EUFMD 

33rd Session

Report

Appendix 01

Appendix 02

Appendix 03

Appendix 04

Appendix 05

Appendix 06

Appendix 07

Appendix 09

Appendix 10

Appendix 11

Appendix 12

Appendix 13

Appendix 14

Appendix 15

Appendix 16

Appendix 17

Appendix 18

Appendix 19

Appendix 20

Appendix 21

Appendix 20 - Web-Site Requirements Questionnaire Results

John Ryan

Introduction

Why have a web site?

We now live in an information age where the entirety of human knowledge is literally at our fingertips. The capabilities of information technology (IT) has been expanding exponentially for the last 30 years and arguably IT's greatest societal impact has been in the last decade with the development of the world-wide-web.

The world-wide-web is a sub-set of the internet - a global network of computers which has been around since the late 1960's - however the world-wide-web finally made the power of that global computer network available to the lay-man.

With the development of special software - internet browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer - people without special computer training and knowledge of the arcane internal languages of computers and network communication could finally point and click their way around the information world.

EUFMD cannot be left behind in the development of this global resource. Graduates leaving veterinary college or even children would wonder with awe and amazement if an institution did not have a web-site for them to browse and learn about in seconds. The pace of life is being accelerated by these and other technologies, people are capable of accomplishing far more in a much shorter time period and will be increasingly impatient at having to wait for the information that they need.

Constitution of EUFMD - our mandate

On a more practical level the stimulus for having a web-site can be justified by examining the constitution of the Commission:

Article 4: 1 General Functions

"1.1 all Members are provided with technical advice on any problem relating to the control of foot-and-mouth disease;"

"1.2 comprehensive information on outbreaks of the disease and identification of virus is collected and disseminated as quickly as possible;"

In particular we can focus on the phrase "as quickly as possible", at the moment technology allows us three ways to disseminate information almost instantaneously: Fax, E-mail and the Internet.

Of these the least expensive and least labour intensive is an internet world-wide-web site. E-mail is also very inexpensive but it is more labour intensive in that distribution lists have to be maintained and updated and incompatible file formats and message size limits tend to reduce the content allowable (especially with embedded map files, formatting or pictures).

Overall, a combination of e-mail and an up-to-date web-site is ideal. A simple e-mail can than alert users to changes in the web-site when they occur, and this e-mail need contain no more than a link to the most recently up-dated information on the web-site.

How to decide what to provide

However, the ideal is rarely attainable in any aspect of life and there is little point in providing a service where those people who need it cannot access it. Nor is there any point in providing content that those who can access it do not find the information useful. Examining the viewing figures for the EUFMD web-site makes uncomfortable reading, it proves that very few people use the current web-site meaningfully.

The first problem is therefore to find out if our target audience has and uses all the necessary components to access the EUFMD web-site, namely, a PC, internet access and the ability/will to use the internet as an information source. The next problem is deciding what content to include on the EUFMD web-site to make it worthwhile for our target audience. To find these answers we decided to ask you, the users, what information would persuade you to use the EUFMD web-site.

Method

The method chosen to gauge our users needs was by a questionnaire which was distributed to the CVO’s and directors of the National FMD laboratories in all the member countries in Dec 1998, with instructions to distribute it "to relevant staff in their Service/Institute who use (or may have use for) the information to be contained in the new-look web-site". It was distributed by both e-mail and by post. It was hoped that the questionnaire would circulate widely and that a true picture of what was required of the web-site would emerge.

Results Response Rates

Overall Response

In all we received 48 responses, representing 29 countries, from a total of 89 questionnaires directly distributed. This gives a response rate of 88% per country and 54% per questionnaire.

25 responses were from the National Service (52% of responses), 19 responses were from the National Labs (40%) and 4 were from other institutions (8%).

14 of the responses from the National Services were from the CVO (56% of the National Service responses, 42% of countries and 29% overall); 8 responses were from senior officers (32% of the National Service responses, 24% of countries and 17% overall.); and there were 4 responses from other officers.

3 of the responses were from the directors of the National Laboratories (16% of National Laboratory responses, 9% of countries and 6% overall); 12 of the responses were from the head of FMD at the National Laboratory (63% of National Laboratory responses, 36% of countries and 25% overall); and 4 of the responses were from other officers at the National Laboratory (21% of National Laboratory responses, 12% of countries and 8% overall).

Question 1: Computer Access

1. Do you have permanent access to a personal computer or expect to have permanent access to a personal computer in the next 6 months?

All 48 respondents have a PC. We cannot presume that those who did not respond do not have access to a PC so the level of availability of PC's to FMD decision-makers is still unknown.

Question 2: IBM or Mac

2. What type is your computer?

47 of respondents have an IBM-compatible PC (98%). Only one respondent has an Apple Macintosh.

Question 3: Computer and Connection Speed

3. Please give some details of the power of the Computer:

3 (a) Processor type and Speed?

Mostly Pentium or Pentium II's, Average MHz 170, Range 66-400Mhz.

3 (b) Ram?

Average 34Mb, Range 8-128MB

3 (c) Hard Drive Capacity?

Average 1688Mb, Range 210-4200Mb

3 (d) Modem?

Average 32.6Kbps, Range 14.4-96.6Kbps

3 (e) Network Connection?

40 of the 48 respondents have network connections (83%).

3 (f) ISDN line?

12 respondents have ISDN lines (25%).

3 (g) Monitor Size?

Average size is 16", Ranges form 14-19".

These details were necessary for the design of the web-pages as the greatest difficulty with the Internet is speed. Many factors contribute to the speed at which a page is transferred from the FAO servers to the users computers, some of which such as network traffic, the speed of intermediate machines or the capacity of telephone lines we cannot predict and allow for. However we can control the size of pages and how they load on the target machine, and with a better appreciation of what users computers are capable of we can try to trade off speed versus visual content. In general, the more maps and pictures and visual effects then the slower the page will load.

Question 4: Access to the WWW

4. Do you have access to the world-wide-web?

45 respondents (94%) have access to the world-wide-web. This figure is also quite high but probably reflects the bias in response to the questionnaire i.e. that only people who are currently interested in and use both PC's and the internet were likely to respond to the questionnaire.

4 (a) How many people in your Service/Institute have access to the web?

The total number of people in National Veterinary Services or FMD Laboratories with web access was 1949, with an average of 51 per institution. Most of these people obviously do not concern themselves with FMD in their day to day duties, but do represent a potential audience who from time to time may want to check the current FMD situation.

Question 5: Browser Software

5. What browser software do you use?

The results of this question indicate that 55% of respondents use Microsoft's Internet Explorer as their browser software of choice and 45% use Netscape's Navigator/Communicator software to browse the internet.

This information will be used in designing the web-pages so that, in as far as is possible, the pages will look the same in both programs. One of the problems in designing web-pages is that these programs are not totally compatible with each other, i.e. they interpret HTML code (a supposedly standard code) in different ways. This is also true of different release versions of these products i.e. versions 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 etc. have features that are not supported in older versions. The good news is that the latest versions of these programs can usually be downloaded free from the company's web-site.

Question 6: Use of the WWW as an Information Source

6. Do you currently use the world-wide-web as an information source?

All 45 respondents (94% of respondents) with web-access currently use it as an information source.

40 respondents or 89% use the web to access Specific Veterinary Information.

37 respondents or 82% use the O.I.E. Site, connecting on average 5.2 times per month.

35 respondents or 78% use the web to access Disease Occurrence Data.

28 respondents or 62% use the web to access Scientific papers.

28 respondents or 62% use the FAO Site, connecting on average 2.1 times per month.

24 respondents or 53% use the web to access General Scientific Information.

16 respondents or 36 % use the web to access General News items.

9 respondents or 20% use the web to access Political Information.

8 respondents or 18% use the web to access Current Affairs items.

Other uses identified were the WHO site and equipment manufactures sites.

6 (b) If No, why not?

1 respondent had difficulties in finding relevant sites.

1 respondent believed that finding relevant sites takes too much time.

1 respondent felt that relevant sites contain too much information which is of little use

1 respondent felt that relevant sites are too slow

Other problems mentioned by one respondent were that the data was of questionable quality and that in general, there is too much down-time when sites are not available.

Summary of Questions 1-6

These questions hopefully would have teased out how many of the senior officers in National Veterinary Services and National FMD Laboratories have the facilities (PC and internet connection) and the will to use the internet as an information source. The results are heartening as 98% of respondents have the ability to connect and 94% seem to use it on a regular basis as an information source.

The number of difficulties with the web that were mentioned is very low, but they do serve as important reminders of the critical elements of building good web-sites: ease of navigation, avoidance of clutter and irrelevant information, fast download times, accuracy of the information presented, frequency of up-dating and the reliability of the servers used.

It must also be remembered that the questionnaire may be biased towards those who already use the www as an information source.

Question 7: Use of the EUFMD Site

7. Do you currently access the EUFMD web-site

21 respondents (47% of those with web access) currently use the EUFMD web-site, connecting on average 1.7 times per month.

7 (b) Which sections did you find useful

20 of the 21 respondents (95%) found the Reports of Research Group Meetings useful.

18 of the 21 respondents (86%) found the Reports of General Sessions useful.

15 of the 21 respondents (71%) found the Reports of Executive Committee meetings useful.

14 of the 21 respondents (67%) found the Calendar of Events useful.

14 of the 21 respondents (67%) found the List of national FMD labs and their contact details useful.

11 of the 21 respondents (52%) found the List of member countries useful.

11 of the 21 respondents (52%) found the Basic Texts of the Commission useful.

10 of the 21 respondents (48%) found the List of CVOs and their contact details useful.

9 of the 21 respondents (43%) found the Introduction to the EUFMD Commission useful.

7 (c) If No, why not?

24 respondents didn't use the current EUFMD site.

6 of the 24 respondents (25%) found the EUFMD site had not enough information of relevance.

5 of the 24 respondents (21%) found the EUFMD site had too much information which is of little use.

2 of the 24 respondents (10%) found the EUFMD site too slow to navigate.

1 of the 24 respondents (4%) found the EUFMD site took too long to access.

1 of the 24 respondents (4%) found the EUFMD site was not updated often enough.

Other complaints were that the same information was available elsewhere (1 respondent ), no reason was given by another respondent, not enough time was cited as the reason by another respondent and 6 respondents (25%) did not even know that the site existed.

Question 8: Proposals and Constraints on the use of the Web-Site

8. Would you use the web-site if the information it contained matched your needs better?

39 of the 45 respondents with web-access (87%) said that they would use the site if it matched their needs better. Only one respondent indicated that the web-site would not be used and cited that lack of time as his major constraint.

8 (a) If Yes, help us tailor the web-site to your needs.

38 of the 39 respondents (97%) who would use the site supported the proposal for the inclusion of Maps of FMD outbreaks in Europe.

38 of the 39 respondents (97%) supported the proposal for the inclusion of Maps of FMD outbreaks in Middle East.

36 of the 39 respondents (92%) supported the proposal for the inclusion of A Page specific for each country giving details of:

Who is the CVO + his/her contact details - 31 of the 36 (86%) support this section.

National Disease control centres - contact details- 30 of the 36 (83%) support this section.

National FMD Diagnostic Laboratory - contact details- 30 of the 36 (83%) support this section.

National FMD Research Laboratory - contact details- 27 of the 36 (75%) support this section.

E-mail links to key individuals - 27 of the 36 (75%) support this section.

Vaccination details in non-FMD free countries- 26 of the 36 (72%) support this section..

Arrangements and stocks for Emergency Vaccination - 23 of the 36 (64%) support this section.

WWW links to Departmental/Laboratory sites- 22 of the 36 (61%) support this section.

Details of Vaccine/Antigen Banks present in your country- 19 of the 36 (53%) support this section.

Current research topics in the National FMD Laboratory - 18 of the 36 (50%) support this section.

References for recent research papers from the National FMD Laboratory- 15 of the 36 (42%) support this section.

Regional Disease control centres + contact details- 14 of the 36 (39%) support this section.

6 of the 36 (17%) object to displaying an information item about their country if other countries are not prepared to display the same information.

35 of the 39 respondents (90%) supported the proposal for Maps of FMD outbreaks in the CIS counties to be included.

35 of the 39 respondents (90%) supported the proposal for a summary of relevant Scientific Papers to be included.

34 of the 39 respondents (87%) supported the proposal for Maps of FMD outbreaks in North Africa to be included.

33 of the 39 respondents (85%) supported the proposal for Maps of FMD outbreaks in the Rest of the World to be included.

31 of the 39 respondents (79%) supported the proposal for including General Session reports, with 24 of the 39 respondents (62%) supporting the inclusion of the Appendices.

31 of the 39 respondents (79%) supported the proposal for including the Research Group meeting's reports, with 24 of the 39 respondents (62%) supporting the inclusion of the Appendices.

27 of the 39 respondents (69%) supported the proposal for including the Executive Committee meetings reports, with 20 of the 39 respondents supporting the inclusion of the Appendices.

27 of the 39 respondents (69%) supported the proposal for including the Calendar of events.

26 of the 39 respondents (67%) supported the proposal for including articles on the Practical Diagnosis of FMD.

24 of the 39 respondents (62%) supported the proposal for including a page giving details on how to obtain further information - including e-mail links to the Secretariat and www links to other sites of interest.

22 of the 39 respondents (56%) supported the proposal for including a map individual member countries, showing their Veterinary administrative regions.

21 of the 39 respondents (54%) supported the proposal for including a description of Foot-and-Mouth Disease.

17 of the 39 respondents (44%) supported the proposal for including an Introduction and Description of EUFMD.

13 of the 39 respondents (33%) supported the proposal for including summary information for non-member countries on contribution scales and procedures for joining the Commission.

4 of the 39 respondents (10%) supported the proposal for duplicating all pages in French.

The Other Suggestions were varied and ranged from broad suggestions such as not to take on too much, to update the site regularly and to focus on quality not quantity; to specific suggestions such as descriptions of the OIE official status of countries, the means of control, the serotype and the date of the last outbreak; new scientific papers; links to basic and applied research sites; and news bulletins about outbreaks.

8 (b) If No why not?

Of the reasons given for not using the web-site, there were only 3 responses:

Will never have the time to update - 2 responses

Can get the same information elsewhere - 1 response

Question 9: Other criticisms, proposals, details or suggestions.

Suggestions in this section were as follows:

• As most of the information is available else where, from Avis, OIE etc. - collating it would be useful, but it would entail a lot of work to keep it updated.
• That the site should be restricted to member countries only.
• That the site should contain no graphics, Java applets or frames: all these make loading pages slower and may confuse the navigation process.

Summary Questions 7 - 9

In these sections we get a very clear picture of what content is felt to be useful to those surveyed. It is suggested that a work plan be created as in Appendix 1, with a priority derived from ranking the support for each suggestion. The issues raised in the comments are useful and will be noted especially as concerns such as the frequency of updating, the quality of the data presented and speed of access should form the pillars around which a good web-site is built.

A good web-site should have the answers to the specific questions that concern the audience, be complete and accurate in all its data, be reliable in the frequency of updating and the servers it uses and, above all, it should be fast, so that it saves time and increases the efficiency for those using it.

Conclusions

Response

The response rate was very good considering that this is still relatively new technology and gives us a good snap-shot if not a fully accurate picture of our target audience and their needs.

Use of the web

The questionnaire could have been better designed or titled to remove the bias towards existing users, and examine the reasons why people currently do not use the internet as an information source. it may be useful to repeat this exercise before the next session, to capture any changes in web-usage and examine the success or otherwise of the new-look site.

Priority of Sections

The web-site will be completed according to the work plan in Appendix 1, the priorities for the sections will be derived from the results of questions 7 - 9.

Problems foreseen

There may be problems with acquiring the data for each specific country, some countries are prepared to show less data than others, while some countries will not be prepared to publish certain items if all other countries do not. What is suggested is that before any information is published about a country, the secretariat should contact the National Service with the proposed information for clearance. A designated contact person would be useful for this purpose.

The final problem foreseen is time, creating web-pages that fall within the criteria of compatibility across browser software, small file sizes with interesting maps is difficult and time consuming.

Appendix 1

Work Plan for EUFMD Web-site

Technical Note:

• all pages will be optimised for viewing on 15" monitors
• there will be no optimisation for particular browser software
• compatibility will only be guaranteed for 3.0 browsers or higher

(note later versions or upgrades of browsers are usually available free to download from the respective companies)

• all pages will be monitored for download time at 14.4 Kbps.

© European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

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