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 informatioll communication has recreated
the world anew. Though different historical routes can be traced to arrive at today's il1/ormatioll
communicatioll and exchange, no single achievement equals the Internet and WWWfor global
communicatioll and information sharing to reach the stage of development we are experiellcing
today. Recently, organizations confronted with complexity, upward scaling, competitive
environment, have started to adopt Internet-Web technology as an efficient mechallism to
manage and share their information resources.
With this view, this thesis is an attempt to improve ILRI's information resource sharing system by
way of Illtranet solutions. ILRI has experienced orgallizational complexity alld upward scaling
over the past recent years. A research illstitute with African coverage has now transformed itself
into {til intemational institllte with a scope spanning the whole of the developing world. Given
ILRI's existing set up, the work reported in this study investigated the in/ormation resollrcesharing
infrastructure at ILRI, based ill Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Considering the fact that Intranet solution requires all investigation of content, network
infrastructure, and access, this work has finit reviewed ILRI's available resources in these lines.
The outcomes of the survey work were reported along with identified problems and requirements.
Based Oil e'Cisting informatioll alld nehvork illfrastructure ami based on the needs amI
requirements identified through the survey work, attempt was made to design the kind of Intranet
solution that call address the contemplated need. The design focused on reengineering existing
illformatioll alUl lIetwork infrastructure to fit illto the Illtranet solutioll. Where challges are
required alUl what the challges illvolve is discussed.
III all attempt to demonstrate the potelltial use of Illtrallet solutioll, specific applicatiolls were
selected to develop the prototype. Static alUl dynamic web publishillg through the web was
demollstrated. The prototype development was based on Willdows NT advallced server software
4.0 plaiform, Microsoft client for TCPI/P, Illternet Illformation Server (lIS), Microsoft Illternet
Server Applicatioll Program Intetjace (ISAPI), dbf alld access (mdb) ODBC drivers, visual basic
programmillg, JavaScript, Active Server Pages, Illtemet Database Connectioll (IDC) files alld
HTML extellsion (Iltx files), Microsoft FrolltPage, HoTMetaL PRO, HTML, alld SunWEB
Illtrallet design method.
Finally, implementation plans alld how 10 proceed issues were discussed. COllclusioll alld
recommelldatioll were also made to sYllthesize the whole exercise attempted in this study and to
suggest what needs to be dOlle for Illtrallet deployment ill ILRI as well as further research area
along similar lilies.
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Keywords
Information Resource Sharing