The five workpackages are detailed on the following pages. First is a summary showing person months of effort for each partner.

It is worth mentioning that even though most of the field work is occurring in India, the information system design and delivery aspects are generic and global in scope. Also the new internet content will be available globally. We are treating India as a prototype. We intend to extend the learnings from that case to other countries, although recognizing that India is in fact many countries and therefore quite an adequate test in its own right.

Workpackage No 1

Title: Project coordination and administration

Lead partner for this WP: UIA Start month: 1 End month: 36

Initial state, work already done, preconditions for starting tasks, end result expected:

The objectives of this workpackage are to ensure that all required work is planned, and that the activities of the partners, working in different locations, are coordinated to run smoothly and in a timely fashion throughout the project.

This workpackage will start with the initiation of the project and finish with the presentation of the final report. The Coordinator will extend activities to cover any outstanding or consequent arrangements with the Bank and other partners, such as winding up financial payments and accounts.

Tasks:

Coordination and management of the project will comprise the following tasks:

1. Liaison with the Bank and the project team, on a regular basis;
2. Financial management of the project;
3. Scheduling of activities and ensuring adherence to schedule;
4. Preparation of progress and final reports;
5. Organisation of team meetings;
6. Any other necessary coordination, administrative, financial or reporting activities.

Estimation of labour effort required: 33 person months

Workpackage No 2

Title: Increasing stakeholder access to online information

Lead partner for this WP UIA Start month: 2 End month: 24

Initial state, work already done, preconditions for starting tasks, end result expected:

Full-featured internet access is rarely available to Indian organizations. This will improve but little for the majority over the next several years. An exception is through the efforts of the DAINET programme. The work for this workpackage will use the DAINET system as its delivery vehicle.

This workpackage makes the UIA, WCMC and other similar databases more easily accessible to sustainable development stakeholders in India. The work should be directly translatable into other developing country settings, and wherever local constraints limit full-featured internet access.

The objectives are to design and test interface procedures which enable people with less automated communication means (text-based internet, email and, to a certain degree, fax) to "emulate" the content recovery available to those with full featured internet access (notably graphics and top page downloads of hyperlinks).

The partners would work with a volunteer group of stakeholders in India to provide user input and review developments. Results would be progressively collated and incorporated into product design.

Tasks:

1. Stakeholders would be identified and approached. They would be individuals who have a regular need to access information on sustainable development and are prepared to collaborate with the project. They would already be users of electronic communication equipment (telephone with fax and/or computer) and have a reasonably frequent pattern of use. The group would include universities and students, NGOs and CBOs, government officers and those doing policy research, environmental consultants and the sustainable development divisions of corporates.
2. For those with email and text-based internet access, the tasks are to:

• design query forms and user-friendly software whereby they may seamlessly access (read) information available on the internet with zero manual intervention in between;
• design forms and software whereby they may upload web pages/databases available on the internet
• build capacity among the user group to adapt to this inquiry approach

1. For those with internet access, the tasks are to:

• construct knowledge portals that enable users to quickly and accurately identify themselves and the information they require
• design recognition protocols that enable the partners servers to save user information and preferences, thus speeding up their subsequent journeys through the system
• design an knowledge architecture with multiple entry points and interior journeys.

Estimation of labour effort required: 67 person months

Workpackage No 3

Title: Increasing frequency and sophistication of stakeholder use

Lead partner for this WP: DA Start month: 2 End month: 34

Initial state, work already done, preconditions for starting tasks, end result expected:

Sustainable development stakeholders in India who have computers and telephones may not combine them for information retrieval and advanced communications. This workpackage builds capacity among grassroot groups with a telephone and computer whereby they can graduate to using email, then gradually to internet use, on a regular basis that is financially affordable to them.

Work already done is the preparation of the comprehensive 10-volume DAINET directory of Indian NGO groups. Profiles of the organizations are held in database format and include equipment and communications information.

The activity will initially be in the well-serviced DAINET regions -- New Delhi, Bangalore, Chansi – gradually extending as other DAINET centres are established.

Tasks:

1. Request participation in the programme. Select a suitable sample of organizations.
2. Provide assistance with locating reliable modem suppliers
3. Provide email access
4. Provide support services ("hand-holding") over a 6 to 18 month period until such time as the organization become a regular and confident email user with indirect access to the Internet (Work Package 2).
5. Assist users with upgrading to become a more sophisticated internet user.

Estimation of labour effort required: 65 person months

Workpackage No 4

Title: Building regional and local databases

Lead partner for this WP: UIA Start month: 6 End month: 24

Initial state, work already done, preconditions for starting tasks, end result expected:

With respect to content, electronic information for sustainable development in India is inadequate in two ways:

• few documents and data have been converted into accessible electronic formats;
• there are very few locally and regionally-relevant databases/directories etc.

This workpackage builds model databases and holdings that have:

• Indian content, including electronic publishing of Indian documents and data
• local and regional relevance to sustainable development stakeholders in India

• linkages to generic and global databases and the internet.

The objective is to establish two data centres (=subject content centres) within the DAINET system. It is intended that the centres be held in different geographic locations and that their development be accompanied by local training and capacity building (funded separately). The methods and tools so developed should be replicable for application to other data centres.

This work will draw upon the experience of UIA, WCMC and others in creating and managing information systems. Specifically it would call upon the INFO2000 groundwork in building (1) interactive and participative information systems, (2) enhanced search and query facilities and (3) UIA’s multilingual and thesaurus-building capabilities.

Tasks:

1. Identify two themes in the UIA/WCMC databases of immediate and critical relevance to the South Asia region. Under consideration (and currently not funded by other means) are water, ecotourism, non-timber forest resources and appropriate technology.
2. Build databases of South Asian relevance on these themes.
3. Develop the links between:

• these two theme databases and the global databases of UIA and WCMC
• the international organization database of UIA and the DAINET Indian NGO database.

1. Engage remote contributors (information editors/caretakers) for the regional and global databases such that the Indian content is progressively increased and they become more broad-based and cost effective to manage.
2. Develop an environmental keyword thesaurus to facilitate local Indian access to the Indian databases and to the existing UIA and UNEP INFOTERRA databases. Three Indian languages would be selected.

Estimation of labour effort required: 88 person months

Workpackage No 5

Title: Building component services, usage and partnerships

Lead partner for this WP: DA Start month: 7 End month: 35

Initial state, work already done, preconditions for starting tasks, end result expected:

This workpackage assesses the feasibility of component services that can be self-financing in the long-term through such means as:

• fee for service
• subscriptions
• sponsorship
• information micro-enterprises

This work will draw upon the INFO2000 groundwork in the first three areas.

It also builds partnerships with other organizations interested in content linkage and development and local Indian organizations concerned with delivery of information services.

Is there more?

Tasks:

1. Use email to inform potential users of the service and seek volunteer participation. Progressively implement the Internet component of the marketing strategy. Take into account stakeholder workshops and online feedback. As the product develops, use more conventional components of the marketing plan as part of the usual operations the partners (mailings, meetings, journals etc).
2. Develop local partnerships, formal and informal, that can assist the service delivery and training objectives of the project. Partners are likely to include small businesses, NGOs, universities and individuals.
3. Experiment with suitable packages and formulae using a mix of zero cost and billed access to Web information. Undertake simultaneous experiments with billing for selected portions of the data and offering facilities to sponsors to subsidise access to data in particular domains.
4. Prepare a sponsorship proposal and accompanying the demonstration materials. Undertake research into likely sponsorship areas and organisations. Approach potential sponsors (companies, foundations and organisations). Follow-up approaches and negotiate deals.

Is there more?

Estimation of labour effort required: 49 person months