Well the last thing I wanted to do is start a firestorm, but a least it is good to see there is life on this mailing list:-).
I would like to address various comments sent in response to my press release mailing yesterday, one by one and in no specific order.
Don Richardson spoke about Bobby (as did others), and he also said the following:
> "The point my message is that when designing web pages we must consider
> the needs of users. "Intuitive" design is important and development
> oriented web site designers also need to give special consideration to
> users with slow modem speeds and those who access the web using disability software tools. It is also very important
o make strong efforts for multi-lingual capability. Most development web sites are English only, including the World B
nk and IDN. By comparison, FAO has done a good job of creating its site for Arabic, French, English and Spanish (http:/
www.fao.org)."
I agree wholeheartedly and we hope to reach that point one day, but not all groups have the staff and resources to meet that goal yet, and machine translation is definitely not where it should be to automate the process. I am fully cognizant that there is a need to make the speed of a download as fast as possible. Early on, the IDN Site clocked in at taking 8 minutes in one Africa Country so we took out a lot of the graphics and will eventually reengineer the site when time and resources allow us to. We also checked in with Bobby early on in the process.
There are too many sites which do a very poor job of keeping the user in mind and the equipment they are using. UNDP is one prime example. It used to load up with unneeded JavaScript and in some browsers, caused consistent browser crashes.
Doug Hinds said:
> Aside from the software being donated and it's degree of usability by those
> with disabilities: How does having used Notes / Domino Technology make
> sites developed with it better (or for that matter, worse) than those
> developed with other web site development packages?
This all depends on what your needs and goals are. Devmedia, Telecomms, USAID and Snowden all use Cold Fusion in their web sites (at USAID it is sporadic while the others use it extensively). This is a great way to generate content on the fly but there are many perceived and real security issues (according to IT security folks who then balk at telling you what the issues are) which prevent many U.S. government agencies from even taking a try at it. It works with Relational Databases and has its own mark-up language.
One person talked about the main World Bank web page and if it was an example of poor Lotus Notes design. No, that page was plain HTML, they are using Notes within the web site (I found it one place on the site that caught my eye). You should know that for a long time I resisted the use of Notes from a Web Design standpoint because it did a lousy job of web presentation without a lot of monkeying around, but it was great from other standpoints. This has gotten better and will improve even more when release 5.0 comes out early next year.
Notes is object oriented and allows for document workflow and information sharing (and you can pull information from relational databases). For example, you have a document that goes through a review and approval process and then you want it posted to the Web. Notes automates this entire process in a secure environment, the information is available from any location and you can allow secure access for employees/consultants to Intranet/Extranet applications.
It is not a tool for small organizations that have a fairly static web presence (I would say the same thing for Cold Fusion) or do not have a geographically disperse project management load, etc. I would not recommend it for in-country NGO's because it would probably be overkill, but would be a good way to link with other partnering organizations and share/exchange information. For smaller organizations, I would stick with Front Page, HotDog, NetObjects, etc., but I would absolutely kill any JavaScript or Java Applets that did not add any value (regardless of organization size).
Another key advantage is that all Notes Databases are replicable, which no other product can say (not even Microsoft). You download a replica copy of a database to your laptop and off you go. Do your work, put the reports/other information on your laptop copy of the database, call a local ISP and replicate to the host computer back home. Download your mail database on the spot. No fax, no Fed-Ex and other hassles. It is secure. The Education Development Center in Massachusetts which does a lot of USAID work, has 3 full-time Notes application developers (so they told me) on staff. Again, it probably is not best for smaller organizations unless you were part of a cooperative or have a definitive need for such a tool.
If you want security on a relational database you go to Oracle, and that might not be the best solution for folks either, because for many applications, security is not an issue Oracle is overkill.
In response to Georges, Notes was not an option to the IDN at the time we started and we need to work to that point. We now have enough content to really make it Notes Based or the volume of information makes it overwhelming to the end user. The World Bank errors are poor HTML implementation regardless of tool used. They are guilty of assuming everyone has graphical browsers and they have not turned of image loading (which I do even when I use a T-1 Connection).
And there is no reason why a non-profit cannot and should not provide services related to their mission. When tax time comes, I put on my accountant hat and sort out related income from non-related income and go from there. Remember USAID will not provide funding for initiatives such as this and CIDA will only fund Canadian Groups. The CIDA side I understand, the USAID side I see as typical short-sightedness.
It took a lot of arm-twisting for folks to get me to buy into Notes for Web use and they have succeeded (at least 95%, as there are some things that just aren't possible in Notes until version 5.0 come out early next year), but I know there are too may benefits for development organizations, especially if they need to be more efficient if they want to compete for and make the best use of what development money there is.
Finally, Chris Kwan said:
> l am running a donation of used computers campaign in Malaysia and l am
> looking for some generous donors in the software side. We donate 386s
> and 486s mostly to rural schools. Can you give me the name of the contact.
I have attached the Lotus HTML Page which has the information on software donations you and others might have. The full URL for their philanthropy program is http://www.lotus.com/lotus/philanthropy.nsf
Again I apologize for any firestorm I created, but like I said, it is good to see life on the list:-)
Have a great week all.
Christopher --------------9CDE895D743D62655199A0B2 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii; name="lotus-1.htm" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline; filename="lotus-1.htm" Content-Base: "file:///C|/WINDOWS/DESKTOP/100298/lotu s-1.htm"
Software Donations
