UN Permanent Missions partner with DePaul

UN Chronicle, Dec, 2004 by Patricia A. Szczerba

By October, the Permanent Missions had created 287 web pages with 873 links, which included speeches, statements, foreign policy documents, press releases, photographs, maps and, interestingly enough, the time in the EST format, making it easier for people outside the United States to contact them without waking them up in the middle of the night. While all Missions had started with a single design template, the system's flexibility allowed each to customize its own website uniquely--for example, Cote d'Ivoire published its site in English and French, Bahrain in Arabic and English, and Costa Rica, first in Spanish and then expanding to include English.

At a high-level seminar hosted by UNITAR at UN Headquarters on 9 September, the full project and its potential were presented to a large audience by two DePaul faculty members. Word of the DePaul University and UNITAR collaboration had already spread around the United Nations, and with the great success in the initial phase, it became clear that additional Missions would also want to avail themselves of the opportunity for new websites. Phase Two was then launched by UNITAR and within days 26 Permanent Missions, along with the Permanent Observer Missions of two major regional organizations, had joined the project. Back in Chicago, Ms. Morley and the faculty regrouped in early October to recruit students for Phase Two, which should be completed in the spring of 2005.

The UN Mission website design project has been an extraordinary opportunity for CTI students and faculty. Ms. Morley expressed the sentiments of all participating team members: "This project enables us to engage our computer science students in a valuable real world project, and faculty appreciate working with the international community." In summing up the project at the high-level seminar, Ambassador Kamal said: "Collaboration between DePaul University and the United Nations has existed for several years. This project is however unique. For the first time, Permanent Missions have benefited from an enormous devotion of time and energy by the faculty and students of the University, and the visible results are there for all to judge. DePaul University's CTI can be proud of its efforts and of the great respect that it has justifiably earned. It is, in brief, a win-win situation for all."

For further information on the project, see http://www.cti.depaul.edu

For the website list, visit http://www.un.int/index-en/webs.html

Patricia A. Szczerba is Associate Professor, School for New Learning at DePaul University in Chicago, and senior editor for global issues for The New York Times Almanac, addressing such topics as world health, world population, the United Nations and other related issues.

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