Indiana Online Indiana Online - An Encyclopedia of Indiana

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Implementation
Upon its completion as a project, Indiana Online will be a multifaceted, comprehensive resource of information about the state, past and present. Its contents will include an estimated 3.5 to 4 million words in the following categories:

County profiles - 920,000
City profiles - 250,000
Overview essays - 150,000
Mini-essays - 300,000
Biographical entries - 500,000
Organizational entries - 500,000
Event entries - 500,000

It also will contain over 2,500 photographs, 750 static maps, dynamic mapping, statistical abstracts, databases, an extensive historical timeline, audiovisual files, curricular aids, online help desk, numerous links, and extensive search and retrieval capabilities.


Indiana Online will be implemented in three multi-year phases, with each phase designed to produce a product capable of migration to the next phase. The four-year Phase I will create a self-contained, centrally served Web-based encyclopedia. Editorial emphasis will be on developing content for the three primary audiences identified in the editorial plan. Some of this content will be developed by other services, though most of it will be created specifically for Indiana Online. All text and images will be contained in a central data warehouse and served from a central site. Links to other sites will extend the functionality of the encyclopedia.

Much of the technical work during this phase will be dedicated to developing the most suitable infrastructure for the long-term encyclopedia effort. The project will be similar to on-going attempts to create digital libraries and will learn much from these efforts, with various university digital library projects serving as key partners. Interoperability and distributed systems are long-term goals of digital library projects, and it will be the primary objective of the online state encyclopedia as well. Standards development, applications development, and creation of a test bed environment during Phase I will be keys to success. This phase, in sum, will create and test the technical infrastructure for Phase II.

Assuming full funding, reasonable targets for Phase I deliverables include the following deliverables in content, technology, management, and fundraising:

Editorial Content


  • 1,075,000 words

    • Overview essays: 175,000 words (35 @ 5,000 ea.)

    • Mini-essays: 100,000 words (100 @ 1,000 ea.)

    • County information: 460,000 words (92 @ 5,000 ea.)

    • Cities and towns information: 100,000 (500 @ 200 ea.)

    • Biographical entries: 90,000 words (300 @ 300 ea.)

    • Organization entries: 90,000 words (200 @ 300 ea.)

    • Events entries: 60,000 words (200 @ 200 ea.)

  • 200 data tables

  • 300 images

  • 200 maps (20 audio-visual files)

  • Basic historical timeline

  • Teacher guidelines and curriculum

  • Online help desk

  • 200 links


Technology Development

  • Information architecture

  • Metadata standards

  • Database design and implementation (Oracle)

  • Interface design and usability testing

  • Test bed environment

  • Search and retrieval mechanism

  • Web implementation

  • Phase II distributed system design and specifications

Management

  • Recruit staff, section editors, and writers

  • Policies and procedures development

    • Editorial Process

    • Rights acquisition

    • Technical development
      --- Application development
      --- Web development

    • Quality assurance

  • Management information system design and implementation

  • Financial system design and implementation

  • Rights administration system design and implementation

  • Articulation agreements with partnering and supporting organizations

Fundraising, audience development, and communication

  • Fundraising and Communication Plan and Implementation

  • Promotional material development

  • Quarterly newsletter (10,000)

  • User group establishment

  • Conferences and workshops

Phase II (Years 5-8) will witness a shift to a distributed system in which Indiana Online taps the resources of content providers as needed. For example, digital library resources across the state and beyond will enter IOL as they are created or data will be updated automatically as it becomes available from the Indiana Data Center or the U.S. Census Bureau. In this transition, Indiana Online becomes both a stand-alone resource and a seamless portal to other reliable information resources. While it will not lessen the need for separately created content, it will make it easier to update the encyclopedia and position it as the most comprehensive and accessible source of information about the state.

By the end of Phase II, the project will have added 2.5 million words, 550 static maps, and greatly increased the number of curricular and help aids. Major image and audiovisual resources will be available through agreements with digital library collections at the state's universities, Indiana State Library, Library of Congress, Indiana Historical Society, Indiana State Museum, and other reliable sources. Dynamic mapping, historical and contemporary databases, and extensive links also will be part of Indiana Online. Workshops, conferences, and user groups will be fully implemented as part of audience development, as will separately funded ancillary projects designed to enhance the usefulness of Indiana Online for special needs (e.g., tourism, community development, etc.). Finally, Phase II will include a plan for migration to newly emerging technology and to a permanent host and update cycles.

Phase III (Years 9-10) will add new content as required by special needs or to enhance existing services. It is likely that as many as 500,000 additional words of content will be developed and access to other digital resources increased. This phase will witness the integration of the U.S. Census Bureau's release of community profiles in 2008 and the decennial federal census of 2010. Migration will begin to new technology, and the project will become institutionalized. Audience development will continue to be a focus, as will fundraising for an endowment sufficient to sustain Indiana Online.

Work Plan: Phase I Milestones

The following work plan outlines major milestones for Phase I in annual segments. The management model for Indiana Online requires an annual project plan to be submitted for approval by the Board of Advisors three months in advance of the work year, with detailed work plans by quarter approved by the editor-in-chief used to guide interim activities. The major milestones listed below will be incorporated in the annual plan or modified, as necessary upon inauguration of Phase I.

Year One

Editorial
  • Enlist core staff

  • Recruit all section editors

  • Two meetings with editorial advisory committee

  • Establish editorial policies/style manual

  • Create and review initial entry lists

  • Identify and contact potential authors

  • Contract for 10 percent of projected word count

  • Develop county templates

  • Contract for 50 percent of county entries

Technical
  • Enlist core staff

  • Two meetings with technical advisory committee

  • Specifications development for:

    • System architecture

    • Information architecture

    • Web architecture

    • Rights management tool

    • Editorial toolkit

    • Graphical user interface

  • Standards development for:

    • Metadata

    • Tagging/mark-up

    • Quality assurance

Year 2

Editorial
  • Two meetings with editorial advisory committee

  • Finalize entry lists and organizational schema

  • Contract for additional 60 percent of word count

  • Contract for remaining county entries

  • Create template for historical statistics

  • Develop 20 percent of static maps

  • Acquire 20 percent of images

  • Acquire and edit 50 percent of assigned content

  • Begin editing and tagging content/county entries

Technical
  • Two meetings with technical advisory committee

  • Design and model

    • System

    • Database and data warehouse

    • Graphical user interfaces

  • Beta testing of system model

  • Finalize Web implementation plan

  • Begin interface design

  • Implement quality assurance

Management
  • Two meetings with Board of Advisors

  • Quarterly reviews with IHC

  • Complete policies and procedures documentation

  • Review and revise management procedures

  • Prepare Year 3 plans/budget for approval

  • Maintain/expand partnerships

Fundraising/Communications
  • Solicit major philanthropic funders/secure lead gifts

  • Launch corporate solicitation phase

  • Secure additional 50 percent of Phase I funding

  • Publish four quarterly newsletters

Year 3

Editorial
  • Two meetings with editorial advisory committee

  • Contract for remaining 30 percent of word count

  • Develop additional 60 percent of static maps

  • Acquire and prepare additional 60 percent of images

  • Edit and tag 80 percent of received content

  • Complete all work on county entries

  • Populate/test historical statistics

  • Create template for historical timeline

  • Begin curricular development

Technical
  • Two meetings with technical advisory committee

  • Formal system architecture review

  • Development of the system and implementation of the web site

    • Search and retrieval engine

    • Graphical user interfaces

  • Beta test Web implementation

  • Conduct formal usability testing

  • Publish all county entries

  • Quality assurance

Management
  • Two meetings with Board of Advisors

  • Quarterly reviews with IHC

  • Review and revise management procedures

  • Prepare Year 4 plans/budget for approval

  • Maintain/expand partnerships

Fundraising/Communication
  • Secure remaining Phase I funding

  • Review/revise Phase II fundraising plan

  • Publish quarterly newsletter

  • Launch general appeal

  • Plan for publication

    • Media campaign

    • Audience development

Year 4

Editorial
  • Two meetings with editorial advisory committee

  • Develop remaining static maps

  • Acquire and prepare remaining images

  • Edit and tag remaining content

  • Populate and test historical timeline

  • Complete initial curricular development

  • Prepare online help modules

  • Publish remaining Phase I content

  • Develop Phase II content schema/plan

Technical
  • Two meetings with technical advisory committee

  • Formal system architecture review

  • Web maintenance and tuning

  • Prepare Phase II distributed system design/specifications

  • Quality assurance

Management
  • Two meetings with Board of Advisors

  • Quarterly reviews with IHC

  • Prepare Year 5 plans/budget for approval

  • Prepare Phase II plans/budget for approval

  • Maintain/expand partnerships

Fundraising/Communication
  • Begin Phase II fundraising

  • Secure 25 percent of Phase II funding

  • Publish quarterly newsletter

  • Launch media/audience development campaigns

Work plans for Phases II and III will be developed for approval during the final years of Phase I and II, respectively.



 



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