ORION 5th Project Meeting
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research
Crete - Greece
October 25th -28th

Monday 25th October

Present: Prof. A.Eleftheriou(HCMR Crete), Ms. M.Eleftheriou (HCMR Crete), Dr. E.Papathanassiou (HCMR Athens), Ms S. Goulala (HCMR Athens), Prof. M.T.Dinis, (University of Algarve), Ms C.Pitta (University of Algarve), Ms. C.Pons (FEAP) Dr. G.Mouzakitis (University of Cork), Ms.E.McVeigh (AMC Ltd), Mr.C.Hapsiades, (TEREUS S.A.), Mr D.McLeod (SATA).

Apologies from Prof. J.Davenport ((University of CORK), Dr J. Norberg ((University of STOCKHOLM).

NOTE FROM PROJECT COORDINATOR. As this is the final ORION partners meeting within the context of the LEONARDO DA VINCI programme, the discussion has been presented in much greater detail than usual, as the issues raised have important implications for future developments.

1. Acceptance of minutes from the ORION Meeting held in Faro (2-5 June

After the welcome by Prof. Eleftheriou, Scientific responsible, the Faro meeting minutes (previously circulated) were approved by M.T.Dinis and seconded by G.Mousakitis.

2. Report of control meeting by Greek National LDV Agency (9th Sept.)

The report of control meeting by Greek National Agency on September 9 (previously circulated) was briefly discussed.

2.1 Extension of project

Mrs Eleftheriou stated that she had carried out the instructions from the partners taken at the Faro meeting, to try very hard to obtain an extension for a further 6 months, in the light of all the difficulties which had occurred as a result of the amalgamation of the IMBC with the Athens research institute EKTHE, but had not been successful. This being the case, she had pulled out all the stops (again as instructed by the partners at Faro) to finish all the contracted deliverables. In this the meeting with the National Agency had proved to be useful, as it had provided an opportunity to see which aspects needed most emphasis, from the point of view of the Final Report.

2.2 Proofs of progress/completion of deliverables

She had also demonstrated that the items indicated in their letter of 29th July, requiring proof of progress, had either been completed or were fairly close to completion

• glossary items
• grammar sections of Language modules
• Content modules
• databases(bibliography, meristics)
• copyright issues
• external evaluations
• dissemination events.

During the latter part of August, in spite of the obligatory 3-week vacation imposed on all Greek public institutions as a result of the 2004 Olympics (IMBC and EKTHE were officially closed for the whole of this period) TEREUS had been able to finish inserting three of the four languages of the ORION glossary, with the 4th (Swedish) completed during September.

2.3 Proof of evaluation/piloting

Their ruling was that the evaluation aspect was particularly important and that tangible evidence that this had been instigated was required (Minutes of Steering Group meeting where decision had been taken, copies of sub-contracts). Similar tangible proof that piloting of the language units had taken place was also required.

2.4 Instructions for use of Glossary

The National Agency commented that it had not been able to access the Glossary easily; however, this was admitted to be as a result of not having read the online instructions for user entry and access. The point was made by the NA (apparently in all seriousness), that users do not read Instructions, and that to expect them to do so was an indication of lack of user-friendliness, and thus lack of quality in the deliverable. This point was rejected by the Coordinator, whose many years of experience in teaching(35) and in curriculum development (25), as not worthy of serious consideration, especially not as an indicator of the quality of an online resource.

2.5 Copyright issues

The copyright issue was also seen as important at that meeting, and was raised again in the NA letter of 14th October. The fact that the partnership had not yet reached a conclusion on this issue was taken to mean, despite assertions to the contrary, that the partnership was in disagreement over this issue. It was therefore important to spend some time in the present meeting to reach an agreed position on this issue.

2.6 Final Evaluation

There was comment from the partners concerning the inflexible line taken by the Greek National Agency. Mrs Eleftheriou warned the partners that according to the relevant LEONARDO Administration Handbook, the final say on the evaluation of this type of project was in the hands of the national agency, who were not obliged to accept the findings of an independent outside evaluation (if this had been sought) if it did not concur with the earlier evaluation. There was little to be gained and much to be lost if the partnership did not carry out the letter of the LEONARDO law as laid down by the Greek National Agency. Recourse to the Brussels office had been of some value during the summer and had resulted in explanations which had resolved some of the painful outstanding issues, particularly with regard to the need to translate all Swedish documents - it was now decreed that all Scandinavian languages had to be translated at least in an informal manner.

3. Live online demonstration of ORION Virtual Marine Science Department

Mrs Eleftheriou made a live online demonstration of ORION Virtual Marine Science Department in respect of:

• the changes made to the overall design
• accessibility for general use and for secure use
• the ORION 4-language glossary
• the language modules in 4 languages, including new grammar sections
• the course materials with revised User Manual for teacher use.

• there should be a log-out from the top of the page
• there needs to be a link to Home, as it is difficult to get back to the main site from the Course Section.

The ORION glossary was impressive and the software worked extremely well, even though some of the special characters in Portuguese and Swedish still needed further attention.

4. External Evaluations (Mr D.McLeod Scottish Aquaculture Training Association (SATA)

Mr McLeod presented all the external evaluations.

4.1 Overall website evaluation (Annex 1) -Dr. Mark Costello, University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Dr Costello had been chosen as evaluator, not only because of his experience in website construction, but also because his present location, literally at the other side of the world, made him an ideal choice to sample and evaluate a Virtual Marine Science Department. His evaluation had been circulated in advance, so that all partners were able to react to his suggestions.

• Comments concerning main contact in each partner (course) was a valid one, for the future.
• Insertion of dates/updates did not seem to be important to the partners and so was rejected.
• The inclusion of a print- friendly page was accepted, as was his suggestion that sources be more prominently displayed. His overall praise and enthusiasm for the project was also noted by Mr McLeod, as chief evaluator.

4.2 External evaluation of Courses /course materials(Mr McLeod, SATA). (Annex 2)

Mr McLeod found that the ORION project had a wide range of potential uses, and with its multiple language provision in both courses, resources and language learning modules, was both original and innovative, and should be expanded to include other languages.

• Distance learning was a critical factor in training modules for aquaculture the courses chosen were both relevant and appropriate for industry.
• The Portuguese modules were models that should be included in any European aquaculture course portfolio.
• A real effort had been made to achieve a house style.

• There was no attempt to have a common assessment strategy and assessment instruments. (This is not part of the project and would not be funded if included- Coordinator).
• There should be an attempt to market the ORION concept for a wider audience, perhaps Asia.
• It is desirable to have some idea as to how the courses are credited, particularly in terms of ECTS with its future links with EC VETs in VET.

4.3 Glossary Evaluation (Professor A.D.McIntyre, University of Aberdeen) (Annex 3)

Professor McIntyre's evaluation had also been circulated in advance. His comment "A work that demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of marine Issues and illuminates difficult areas". All Glossary Contributors accepted the three recommended changes (K selection, Precautionary Principle and Tragedy of the Commons), and later made the smaller changes in line with his suggestions. These changes were translated immediately into Portuguese and Greek and inserted into the master database and the online glossary during the course of the meeting.

4.4 Language module evaluations

4.4.1 Swedish(Dr. Anna Paterson, scientific translator) (Annex 4)

Dr Paterson concentrated mainly on the Swedish language modules where she made detailed corrections to the text of Level 1 and Level 2. She also examined the Swedish glossary items and the bibliography. Her suggestions have also been incorporated into all texts. Her comments on the bibliography have led to the rewriting of the Welcome page in a clearer, more succinct way, and also to the introduction of colour into the 'search and browse' results.

4.4.2 Portuguese (Dr.Teresa Fernandes, Napier University, UK) (Annex 5)

Dr Fernandes' comments were limited to the Portuguese language modules where her comments and corrections were very detailed, particularly in respect of Portuguese accents. Her choice of words (example, 'ameba' instead of 'amiba') was not always accepted by the Portuguese scientific team (both present), as they felt that where there were two words both in current usage, they had chosen the simpler of the two and preferred to retain their original.

4.4.3 Greek (Ms F.Pseftogka, University of the Aegean, Mytilene) (Annex 6)

There were small corrections made to Level 1 and Level 2 texts, not carried out immediately, as this required changes to the graphic texts, and needed a professional.

4.4.4 Chief Evaluator's conclusions

Mr McLeod commented on the favourable comments made by all evaluators of all aspects and at all levels. He recommended that serious attention be paid to promotion in China, particularly as the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), with whom he was involved, are now carrying out 3-year sandwich HND courses with China, of which one full year is given over to language learning. Aquaculture now forms part of the agreed curricular provision in that specific degree course.

5. Dissemination reports

Ms Catherine Pons distributed the copies of the ORION leaflet, prepared by FEAP for the Dissemination purposes, used in all the dissemination events reported below. From May to the end of October, the ORION project was presented at 9 meetings and in 9 countries all over the world.

a) FEAP General Assembly

Ms Pons presented ORION at the FEAP General Assembly in Amsterdam in October.

b) EAS Conference, Barcelona Spain

c) ASFA Advisory Board, Argentina

d) GENIM Tasmania, Australia

e) IAMSLIC Annual Conference, Tasmania, Australia

Mrs Goulala reported on her three presentations of ORION, where she had been able to distribute the ORION PR leaflet prepared by FEAP.

1. As Greek national representative, Mrs Goulala attended the Meeting of the Advisory Board of ASFA(Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts) in INIDEP(Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo Pesquero) Argentina from 29th May -2nd June. 22 partners from 20 countries and a lot of interest in the potential of ORION.
2. GENIM (Group of Experts on Marine Information Management), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2-3rd September.
3. IAMSLIC (International Association of Marine Science Libraries), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 5-9th September. 82 participants from 22 countries.

ORION aroused great interest and it was suggested that a similar course should be prepared for librarians of marine sciences.

It was also suggested that the ORION Library Resources could form part of the UNESCO OCEAN portal.

f) Aquaculture Seminar Madeira Portugal

Prof. Maria Teresa Dinis presented a poster (in Portuguese) at the Aquaculture and new species Seminar held in Funchal, Madeira, from 12-15th September, organized by the Regional Government of Madeira, the Regional Secretariat for Environment and Natural Resources and the Regional Fisheries Directorate. (Annex 7).

g) Training in fisheries Vocational Training Summer School Santander Spain

h) AQUATNET SOCRATES Thematic Network, Gent, Belgium

i) LEONARDO Language Promoters Workshop, LDV Brussels

1. Mrs Eleftheriou presented the ORION project at Santander, at the invitation of the UIMP (Universidad internacional Menendez Pelayo) as part of the International Summer School Programme(Estudio y analisis de ciclos formatives: actividades maitimo-pesqueras) as Leader of a round table discussion (15-18th September)
2. Mrs Eleftheriou also made a presentation at the September meeting of AQUATNET, the SOCRATES Thematic Network on aquaculture and fisheries, in the University of Gent, 28/29th September (17 participants, 15 countries).
3. Discussion took place concerning how ORION could be used in the new Joint European Masters being coordinated by the University of Gent.
4. On 20th September, Mrs Eleftheriou demonstrated the ORION project by invitation at the EU Languages projects dissemination Workshop in Brussels, under the LEONARDO DA VINCI Programme.

6. Financial documentation for the Final Report.(Day 2)

Mrs Manousaki had translated the Greek National Agency special provisions document which had been supplied only in Greek, and had circulated it in advance to the partners. In addition, she had prepared an individual folder for each partner, showing what each had done for the Interim Report, and following up the history of each item considered as ineligible by the Greek National Agency.

This procedure was necessary as the Greek national Agency had not provided a final consolidated statement on which items it still regarded as ineligible. The final cost statement has to include all former costs, but these must be re-submitted in new tables and numbered according to the GRNA system.

Mrs Manousaki took some time to explain all these provisions, which were in fact not much different from each national agency procedure, apart from the renumbering aspects and the new forms. Depreciations costs for equipment now cover the whole period of the project and not 18 months as in the Interim Report.

7. Copyright issues

7.1 General issues

Mrs Eleftheriou took the partners through the issues concerning copyright once again, pointing out that each partners had signed a copyright agreement as part of the Partner agreement. Some matters were particularly relevant to the ORION project, as it depended in no small part on materials that had already been developed by individual partners and partnerships. Background information belonged to those who had developed it. Foreground information was new work coming out of the project.

7.2 ORION background and foreground information

In the case of ORION, background information included

1. the bibliography;
2. the 3-language meristics work on fish, shellfish and crustaceans;
3. the 3-language Fish Health Manual;
4. 800 items of the ORION glossary;
5. the language learning modules in English, Level 1, 2 and 3;
6. course materials previously developed and used by all partners; vii) open source software used in the development of the ORION tool.

None of this material could be used without the written agreement of the copyright owners, or without a user licence agreement being drawn up, as in the case of the AQUALEX glossary.

Foreground information included

1. the original programming of the open source software which had created the ORION distributed network and ORION tool, created by TEREUS S.A.;
2. the original definitions which had been created jointly by the partners; 
3. the ORION concept itself.

7.3 Present position of ORION partners

It had previously been agreed that all partners should retain copyright ownership of their course materials, although some partners had already decided that the materials would be made available for use outside the partnership if there were to be a continuation of the ORION concept. This situation was certainly being discussed formally with several interested parties (see minutes under Future of ORION).

7.3.1 University of Cork

Dr Mousakitis said that the University of Cork would not give up its copyright ownership of any of the course materials that had been developed or adapted as part of the ORION project, but that they were perfectly willing to have the courses used within the restricted-entry distributed network.

7.3.2 TEREUS S.A.

Mr Hapsiades said that TEREUS were willing to give their right of ownership of the programming tool to the partnership, provided that the use made of it was in accordance with the rules for use of open source software, which meant that it could not be sold. However, it could be part of a non-profit-making organisation.

7.3.3 AMC Ltd

Ms Erin McVeigh, AMC Ltd, said that AMC Ltd had provided the major part of the terms in the ORION glossary (800 of 1192) and had also provided all the Language modules in English (14 for Level 1 and 10 for Level 2).

AMC Ltd could not give up all rights to the AQUALEX glossary terms beyond the life of the ORION project, particularly since the Greek National Agency had rejected the User Licence Agreement that had been a major part of its budget. However, it would allow the ORION project to use the AQUALEX terms for a further year without prejudice to future decisions, to see whether there was a viable future for ORION.

AMC Ltd was willing to be part of the non-profit-making company if it were decided that was the way to go.

7.3.4 HCMR

Dr Papathanassiou said that the HCMR was willing to provide a base for the ORION project, for at least the next 6 months, until the final evaluation of the Final Report had been completed. HCMR felt that the project had a very good future potential, particularly in its capacity to run courses in widely separated locations, within a secure distributed network system. He was also impressed with its capacity to store, re-use and update materials in different languages.

Dr Papathanassiou suggested that there should be a partners' meeting around June, when the final evaluation would surely be over, and when decisions could be made as to the future.

7.3.5 University of Algarve

Prof. Dinis said that there would be no problem over copyright with the University of Algarve course material, particularly since the University of Algarve is a partner in the Joint European Masters in Aquaculture and Fisheries being run by the University of Gent which had expressed an interest in being involved in the ORION project.

7.3.6 University of Stockholm

Mrs Eleftheriou was authorized to speak for Dr Norberg. There was no problem with copyright with the University of Stockholm.

7.3.7 Decisions

It was decided that the matter should be raised again at the final Management Meeting

8. Future of ORION (Day 3 - in IMBC building at Heraklion harbour))

8.1 Expression of interest from University of Gent, Coordinator of Joint European Masters in Fisheries and Aquaculture (Maqfish)

Mrs Eleftheriou stated that she had received a formal letter from Professor Sorgeloos of the University of Gent, after the demonstration of ORION at the AQUATNET meeting on September 29, asking to be involved in ORION development as he saw it would be very relevant to certain aspects of the EU-funded Joint Masters degree of which he was the Coordinator. Prof. Dinis, who was a member of the Maqfish consortium, agreed with this development.

8.2 US/EU cooperation (University of Rhodes Island, Rhodes)

Dr. Papathanassiou reiterated that HCMR saw its future potential, not only in joint degrees, but also in EU/US educational cooperation, a specific case being that of the University of Rhodes Island (USA) and the HCMR station in Rhodes Greece. The EU-funded IASON programme also foresaw education as part of its remit and ORION could be very useful in promoting cooperation between Black Sea countries.

8.3 Position Paper, University of Cork

Dr Mousakitis had produced overnight a short paper concerning the future of ORION which is attached as Annex 8. He insisted that one of the first things to be done was to draw up a short-term business plan, or strategy at least.

At present, the ORION tool was not perfect and could be streamlined and improved. It was a good idea to consider that it was at the alpha stage of development, and the partnership should aim to present it at the beta stage of development for the European Joint Masters, who could use it without cost, as part of the development procedure. All agreed that ORION should not depend on European money for its future development. Certain questions demanded an immediate answer: was there the possibility that ORION could not be developed further, i.e.., did it have the functional capacity to handle many courses and many users.

Mr Hapsiades confirmed that the ORION tool could handle up to 65,500 files (18 trillion gigabytes) and could also cope with up to 35 languages. All the many possibilities of languages and courses that had been brought in were well within its power of of distribution and holding capacity. It was therefore agreed that all these issues would be discussed in greater detail at the Management Meeting that was to end the Progress meeting, and that all partners present should attend in order to come up with clear and unanimous decisions as to future plans for ORION.

9. Conclusions

Prof. Eleftheriou thanked all those present for their hard work during the current meeting, for their forbearance during the difficult months of the project and for their diligence, enthusiasm and positive attitudes over the whole life of the project. He ended by saying that the final decisions would be taken at the joint Steering Group/Management Meeting which was to follow, formally, immediately.

Margaret Eleftheriou
30th November 2004