Using Database Classification / C2
Computer entry of messages opens up a broad potential for extending the product beyond an interactive Bulletin. If keywords, author name, country, cross-references, and various other details have been entered together with the messages into a database, it is then possible to selectively reorganise the material and distribute or sell it as hardcopy or disk file. Here are some possible alternative formats and classifications:
Message Sequences:
- latest as they appear
- complete package (including appended cross-references)
- selected by topic or topic cluster (deforestation, etc)
- selected by working group
- selected by language
- selected by type (proposition, procedural, etc)
Message Sequence Indexes:
- by topic
- by working group
- by author
- by type
Citation Analysis:
- topics linked by what messages citing both
- working groups linked by what messages citing both
- authors linked by what messages citing both
Other Combinations:
Some of the hardcopy output could be pre-planned. But there would be great advantage in leaving unimagined possibilities to the curiosity of participants and to the ingenuity of the support staff.
See also Keywording and Numbering / E9; Coding / E7; Message Forms / D1; Data Processing Software / I8.
Return to [Table of Contents] [People's Voices] [Information Habitat]
Written by Nadia McLaren, Union of International Associations, with revisions and HTML layout by Robert Pollard, Information Habitat: Where Information Lives.