UNESCO Knowledge Portal Assessment & Recommendations for 2004-2005
Based on interviews with UKP’s main stakeholders
CI – BPI, April 2004
Table of content
Purpose Method Assessment by project Assessment by topic Recommendations for 2004 - 2005 Directions for 2006 - 2007
Purpose Seven cross-cutting web projects illustrated a visionary concept,
the UNESCO Knowledge Portal (UKP)
21 interviews were conducted with the UKP’s main stakeholders, at the level of sub portals and technical infrastructure
Giving the subjective characteristic of this method, the results of this study :– help underline the strengths and weaknesses, on which the future
of UKP should be built – can not help evaluate the impact of these projects on the
Organization as a whole.
Method (1/2)
The interviews aimed to get feedbacks on the experience regarding the following aspects of project building:
– Portal purpose– Audience definition and evaluation– Content– Technical Architecture– Organizational design– Management – Marketing
Method (2/2) The interviewees were:
– Direction of Project: R. Cluzel, M. Schmidt, A. Plathe, I. Nuk– WebWorld: A.Plathe– Education: S. Fernandez Lauro, B. Combes, I. Nichanian,
F. Jouot-Belhami– Digi Arts: M. de Corral, T. Wagner, J. du Toit, D. Lee– Communities: M. Lourenço, M. Crutescu, S. Roberts– Oceans: P. Pissiersens, B. Sims– UNESCO Heritage Portal: D. Ziyasheva, P. Leoncini Bartoli,
M. Couratier, N. Boumaiza, A. Addison, M. Santana, J. Robertson-Verhnes, S. Roberts; GIS:
A. Candau, S. Arico– DIT: D. Pelissier, C. Yates-Gainche, E. Lannaud– BPI/WEB: V. Defourny, E. Fazzino, R. Cadiou
Assessment by project
Global organization
Specific teams, under the supervision of the Communication and Information sector, managed each of the following seven projects
Assessment by project – Digi Arts
DigiArts, the portal of new digital media arts, covers a new topic for the organization.
Its development was apprehended putting emphasis on networking since the conception of the project: new communities are now actively working with UNESCO because of this project
DigiArts team acquired a thorough experience on Web project Marketing, mixing on-line and offline events to promote its activities
Assessment by project – Ocean portals Ocean Portals team managed brilliantly the delegation
of content production and feeding, allocating time, money and human resources they disposed of, adequately. This experience of network construction and animation should be shared with all web teams
Nonetheless, the portals look and feel do not correspond to the one of UNESCO’s portal. No content links are activated, from the ocean portals to other parts of UNESCO’s portal, or vice versa. This structural independence is questionable.
Assessment by project – Higher Education Higher Education sub portal provides
information on Higher Education worldwide, such as indispensable resources for teachers, teacher trainers, researchers and students as well as links to all UNESCO Conventions on the recognition of qualifications
Assessment by project – Early Childhood Education
Early Childhood Education subportal focuses on UNESCO’s strengths in terms of early childhood: training/capacity building, networking/partnership building and information/documentation
It experimented interesting ways of understanding its public needs. This approach could serve as a basis for experience sharing and the development of a general framework for audience monitoring
Assessment by project – Education sub portals
Both Education sub portals, Higher Education and Early Childhood Education, developed networking with its communities
Meanwhile, those projects remain very
specific to the Education sector
Assessment by project – UNESCO Heritage Portal
UNESCO Heritage Portal treats a strategic topic for UNESCO, dealing with all sectors activities
It failed to achieve a tangible result because of a lack of leadership and an Information Structure which lead to technical heaviness
Assessment by project – Communities Communities developed relevant
databases for the use of all sector’s activities
With no specific budget it developed one of the most useful and universal tool for the organization’s portal, sub-portals and cross-cutting project
Webworld is the Communication and Information sector’s website
It remains difficult to understand why this sub portal was initially chosen to illustrate UKP’s vision and ambition, such as described in 31 C/5
Assessment by project – Webworld
Assessment by topic
Globally, the 31 C/5 text, referring to UKP, presented a vision and 5 sub portals which did not illustrate with coherence this vision
– Each UKP sub portal is coherent with the global objective, as each created new content, aggregated partners and experts knowledge, reinforced UNESCO’s mandate through relevant actions
– Meanwhile, UKP lacks of global coherence, as there is no consistency between all sub portals
Assessment by topic - Audience
Cross-cutting projects were not yet apprehended as other media support for the organization :– No systematized audience studies,
tests, definition were conducted prior to the web projects development
– Except, to some extent for Digi-Arts, Ocean Portals, and earl Childhood Education.
Ensure quality of content, currently uneven among sub portals
Harmonize cross cutting projects ‘Structure of Information’ to avoid disparity and so facilitate users navigation
Facilitate Information Sharing, using a better technical infrastructure along with a better communication among web teams and/or sectors
Assessment by topic – Content & Structure of Info.
Most web teams encountered technical difficulties, with the CMS and with the possibilities of exchanging information from one subportal to another
Assessment by topic – Technical Architecture
Most teams complained of a lack of time and resources
Workflows are not always optimised Teams suffered from administrative
slowness and its effects Tools and procedure to use the
intranet as a support for content development would be useful.
Assessment by topic – Organizational design
Many teams asked for additional support, from a dedicated team, such as BPI/WEB.
Independent from the Sectors structure, this team could help them harmonize their site in accordance with what the rest of the organization has done or is doing.
Assessment by topic – Management
Recommendations for 2004-2005 (1/6)
UKP’s destiny
– UKP sub portals are autonomous the one from the other and lack of global consistency when presented together
– UNESCO’s portal as a whole gives consistency to the sub-portals by giving them an illustrative role of sector’s cross linking possibilities, supported by sectors content
– Consequently, each sub portal should be re-integrated in the portal tree to ensure better visibility, coherence and consistency
Recommendations for 2004-2005 (2/6) Definition of unesco.org direction
and global vision
– UKP suffered from a lack of global strategy and clear policy. This drive is still needed and should include UNESCO’s portal as a whole,
– Consequently, a logical framework for the portal should be implemented, based on the state of the art and on audience surveys.
Recommendations for 2004-2005 (3/6) A central role for BPI/WEB
– UKP suffered from a lack of global monitoring – Most teams asked for a dedicated team in charge of
coordinating UNESCO’s web activities, demands and support
– BPI/WEB was designated to be in charge of these tasks: web teams recognized its growing role and clear legitimacy to endorse it.
– Consequently, the Logical Framework should serve as a basis for a common understanding of roles, policy and tools. BPI/WEB could then engage define monitoring policy and tools
Recommendations for 2004-2005 (4/6)
Web team training for a UNESCO web culture
Part of the allocated budget should be dedicated to staff training on specific aspects of web communication:
Project development
Webmastering
Content production for the web
Marketing and communication
Recommendations for 2004-2005 (5/6) Communication policy and organizational
design for information flow
UNESCO will take the opportunity, of its web activity organization and development to structure its communication policy and organizational flow by
allocating teams within each sector defining the rules for the centralization of
information
Recommendations for 2004-2005 (6/6) Technical structure improvement
The global technical structure should be improved so to facilitate cross linkages, navigation and user satisfaction
CMS performance should be improved Search tools should be implemented Data sharing should be facilitated Guidelines should be available to all on
Intranet
Directions for 2006-2007 (1/3)
By the end of the 32 C/5 biennium the organization should be well equipped to move a step forward, in 2006-2007, and become – a well structured communicating agency, – aware of its audience environment, – trained to work with Internet – and ready to share knowledge.
Directions for 2006-2007 (2/3)
UNESCO’s portal will be ready to develop a comprehensive knowledge management culture and system and so, become the clearing house the UNESCO Knowledge Portal aimed to be
In order to achieve this goal:– Integrate tasks and systems into a unique tool– Set workflows procedures to share files, ensure documents
are well and easily validated, …– Get support from external consultants to help in the
implementation of this project: technical developments should come along with internal training and communication to help the evolution of the internal web culture
Directions for 2006-2007 (3/3)
A Communication and Marketing function should be implemented as a support to all sectors, to ensure UNESCO’s portal wide visibility– Internal Marketing: a lot of work has been done in the sense of portal
potential but it has not been marketed yet. This marketing process should be organized along with the consolidation of intranet tools
– External marketing: global communication should be made outside to stimulate targeted audience to visit and participate to the portal (Public relations, On-line ad campaigns, Search engines registration ,Collaborative work with worldwide on-line and off-line medias, Specific web brochures for international committees…)