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Biological Weapons Monitor (BWM)

Client

The BioWeapons Prevention Project (BWPP) was initiated by a group of non-governmental organizations with the goal of reducing the threat of biological weapons. Seated in Geneva , BWPP monitors governmental behavior and state compliance with international treaties and other agreements, especially those that outlaw hostile use of biotechnology.

URL

http://www.bwpp.org/bwm

Client Needs

To raise public awareness and influence governments against the use of disease as a weapon, the BWPP collects, verifies, classifies, and posts various documents, ranging from formal UN resolutions and international treaties to various letters, reports, academic publications, and news articles. To help its audience monitor the actions of governments, the BWPP also keeps data on Security Council resolution voting, treaty ratifications, etc.

Size

100 formal documents (treaties, declarations, and UN resolutions) by 200 states,
3000 documents by 50 intergovernmental organizations with 6500 file attachments,
10,000 document relations (votes, signatures, ratifications, objections, authorships, etc.),
500 classification criteria (200 topics and 300 actors) with 12,000 entries.

Product Overview

BioWeapons Monitor (BWM) volunteers all over the world contribute thousands of documents over the Internet, which are then processed (verified, classified, approved, and published on the Web) by BWPP personnel. The final entries are made available to the public on the BWM web site, where sophisticated search tools enable researchers to answer questions, such as "What UN resolutions were voted down by Cuba ?" or "What documents about health security were issued in 2002 by the WHO?"

Benefits

The BWPP can maintain a fairly small staff, yet manage large amount of coherent data and help its world-wide audience to conduct research in bioweapons prevention.

Technology

The BioWeapons Monitor (BWM) is a database-driven document management system implemented as a multi-tier web application based on the Struts Tiles framework in Java. The complex relations between documents and other entities (topics, regions, actors, dates, etc.) are maintained by a PostgreSQL database and are searched by a powerful engine (implemented in PL/PGSQL), which provides various levels of complexity -- from simple Google-like full-text searches to structured relation searches with Boolean connectives based on disjunctive normal forms (DNF). Users can sharpen their research by additionally filtering and sorting the search results. The Struts framework and the application configuration data (kept in DB tables and XML files) make BWM easy to modify, extend, and maintain.

DB / Languages:

PostgreSQL / JSP, Java (Struts, Tiles)

Timeline

2004 -- present

ISN Content Management System

Client: The International Relations and Security Network (ISN) at the Center for Security Studies, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich)
http://www.isn.ch/
Client Needs: As a free public service, ISN collects and publishes information on international relations and security issues through its topic-specific websites. The information collected by ISN is heterogeneous, changes often, and comes from various sources.
Size: 100 web pages on 12 sites, 250 information channels, 4,000 classification criteria, 10,000 information items.
Product Overview: Our specialized content management system (CMS) enables ISN to unify, classify, retrieve, store, reuse, and package heterogeneous information items, which are then rendered dynamically on ISN web pages. The ISN information items are managed collaboratively by CMS users in various roles (contributors, classifiers, designers).
Benefits: ISN can be very quick and efficient to deliver relevant information that is precisely targeted and up-to-date, without spending many man-hours to update its numerous web pages on a daily basis.
Technology: ISN CMS is a tailor-made, multi-server, distributed network web application (CMS) with complex multi-tiered object-oriented architecture. It comprises a central database, a CMS server, a web service engine, an extended application server, a content editor (working inside a web browser), and a cross-platform desktop client for overall system management, which has a "native look and feel" since it is written in Java with JFace.
DB / Languages: MS SQL Server 2000 / ASP, JSP, Java (JFace, SWT)
Timeline: 2003--present
Partners: Joint project with IPH (Winterthur, Switzerland), based on a system design by Tetracom.

Read more details here, or download project description document in Adobe PDF

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Partnership Real-Time Information, Management and Exchange System (PRIME)

Client: NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) - http://www.nato.int/issues/pfp/
Client Needs: NATO/PfP members need to exchange (over the web) confidential information about numerous PfP cooperation programs, throughout the whole program organization cycle: proposal, approval, invitation, registration, feedback, and report.
Size: 158 PfP members, 12,000 programs, 45,000 participants.
Product Overview: PRIME enables NATO/PfP members, which are geographically separated and use incompatible platforms, to share sensitive information about cooperation programs over the Internet, with the appropriate security and access control.
Following a fully electronic workflow, users enjoy a convenient and customizable working environment, which, although displayed in a web browser, "feels" like a desktop application.
Benefits: Organizing NATO/PfP cooperation programs is now cheaper, faster, more secure, and less error-prone.
Technology: PRIME is a database-driven 3-tier web application for collaboration and document exchange (CRM). It comprises a central database, an access control and authentication module, an internal messaging system, import and export wizards, and system management tools -- all wrapped in a comprehensive and intuitive GUI.
DB / Languages: MS SQL Server 2000 / ASP.NET
Timeline: 2001--2004, versions 1, 2, 3
Partners: Outsourced to Tetracom by IPH (Winterthur, Switzerland).

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Self-Learning Management System for an Introduction to Communication and Media Studies (SYCOM)

Client: Institute for Mass Communication and Media Research (IPMZ, Institut für Publizistikwissenschaft und Medienforschung) at the University of Zurich http://www.ipmz.unizh.ch/
Client Needs: IPMZ offers on-line courses in media studies, which are naturally rich in multimedia (images, sound, and video). IPMZ needed to have such courses authored by professors (who are not HTML experts) and delivered to students (on- and off-line, on various platforms) in a simple way, but didn't want to use a full-featured learning management system, such as WebCT (in addition to being fairly expensive, such a system requires its own dedicated server and tech support team).
Size: 4 learning courses, 60 learning units, 400 students.
Product Overview: SYCOM is a system for authoring and reading interactive electronic books. Its built-in HTML editor allows course authors to edit multimedia content without knowing any HTML syntax, in a familiar GUI with preset paragraph styles, headings, bold, italic, lists, tables, clipboard copy and paste, etc. Students interact with the course content (read it, make personal notes, look up glossary terms, view videos, take self-examination quizzes, etc.) in a web browser, either online or from a CD.
Benefits: SYCOM has enriched the learning experience of more than 400 students at IPMZ over the last three years. Professors keep their courses engaging and up-to-date; students learn in a stimulating environment and at their own convenience.
Technology: SYCOM is a simple and easy-to-deploy self-learning management system (self-LMS). It stores online course data (content, structure, multimedia) in self-documenting XML files and delivers it to students in a standard web browser via an XSL transformation to HTML (online, from a web server) or via pre-packaged HTML with CSS (offline, from a CD-ROM). The HTML content editor is a stand-alone Windows 2000/XP desktop application.
DB / Languages: XML / Visual Basic 6.0, Java, JSP
Timeline: 2001--2005
Partners: Outsourced to Tetracom by IPH (Winterthur, Switzerland).

Read more details here, or download project description document in Adobe PDF.

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DCAF Digital Catalogue

Client: The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) maintains a public digital library of hardcopy and electronic documents about the democratic governance of security and armed forces.
Product Overview: DCAF DigLib is an electronic library catalog. Users can browse, search, and check out hardcopy and electronic books. In addition, library members can order books online, having control over all stages of the order (request, approval, processing, executing, and online publishing).
DB / Languages: MS SQL Server 2000 / Coldfusion CFM
Timeline: 2002
Partners: Outsourced to Tetracom by IPH (Winterthur, Switzerland).

Visit web site here.

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