Information Resource Sharing At the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI): The Potential for Intranet Solution
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Date
1998-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
It is a well thought idea that the present day electronic information communication has recreated
the world anew. Thought different historical routes can be traced to arrive at today's information
communication and exchange, no single achievement equals tile Intermit and WWW for global
communication and information staring to reach the stage of development we are experiencing
today. Recently, organizations confronted with complexity, upward scaling, competitive
environment, have started to adopt Internet-Web technology as an efficient mechanism to
manage and sit are their information resources.
With this view, this thesis is an attempt to improve IIRI's information resource sharing system by
way of Intranet solutions. IIRI has experienced organizational complexity and upward scaling
over the past recent years. A research institute with African coverage has IIOW tram formed itself
into an international with a scope spanning the whole of tile developing world. Given
IIRI's existing set lip, the work reported in this study investigated tile information resource sharing
infrastructure at IIRI, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Considering the fact that Intranet solution requires an investigation of content, network
infrastructure, and access, this work has first reviewed IIRI's available resources in these lines.
The outcomes of tile survey work were reported along with identified problems and requirements.
Based on existing information and network infrastructure and based 0n the needs and
requirements identified through the survey work, attempt was made to design tile kind of Intranet
solution that can address the contemplated need. The design focused on reengineering existing
information and network infrastructure to fit into the Intranet solution. Where changes are
required and what the changes involve is discussed.
In an attempt to demonstrate the potential use of Intranet solution, specific applications were
selected to develop the prototype. Static and dynamic web publishing through the web was
demonstrate(L The prototype development was based on Windows NT advanced server software
4.0 platform, Microsoft client for TCPIIP, Internet Information Server (lIS), Microsoft Internet
Server Application Program Interface (ISAPI), dbf and access (mdb) ODBC drivers, visual basic
programming, JavaScript, Active Server Pages, Internet Database Connection (IDC) files and
HTML extension (htx files), Microsoft FrontPage, HoTMetaL PRO, HTML, and SunWEB
Intranet design method.
Finally, implementation plans and how to proceed issues were discussed. Conclusion and
recommendation were also made to synthesize the whole exercise attempted in this study and to
suggest what needs to be done for Intranet deployment in ILRI as well as further research area
along similar lines.
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Keywords
Information Science