The Stockholm Environment Institute and Web Management

From an Interview with Howard Cambridge, reported by Aaron Maltais
June 2001

Case study from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

The questions below were put to SEI's Webmaster, and are designed to give some insight into the Web challenges faced by organizations that have offices in various countries.

How is maintenance, management, development done with so many different offices?

Currently, I am responsible for updating the SEI HQ Web site which includes the SEI-Stockholm information resident on it. IT support is available for general network/server issues. Arno Rosemarin has overall responsibility in his position as Communications Director. From time to time various members of staff will provide support in developing aspects of the site, e.g., Tony Rose (IISD intern 1999–2000) developed much of the information on the Global Dialogue and Gunnel Olofsson edits the SEI Library information, searchable from the Web site.

I am also wholly responsible for the SEI-York Web site. For this, I am supported by one other member of staff in York who spends about 20% of her time editing content. I am also a research associate and so I work on various research projects not always associate with the Internet or communication I have no input into the maintenance, management, development of the Boston or Tallinn centres.

How many different Web sites make up the SEI world network?

The SEI web network consists of four main Web sites:

• SEI-HQ – www.sei.se
• SEI-Boston – www.seib.org
• SEI-Tallinn – www.seit.ee
• SEI-York – www.seiy.org

The information for SEI-Stockholm is embedded within the SEI-HQ Web site reflecting the dual role the office there undertakes. In the future this will SEI-S information will become more evident. The SEI Asia office in Bangkok is still developing and its information is hosted on the UNEP- EAP/AP webserver. As things begin to take shape down there then they will develop a greater web presence.

Is each centres site developed/managed independently or is there some central coordination?

Overall, I am SEI Web manager however each centre has their own autonomous Web manager. My position relates more to SEI-Wide information provision via the www.sei.se Web address than to overseeing the Web site development in each centre. Arno Rosemarin has overall say in the development of SEI Web sites.

What challenges do you face as the webmaster due to the dispersed nature of SEI and how have you tried to address those challenges?

Consistency and continuity is perceived as the greatest challenge for SEI Web site development and communication between the centres the most challenging process. Content development is another hurdle that needs to be addressed. In order to address the challenges examples of re-designed pages, logos, styles, etc., have been presented to each offices and visits have been made between York and HQ. This cross-centre communication of ideas and information is slowly increasing but requires a little more proactive management.

Do you have any thoughts on how SEI could improve internet related coordination between the different centres?

Some of the issues are being addressed partly through the development of cross-centre programs of research that will bring together researchers from two or more centres. As well as the general need for a central Web site to serve as conduit to the outside world for information dissemination there is a requirement to improve Internet-mediated communication between centres especially over multiple time-zones. Therefore, an efficient system that permits synchronous and asynchronous participation as well as shared working environments and information collation will need to be developed. SEI has previously developed a system using Lotus Notes/Domino Server platform which unfortunately suffered several set-backs and is now only being used for the SEI Library, International mailing list and FTP server. With a little bit of time invested the system could become re-instated as the platform for inter-centre communication.

Are there any guidelines for Web site layout that the different centres have to follow?

Not really. The main recommendations from a meeting in 1999 meeting were very basic such as the requirement to use the same SEI logo on all sites and secondly to use sans-serif fonts on all Web pages. The Web sites were intended to be linked to each other via a navigation element on each page. However, a final version wasn't agreed on and so there are still different navigation models for each centre's Web site.

What are the most common requests on your time from the various centres?

Really the only requests are to update staff contact details on the SEI Web site, followed by notification pages errors that need to be addressed. These errors are usually broken links to pages found on SEI's secondary Web server, which also serves as SEI's intranet. Intermittently, there are news, events and publications information that needs to be announced on the site and then the occasional changes to project or program information. Finally, every three or months a researcher will require slightly more support to develop project pages. With new developments in SEI there will be greater involvement by all staff both in supplying content but also in developing, creating and taking ownership of their pages on the Web site.

How was the file management decided – by you, or was it determined before you were hired?

The file management was decided before I took up the position.

What is SEI's experience with NetMeetings and Video-conferencing?

SEI has attempted video-conferencing over a number of years firstly utilizing desktop application software such as NetMeeting. Trials using CUSeeMe and VDO were also made. During those trials one-to-one meetings were possible with audio and video quality ranging from average to extremely poor. PC processing power, total memory, video-capture card, network traffic were factors in the quality. What we found was that once the initial "Wow, I can see someone in another country" has passed (usually after three hand waves) the fact that you could see another body was irrelevant to the conversation. Using the audio propagated through a sound card added to the processing overhead and also suffered badly from quality and duplexing constraints. In the end good old fashioned telephoning won out. Since these trials several SEI centres purchased dedicated video-conferencing suites (dual screen, H232 compliant and mega-bucks). I don't know how often these have been used or what the quality has been like.

What is SEI's experience with Extranets?

From my own experience the principal use of an Extranet is using SDGateway. Other centres may have access to others or provide them themselves. Aspects of the GWP I believe function as an extranet.

What is SEI's experience in using Listservs?

SEI's (or my personal) experience has been both as moderator and participant. However the use and frequency of use is affected by time, interest in content, relevance of list and ease of use. As a participant there was a tendency a number of years to subscribe to as many listservs as possible as amongst other things to get your name or your institute's known and recognised a wider audience. However, there was never enough time to read all the posts or even the digest. As a moderator of a list my experience has been all too brief. Myself and a colleague wished to create a listserv/discussion list concerning environmental issues in York and Yorkshire. I promptly created two lists covering these topics however it became apparent that to produce something worthwhile it would require considerable effort and which was not covered by any existing SEI budget. It is not only compiling information but the tasks of dissemination, responding to requests, researching and marketing the list that are required especially to have a successful list. Consequently these groups have been put on hold. In terms of setting them up the use of e-groups (now know as Yahoo! Groups I believe) the process couldn't be simpler and is highly recommended. One point to mention is that there is no peer review or censorship of viewpoints posted by the participants and so anything written by an employee of SEI can be seen by the other list members and can be copied and e-mailed to others.