politics, social issues, librarianship) -- failing which risk of failure increased significantly. In addition publications needed to correspond to a classical style, preferably alphabetic and be focused on a well-identified topic area, possibly organized into conventional subject areas favoured by libraries (art, science, etc)

The following publications, of potential interest to SAUR, were discussed at that meeting in August 1998:

The above proposals are all at the tentative stage and raise strategic issues with regard to the appropriate use of scarce, skilled UIA personnel resources.

Publishing / Marketing

Contractual relationships with SAUR: Work continues under long-standing contracts revised in February 1996 to provide UIA
with additional revenue by increasing payments for Yearbook editorial costs by 3% in 1996 and by 3% in 1998. The three-year contract (revised 4/3/1996) terminated on 31st December 1997 without any decision to terminate it by either party. We are now in a period
of automatic continuation but a new contract needs to be drawn up to reflect this.

Both parties continue to express satisfaction with the arrangements, despite the many threats to the publishing industry and booksales (see earlier report on Information Strategy) in a time of recession and general uncertainty. Some new contracts with SAUR are currently under preliminary discussion as indicated above

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

The sales of the Yearbook volumes (or CD-ROM) under SAUR contracts are increasing:

1994: 11.9 million BF
1995: 12.5
1996: 14.1
1997: 15.3

The total sales of information deriving from UIA databases (whether through SAUR, or not) remains constant and can be judged as satisfactory:

1993: 19.4 million BF
1994: 21.5
1995: 20.5
1996: 20.4
1997: 23.3

The issue of UIA marketing from Brussels remains unresolved (if it is a real issue). Efforts by the UIA to market the Encyclopedia separately have not been succesful. SAUR has reported on the evolution of SAUR sales channels. Control is increasingly reverting directly to Munich because of weaknesses in Bowker-SAUR and Reed Reference specialized sales channels -- notably in North America. SAUR has set up an independent sales office in New York for some SAUR publications (not those from the UIA) and another may be set up in the UK. An emphasis is placed on direct visits to libraries from Munich to facilitate sales.

Marketing via the Web: As noted above, the marketing challenge has been considerably modified by Internet access. The UIA has placed a large amount of marketing information onto the Web (including hyperlinks to SAUR and Reed websites). SAUR continues to be impressed by the statistics on the 5,000 per day usage of the UIA website (see Annex 5). It was agreed that this was a very valuable way of drawing UIA publications to the attention of potential users outside the library market.

Related initiatives call for a careful balancing act, in consultation with SAUR, concerning:

It is important to recognize that much information on organizations and meetings is already available on Internet free of charge. Increasing amounts will be made available in this way, notably by the United Nations (and especially as a result of the current "reform" process).
The UIA may be forced to recognize that its main asset lies not in the information itself but in the capacity to manage and update it.

Unsold copies: A regrettable 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. A more creative approach to this might have resulted from the contacts with the head of UNESCO's General Programme of Information (no follow up from their side) and the ACCT.

Secretariat / Administration / Human resources

Work on publications is increasingly undertaken with much greater reliance on:

These developments are partly in response to budgetary constraints, to the needs of individuals, or to the desire to benefit, or continue to benefit, from known expertise with UIA data and programs. It is expected that the UIA involvement with the Web will further change the balance and nature of secretariat operations.

Since August 1997, the UIA is having to deal with the departure of a number of significant editorial personnel working on the Yearbook -- whether due to resignation as the consequence of childbirth, moves to other jobs, or to retirement. Work at critical times has
also been handicapped by extended illness. The fact that the 1998 Yearbook production cycle kept to deadlines was a result of exceptional initiative by those who had to compensate.

As the table below shows, this pattern represents a serious weakening of the editorial staff in a situation where experience and continuity are vital. At the beginning of 1999, there will be 3 full-time and 6 part-time (equivalent to 6 full-time) which is a slight increase on the 3
full-time and 5 part-time (equivalent to 5.5 full-time) in 1994. But those in 1994 had an average of 13 years experience, compared to 11 years experience in 1999. If the averages are weighted to take account of part-time contributions, the figures become 8.9 years for 1994 against 6.7 for 1999.

Position Initials UIA
years
Left
UIA
Cause New
(started)
New
(left)
Senior editor Full RC 22 Feb 99 Retiring PZ (Apr 98) Oct 98
Senior editor Full JN +20 Mar-Apr 98 (Temp. illness+)
Editor Part-time MA 12
Editor Full SC 2 Apr 98 New job IZ (Aug 98)
Editor Part-time MvB +8 Sep 97 Child LY (Jan 98)
Editor Part-time CF 8 Nov 98 Child+job LH (Oct 98)
Editor Part-time MG 27
Filing Part-time SG 0.75 Aug 98 Dismissed
YB Support:
Computers
Production
Part-time TJ +20
Production
Computers
Editing
Part-time JF +3
Production Part-time NC +15
Computer CD +10 Jan-Mar 99 (Temp. absence)

As with many employers, the UIA has difficulty locating suitable (and affordable) personnel who can be expected to stay long enough (several publication cycles) to acquire the levels of expertise necessary to undertake the more challenging editorial and research tasks -- which are increasingly computer-related. Trial periods for potentially useful people tend to be long, and expensive if the person finally proves unsatisfactory.

The above departures were preceded by representations from editorial staff collectively early in 1997 concerning salary and conditions. Salaries were increased late in Spring of 1998. It cannot be concluded that salaries have been the sole cause of this weakening of
staff, but they have certainly contributed to it and make replacements a challenge. The effort to replace the senior editor (retiring early 1999) was an expensive failure due to the time necessary to determine whether the person could comprehend and take on the many dimensions of the task. Replacement of staff scheduled to leave is also expensive when double salaries have effectively to be paid whilst a new person is trained during the presence of the departing person --even though the productivity of the new person will take time to manifest.

Computer-related infrastructure

Like most computer-dependent organizations, the UIA continues to be confronted by the need to upgrade both hardware and software -- even when existing equipment performs reasonably satisfactorily

There has been a progressive conversion of workstations to Windows 95/98 to enable Web access and e-mail. However some 286, 386 and 486 machines are still being operated. Increasingly UIA is confronted by the challenges, and disproportionate costs, of maintaining
older machines for which replacement parts are no longer sold commercially. It is appropriate to note the much publicized challenge of the Year 2000 computer problem. This is likely to affect older machines but seems to only require minor attention to UIA software.

Much focus is now on the challenges of UIA publishing on the Web or of accessing information from the Web of value to UIA publications -- notably as a source of information on international organizations. To this end the software challenges of a new UIA NT webserver
are being tested, notably by a partial upgrade of the obsolete DOS-based Revelation software to OpenInsight (its Windows equivalent). This has an integrated web-server facility.

Annexes

Annex 1 Yearbook statistics (international organizations by type)
Annex 2 Statistics on current work on Encyclopedia
Annex 3 World Guide to Logos, Emblems and Trademarks of International Organizations
Annex 4 UIA "Home page" on the World Wide Web
Annex 5 Statistics on usage of UIA website
Annex 6 European Commission contract (Info2000): summary
Annex 7 World Bank (InfoDev) project proposal: summary
Annex 8 Checklist of recent papers

[See Annexes in PDF format]

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

For further updates on this site, subscribe here