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…)