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Roger Torrenti provides a preview of the cross-industry Forum 99, From Networks to Services, to be held in Paris, 25-26 November 1999. Topics to be covered include: service integration, teleservices, e-services, communication infrastructures, building gateways, external networks, connected products, internal networks, home and building automation.
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A Key EventSigma Forum'99 will take place in the Pavillon Royal in Paris, a few minutes from CNIT, and is aimed at players from all fields involved in the integration of products and services in homes & buildings. It is designed specifically for those working in service integration, teleservices and e-services, communication infrastructures and building gateways, connected products, home and building automation. |
Run by Sigma Consultants since 1995, this cross-industry Forum meets a need expressed by many players to hold a regular high quality conference in Europe at which participants can get a true picture of the market and its trends, and significantly develop their network of contacts.
From project managers to marketing or R&D managers, more than 200 participants are expected at this conference, which will be run in plenary sessions addressing the key questions raised by the topic "From Networks to Services" and featuring contributions from leading speakers.
The markets for products and services for homes and buildings are likely to undergo rapid changes in the coming years.
Pioneers in home and building automation had already forecast in the mid-80s that communication architectures (external networks - building gateways - internal networks) were to play a major role in market development.
This progress has been very gradual up until now, when it is accelerating rapidly, thanks to market deregulation, the appearance of more powerful communication solutions, the possibilities offered by digital and multimedia technology, the growth in the PC market, expansion of the Internet, etc ...
Large markets strategic to many players will open up during the next few years, bringing businesses the opportunity to develop rapidly in building communication networks, cabling systems, connected products, building gateways, integrated teleservices, etc.
Speakers on the programme include:
What is the comparative international situation in the field of product and service integration in homes and buildings? What real advance does North America enjoy? What position can Europe have on the international stage?
How can one see clearly when so many solutions are being released? Will multimedia solutions cannibalize low speed solutions? Should one wait for the sector to stabilize? A bus war or a future of convergence and coexistence? What will be the suited global communication architecture?
Are there more open prospects for the cabling markets? Will short-term markets emerge in Europe for residential cabling? Is the success of wireless solutions a significant brake on the markets? What distribution channels are the most appropriate, for which applications and at what cost?
Should the vision of the single gateway "controlling access" to the building be abandoned? Should the definition of a building gateway be broadened? In the case of coexistence of multiple gateways, should we ensure interoperability? What is the state of standardization in the domain?
What can associations do in the current complex period? Should specialized associations rapidly open up to intersectorial cooperation? Should national associations promote international initiatives?
Is the profusion of communication solutions a real obstacle in the development of connected products? Plug & Play or installed products? What is the short-term outlook for connectivity of brown goods, white goods, energy systems, telecom and computer equipment? Are communication nodes available at an acceptable cost?
What is the real market for communicating systems in homes and buildings? Will the home automation market develop in the short term? In the commercial sector, how should the product offering evolve, from which key applications? What is the role of services in the sale of systems?
What are the short and medium term prospects for service integration based on global communication architectures? What experience can be drawn from the most advanced pilot operations? What place have network based services in the development of attractive service packages?
Summing up of ideas exchanged during the two days, based on a Delphi survey carried out amongst attendees by Sigma Consultants.
Contact Karine Valin for further details about Forum 99:
Karine Valin
Project Manager
Sigma Consultants
Tel: + 33 (0) 493 958 530
Email: karine.valin@sigma-consultants.fr
Roger Torrenti
Sigma Consultants
BP 287 Valbonne
06905 Sophia Antipolis Cedex
France
Tel: +33 (0) 493 958 530
Fax: +33 (0) 493 958 477
Email: roger.torrenti@sigma-consultants.fr
URL: <http://www.sigma-consultants.fr/forum/indexgb.htm>
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In 1984 Roger founded Sigma Consultants, a private and independent consulting company established as a French limited liability company (SA). Above and beyond the methodological experience that it can bring in varied fields of analysis, for nearly 15 years, Sigma Consultants has also been developing a recognized sector-based expertise, namely in the fields of information technologies, energy, buildings and the environment. A « Sigma's network » of correspondents (Europe, North America, Japan), enables the company to work efficiently at an international level. Roger is often invited by national or international institutions to act as an expert in the technological fields he has developed his expertise in. He has been namely acting (from 1990 on) as an evaluator or reviewer within the framework of many EC Programmes (DG III, DG XII, DG XIII, DGXVII). |
For citation purposes:
Roger Torrenti, "Forum 99: From Networks to Services",
Exploit Interactive, issue 3, 25 October 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue3/forum99/>
Christine Dugdale reports from the CIB Joint Triennial Symposium conference held recently in South Africa.
"Customer satisfaction: a focus for research and practice in construction" was the title of the CIB Joint Triennial Symposium held in Cape Town, 5-10 September. The CIB is the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction [1].
Of course, readers of this journal might well be forgiven for asking, "the what symposium" and "what has it to do with IT or information professionals?" Especially as it appeared, somewhat mystifyingly to me for a while, to be a conference of the CIB Commission W65 and W55, with the participation of W92 (procurement systems), W99 (safety and health on construction sites), TG31 (macroeconomic data in the construction industry) and TG35 (innovation in building and construction)!!! But I do hope not. It would make us as insular and short-sighted as the delegates who could not understand why a librarian wished to present a paper there. And wondered, far more worryingly, why librarians should appear so attentive whilst listening to papers outlining issues related to a discipline they served in an academic library.
I was there to present a paper about the ResIDe Electronic Reserve as it was, originally, developed in partnership with Built Environment academics and evaluated by Built Environment students. I was, of course, the only librarian there as the conference was very much for practitioners in the construction industry as well as academics. I had been concerned that other papers would be far too technical for me and would discuss subjects I would not understand. How wrong I was!
Admittedly, the conference theme was "customer satisfaction" and my choice of parallel sessions dictated those topics that I heard, but I did try "mixing" and "matching" sessions after the first day. Still, the recurrent themes were those rehearsed so often at LIS conferences - how to reach the customer, identifying customers' needs, satisfying customer demands, explaining/"selling" the means by which customer needs could be achieved to the customer, what makes a good manager, bringing about cultural change, collaborating, co-operating, partnering, learning, developing transferable life long learning skills, developing a learning culture to ensure that people become aware of new trends in education in order to help them assimilate information/knowledge, developing a learning organisation, lack of training, lack of knowledge, excess of irrelevant information, the need for information retrieval skills, the need for CPD programmes and the utilising of IT to innovate procedures rather than to automate existing manual practices. One speaker suggested that construction was one of the worst industries for assimilating new ideas and felt that predictions that the whole industry would be online by the year 2003 were wildly optimistic. Practitioners still need to gain technical maturity. There was even a fascinating discussion about the under-representation of women at the top of the industry. So many issues, indeed, that we hear about at IS conferences.
And so much that different disciplines could learn from each other. And so many opportunities lost because we do not. A number of delegates spoke to me after my presentation about their own libraries and it quickly became evident that most had not thought about explaining their courses or their needs to their librarians. They had not considered consulting library staff about available databases or software to inform their teaching programmes or to help them to teach their subject. Few realised how many databases were available - and to how many they already actually had access within their own institutions.
There is so much that LIS professionals could offer other disciplines and this conference convinced me that we should put more effort into finding ways to "advertise" how we can do this. There is also a great deal that needs to be done to break down barriers of misunderstandings as well as of ignorance. One delegate was at some pains to explain to me that he would not use his university library because the librarians were so unhelpful and actually hindered both his teaching and research. Closer questioning revealed that they were actually guilty only of refusing to break copyright law on his behalf! My attempts to help clear this misunderstanding only convinced him that all librarians were in a conspiracy to halt his research. Another University lecturer suggested to me - and yes he was being serious - that it would be a good idea if libraries were to lend books between themselves! I cannot imagine what his faculty's relationship might be with their library!
This gap in understanding that is frequently found between academics and librarians appears to be mirrored between academics and practitioners in the construction industry. The first speaker suggested that the industry suffers from ignorance at a time when knowledge skills should be paramount in what is now a knowledge society. And yet, he went on to say, academics are often rejected- probably out of ignorance. He suggested that the industry should seek new "learning methods" to change the current culture. Traditional educational methods were not working. This theme was introduced at the very start of the conference when the University of Cape Town Assistant VC began his welcome address. He spoke of construction and design of courses in terms of customer satisfaction and made the point that students are both customers and users. The conference chair continued to address the theme by quoting a chapter heading, "Customers are a nuisance", from a recently published South African book, and suggested that the industry might address this attitude. Perhaps it is also one that some LIS professionals should address. A later speaker suggested that academics and industrialists should work together. To this, I felt, should be added the fact that IS professionals should work with both as facilitators in the "knowledge exchange".
Of course, one could not expect to hear other papers about library systems at a conference dedicated to construction, but libraries, centres of education and IT software were never mentioned at all, although the lack of skills, especially IT skills, training and the difficulty of assimilating knowledge frequently were! There is an obvious ignorance or credibility gap here about what information professionals can offer students, academics and practitioners in the building industry. And yet, individual papers returned again and again to themes on which LIS discussions are often based. One speaker suggested that customers know what they want to find for their research, but do not know which systems, methods will help them find it. This seemed very reminiscent of library users who know they want but become impatient of attempts to explain how they might discover any relevant information.
Another speaker discussed the creation of a co-operative learning environment, learning leading to knowledge and the need for the development of organisational learning, continuing learning, increased knowledge and communication, ease and access to knowledge, changing mental models and the need to reflect and enquire within joint learning structures and learning frameworks.
In all, 130 papers were presented by speakers from 35 countries to 155 delegates. Unusually, for an international conference, the largest group of speakers was not from the US, but from the UK. 36% of the presenters and a large proportion of keynote speakers were from the UK which I was told (by a UK speaker) was the world leader in construction research. The next largest group was from the USA with 10% from South Africa.
The conference was held at the University of Cape Town in an idyllic setting nestling under Table Mountain. The actual venue was the Education Building of Middle Campus which proved a tremendous bonus as it housed the Carleton Harrison Education Library that held the University's collection of LIS journals. South Africa&'s attempts to reach out to the international community obviously extended to UCT's holdings policy for international journals in this field and I missed two whole conference sessions lost in a wonderland of journals articles I would have had to obtain through inter-library loans at home. Since weeding did not seem to be an urgent priority, I was able to delve back through time in librarianship. While nineteenth century copies of The Library (back to 1889) offered no useful advice on electronic libraries, they were far more tempting than a session on management accounting in construction!
The Library, though small and quite busy even in the vacation, did prove to be more up-to-date than some of their holdings suggested with demands for silence and threats of removal by "campus control" of anyone eating, drinking or using a cellphone. I must admit to applauding this tough stance until phones started ringing and no campus control arrived either in the library or the conference room. I have attended conferences before where a panel members phone has rung, but never before where the speaker's phone rang – and rang twice! I also applauded their decision to open one hour later one day a week for staff training. I am sometimes tempted to wonder if users' needs would be better served in some libraries by additional staff training than by longer opening hours. They also had some very up-to-date problems! On the last day OPACs sported notices, "BORIS is not working at the moment". I could only hope that BORIS did not appeal for help to the same technician as the one who failed retrieve the top, bottom and right hand side of my slides, turned off the "presenter function", presented me with a faulty mouse, said he knew nothing at all about PowerPoint, and left the room without connecting me to a projector!
A conference located in Cape Town certainly offers a variety of experiences lacking in the UK hinterland. I was particularly fortunate that I arrived on a very clear day and my 'plane was put into a holding circle that offered very clear and close sightings of the Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain and Robben Island. My arrival was particularly well timed as I just missed a freak tornado, which had destroyed some buildings, although I did not miss the cold weather, torrential showers, hail and nearby snow falls! The cold outside, however, became a distant and happy memory after only two minutes in the lecture theatres. Their air conditioning systems could have done justice to a commercial refrigeration plant!
Staying in budget accommodation also took on a new meaning when I caught up on the lack of sleep and realised that my "hotel" so closely resembled prison cells clustered around an exercise yard because it was an old prison! It was, indeed, once the most notorious prison in Africa! Fortunately, no guards looked down from the corner turrets as we walked along long corridors with small barred windows and overhead walkways to breakfast. We also felt very safe behind the surrounding tall walls whose tops were studded with broken glass. Perhaps, these were necessary as the fact that even the toilet seats were stamped with the University's name appeared to suggest that theft might be rife!
Safety and control also appeared to be an implicit theme at the conference reception. This was held at the Two Oceans Aquarium directly in front of a large tank of predatory fish – including several small sharks – and a notice inviting passers-by to "see the fish eat". Delegate numbers, however, did not appear to be dramatically depleted before the first paper! Personally, I uncharitably thought that a tank of predators might have some metaphorical significance for those who had suffered at the hands of less scrupulous members of the construction fraternity than my fellow delegates! The predator theme was repeated at the conference banquet where we were invited to stroke a cheetah before entering the restaurant! Ever prepared to put the interests of my university first, I declined on the grounds that I still had to present my paper!
Far more sobering was the cultural tour which took us to townships where we saw housing poverty and deprivation so deep it is impossible to describe to anyone whose idea of a home includes such "luxuries" as sufficient room to enable all members of the family to move at the same time and external walls that do not have gaps wide enough for the outside world to see through. The inhabitants were too materially poor to even worry about whether they were information poor or whether this might deprive them in the knowledge society. The stark contrast of concluding the tour by drinking wine in a warm restaurant whilst watching the sun go down towards Cape Point and the lights go on beneath Table mountain was painful.
Christine Dugdale
ResIDe Electronic Library
University of the West of England
Email: Christine.Dugdale@uwe.ac.uk
URL: <http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/itdev/reside/>
Tel: 0117 965 6261 ext 3646
Christine Dugdale manages the ResIDe Electronic Library at the University of the West of England, Bristol.
For citation purposes:
Christine Dugdale, "Customer satisfaction:
a focus for research and practice in construction",
Exploit Interactive, issue 3, October 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue3/cibcon/>
Paul Miller reports on the latest meeting of the Z39.50 community's Implementor's Group, which met in Stockholm over the summer.
In the midst of the world-famous water festival [1], members of the Z39.50 community's Implementor's Group gathered in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, for the 29th meeting of the group.
The meeting was hosted by LIBRIS [2] and the Swedish Royal Library [3], and took place in a hotel just across the park from the Royal Library itself.
Z39.50, for those who don't know, is the common name of the United States' ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1995, Information Retrieval (Z39.50): Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification, and the same name is usually understood to also encompass the near identical international ISO 23950:1998, Information and documentation - Information retrieval (Z39.50) - Application service definition and protocol specification. More information on Z39.50 is available from the Maintenance Agency [4] hosted by Library of Congress, and in a recent article published in Ariadne [5].
The Z39.50 Implementor's Group, or ZIG, is an informal grouping of vendors, users, and others, who meet once every six months or so to address issues which have arisen in use of the Standard, and to work towards additions and refinements which add functionality to the already rich set. Meetings tend to alternate between Europe and North America in order to reach as many of the existing Implementors as possible.
Attendees at this meeting were primarily European, and included representatives of national and other libraries, system vendors, and a few members of the Higher Education Community. The next meeting will be held in Texas in January of 2000 [6] and is open to anyone interested in shaping the way that Z39.50 continues to evolve.
As the agenda [7] illustrates, discussions ranged from quite detailed exploration of Z39.50 Tag Sets, through a review of important work to enable dissemination of Copy Holdings information via Z39.50 (not just "does the library own this book?" as now, but "is this book actually available for me to take out?"), and into discussion of continuing Profiling work with the International Interoperability Profile (now called the Bath Profile and available in draft form for comment [8]) and the Zthes Profile for Thesaurus Navigation [9].
As is usually the way at events such as this, cameras were wielded, and at least two sets of photographs are available online. The first, compiled by Ray Denenberg of the Z39.50 Maintenance Agency at Library of Congress, illustrates a range of events during the meeting [10]. The second, on the LIBRIS site, relates to a wine reception hosted by the Royal Library [11].
If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).
Paul Miller
Interoperability Focus
UKOLN, c/o Academic Services: Libraries
University of Hull
HULL
HU6 7RX
United Kingdom
URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Tel: +44 1482 466890
Email: P.Miller@ukoln.ac.uk
Paul Miller is employed as Interoperability Focus at UKOLN (the UK Office for Library and Information Networking). His responsibilities include advising on the development of interoperable solutions within and between such diverse communities as libraries, museums, and archives. |
For citation purposes:
Paul Miller, "Z39.50 Implementor's Group (ZIG), Stockholm", Exploit Interactive,
issue 3, October 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue3/zig/>
Brian Kelly reviews NFP web sites using a variety of automated tools, and makes some recommendations on a number aspects related to the design of web site architecture.
National Focal Points (NFPs) have been established in all European Commission Member States and in other European countries to promote the Telematics For Libraries programme and to assist proposers requiring sector-specific advice and information.
The different countries have taken a variety of approaches to the services provided by NFPs. The aim of this article is to review the different technical approaches taken by NFPs in the provision of their web sites. The issues which emerge may be of use in developments under the Fifth Framework.
In this Web Technologies column a report of a number of mainly automated analyses of the web sites used by National Focal Points is given. Note that no attempt has been made to analyse the content of the web sites. The analyses were carried out on 4-5th October 1999.
The analysis of NFP web sites makes use of the central list of National Focal Points maintained by the Commission [1].
Of the eighteen countries listed eleven provide an NFP web site. Details of the web sites addresses is given below.
| Country | NFP Web Site |
| Austria | http://www.bmwv.gv.at/4fte/3nfp.htm |
| Belgium | http://www.belspo.be/euro/nfp.htm |
| Finland | http://renki.helsinki.fi/eu/ |
| France | http://dges.mesr.fr/bib/info/europe/PlaquetteCfppa.htm |
| Germany | http://www.dbi-berlin.de/bib_wes/dbi_euro/eurohome.htm |
| Ireland | http://ireland.iol.ie/~libcounc/ |
| Norway | http://info.rbt.no/eu/ |
| Spain | http://www.bne.es/punto.htm |
| Sweden | http://www.kb.se/bibsam/eubibpro/euhemsid.htm |
| Switzerland | http://www.snl.ch/f/fuehr/z_pointf.htm |
| United Kingdom | http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/lis-european-programmes |
The UK web site provides access to an archive of postings to a mailing list. As it is different in character to the other NFP web sites it is not analysed further in this article.
As can be seen from Table 1 a variety of URL naming schemes are in use. No fewer than six of the web sites include a file name (all of which end in .htm). One web site uses the tilde (~) convention. Two sites (Finland and Norway) use short URLs with a clearly defined directory used to manage the contents.
A review of URLs for Telematics for Library web sites [2] provided advice on URL naming conventions, which are repeated below:
These simple guidelines should make NFP web sites more accessible. Of course these guidelines may conflict with local policies for hosting web sites, so they should be regarded as guideslines and not rules.
UKOLN's doc-info [3] and http-info [4] web-based document analysis services were used to analyse the entry point of the NFP web sites. A summary of the findings is given in the following table.
| NFP Web Site | Server | Profile | Size (bytes) | Metadata | Nos. of links. | Other Comments |
| Austria | Apache 1.2.4 | 23 images | 13,421 | None | 26 | |
| Belgium | Microsoft-IIS/3.0 | 3 framesets | Not known | None | Not known | Frames |
| Finland | Apache/1.3.6 | 3 images | 22,634 | None | 29 | |
| France | Netscape-Enterprise/3.0 | 0 images | 11,646 | None | 0 | Single text page |
| Germany | mod_perl/1.18 Apache/1.3.4 PHP/3.0.7 (Unix) (SuSE/Linux) | 19 images | 25,459 | None | 26 | |
| Ireland | Apache/1.3.0 (Unix) | 3 images | 40,274 | None | 71 | |
| Norway | Microsoft-IIS/4.0 | 2 images | 15,991 | None | 15 | |
| Spain | Apache/1.1.0 | 17 images (1 background) | 31,172 | 1 (Author) | 15 | |
| Sweden | Microsoft-IIS/3.0 | 12 images | 12,721 | None | 12 | |
| Switzerland | Apache/1.3.4 | 22 images | 23,162 | None | 45 |
Seven of the web sites are (probably) hosted on a Unix server and three on an Windows NT server.
It was interesting to observe that only one instance of use of metadata was present in the NFP web site entry points.
The Microsoft SiteServer software [5] was used to analyse each NFP web site. A summary of the findings is given in the following table.
| NFP Web Site | No. of pages | No. of images | No. of local links | No. of offsite links |
| Austria | 1,418 | 121 | 7,118 | 3,253 |
| Belgium | 34 | 7 | 73 | 53 |
| Finland | 23 | 5 | 3 | 81 |
| France | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Germany | 14 | 10 | 28 | 18 |
| Ireland | 121 | 6 | 138 | 118 |
| Norway | 39 | 3 | 14 | 90 |
| Spain | 1,734 | 1,060 | 23,679 | 3,093 |
| Sweden | 88 | 24 | 79 | 477 |
| Switzerland | 68 | 21 | 790 | 182 |
Due to the lack of a directory to differentiate the contents of the NFP web site from other areas on the server the information for a number of the web sites listed in Table 3 is likely to be too large.
It should be noted that failure to use a directory structure to group resources related to the NFP not only makes auditing difficult. It also makes it difficult to provide automated harvesting of the resources.
The linkpopularity.com web site [6] was used to obtain details of the number of links to NFP web sites. The results are given in Table 4.
| NFP Web Site | No. of Links | Try it |
| Austria | 5 (AltaVista) - 4 (Infoseek) - 0 (HotBot) | Try it |
| Belgium | 5 (AltaVista) - 6 (Infoseek) - 1 (HotBot) | Try it |
| Finland | 1 (AltaVista) - 12 (Infoseek) - 1 (HotBot) | Try it |
| France | 0 (AltaVista) - 0 (Infoseek) - 0 (HotBot) | Try it |
| Germany | 15 (AltaVista) - 10 (Infoseek) - 4 (HotBot) | Try it |
| Ireland | 24 (AltaVista) - 22 (Infoseek) - 7 (HotBot) | Try it |
| Norway | 4 (AltaVista) - 12 (Infoseek) - 1 (HotBot) | Try it |
| Spain | 3 (AltaVista) - 5 (Infoseek) - 1 (HotBot) | Try it |
| Sweden | 5 (AltaVista) - 9 (Infoseek) - 2 (HotBot) | Try it |
| Switzerland | 0 (AltaVista) - 0 (Infoseek) - 1 (HotBot) | Try it |
It should be noted that the information on the number of links is taken from the databases hosted by the AltaVista, Infoseek and HotBot search engines. It cannot be guaranteed that the information held on the databases is complete. In addition the linkpopularity.com web site states that the AltaVista results have been erratic recently.
None of the NFP web sites appeared to provide a search facility. Since the sites appear to be small, browsing may be adequate for exploring the web sites. However as the web sites grow, a search facility will become of increasing importance.
As described in an analysis of search engines on UK University web sites published recently in Ariadne [7] small organisations which possess limited technical expertise may find it useful to provide access to a search facility hosted remotely, such as a global search engine.
An example of this approach is shown below. This example uses the HotBot search engine. The interface is configured to search across all NFP web sites by default, although searches of individual NFP web sites can also be chosen.
Note The following points should be noted:
Although web sites will ideally have their own search engine which can be configured to support local requirements (e.g. index new resources when they become available, index a range of file formats, omit certain resources from the index such as draft document, etc.) the use of a remote index may be worth considering, especially if remote search service allow searches to be restricted to areas of the web site.
The Robot Exclusion Protocol [8] enables a web site administrator to specify directories which robots should not access. Although it does not provide a security mechanism this protocol can be used to avoid search engines indexing draft documents and personal files. It can also be used to stop search engines from wasting server capacity by attempting to index files such as images, CGI scripts, etc.
The Robot Exclusion Protocol makes use of a file with the name robots.txt which is located at the root of the web server. A typical file (taken from the Irish NFP web site) is shown below, with annotations explaining the role of the statements.
| User-agent: * | # Following conditions apply to all robots |
| Disallow: /cgi-bin/ | # Robots not allowed to index resources (typically scripts) in cgi-bin directory |
| Disallow: /tmp/ | # Robots not allowed to index resources in /tmp (temporary files) |
| Disallow: /resource/home/ | |
| Disallow: /iol/ | |
| Disallow: /thisweek/ | # Robots not allowed to index resources in /thisweek (typically news items) |
An analysis of the robots.txt files on the servers which host NFP web sites is given in Table 5. UKOLN's web-based /robots.txt checker [9] was used to analyse these files.
| NFP Web Site | Status | robots.txt File |
| Austria | None | robots.txt file |
| Belgium | None | robots.txt file |
| Finland | Disallows access to cgi-bin, dc5, _private, dc4b, dc4htm, gablocal, images and pics | robots.txt file |
| France | None | robots.txt file |
| Germany | Disallows access to entire web site | robots.txt file |
| Ireland | Disallows access to /cgi-bin/, /tmp/, /resource/home/, /iol/ and /thisweek/ | robots.txt file |
| Norway | None | robots.txt file |
| Spain | None | robots.txt file |
| Sweden | None | robots.txt file |
| Switzerland | Disallows access to /cgi-bin/, /usage/, /interne/, /imgs/ and /cache-usage | robots.txt file |
The 404 error page can be an important navigational feature for web site, especially for web sites which have long URLs which may be difficult to type correctly. As described in an Ariadne article which analysed 404 error pages provided on UK University web sites [10] there are a range of features which can be provided on a well-designed 404 page.
A brief summary of the 404 error pages for NFP web sites is given in Table 6.
| NFP Web Site | Error message | Try it |
| Austria | Brief text message | 404 page |
| Belgium | Very brief text message | 404 page |
| Finland | 404 page | |
| France | Brief text message | 404 page |
| Germany | Brief text message | 404 page |
| Ireland | Contains site map and advertising | 404 page |
| Norway | Brief text message | 404 page |
| Spain | Brief text message | 404 page |
| Sweden | Brief text message | 404 page |
| Switzerland | Brief text message | 404 page |
As can be seen from Table 4 only the Irish NFP web site provides a tailored 404 error page - the remainder use the default server message.
The Bobby tool [11] was used to analyse the accessibility of the main entry point for NFP web sites. The results are summarised in Table 7.
| NFP Web Site | Comments |
| Austria | Priority 1: ALT attribute missing for images (15 instances). Possible incorrect HTML (8 instances). |
| Belgium | Priority 1: Frames require a title. Note individual frame sets not analysed. |
| Finland | Priority 1: No problems found. Possible incorrect HTML (2 instances). |
| France | Priority 1: No problems found. |
| Germany | Could not access page |
| Ireland | Priority 1: ALT attribute missing for images (2 instances). |
| Norway | Priority 1: No problems found. |
| Spain | Priority 1: ALT attribute missing for images (15 instances). |
| Sweden | Priority 1: ALT attribute missing for images (1 instance). |
| Switzerland | Priority 1: ALT attribute missing for images (22 instances). Possible incorrect HTML (4 instances). |
The analysis of the NFP web sites has shown that a variety of approaches have been taken. With the ever-increasing importance of dissemination of the activities funded by the European Commission the role of the National Focal Points (and their successor under the Fifth Framework) will become even more important. As the web becomes more sophisticated it is important that web sites are designed to facilitate automated processes, and not just for viewing by humans.
Based on this survey a number of recommendations can be made.
It is hoped that these recommendations may prove useful to new Commission-funded and other project web sites which are about to be set up.
The following tools were used to carry out the analyses:
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
BA2 7AY
URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk
Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus. He works for UKOLN, which is based at the University of Bath
For citation purposes:
Brian Kelly, "Analysis of NFP Web Sites",
Exploit Interactive, issue 3, October 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue3/nfp-websites/>
Thibault Heuzé reports on CORDIS [1], the official EU research information service. CORDIS offers free and reliable information on the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) for Research, Technological development & Demonstration with a specific focus on related key actions. Furthermore, added-value services hosted on CORDIS can help librarians to find additional opportunities through on-going research projects or exploitable results related to the library community.
Following previous articles on the Telematics for Libraries [2] and on the Digital Heritage and Cultural Content [3] web sites the author introduces CORDIS as the main information service on the FP5 as well as a gateway to innovation-related information.
New technologies stimulate exchange and access to knowledge while also constituting a tool capable of strengthening European identity. To support this, the European Commission has funded a number of research projects aiming to support librarians to develop innovative services using new technologies and therefore to help them meet the challenges of the future. The results of these previous research projects are now accessible on CORDIS for spin off.
CORDIS can provide libraries and museum managers with relevant examples of practical research achievements and background information on certain aspects such as project proposal assistance and intellectual property issues.
CORDIS was launched in November 1990 as a project designed to increase the dissemination and utilisation of scientific and technological research results. The service started with searchable databases and was soon complemented by programme-specific information services and tools to help users access more innovation-related information.
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| Figure 1: The CORDIS Home Page |
CORDIS provides free and rapid on-line access to a wide range of accurate information on European R&D and innovation activities.
CORDIS aims to:
New services now hosted by CORDIS help users to find more effective innovation tools, identify sources of innovation assistance, locate new technology and keep up-to-date on latest developments (CORDIS News). The development of information content is designed to assist a broad scope of users. Traditional institutional and research users have been joined by growing numbers of business users, non-profit associations and innovation advisors, all seeking reliable and timely information.
Library managers can also benefit from the service.
CORDIS is an interactive marketplace where information and knowledge can be exchanged and where European research and innovation can be transformed into benefits for European citizens. CORDIS can assist library managers to find new solutions to solve their problems or improve accessibility and users satisfaction.
In 1984 the European Parliament drew political attention to the importance of libraries to the Community in a Resolution (known as the Schwencke Resolution) which called for action by the Commission in this sector (Official Journal No C 117 of 30/4/1984). The Council of Ministers with responsibility for cultural affairs adopted a Resolution of 17 September 1985 on "Collaboration between libraries in the field of data processing" (Official Journal No C 271 of 23.10.1985). This Resolution acknowledged the importance of libraries in the European Community, both as a major force in the information market and as intermediaries to knowledge and culture. Libraries thereafter appeared as a key field for research and development in the EC research programmes. Different types of projects were founded to foster namely interoperability and access. The underlying goal was to help modern libraries provide a dynamic and easily searchable information space throughout the Community taking into account existing geographical discrepancies.
Are you interested in the last developments in the field of libraries? How to find the information you need on CORDIS?
CORDIS offers different paths to get to the information you need.
You can search in the databases (projects, results, publications). Many projects were developed under past Framework programme actions: Libraries programme (concentrated on facilitating access to library resources and promoting the interconnection of libraries, both directly with other libraries and within the European infrastructure), Telematics for libraries (aimed at developing added-value services through library networking and related services) [4]. Other library-related actions were carried out under the Training and Mobility of Researchers programme [5]. Research results can be found in the CORDIS searchable databases by carrying out a basic search or by using the map-based search. Databases are accessible from the CORDIS home page [1].
Current projects examples include: libraries without walls, decision support models and a decision support system for European libraries, electronic data interchange for libraries and booksellers, management information software tool for research in libraries, public libraries and independent learners, and more (check example by selecting the following search).
Specific facilities have been developed to ease the job of searching in the databases. It is possible to use CORDIS "Rapidus" feature (Rapid Delivery of Updates on Search profiles) to keep a watch on new developments by receiving news by e-mail automatically delivered at your desktop.
Furthermore, the CORDIS technology marketplace [6] highlights some exploitable results. This service is a helpful tool to find ideas for new products and services.
Some examples of interest for library managers include:
Finally, CORDIS hosts a gateway to local and national information services gathering core information in English on research projects from across Europe. The ERGO, "European Research Gateways On-line", initiative [9] offers more opportunities to access innovative national research project in the library field from a single entry point.
If you would like to be involved in EU-funded research and develop your ideas, CORDIS can help. CORDIS aims to assist any innovator through the critical stages of innovation and technology transfer. CORDIS also acts as a publisher of all information related to FP5 participation. A specific web service gathers all information on thematic and horizontal programmes as well as key actions. The service offers assistance on opportunities, calls for proposals, and on understanding procedures leading to applications.
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| Figure 2: FP5 web service at http://www.cordis.lu/fp5/ |
FP5 provides various opportunities for library managers under key actions such as “systems and services to the citizen” (IST, key action 1), “multimedia content and tools” (IST, key action 3) or “the city of tomorrow and cultural heritage” (EESD, key action 4). There are, however, other potential opportunities for innovators. The networked library can also for example enhance education and lifelong-learning opportunities for children and adults, e.g. distance learning; support training, employment and business; foster economic prosperity; and nurture social cohesion through fostering a politically and culturally informed society.
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| Figure 3: Information Society Technologies at http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ |
CORDIS provides potential participants with practical tools and guidance to respond to FP5 call for proposals. The service offers direct links to call dates, downloadable documents and other related facilities. A partner service (Expression of interest) [10] helps locate possible partners for a specific project. Partnership is a compulsory requirement for EC funding; potential partners from different member States are libraries, networking specialists, software house, publishers, research departments and universities.
Protool [11] helps potential participants to prepare the administrative and technical paper work in conformity with the appropriate Proposal Submission Form.
Additional services offer information on financing innovation or on patent protection. In this respect, CORDIS covers the whole innovation process, from the identification of a relevant idea to its implementation: local assistance, selection of partners, application for funding support, implementation plan, financing, legal assistance, and more.
Do you need to find exploitable research results on library management? Are you looking for information on specific research projects in European countries? Do you want to participate in a EU funded research project under the multimedia content key action?
CORDIS offers reliable services and tools to ease exploitation of results and/or get involved in further research developments. Libraries remain a very important potential actor under FP5 actions and thus there are many opportunities to seize.
To enhance user-friendliness and efficiency, CORDIS will soon launch a new web resource offering users a more comprehensive and interactive gateway. The ten-year old service thus reflects both the rapid evolution of the European R&D environment and the flexibility to match the change in users' needs. Library managers have much to gain by using CORDIS.
If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).
Thibault Heuzé
CORDIS Community Research and Development Information Service
CORDIS Marketing Team
rue Montoyer40
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32.2.238.17.37
URL: <http://www.cordis.lu/>
Email: t.heuze@cordis.lu
Thibault Heuzé is employed within the CORDIS Marketing team. His responsibilities include relations with the non-profit sector and stressing the exploitation of research results.
For citation purposes:
Thibault Heuzé, "CORDIS web service: a marketplace to exploit
research results and find innovative opportunities on library & information
management", Exploit Interactive, issue 3, October 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue3/cordis/>
Rolf Hapel, Library Director at Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker provides this issue's regular PubliCA column. Rolf is Denmark's country contact for PubliCA [1].
Aarhus is the second largest city in Denmark and has 283,000 inhabitants. The library system consists of a main library, 19 district and branch libraries and 2 mobile libraries. The libraries have a circulation of more than 5,2 million issues and 2 million visitors per year. The IT-infrastructure is well developed as are the contents of the virtual library.
An important aspect of the development of access to Internet services that Aarhus Municipal Libraries has provided in recent years is Aarhus-net, the network that connects all the institutions of the municipality. All the local libraries in Aarhus (20 in all) have been connected to Aarhus-net since 1997. At present more than 160 public workstations in the libraries are connected to the "red net" section of the net, which is allocated to citizens' use. Consequently everyone can access the Internet when visiting the library.
The libraries have thus democratised access to using the most important tool of the information society. In practise everyone can, free of charge, surf and search on the Internet. The libraries regularly hold introductions to the Internet for anyone interested as a part of the libraries general educational task. Libraries have, from the outset, been defined as important centres in the information society. They guarantee one of the most important principles of a democratic society, namely the free and equal access to information.
In a library system it is traditional to have an pro-active strategy in relation to information technology. As early as the late 1980s a computer facility was set up and a UNIX-based library-system was introduced. The public has used the system ever since to search the library's catalogue and the staff have used it to administrate the purchase and lending processes.
The system has been expanded and modernised several times. With the emergence of the Internet, a merging of the dedicated library system and the Internet services has taken place. It is now possible to search the library's catalogue from home, via the library's home page. Later this year users will have the option of reserving and ordering material from home as well.
Furthermore, the first steps have been taken in creating "the interactive catalogue". This library catalogue will not only provide information about a given book's availability in the library and allow the user to reserve or order the book but also uses the catalogue entry to act as a link to selected related resources on the Internet e.g. information about the author, book reviews, articles on the topics of the book etc.
As has been the case in other knowledge-based organisations, the Internet signified a revolution for Aarhus Municipal Libraries. It began in 1995 with its first web pages. Since then it has been a deliberate policy to ensure the pages are updated and to make them increasingly more relevant to the users: in short, to focus on the contents.
At the end of January 1999 the web site was renovated. It is, in terms of contents, amongst the most advanced in Denmark today. Even as early as October 1998, as the only one among 67 libraries, the web site, along with that of Vejle Library, was rated with 5 stars by the electronic magazine on culture "Soendag Aften" (Sunday Evening).
It is necessary for the library system to increase IT competence among its staff, in part to make them capable of supervising users and also to enable them to participate in the enrichment of information through selection, quality assessment and commenting on relevant resources on the net.
This development in competences will also include elements to build up new IT-supported internal working methods. Such working methods may thoroughly change the organisation within five to ten years. An important aim in this process will be to convert human capital, or the "hidden knowledge", into structural, more usable capital, not least in view of the expected generational change the libraries will experience in the timeframe.
Another strategic element in the usage of the Internet in the libraries is the involvement of the "civilian society" in the development of the resources. The users form a vital part of the services, not just as target group for the service but, to a large extent, as co-developers of the service. It would not, for instance, have been possible to create "Censuses on the Net" had it not been for the participation of a number of volunteers, who assisted in keying in the old censuses to a digital form.
Similarly, young volunteers, organised as a group of so-called "Netskaters", have contributed to the development of the homepage for children and youngsters, just as representatives for the users have worked as active consultants in the development of "FinFo" - the electronic information system addressed to refugees and immigrants.
The following are some of the services from "The Electronic Library" which users can access on the Internet:
Aarhus Municipal Libraries have created a virtual - or electronic - library of periodicals in which links to all web-based Danish periodicals can be found that are judged to be relevant to a larger circle of users. This means that periodicals from various associations, clubs and societies are now included. Furthermore access is provided to a number of foreign (international) periodicals, which the library subscribes to through regional and national licences. Presently approximately 750 full text periodicals are available from the agencies Ebsco, Academic Press and Springer.
Moreover, in connection with the subscription at Ebsco, registered distance users from Aarhus County have been given access. This means that registered users of the libraries in the municipalities of Aarhus County are able to use the search facilities from home, as opposed to only being able to use these facilities via the libraries' Internet PCs.
In 1999 Aarhus Municipal Libraries received a grant of 275,000 kroner from the Danish National Library Authority's development pool for the development of a proper user registration system, which controls the access to net-based electronic resources by the libraries' users, regardless of whether the users are physically present at the libraries or not.
The Development Department at Aarhus Municipal Libraries has produced a distance learning scheme, which is specially adapted for employees at the public libraries in Denmark. The development phase was financially supported by The Danish National Library Authority, while the operation of running the courses are based fully on payment by the participants. To begin with the courses were offered to the libraries in Aarhus County, but since June 1998 they have been offered to libraries nation-wide.
Presently the scheme is being translated into English, as the distance learning courses have been in great demand in a number of European countries. Not least prominent people at libraries in the ten Central and Eastern European countries, which have applied for membership of the EU, have shown a huge interest in the distance learning project from Aarhus.
So far the scheme consists of three courses, which are being updated continuously:
In 1999 the library's Business Information section will offer a "tailor-made" distance learning course of 4 lessons to businesses and firms in Aarhus County. The library is furthermore arranging a Nordic conference in Aarhus with the title "Distance Learning in Tomorrow's Public Libraries" to take place in May 1999.
Rolf Hapel
Library Director
Aarhus Biblioteker
Moellegade 1
8000 Aarhus c
Denmark
Email: hapel@bib.aarhus.dk
URL: <http://www.aakb.dk/>
For citation purposes:
Rolf Hapel, "Aarhus Municipal Libraries and the Information Society",
Exploit Interactive, issue 3, October 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue3/publica/>
Brian Kelly describes how browsers can be extended to include a page translation service, and speculates on the usefulness of such a service.
You go to a web page. Perhaps you've been given the URL or maybe you've found the page using a search engine. You hope that the page will contain the information you've been looking for. The page arrives, and to your disappointment, the page is written in German - a language you failed to study at school. You notice the page contains a number of relevant abbreviations. Looking further you discover that the references include many of the key papers in this area. You ask youself "Should I use my limited funds to have the article translated? Or should I ask a favour from a German-speaking friend?"
This article describes how an automated translation facility can be easily added to your browser, and invites the reader to try it out and see if it provides a satisfactory solution to this problem.
The Netscape Personal Toolbar is a little-known feature of the Netscape browser. As illustrated in Figure 1 the personal toolbar enables the end user to add their own links to the top of the browser.
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| Figure 1: The Netscape Personal Toolbar |
A similar feature is also available in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
As described in an article in the Web Focus column in the Ariadne web magazine, issue 19 [1] the personal toolbar can be used to provide a range of browser extensions including:
The author makes use of browser extensions to audit web sites as described in an article on "An Analysis of NFP Web Sites" published elsewhere in issue 3 of Exploit Interactive [2].
BabelFish [3] is a web-based translation tool. It can be used by selecting the language you wish to translate to and from, and entering a URL. BabelFish will then translate the page specified. The output is displayed in the main web browser menu, and retains the look-and-feel of the original page, as can be seen in Figure 1 which provides a translation of the UKOLN home page.
| UKOLN Home Page |
 | UKOLN Home Page after translation |
| Figure 2: UKOLN home page, before and after translation |
The BabelFish web site now describes how access to the page translation service can be added to your browser [4].
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 users can simply download and install the AV Power Tools [5].
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 users should drag this link -- AV Translation -- on to the Links Toolbar (select the View and then choose Toolbars followed by Links) to get a button. Alternatively right-click on this link -- AV Translation -- and select Add to Favorites.
Netscape Communicator 4.0 users should drag this link -- AV Translation -- on to the Personal Toolbar and you'll get a button like in the example below. or right-click on this link -- AV Translation -- and select "Add Bookmark."
Netscape Navigator 3.0 users should right-click on this link -- AV Translation -- and select Add Bookmark.
Once you have added BabelFish to your browser it can be used whenever you are viewing a page, as illustrated in Figure 3.
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| Figure 3 - Using BabelFish From Your Browser |
As an exercise in testing how useful the translations were the DigiCult home page [6] was translated. A summary of the translations is given below.
As an illustration for English speakers, the German version of the page [6] (which, no doubt, was translated manually) was translated by BabelFish. The results are given below.
The English translation of the French version is given below.
Although the translations are far from ideal and some strange terms appear in the translations in the translation from the French the key points regarding a new program related to multimedia and relevant to the libraries and museums community is clear.
This article has described how to extend your browser to add a page translation feature. It is also possible for authors to add links to their documents which provide access to the BabelFish tranlation service. An example is shown at the bottom of this article.
How useful is the BabelFish translation service? Would people who are likely to access multi-lingual resources find it useful to extend their browser in the way described on this article? Should documents which might be useful for a European (or wider) readership provide links to the BabelFish translation service?
The BabelFish translation service is freely available today. Are other translation products available which do a better job than BabelFish? For example how useful is the zip-translator English to Japanese translator [8]? Would one of the Systran translation products [7] do a better job?
If you have a comment of automated translation, please email the author or send a message to the Hypernews forum. The Exploit Interactive editors would be very interested to hear if a link to the BabelFish translation service should be added to the bottom of all articles.
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
BA2 7AY
URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/>
Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus. He works for UKOLN, which is based at the University of Bath
For citation purposes:
Brian Kelly, "Extending Your Browser With An Automated Page Translation Feature",
Exploit Interactive, issue 3, October 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue3/translation/>
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