[Sigia-l] designing an international contact directory

[Noreen Whysel]

Check out oasis-open.org XML schema for name (xNL) and address (xAL), 
(formerly combined as xNAL).  It covers international issues and is a 
developing standard.

Noreen Whysel




>From: "Peter Cook" <peter at clearscope.com.au>
>Reply-To: <peter at clearscope.com.au>
>To: <sigia-l at asis.org>
>Subject: [Sigia-l] designing an international contact directory
>Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 14:55:13 +1000
>
>Hi everyone
>
>I am doing the IA (and assisting with the database design) for a contact
>directory for a large international non-profit organization.  The directory
>will consist of a public version available on the web, and a restricted
>access version that contains additional personal contact details.
>
>I would be most grateful for any tips about resources, or other advice,
>particularly in regard to the following issues.  If anyone knows of any 
>good
>examples that have been implemented, I would love to see them.  If you want
>to reply to me off-list, I will summarize all replies and post to this 
>list.
>
>Some issues that I am encountering:
>
>1. We have identified about 6 levels within the organization:
>- Global region (Europe, Asia-Pacific etc)
>- Country
>- Region within a country (optional)
>- State/Province
>- Branch
>- Sub-branch
>
>One issue I am grappling with is how to design an elegant way to quickly
>drill down to the appropriate level? (a search option will also be
>included).  I have been thinking in terms of drilling down level-by-level
>(page-by-page).  In some instances, two (or possibly 3) levels may be able
>to be displayed on one page by using sub-heads - for example: Country >
>Region > State/Province.
>
>2. We have decided that address details will be displayed in the language 
>of
>the particular country (eg, addresses for Germany will be in German).  But
>the 'descriptive' labels in the directory (eg, 'Telephone', 'Email' 'Postal
>Address' etc) will be in English, because the at the moment the rest of the
>site is English-only.  It is planned to have multilingual versions of the
>public web site in the future. So do we also change the language of the
>descriptive labels for the other language versions? (I think yes).
>
>3. I have already found some useful resources on the design of input forms
>for international use.  See:
>http://www.evolt.org/article/Usable_Forms_for_an_international_audience/4090
>/15118/index.html
>
>4. An ancilliary issue, as far as the multiple language versions goes, is
>how to have a clear entry menu to the various languages from an entry page
>for the whole site.  I think this may have been discussed before, but if
>anyone can refresh my memory I would appreciate it.
>
>Regards
>Peter Cook
>Brisbane, Australia
>
>
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