Message-ID: <199810040504.BAA20092@cti06.citenet.net> Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 00:59:36 -4000 From: "George(s) Lessard" <mailto:media@citenet.net> Subject: Re: IDN Applauds the Use Of Lotus Notes Technology ...... To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Dear Christopher L. Byrne, on 3 Oct 98, I read your e-mail called "Re: IDN Applauds the Use Of Lotus N" :> Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 22:39:37 -0400
> From: "Christopher L. Byrne" <mailto:info@idn.org>
> Organization: International Development Network
> To: mailto:media@citenet.net
> Cc: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
> Subject: Re: IDN Applauds the Use Of Lotus Notes Technology As World Bank
> Dear Mr. Lessard,
>
> Absolutely none, nor is the IDN.
Thanks... thats what I wanted to know.... after all one hears so many stories about other software corporations paying people to talk about their products... in the strangest places... like classrooms, textbooks and other unusual places to find advertisements...
>The World Bank has made a technology decision that is very well suited to
development organizations.How so? Does it work in 286 or 386 non windows computers? Does it help save download times so that development organizations can get their message out to NGOs around the world with less on-line time than other programs?
> This is a very good decision on the part of the World Bank and if you look at
> the World Bank web site, you will see that they are not doing anything
> to promote as you suggest.
Sorry... I interpreted your entire message as a promotion of the program and its creators... it looked like and read like an advertisement / press release to me.....
>A review of their revised site found that they are using the tool and that
> it is a very good tool.
And what organization / individual / journalist / reviewer conducted the review and where was it published ? I'd like to read it for myself....
>Your view is perhaps a bit jaded, and why I do not know.
Probably because I have lived and worked in North America.... and have worked in media..... that makes me jaded about anything that reads like an ad or a press release...
>There are not many information tools well suited to the development
>community....
I'm sorry... I find that very hard to believe... personally I think that that's a very general statement.....
>... and the World Bank is now using a very good tool as is CIDA.
> Not all decisions are self-serving.
This is true.... no one can argue with that....
> This is a tool that can go a long way in helping development
> organizations communicate and share more effectively. Is it such a bad
> thing to recognize a good decision?
Not at all.... I just like to have a little more appropriate background when such wide ranging statements are made...
>One of the goals of the IDN is to promote more and better collaboration and
> communication in the development community (something which it does not
> do very well or if at all in some cases), so we will look at any and all tools which can do
> that better and help people as much as possible to access and use
> similar tools.
>
> You will find that Lotus has donated software and other tools to
> non-profit NGOs doing work around the world. Is that a bad thing?
I don't know... perhaps.... what makes it a good thing?
>
> I find it interesting that a member of a mailing list devoted to the use
> of technology in development would criticize
>before looking at the strengths of the decision the World Bank made which
>will make it easier to provide information and allow users to access it
> more efficiently.
As I'm sure you know... good site design does that... regardless of the program used to create a site...
> Your own web site says "Knowledge may be power, but communications is
> the key", so why not look at it in that light?.
That's what prompts me to ask about.. "I am truly impressed by the redesign of this site", says Christopher Byrne, Director of the International Development Network.... "
I wonder why are you quoting yourself?
If you had just said that you (insert you opinion here) the new site and think that the product used to create the site was (insert you opinion here) and that it was your opinion ...... then I might have gone to the site and taken a look and made my own mind ..... instead I read your post as an advertisement and asked the question I did....
As a member of the audience for your message ... I need to know... Is IDN "... a non-profit corporation located in the state of georgia..." that ".... offers Lotus Notes Application Development and Deployment Services, Web Site Design and Hosting..." free or for a fee? Are you grant hunting to provide such services for others? Do you earn your living using Lotus Notes?
Not that there's anything wrong with that..... :-)
I am quite surprised that....as a non-profit corporation that ".... offers Lotus Notes Application Development and Deployment Services, Web Site Design and Hosting..." you say " ... Over the next 4-6 months we will be looking to move our web site to a Notes-based environment...." I would have thought that your site and your organization would have used a Notes-based environment from the get-go.....
That's the kind of things that my jaded mind thought of when I read your message...
IMHO it was a little self-serving to quote yourself applauding the use of a program that you are, apparently, intimately involved with.... and as an ad... it did not cut the mustard it with me... sorry..... but the seeing what mass consumerism, fueled by mass marketing, is doing to the planet .... I am often overly critical of advertisments ... sigh... that's what happens in a bidirectional medium.... your audience will tend let you know what their opinion is..... and when there is no gatekeeper to hide behind..... one has to mind one's own gate.....
I decided to got to the World Bank homepage http://www.worldbank.org/ and submit it to CAST's Bobby at http://www.cast.org/bobby/ You know Bobby?
Bobby is a web-based public service offered by CAST http://www.cast.org/index.html that analyzes web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities as well as their compatibility with various browsers. The analysis of accessibility is based on the working draft of the W3C's WAI Page Author guidelines with the Page Authoring Working Group's latest revisions. All pages on your web site must meet these requirements in HTML 4.0 to display the Bobby Approved icon.
(By the way... Disclosure: I have nothing to do with CAST or Bobby......but as a community access media activist.... have had some opportunity to help people with disabilities communicate.)
Here is a slightly muddled copy and past version of the out put.... try it yourself... but the report does say "... 18 accessibility problems that should be fixed in order to make this page accessible to people with disabilities...."
Now is that Lotus Notes or is that poor design? Is that "... communicate(ing) and shar(e)(ing) more effectively..."? Not in my opinion.... I wonder about the rest of the WorldBank site...
Bobby Accessibility Report URL: http://www.worldbank.org/, October 4, 1998 12:44:03 AM EDT Bobby Version: 3.0b3, build: 002 Browser Compatibility: HTML 4.0 Click on the error messages below to find out more information. Accessibility Errors The following section contains a list of 18 accessibility problems that should be fixed in order to make this page accessible to people with disabilities. If there are any items in this section, this page will not be approved by Bobby. Provide alternative text for all image map hot-spots Line 199: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/terms.htm" COORDS="469,13 565,23"> Line 203: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/showcase.htm" COORDS="358,13 464,23"> Line 207: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/toc.html" COORDS="248,13 356,23"> Line 211: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/Institutional\EFeedBk.nsf/MainTopic?OpenForm " COORDS="138,13 248,22"> Line 215: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/search.htm" COORDS="32,14 135,22"> Line 219: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/forjob.htm" COORDS="465,0 570,8"> Line 223: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="http://www.9thcity.com/html/schools" COORDS="357,0 464,10"> Line 227: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/forjourn.htm" COORDS="250,0 356,10"> Line 231: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/forngos.htm" COORDS="136,1 248,11"> Line 235: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/business.htm" COORDS="34,0 136,11"> Line 303: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,160,199,176" HREF="/html/extdr/about.htm"> Line 307: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,136,180,152" HREF="/html/extdr/current.htm"> Line 311: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,113,180,129" HREF="/devforum/"> Line 315: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,91,180,107" HREF="/html/extdr/partnerships.htm"> Line 319: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,68,180,84" HREF="/html/extdr/data.htm"> Line 323: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,45,180,61" HREF="/html/extdr/pubs.htm"> Line 327: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,23,180,39" HREF="/html/extdr/thematic.htm"> Line 331: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,0,180,16" HREF="/html/extdr/regions.htm"> Accessibility Recommendations This section contains a list of accessibility recommendations that you should fix in order to improve accessibility. Accessibility recommendations do not affect the Bobby Approved rating. Client-side image map homenav contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/current.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map homenav contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/about.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map homenav contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/thematic.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/toc.html not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/business.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/forjourn.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/showcase.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map homenav contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/devforum/ not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map homenav contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/partnerships.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/Institutional\EFeedBk.nsf/MainTopic?OpenForm not presented elsewhere on the page Use the LANG attribute to identify the language of the text Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.9thcity.com/html/schools not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/search.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/terms.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/forjob.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map homenav contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/pubs.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map homenav contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/data.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map FOOTER contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/forngos.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Client-side image map homenav contains a link http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/regions.htm not presented elsewhere on the page Accessibility Questions This section contains a list of accessibility questions. Bobby is unable to determine if these questions are satisfied so it is important for you to check each item carefully. If this table contains data, have you identified headers for the table rows and columns? Line 33: <TABLE WIDTH="100%"> Line 45: <TABLE WIDTH="570" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" BORDER="0"> Line 93: <TABLE WIDTH="191" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" BORDER="0"> Does this image convey important information beyond what is in its alternative text description? Line 53: <IMG SRC="/wb/images/h-title.gif" WIDTH=570 HEIGHT=35 ALT="The World Bank Group" BORDER="0" ALIGN="TOP"><BR> Line 73: <TD WIDTH="199" VALIGN="TOP"><IMG SRC="/wb/images/bars8.gif" WIDTH=199 HEIGHT=177 ALT="Issue areas" BORDER="0" ALIGN="TOP" ISMAP USEMAP="#homenav"></TD> Line 77: <TD WIDTH="180" VALIGN="TOP"><IMG SRC="/wb/images/mid-top.gif" WIDTH=180 HEIGHT=17 ALT="" BORDER="0"><BR> Line 81: <IMG SRC="/wb/images/home-mid3.jpg" WIDTH=180 HEIGHT=160 ALT="" BORDER="0"></TD> Line 89: <TD WIDTH="191" VALIGN="TOP"><IMG SRC="/wb/images/hspecial.gif" WIDTH=191 HEIGHT=17 ALT="Special Interest" BORDER="0" ALIGN="TOP"> Line 131: <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="/html/extdr/site.htm"><IMG SRC="/wb/images/globes.gif" WIDTH=27 HEIGHT=18 ALT="" BORDER="0" ALIGN="TOP"></A> <A HREF="/html/extdr/site.htm">About our new site</A></P> Line 191: <IMG SRC="/wb/images/home-nav.gif" WIDTH=570 HEIGHT=25 ALT="" VSPACE=10 BORDER="0" ISMAP USEMAP="#FOOTER"> Accessibility Tips This section contains a list of accessibility tips that you should review. Please note that there are some aspects of page design that are important to accessibility but can not be tested automatically by Bobby. Some of these may appear below in the accessibility tips section. If you can't figure out any other way to make a page accessible, construct an alternate version of the page which is accessible Use the ABBR and ACRONYM elements to denote abbreviations and acronyms Make sure that text, image, and background colors contrast well and that color is not used as the sole means of conveying important information Considered adding keyboard shortcuts to important links Encode list structures and list items properly Make sure that document structure is supported by the proper use of structural elements Avoid ASCII art. Replace it with an image and alternative text Style sheets should be used to control layout and presentation wherever possible Provide summaries for tables of data Browser Compatibility Errors. The following section contains a list of 2 browser compatibility errors. Browser compatibility errors help to determine when HTML tags and their attributes are not compatible with certain web browsers or HTML specifications. Problems here do not mean that this page is necessarily inaccessible. Browser compatibility errors do not affect the accessibility rating of a page. Required attribute ALT is missing from tag AREA for browser(s): HTML 4.0 Line 199: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/terms.htm" COORDS="469,13 565,23"> Line 203: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/showcase.htm" COORDS="358,13 464,23"> Line 207: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/toc.html" COORDS="248,13 356,23"> Line 211: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/Institutional\EFeedBk.nsf/MainTopic?OpenForm " COORDS="138,13 248,22"> Line 215: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/search.htm" COORDS="32,14 135,22"> Line 219: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/forjob.htm" COORDS="465,0 570,8"> Line 223: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="http://www.9thcity.com/html/schools" COORDS="357,0 464,10"> Line 227: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/forjourn.htm" COORDS="250,0 356,10"> Line 231: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/forngos.htm" COORDS="136,1 248,11"> Line 235: <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="/html/extdr/business.htm" COORDS="34,0 136,11"> Line 303: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,160,199,176" HREF="/html/extdr/about.htm"> Line 307: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,136,180,152" HREF="/html/extdr/current.htm"> Line 311: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,113,180,129" HREF="/devforum/"> Line 315: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,91,180,107" HREF="/html/extdr/partnerships.htm"> Line 319: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,68,180,84" HREF="/html/extdr/data.htm"> Line 323: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,45,180,61" HREF="/html/extdr/pubs.htm"> Line 327: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,23,180,39" HREF="/html/extdr/thematic.htm"> Line 331: <AREA SHAPE="RECT" COORDS="16,0,180,16" HREF="/html/extdr/regions.htm"> Unknown element name for browser(s): HTML 4.0 Lines 123-124: <LI><a href="http://www.worldbank.org/wdr/">World Development Report 1998/1999</ a> Download Time The following three column table gives download time statistics for the images, applets, and objects on this page. The first column contains the URL of each item, the second column the item size in kilobytes, and the third column the approximate download time for each item when using a 28,800 baud modem. At the end of the report, an arbitrary delay of 0.5 seconds is added for each file to account for slow-downs caused by HTTP connection times. URL Size Time (seconds) http://www.worldbank.org/ 4.18 K 1.16 /wb/images/h-title.gif 2.76 K 0.77 /wb/images/bars8.gif 4.79 K 1.33 /wb/images/mid-top.gif 0.29 K 0.08 /wb/images/home-mid3.jpg 8.59 K 2.39 /wb/images/hspecial.gif 0.62 K 0.17 /wb/images/globes.gif 0.73 K 0.20 /wb/images/home-nav.gif 4.32 K 1.20 Total 26.28 K 7.30 HTTP Request Delays 4.00 Total + Delays 11.30
:-) :-) Message Ends; Signature File Begins (-: (-:
George Lessard A media artist who knows the importantance of feedback http://members.tripod.com/~media002 For a free subscription to MediaMentor send a blank message to mailto:mediamentor-subscribe@makelist.com MediaMentor list searchable public archive http://www.findmail.com/list/mediamentor/
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The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. -Mark Twain
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