Sunday, July 11, 2004
World Bank – 12 July 2004
Hello howzit and welcome to Cybersurf – your weekly window on the world Wide Web – I am your Cyberhost, Steven Lang talking about web matters.
As a general rule of the thumb, Cybersurf focuses on South African web sites and we try to talk about Internet issues of interest to South Africans.
Today we break the rule to talk about an international site – but one that can be very useful for South Africans.
We take a look at worldbank.org – the main site put up by the World Bank itself.
Now if you are looking for ringtones, screensavers and other assorted junk – don't waste your time – But if you are looking for well researched reports and serious economics data – then worldbank dot org is an excellent site.
Right at the very top is a thin horizontal navigation bar that invites you to choose a language, look at a site map, an index, FAQs or “contact us” - all essential information that al web sites should have.
The main masthead just below is a web version of the blue suit and muted tie – no flashing logos, or distracting animations – this site means business – and a search field is the only functional element of the masthead.
A vertical column down the left hand side is your strictly conventional navigation bar with titles such as:
business Center; about us; data and statistics, countries and regions and so on.
Right in the centre of the page is a special feature box on Aids including a link to the Bangkok aids conference currently taking place in Thailand. Incidentally the conference itself has an excellent web site that is really worth visiting if you are at all interested in the latest think on HIV and Aids.
The address of the site is aids2004.org
Back to the worldbank site . . . . and staying on the main page – there are two other smaller boxes with features on Anti-corruption and one on the Environment.
These features are very good because they have very valuable content.
A fact that – in my view – underlines an old Internet maxim – content is king.
All large sites are expected to be technically good and easy navigation is now a given – the difference between a good site and bad site is really the quality of the content.
And it is the quality of the content on the World bank site that draws me back – I love the Data and statistics section which has its own navigation bar showing you how the data is categorized so you can look at the data by country, or by topic – there are online databases, quick reference tables and maps. A huge proportion of these tables can be accessed free of charge but some of them, and some of the special reports you have to pay for.
Another feature I enjoy is the online media briefing section for journalists. It is an embargoed area which means that you can use it only if you register as a journalist and entry is only with a password.
What they do if you are a registered journalist is if they are about to release some kind of special report the bank will e-mail you and then you can go directly to the embargoed area. In that section they will preview their report and give you enough information to prepare a story for publication on the same day that the bank releases the report to the public.
This is a really constructive approach to media relations – by allowing journalists to look at a report or a news release before the public then you will have informed journalists writing about the issues at hand.
If any journalists breaks the embargo and publishes an article before the embargoed date – that reporter will be struck off the list.
I would urge South African oganisations to follow this practice – it works really well in some countries.
So that's it for worldbank dot org – I will publish this entire script on cybersurf.blogspot.com if you would like to read it – if you would like to go directly to the worldbank site their address is worldbank dot. Thanks for listening
Bye for now!
As a general rule of the thumb, Cybersurf focuses on South African web sites and we try to talk about Internet issues of interest to South Africans.
Today we break the rule to talk about an international site – but one that can be very useful for South Africans.
We take a look at worldbank.org – the main site put up by the World Bank itself.
Now if you are looking for ringtones, screensavers and other assorted junk – don't waste your time – But if you are looking for well researched reports and serious economics data – then worldbank dot org is an excellent site.
Right at the very top is a thin horizontal navigation bar that invites you to choose a language, look at a site map, an index, FAQs or “contact us” - all essential information that al web sites should have.
The main masthead just below is a web version of the blue suit and muted tie – no flashing logos, or distracting animations – this site means business – and a search field is the only functional element of the masthead.
A vertical column down the left hand side is your strictly conventional navigation bar with titles such as:
business Center; about us; data and statistics, countries and regions and so on.
Right in the centre of the page is a special feature box on Aids including a link to the Bangkok aids conference currently taking place in Thailand. Incidentally the conference itself has an excellent web site that is really worth visiting if you are at all interested in the latest think on HIV and Aids.
The address of the site is aids2004.org
Back to the worldbank site . . . . and staying on the main page – there are two other smaller boxes with features on Anti-corruption and one on the Environment.
These features are very good because they have very valuable content.
A fact that – in my view – underlines an old Internet maxim – content is king.
All large sites are expected to be technically good and easy navigation is now a given – the difference between a good site and bad site is really the quality of the content.
And it is the quality of the content on the World bank site that draws me back – I love the Data and statistics section which has its own navigation bar showing you how the data is categorized so you can look at the data by country, or by topic – there are online databases, quick reference tables and maps. A huge proportion of these tables can be accessed free of charge but some of them, and some of the special reports you have to pay for.
Another feature I enjoy is the online media briefing section for journalists. It is an embargoed area which means that you can use it only if you register as a journalist and entry is only with a password.
What they do if you are a registered journalist is if they are about to release some kind of special report the bank will e-mail you and then you can go directly to the embargoed area. In that section they will preview their report and give you enough information to prepare a story for publication on the same day that the bank releases the report to the public.
This is a really constructive approach to media relations – by allowing journalists to look at a report or a news release before the public then you will have informed journalists writing about the issues at hand.
If any journalists breaks the embargo and publishes an article before the embargoed date – that reporter will be struck off the list.
I would urge South African oganisations to follow this practice – it works really well in some countries.
So that's it for worldbank dot org – I will publish this entire script on cybersurf.blogspot.com if you would like to read it – if you would like to go directly to the worldbank site their address is worldbank dot. Thanks for listening
Bye for now!
