| Author (Person) | Todd, Geseth |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.16, 24.4.03 |
| Publication Date | 24/04/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 24/04/03 By Earlier this month, the European Commission announced that Lindsay Armstrong, the server manager of its Europa internet portal, had won an award from the European Information Association (EIA). The UK-based EIA praised Armstrong for "promoting and advancing access to, and the quality of, information about the European Union and the wider Europe". But how accessible is the information? How often do users find what they are looking for, and how quickly do they find it? Searching Europa can be a frustrating task. Hours can be wasted looking for facts, without success. It is very easy to become lost on this enormous site, due to the sheer volume of information, interlinks and multiple cross-references. Often, the only lifeline is the web browser's 'back' button. A sluggish internet connection exacerbates the situation. Broadband access is not yet universal; as a result, uploading basic Europa pages and interfaces is often very slow. The site's search facility can cause even more exasperation. Who has the time to trawl through the hundreds or thousands of documents and pdf files that a simple search can produce? Even if the search is made more specific, Europa's response is often likely to be: "No documents matched your query." At this point, some might be tempted to find out if their computers can fly. So, what is the solution? Practice, so that navigating the site becomes as second nature as it is to those fonctionnaires who use it regularly. Remember, they too once faced that plethora of pages before working out how best to find the information they need. They may have 'cheated' a little at first by asking someone to point them in the right direction. Some simply ask for information to be emailed to them rather than spend an eternity looking for it themselves. The good news is that anyone can do that. The trick is knowing who to ask and where to go. The addresses for each of the EU institutions are listed at http://europa.eu.int/geninfo/mailbox/inst_en.htm. For a specific Commission department, simply click on the mailbox link you require. A reply should arrive within 15 days; not instantaneous, by any means, but still probably the best option. So, while few can doubt Armstrong's efforts to provide "an unrivalled amount of information", some may question whether the portal has in fact "advanced" access. After all, what good is a wealth of online information ("1.5 million pages and documents in 11 languages") when you cannot find what you are looking for?
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| Subject Categories | Culture, Education and Research |
