Each organization was asked to characterize their mailing list. Are the names individual or generic? Do they also keep e-mail addresses? What software do they use? How is the mailing list maintained? What is the policy on sharing or loaning the list?

POPIN Directory

• An online directory of population institutions jointly developed by POPIN, UNFPA, and others
• Merges information from print directories to make it more accessible and more up-to-date.
• Can be accessed alphabetically by name of organization, regionally, by country, and by type of organization.
• Types include: educational organization, professional associations, funding agencies, research institutions, libraries and information centers, training, and other.
• Can also be searched by keyword.
• You can download mailing lists by region, country, or type of organization. The download format is in comma separated value (.csv) format and can be merged into word processing programs. The web site includes detailed directions for merging in versions of WordPerfect and MSWord.
• PHMWG member organizations should adding their own main and field office addresses and use the directory themselves to create labels for organizations that are already included (IPPF, for example). A list was passed around and a number of groups volunteered to contribute to the list.  

AED-SARA Project

• Every project at AED has its own mailing list
• SARA Project has 400-500 names in FilemakerPro of targeted individuals working in Africa
• The mailing list is shared on a case by case basis
• Contact: Renuka Bery, rbery@aed.org

AVSC

• List of 700 senior staff of agencies--personal names
• Use their field offices to distribute in-country
• Use their web site and mailbacks to update the mailing list
• List is maintained by one person
• Could be shared (as a MSWord file)
• List is reviewed yearly by AVSC staff
• Contact: Cassandra Cook, ccook@avsc.org

Family Care International

• 10,000 names kept in FileMakerPro
• Can be sorted by country, organization
• FCI tries regularly to eliminate duplicates and update incorrect addresses.
• Marilyn Piels suggests that if you receive duplicate mailings from the same organization, you should send one label back to help them correct the mailing list. (GOOD IDEA)
• FCI has done joint mailings in the past and would be interested in doing appropriate ones in the future.
• Contact: Marilyn Piels, mpiels@familycareintl.org

FHI/AIDSCAP

• 1,500 on AIDSCAP list
• 60,000 on FHI list in Oracle/Access
• Lists are being combinded into one database which will be sortable by various fields
• Mailing list is proprietary and cannot be shared in full. Parts of the mailing list can be shared.
• Anyone in the organization can add a record; only the person who added it can change it
• Contact: Nina Frankel, nfrankel@fhi.org

FOCUS

• Focus has a very small mailing list, since its audience is primarily other cooperating agencies.
• Focus has gotten most of its mailing contacts from other CAs
• Focus tries to put all of its publications full-text on its web site in order to minimize the necessity for mailing materials.
• Contact: Laurel MacLaren lmaclaren@pathfind.org

The Futures Group

• Mailing list is maintained by librarian and updated by project administrators
• Includes both individual names and titles
• Includes two separate projects
• 2,000 names in Access
• Contact: Kay Willson kwillson@tfgi.com

INTRAH/PRIME

• 3,200 names in FilemakerPro
• Publications are sent to regional offices and mailed in-country (cheaper postage rates)
• Updated from returns
• Mailing list has been shared in the past
• Contact: Lucy Harber, nfrankel@fhi.org

JHPIEGO

• 600 names on the mail mailing list. Also has regional mailing lists and lists for newsletter distribution.
• JHPIEGO has started to collect e-mail addresses as well.
• The list has not been shared before but JHPIEGO is willing to share
• It is updated annually.
• Contact: Elizabeth Oliveras, eoliveras@home.com

JSI

• Each different project keeps its own mailing list and list of publications. Contact individual projects for information about each list and policy on sharing.
• Mothercare has 3,000 names in Access.
• The list is updated with returns, not targeted
• Mothercare is willing to share its list
• Contact: Suzanne Jessop (Mothercare), suzanne_jessop@jsi.com or Gretl Cox (general questions), gretl_cox@jsi.com

Management Sciences for Health

• Maintains five different mailing lists. Uses software called Goldmine
• FPMD Mailing List: 11,000 (English), 5000 (French), 5000 (Spanish). Most are managers, policy makers, service delivery people
• Do try to target certain types of people and do include personal names
• The list is weeded periodically and reviewed by field staff
• Some exchanges have been made in the past with other organizations
• Contact: Linda Suttenfield, lsuttenfield@msh.org

Media/Materials Clearinghouse (JHU/PIP)

• 6,000 name kept in Access
• Includes individuals and organizations working in health communication
• Anyone requesting materials from the M/MC or visiting the M/MC becomes part of the list
• Each record includes name, job title, organization, address, language, email, and affiliation. Also tracks which M/MC publications have been sent out.
• The M/MC has never been asked to share its mailing list and does not have a policy about sharing.
• Contact: Susan Leibtag, sleibtag@jhuccp.org

Partnerships for Healthcare Reform

• 3,000 names
• List wasin FoxPro but is being converted to Access
• Includes people interested in health care reform
• List can be shared
• Contact: Liz Nugent, Liz_nugent@abtassoc.com

PATH-DC

• FilemakerPro
• Contact: Ellen Clancy, eclancy@path-dc.org

PATH-Seattle

• 23,000 names in Access for English/French versions of Outlook
• Have exchanged with FHI and shared with UNFPA in the past
• Try to send emails to get correct addresses
• Collaborating organizations in-country maintain their own mailing lists
• Contact: Jackie Sherris, sherris@path.org

Population Council OR Project

• List of 3,500 OR people in Africa (individual names)
• Can be sorted in various ways
• Includes 1,000 people based in the US
• Also have a listserv
• Have shared mailing list in the past; will share on a case-by-case basis
• Contact: Nick Gouede, ngouede@popcouncil.org

Population Reference Bureau

• PRB membership list: a subscription list that includes about 3,000 members -- mostly in the academic field and based in the US. This list is not shared but can be exchanged.
• International Programs Distribution List - 13,000 entries in Access, mostly in developing countries. Includes over 87 countries, 700 organizations with e-mail addresses. No individual names. A coordinator maintains and updates the list.
• This list is classified by field of interest (i.e. population/FP, economics, finance, etc) and institutional category (Govt organization, USAID cooperating agency, USAID mission, etc.). This list is shared with other cooperating agencies in the US and in developing world.
• This list is used to send PRB publications through mass mailings.
• The mailing list is updated continuously through returned mail, having an in-country counterpart review the list; the Europa Yearbook, bounceback questionnaires, etc.
• Contact: Sara Adkins-Blanch, saraab@prb.org

Population Reports (JHU/PIP)

• Largest mailing list with 110,000 names worldwide, plus 15,000 in India
• Subsets can be created to share with other organizations
• The list is maintained on a mainframe computer at JHU, not at JHU/CCP office. Corrections, deletions and additions are input at JHU/CCP.
• List is divided into 'key persons' (director, reporter, chair, etc.) and 'non-key persons'
• List can also be divided by category or type of organization and by interest (medical vs. non-medical, UN, WHO, international agencies).
• Population Reports responds to many requests each month (sends out 10,000 back issues/month); they also respond to all returns
• Regional breakdown: Africa 26,000, Asia 20,000 (plus 15,000 in India), Latin America 38,000, West/North Africa 10,000, North America 10,000.
• Using email to try to update the list
• Also maintain a separate list (in Access) of 4,500 journalists and other cooperating agencies for their advance releases
• Contact: Steve Goldstein, sgoldste@jhuccp.org

Quality Assurance Project

• 1700 names in Access
• Can be cross-searched by various fields
• Includes individual names, mostly people interested in quality-assurance
• Willing to share on a case-by-case basis
• Contact: cmadubuike@urc-chs.com

Refugee Consortium (CARE, PATH, Save the Children, Aga Khan, etc)

• Tries to use UN pouch system to distribute materials in bulk to field offices of consortium members
• In focus countries, the lead organization will be the mailer (in bulk) to the country; materials then distributed in-country
• Also has a membership list that is mostly US-based PVOs which could be shared
• They successfully use a bounce-back questionnaire, good for passed on publications, 700 e-mail addresses.

How We Communicate with the Field
Each cooperating agency shared information (both quantitative and anecdotal) on how it communicates with the field. This includes the number of hits or visits to each home page from developing countries and other places.

Discussion:

• What can we do (if anything) to improve access in the developing world? We can provide our own field offices and developing country counterparts with better equipment.
• JHPIEGO mentioned the idea of setting up several 'technology learning centers' which would provide on-site training where access to the web is already good.
• We should not assume that giving people CD-ROMS without any training in their use is a better solution either. People need help installing CD-ROMS and training in how to use them effectively.
• Perhaps we could make better use of existing PVO/NGO resource centers in the field...using them as a way to disseminate information and provide training in these kinds of technology.
  
• Listservs can also be an excellent resource for training.
  
• There is a new presidential initiative led by Ira Magaziner, who is an assistant to the president on technology. USAID will be involved through the Human Capacity Development Center. It will involve identifying 7-8 countries and saturating them with technology, creating a leapfrog effect, and skipping some stages in the technology development process. In Africa this initiative will pigggback on the Leland Initiative. We need to think about how PHN fits in with this.
• Think about how we have measured our progress in the last two years. What can we do in the areas of: Technology and policy, Training, Content development in-country, Management of these technologies.
• In the future we should no longer be looking at number of hits to web site, but at the number of user sessions. We need to develop other indicators of progress besides hits and user sessions. Think about number of e-mails received, amount of text downloaded, other indicators.

Web Statistics for Some Cooperating Agencies

• AVSC
  • 10,000 hits/month
  • 70% from the US
  • 5% from developing countries
  • All AVSC field offices have e-mail
  • AVSC also has an Intranet

• JHPIEGO
  • Listserv: JHPIEGO has started a listserv for trainers to share information and training tips. It now includes 175-200 people, mostly from developing countries. There are about 12-20 messages posted each month.
  • JHPIEGO corporate web site: 2,200 user sessions/month, 6-10% of them are from developing countries. 20-25% are unknown users.
  • REPROLINE: about 3-6% of the user sessions/month are from developing countries and 25% area unknown users.
  • INTRANET: The JHPIEGO intranet, JWATCH, is accessible to all Baltimore- based staff and some field offices. All 5 field offices also have CD-ROM versions of JWATCH.

• JHU/CCP
  • 9,572 user sessions for the month of September, 1998
  • 57% of users were from the US
  • 19% of users were international
  • 9% of users were from developing countries
  • The average user spends almost 9 minutes on the site
  • The most active developing countries were: Thailand, South Africa, Brazil, India, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore. Colombia, Indonesia, Peru and Kenya.
  • All JHU/PCS/PIP field offices have email; some have WWW access
  • The JHU/PCS/PIP representative for the Uganda DISH project has successfully downloaded information and images from the JHU web site and used them in her own PowerPoint presentations.
  • The Essentials of Contraceptive Technology book has an online order form and has been receiving a lot of orders from the form for developing country people.

• PATH
  • 100,000 hits/month to the Reproductive Health Outlook page
  • About the same number of hits to the PATH web site
  • 54% are unknown users
  • 16% are from the US
  • They are receiving a lot of e-mails from developing country users, which is a good indication of use.
  • They also did a survey of Outlook readers and found that 60% said they had e-mail and 40% said they had access to the world wide web.

• Quality Assurance Project (QAP)
  • 3,000 hits/month
  • 90% from the US
  • 9% from Europe
  • 2% from developing countries or unknown