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The humanitarian community has a portal (UNOCHA's Relief Web) available to them. ReliefWeb is a very comprehensive repository of maps, graphics and analysis of current and past crises, but it is very difficult to access in a low bandwidth environment.
UNOCHA has asked for a low-bandwidth portal fitting the description below, and have provided data in Google spreadsheet form. CrisisCommons has converted this into a MySql database and coded a PHP interface to allow users to view the data without overloading their bandwidth (see guidelines on low-bandwidth design). CrisisCommons has not yet coded the administration pages that allow users to suggest new inventory items, and moderators to accept or reject these suggestions.
The portal will be built off an inventory of databases useful to the humanitarian community. The portal will not be a data warehouse, but more an entry point leading the community to where they can go to find data. This will keep the system light, and resources needed to upkeep the database at minimum. The data may be in any format including but not limited to online database, web service, access database, excel table, text file, GIS ready datasets, etc.
Functionality (R = required, I = ideal)
Operability (R) The portal can be update through an online form with standard inputs where appropriate. The administrator of the portal will have control of what data inputs make it online (e.g. editorial oversight).
Discoverability (R) Users will be able to discover data through the following search means: 1) Location (Region and Country) 2) Data type 3) Source
The search will lead the users to a landing page with the appropriate metadata records, and link and/or contact point to access the data.
Linkage (I) The portal will be integrated throughout the web through functions such as: 1) The source of the data will be directly linked to a source directory database 2) A ‘Users also viewed’ feature on data landing page will lead users to datasets/documents/maps which were viewed by other users who view the particular dataset
User reviews (I) The portal will allow experts/professionals to provide feedback on the quality of the data, suggested usages for the data and specific details on the processing of the data. As with the data inputs, the user reviews need to be monitored by the administrator of the portal before appearing online.
This project assumes that the user community is interested in discovering these data, and is dependant upon their participation.
General Constraints
The challenge from CrisisCommons to RHOKers is to produce an even lighter design for the user interface that gets information to a user in a bandwidth-limited environment with minimal clicks and bandwidth, and to produce an easy to use set of admin pages (these don't need to be low-bandwidth) that a non-technical user will be comfortable with. It's probably easy for you guys, but hey, you might want to do something in your coffee breaks!