AUDMP Information and Networking Strategy 8. Environmental Factors Influencing the Choice of Strategy 8.1 Social and Other Related Factors A range of social, political and economic factors will shape the way information needs to be managed as the project evolves Social Factors English language skills of staff of organizations involved Access to information institutions - libraries Existing knowledge of how to gain access to international sources of hazard related information General level of knowledge and skills of information searching among groups of technical staff Knowledge and skills of information technology Social structures of the research groups involved: Invisible colleges: inclusive and exclusive Role and relative authority of junior research staff Economic Factors Cost of communications, including cost of bandwidth, postage costs and delays Affordability of up-to-date computer equipment Cost of networking - local travel and accommodation costs Political Factors Secrecy - particularly with lifelines and industrial hazards 8.2 Technical Issues In a rapidly changing world, there are real questions about how much emphasis to put on high technology. No information system can be fully effective without exploiting modern information technology (IT). On the other hand, a strategy which places too much emphasis on IT risks leaving behind a substantial proportion of users. In practical terms, a relatively mundane set of technical variables commonly influences information supply in Asia at present. They include: Phone congestion Cost of Fax access Availability of various forms of Internet access Non-Internet access solutions - FIDO, bulletin board availability Standards issues - compatibility of equipment and software Availability of computing equipment Project countries and potential project countries will differ in the extent to which electronic information services have been taken up by the various groups involved in AUDMP project activity. From the project's perspective, the range may include: No co-ordinator, direct contact with individuals, mostly through traditional mail, phone and fax Information co-ordinator in country - access only to mail, fax and phone; few others with email access. Information co-ordinator in country - good electronic connections using standard Internet email, but not many other participants with email access. Co-ordinator together with a substantial number of project participants all with some kind of email connection Over the life of the project the balance and quality of communications will change substantially. This is reviewed in more detail in the next section, but generally, within a year or so, a majority of project participants may get some kind of basic email access. For the time being it is clear that the majority of information needs of participants will currently have to be addressed using either basic email, or traditional fax, phone, and mail solutions. However, within the next twelve months, signs of a fundamental shift to electronic forms of information access will clearly develop, and a major transition will be underway by the middle of the second year of the project. The challenge will be to anticipate these changes and to ensure a smooth transition. 8.3 Futures: The Project in a Fast Changing Technologically Oriented World Asia is fast changing region socially and technologically. The Project will last several years. It is inevitable that there will be major changes in information technologies during that time. The Asian region is technically innovative with high information infrastructure investments. However, both the level of investment and the level of understanding of information technology varies considerably amongst countries in the region. Some countries appear to be moving ahead very rapidly. Others are lagging well behind. This divergence is likely to continue, although many urban areas throughout the region are likely to experience rapid and often unanticipated spurts of telecommunications and information technology growth as investments in new technologies such as cellular radio and VSAT change the telecommunications landscape. General trends in information technology and communications are well documented elsewhere, and relevant documents have been archived with AUDMP. At this stage it may be helpful to briefly address the likely changes in the technical operating environment over the first two years of the project. Among the most important are likely to be: A substantial increase in available communications bandwidth for Internet applications in many countries in the region by the end of 1997 or early 1998, A continuing linear downward trend in the costs of computer data storage Steady improvements in inexpensive audio and video conferencing on the Internet The emergence of a variety of readily available group conferencing and group decision support software packages. Increasing use of networking based on Internet protocols - so called intranets - as group support and workflow management systems. Urban intranets are likely to be increasingly a tool of big city governments, but may also appear in the offices of larger NGOs. The likely emergence of urban intranets towards the middle or later stages of the project could be an opportunity worth exploring very thoroughly. An Intranet is a communication infrastructure. It is based on the communication standards of the Internet and the content standards of the World-Wide Web. Therefore, the tools used to create an Intranet are identical to those used for Internet and Web applications. Organizations can deploy the same types of servers and browsers used for the World Wide Web for internal applications distributed over the internal LAN. Because intranets are based on the same independent standard Internet protocols and technologies, they are accessible to every member within an organization, regardless of their choice of hardware platform. Use of the Internet model also allows access to a very wide range of conferencing and group support software networks, and a growing range of information search and display tools. If cities start to develop their own administrative networks it would provide a ready-made infrastructure for collaborative mitigation of a particularly creative kind. From the perspective of information support, studies by the British Library strongly indicate that remote document supply will see the greatest immediate benefit from improvements in telecommunications networks, widely available terminal equipment, and access to digital, or easily digitised, material. The aim is to improve speed, quality and efficiency of document delivery services. However, in the longer term, network services will develop on a much broader front to provide as far as is practical the full range of library services. The scope for partnerships is increased in the digital and network environment because integration of services is easier. This will be of benefit both to service providers seeking efficiency and extended coverage, and to users who seeks a simple interface to comprehensive information. Service developments will seek to maximise the benefit from common interfaces, the interworking of systems, the sharing of data and the use of common resources. Box: Mid 1997 estimates currently include: Increasingly inexpensive high density electronic storage: (may get removable 1gb drives at $350 plus $30 per disk) Widespread 28K Internet bandwidth in urban areas at flat rate $10 per month with 256k plus available to institutions in a few areas at $30 per month. 56K modems widespread in cities with adequate infrastructure Cable modems in a few places - practical possibility of 1-2 mbps within two years in parts of Manila and Jakarta Inexpensive multimedia computing equipment (may get full screen 30 frame video and 64 bit audio Win95 machine at under $900) Telecottages/Information access points readily available in most urban areas for email document delivery Groupware - network management software: A number of companies will introduce relatively inexpensive Internet-based conferencing packages 8.4 Implications for AUDMP One main strategic implication of technology may be for the design of project reports. The next generation of researchers will expect to get the majority of their material in electronic format, and will be drawn increasingly to multimedia. Transfer of the knowledge learned on the project after three years will be made easier if the project generates an archive of material in a variety of media, including video sequences, a photograph collection, and a digitized library of project papers and reports. There will, in all probability, be sudden jumps in capability towards the middle and end of the project. This may include ten fold increases in bandwidth, and new countries getting access to high capacity international communications over short periods of time. Over the duration of the project, any growth in electronic networking activity in a given country will be relatively invisible from outside. A great deal of informal "intranet" activity will be taking place in colleges and research institutions, and later on involving participants on experimental national and city government intranets. One forthcoming opportunity for AUDMP may be to identify local networking activity, and to introduce onto these local servers some packaged materials illustrating key features of the project. Next Page