- FAMPLAN:
Nina Frankel reported that Family Health International can no longer take responsibility for the maintenance and updating of the FAMPLAN glossary. FAMPLAN is a glossary of terms used by cooperating agencies (English, French and Spanish) for translation of materials. In the past it had been updated on an annual basis (usually during the summer by interns) and distributed in print format in the fall. There is no version of FAMPLAN on the web. Right now it is kept in Multiterm, a proprietary software package that provides a variety of interfaces. Can other agencies consider taking over FAMPLAN and updating it in the same way (or via the web)? FHI receives about $12,000 for this task. If you are interested, contact S. Morgan at smorgan@fhi.org
- USAID draft 'Information Technologies (IT)' paper:
Maria Busquets reviewed the draft that had been distributed to the group. She explained that in preparation for this paper, a web site with form will be developed where cooperating agencies can enter information about ongoing projects that have an IT component. She will notify all agencies when the page is up and working.
USAID has also been working with Warren Feek, of The Communication Initaitive [www.comminit.com/] to develop a series of interactive country-based chat rooms where IT-related issues can also be discussed. The countries are Mali, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Guatemala, Haiti, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal, Bangladesh and Morocco. USAID is looking for chat room moderators for each of these countries. Participants in these discussions will be identified through USAID and The Communication Initiative networks. An overview of developing country trends in new technologies will be written as well as an overview of cutting-edge new technology developments that have relevance to international development.
USAID will dialog with implementing agencies in the PHN Center to describe how IT can accelerate attainment of USAID objectives in the PHN sector; assess ways in which technology is used successfully to provide technical assistance; highlight new uses of IT as central components of projects; identify future plans for use of IT.
All of this will be drawn together into a 10-page strategy paper which should be completed by August 2000. There is a new USAID health communication results package that will be developed and this paper will contribute to it. If you have any additional comments or ideas, please contact Maria Busquets at USAID.
- Tracking Links to Your Web Site:
Ellyn Beiler of AED mentioned that there are companies that will track links to your web site for a fee. If you are interested, a company called SEVENTwentyfour Inc. will check your links every day for a month--free of charge for a one-month trial period. It checks links within your site, links to other sites, and links into your site from elsewhere. You can subscribe for a year for $799 (about $49/month). For more information, contact Ty Daniels, Sales Manager [ tdaniels@SEVENtwentyfour.com].
- Evaluating the Impact of Information Technology:
Two resources were suggested:
Effectiveness and Cost of Interactive Videodisc Instruction in Defense Training and Education by J.D. Fletcher (July 1990). Institute for Defense Analyses, 1801 N. Beauregard Street, Alexandria VA 22311-1772. (IDA Paper P-2372). This paper is a meta-analysis on interactive multimedia-based training for adult education. Multimedia-based training was found to improve achievement better than more conventional approaches to instruction. The instruction was more effective when the interactive features of the medium were used. It was equally effective for knowledge and performance outcomes and it was less expensive than conventional instruction.
Distance Education: Growth and Diversity by Michael Potashnik and Joanne Capper:
www.worldbank.org/fandd/english/0398/articles/0110398.htm
This paper reviews the advantages of distance education and what course providers should consider before embarking on a distance education project. Contact Joanne Capper at jcapper@worldbank.org for more information.
- Publishing/Viewing Web-Based Material in Non-European languages:
There are currently 5 encodings being used by Russian speaking computer users [plus transliteration: when English alphabet is used to represent Russian words]. The following resources should be helpful.
- Hybrid CD-ROMs: (CD-ROMs that get periodic updates from the web)
Theresa Norton of JHPIEGO mentioned that JHPIEGO is interested in doing this, but has not actually tried. No other agency has experience doing this, but everyone mentioned that they had seen other CD-ROMS (encyclopedias, games) that have this capability. JHPIEGO provides each of its field offices with a CD-ROM version of its Intranet (JWatch). They'd like to be able to update some features from the web. This led into a more general discussion of CD-ROMs and what types of materials are being put on CD-ROM. Abt Associates, for example, distributes all its publications on CD-ROM. They press a CD-ROM with the publications you have requested. The National Prevention Information Network [www.cdcnpin.org] distributes manuals and kits on CD-ROM. Peggy D'Adamo agreed to try to update the list of CD-ROMs that had been previously compiled by the PHMWG.
- D&D Group Report
The D&D Group (Dissemination and Distribution) meets monthly to discuss issues related to distribution of materials. They met recently and learned about Abt's publishing on CD-ROM. They have also discussed listservs & majordomo (benefits of using listservs to distribute information), how to use Powerpoint. The next meeting will cover conference preparation. If you are interested, contact Bob Lande for more information.
- RHGateway: http://www.rhgateway.org
- Results are now sorted by date, with newest documents first. The software being used at this time cannot sort by relevancy.
- Please try out both RHGateway interfaces and send your feedback to Peggy D'Adamo. The basic interface at www.rhgateway.org searches all fields at once and can produce a large number of results. The other interface allows you to search only the title and headings of a document, the document type and the date, as well as the text search. It also gives more information about the search results.
- RHGateway will be updated twice each month unless we find that more frequest updates are necessary.
- Directions have been added on how to search in Russian to both interfaces and they work. We will keep you posted on what we do about Arabic.
- The group decided on the following criteria for including web site: (1) we will invite USAID PHN groups who have reproductive health content on their sites to become members. (2) RHGateway will try to index only the content which is related to reproductive health. (3) RHGateway will not include web sites of USAID PHN groups which are unrelated to reproductive health. (4) RHGateway will not include consumer-oriented web sites. (5) RHGateway will include links to web sites with reproductive health content that is targeted to the public or with advocacy content. (6) The RHGateway steering committee will identify and invite other appropriate web sites.
- The group will develop and post a disclaimer which will explain that RHGateway is not responsible for the availability or content of external sites, nor does RHGateway endorse information described or offered at these other Internet sites.
- The RHGateway Steering Committee includes: Peggy D'Adamo, Bob Lande, Renu Bery, Theresa Norton, Gretl Cox, Julia Cleaver, Roselind Wesley.
- Tips for Better Indexing by RHGateway Spider
- For "easier to understand" retrieval, consider including the name of your organization or division in every title of every HTML document. Example: INTRAH/PRIME Publications
- Include the name of the foreign language in the HTML document title if the document is in a language other than English. This will make it easier to search for documents in specific languages. Example: Population and Development Review abstracts (French)
- In HTML documents, the headers are also spidered (anything with an H1, H2, H3, etc. tag) so make them descriptive.
- The RHGateway spider currently indexes only the first 10% of the actual text of each document. This may affect the quality of indexing if the text at the beginning of your documents is identical from document to document.
- If you don't want the spider to spider your page, you can include a metatag which will cause it to be ignored. 'META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noindex'
- Metadata: Every word processing document should be saved with metadata. This information (DOC TITLE, AUTHOR, SUBJECT) is indexed by the spider. The spider that is currently being used does not index metadata from HTML files.
- PDF documents: The spider is indexing the first 10% of the document itself. Make sure the title, author, producer are at the top of the document. Or create an html title page for PDF documents (which will itself be indexed).
- If you have entire directories that you would like the spider to skip (images, statistics, etc), send an e-mail to Casey O'Brien cobrien@jhuccp.org and let him know which directories you'd like to be skipped.
- Planning the Internet Conference for January 20001
The following agenda was proposed and discussed. People volunteered to be part of a smaller group that will plan the nuts and bolts of the conference, but more are needed. For more information, contact Steve Goldstein at JHU/CCP.
Based on the evaluation of the last conference, we are proposing a 2 1/2 day event to include six plenary sessions and a variety of break-out sessions in the PM of the first two days. It will probably be held in Washington, DC and may include an evening event.
* We need a good title for the conference that reflects developing country participation and implies that technology is a tool, not an end in itself. If you have ideas, send them to Steve Goldstein..
* The sessions each have one organizer but could use co-organizers. If you are interested, contact Steve Goldstein sgoldste@jhuccp.org or the organizer listed.
Plenary Sessions
1. Electronic Advocacy: Communicating Population and Health Information Effectively
(Organized by Penelope Riseborough/MSH
- Web Site Promotion--bringing people back
- Using electronic media to Reach Journalists/Track News
- Lobbying/Fund Raising
- Evaluating Your Site As An Advocacy Tool
- LDC Perspective
-
2. Accessing and Communicating Population and Health Information
(Organized by Bob Lande/Commercial Market Strategies Project.
Topics:
- Portal sites
- Search engines
- Mirror sites
- Internet database services
- E-zines, list servs, chat rooms and e-mail
- LDC perspective
3. Maximizing Information Communication Technologies (ICT) In Developing Countries
(Organized by Anne Compton/POPLINE.)
Topics:
- Are LDC organizations getting what they need from electronic resources?
- How is ICT changing the way LDC health organizations operate?
- Collaborative and networked activities by LDC public and/or private organizations
- Public and private collaboration in LDCs
- Prospects for better access in LDCs - policy and technology
-
4. Educating health providers and consumers over the web
(Organized by Pam Harper/AVSC.)
Topics:
- Distance education & online training
- Communicating Clinical Training Materials
- Health Consumer sites in LDCs
- LDC perspective
5. Alternative Communication Channels
(Organized by Rick Glasby/POPLINE.)
Topics:
- CD-Rom--Design, Production, Promotion, Distribution
- Wireless
- Future potential
- LDC perspective
6. Wrap-up session & discussion of USAID Survey of IT Needs
Break-Out Session Topics
- 1. Web site design--tips and tricks, order forms, interactive tools, making access and navigation easy
- 2. The nuts and bolts of Web site promotion--site registration, e-mail, advertising, etc.
- 3. Web site management--Deciding on and soliciting content, proofing, updating, translating, structural design, making your sight obvious to search engines.
- 4. Web data base services for health providers (Could also be lunch-time demos)
- 5. Digitizing publications and materials for the web and other media--html markup, real audio, downloading files, Adobe Acrobat.
- 6. The use of open source/free software for NGOs in LDCs.
Please feel free to add, delete, or change any of these topics.
We have formed a sub-committee of CAs to begin looking for panelists, finalize the agenda, and help with logistics, etc.
