ORION 4th Meeting
University of Algarve
Faro - Portugal
June 1-5 2004

Minutes

Participants: Prof. M.T.Dinis, Ms C.Pitta, Prof. A.Eleftheriou, Ms. M.Eleftheriou, Dr. E.Papathanassiou, Ms S. Goulala, Dr. J.Norberg, Ms. C.Pons Apologies from Prof. J.Davenport, Dr. G.Mouzakitis, Ms.E.McVeigh, Mr.C.Hapsiades.

The matters to be discussed in the joint Progress and Management meeting were :

1. To examine the Library Resources Section, with the updated bibliography
2. To examine the online AQUALEX glossary and decide on its onsite location
3. To examine and use the User Manual for the ORION tool produced by TEREUS
4. To receive the final version of the translated ORION glossary(done after the completion of the English language matrix in Crete in Sept. 2003
5. To look at the language modules for Level 1 and 2 which are now almost complete
6. To agree the format for the Level 3 language sections
7. To report on the use of the academic courses posted in the course section. Each partner will be required to send a report on usage and anticipated usage
8. To scrutinise the Greek National Agency decisions as to eligible expenditure for the Interim Report and to respond to their rulings so that the project may achieve the contracted deliverables within the resulting unforeseen limitations, not least the time restrictions
9. To plan the way forward, including evaluation and dissemination.

The agenda shown above was extremely demanding and discussion started at the first informal meeting on 1st June, as to the best way to proceed in order to cover all the items adequately. It was agreed that as much time as possible would be spent in clarifying issues with individual partners, and that each partner would work on the evaluation of the online language modules (Level 2)before continuing with the harmonisation of the database version of the 1159 terms and definitions in all four languages (English, Greek, Portuguese and Swedish).

It was also decided that the discussion report should follow the numbered items shown above for convenience, rather than following the formal agenda which had had to be changed because of the limited availability of the online facility. Item 6 should form the subject of the Steering Group Meeting, before a general and open discussion on the 2nd day of the meeting.

The facilities provided by the University of Algarve were very good, with ample room for the different activities that sometimes had to take place simultaneously. However, as the online access was limited to one seminar room, which was available only on for one day, the meeting began with a demonstration of the latest progress on the ORION project website.

LIBRARY RESOURCE SECTION

Online Bibliography

The Library Resources Section was also demonstrated, in order to access and test the Bibliography, which has been reprogrammed and had 800 more items included (TEREUS). All partners pronounced themselves happy with the online design and format. They tested the searchable database by alphabet, author, title, journal and keyword and also its print facility. It was recommended that the Library Resources Introduction now be rewritten to reflect its new contents. The NCMR Librarian welcomed the possibility of providing new bibliographies (self-generating within the Distributed Network Engine in the Academic Courses). It was also suggested that partners' bibliographies should find a place in the Library Resources Section.

Inclusion of AQUALEX 6-language glossary as Library Resource.

The AQUALEX glossary was demonstrated in order to see whether its online format would be acceptable to partners, and also to test it to see whether it could now be introduced into the Library Resources Section (AMC Ltd). On both counts the decision was positive.

User Manual for structuring Distributed Network Academic Courses

The 2nd draft version (TEREUS) was demonstrated and used by partners to test the user-friendliness of the software. Some adjustments were made to the language which was not felt to be precise enough. Otherwise, this deliverable was found suitable.

LANGUAGE COURSES SECTION

Level 2 lessons

The Language Courses Level 2 English, Greek, Portuguese and Swedish were demonstrated. (Materials provided by AMC Ltd, IMBC, Algarve, Stockholm, programmed and designed by IMBC). It was immediately decided that the graphics which used English only should also be translated into Greek, Portuguese and Swedish if possible, even though this is quite a difficult task for both graphics artist and designer. Contact was made with the Programmer in Crete to ascertain what software would be needed to deconstruct and then reconstruct the graphics in the different languages. The graphics were delivered to the partners during the course of the meeting.

Level 3 lessons

It was decided that Level 3 lessons should concentrate on improving knowledge of terminology, and that the ORION glossary, in conjunction with the AQUALEX glossary, should be used for this. The Academic courses will provide an opportunity for this language acquisition in its Quizzes feature. In addition, the Language Courses Section has been redesigned to give an online translation facility using the ORION 4-language glossary.

STEERING GROUP MEETING

The meeting was chaired by Mrs Eleftheriou. Present were Prof. Eleftheriou, Dr. Papathanassiou, Prof. M.Dinis and Ms Goulala.

All partners had been sent the volume of correspondence between Ms Eleftheriou, the Greek National Agency and the Leonardo Office in Brussels. Mrs Eleftheriou outlined chronologically the causes of the delays in submitting the Financial Section of the `interim Report, which had led to the present standoff. Though well known to the partnership, they were reiterated. Some responsibility belonged to the partnership, as the Irish partner had been very late in submitting documentation; the amalgamation of IMBC and NCMR had also proved a major stumbling block with new bureaucratic procedures in conjunction with administration run from Athens. In addition, LDV financial measures were taking inordinately long to reach agreement on, and some interpretations of the LDV Handbook had proved unacceptable to the ORION partnership. Thus an appeal had been made to the LDV Head in an attempt to clarify the matters in dispute. Some matters had been clarified and agreed but not all, particularly the AMC licence agreement by the Greek National Agency. In the light of these difficulties, unprecedented in the long experience of the partnership, the Steering Group had to address the following questions and come up with some answers.

1. Has the ORION project met its stated outcomes?
2. Are these outcomes and objectives valuable per se?
3. Does the partnership feel that the project is worth pursuing, in the light of the current difficulties?
4. If the answer to (3) is affirmative, how should this best be done?

A. The demonstration throughout the first day of all that had been done in the ORION project since the last meeting in Crete in September 2003, showed that almost all the outcomes have been realised, though sometimes rather later than had been anticipated. In spite of the lack of finance and the seemingly endless bureaucratic procedures which have vastly increased the administrative staff time involved, enormous progress had been made, the language lessons were already being utilised both in Portugal and in Sweden and it was anticipated that they would be used in Greece during the course of the summer. The Searchable online Bibliographies and Reference works were operating, the Distributed Network set up by TEREUS for the Academic Courses was functioning, with different kinds of courses having been inserted remotely by both Cork and Stockholm, using the ORION software tool.

B. There was a surprising degree of warmth and enthusiasm for the quality of the product. The feeling was that this very complex pilot project, combining language provision, resource repository with searchable databases, innovative distributed network remotely accessed with custom-designed software to create re-usable academic courses in several languages, along with instant translation facilities for 3 less widely-used languages, had achieved outcomes well beyond expectations.

C. The current difficulties had not deterred most partners from travelling to Faro without the assurance that funding would be available. This in itself shows their commitment to the project. All felt that it could prove very useful in the future for national and worldwide ODL courses, ie., Stockholm has already one student from Zanzibar enrolled for the Tropical Ecology course.

D. The Steering Group decided that it would be best to continue to negotiate with the National Agency regarding the financial matters still in dispute. It also felt that because of the delays regarding the second payment, and that there remained so little time to disburse the second payment, even if it were sent in the near future, that it would be reasonable to ask for an extension to the project. This would enable all outstanding financial matters to be agreed and also allow time for the money to be spent within the budgetary constraints. It was also suggested that Mrs Eleftheriou should demonstrate the achievements of the project to the LDV Office in Brussels, as had been the case with all the previous LEONARDO and LINGUA projects coordinated by IMBC. This opportunity should be sought as soon as possible.

MANAGEMENT MEETING

This was regarded as an Extraordinary Management Meeting and all participants were invited to attend. In addition, the University of Algarve Financial Officer in charge of the ORION project was also present.

A summary of the Steering group conclusions was made by Mrs Eleftheriou to the whole group for approval. Approval was granted, with the proviso that all existing costs categorised as ineligible should be examined in detail to see whether acceptance or compromise could take place. This detailed scrutiny lasted until lunch. The conclusions will be presented to the IMBC Financial Officer for transmission to the National Agency. In the interim, non-involved partners evaluated the language content of the site. In addition, the completed glossaries in Greek, Portuguese and Swedish were compared in order to speed up the harmonisation which must take place before the online databases can be created.

Glossary completion

All glossaries are now in the last stages of evaluation, in spite of the fact that there is a lack of money to pay the translators. All partners felt that the AQUALEX format was the one to use, as it is very user-friendly. It was still felt that the ORION glossary should remain in the restricted access area. However, the AQUALEX glossary should be located on the freely available Library Resource Section, with free access to one of six available languages.

Evaluation

The University of Cork is responsible for the evaluation of the project deliverables. It was decided that as soon as the next tranche of the budget is available, that this part of the project could go ahead. Informal evaluation has already taken place, and all the language modules have undergone at least two critical examinations which have resulted in small errors and typos being found.

Dissemination

FEAP is responsible for this aspect of the project and undertook to prepare an A5 PR pamphlet which could be circulated to some major marine science events that will take place in the summer and in the autumn. The NCMR Librarian will travel to Argentina for the ASFA meeting and will distribute the pamphlet there. There are also meetings in Tasmania, Barcelona, Glasgow, Athens, where this material will be disseminated. There will also be an article in Fishing News International to appear in September.

Future prospects

It was felt inadvisable to make plans concerning the future viability of marketing the ORION tool until there had been a favourable decision and a disbursement of the second tranche of the budget. It was also felt that if an extension were not granted, the partners would not be able to meet the deadlines for eligible expenditure. It was also decided that another meeting was necessary to draw all the threads of this complex pilot project together.

Date of next meeting

It was unanimously decided that the next ORION partners meeting should take place in Crete, towards the end of September.

Tour of CCMR Field Station

As a final event, Prof. Dinis and her team took the ORION partners on a much-appreciated tour of the Centre for Marine Research station in the renowned lagoon in Faro.