1. Update on NATO Mission Language Course Database
As some of you might recall, at the latest BILC Conference in Budapest, Denmark was bold (or maybe brash, rash or brazen) enough to venture compiling a database of NATO mission language courses including points of contact.
Tasking by JSSG*

2. So, I solicited the information required from NATO member nations, some of whom responded, and some of whom did not, and from the data received, I conjured* up a database.
Here, you can see the initial outcome of this endeavour. This is a pdf-file containing a report generated by the database, which was created in Microsoft Access. As you can see, this particular report contains data on the language, whether or not it is a reorientation course, the duration of the course, its goal, the country offering the course, the present status of the course, and contact information. The report does not, however, show all information on a given course.
And, more importantly, the database in this present format is dependent on one person gathering and typing in data. I promised the BILC secretary that I would remedy these shortcomings in one way or another.*
[Click on ”NATO Mission Language Courses” below to open the original document]

3. Considerations Accessibility and access control Ease of maintenance
Decentralised data entry and maintenance
Ease of use
Data export capability
Some of the considerations I had when trying to come up with solutions regarding the future form of the database were the following:
1. It should be easily accessible to those requiring access, preferably on the internet. That said, there should also be rigorous access control, so that only the right* users would be authorised to add or delete entries or update existing ones. If I was to achieve this with the Access database, I would have to set up a password protested active server website and customise the user interface of the database, all of which would require an enormous amount of time.
2. It should be easy to maintain. Both in terms of user-friendliness, but also made in a way, so that notifications about significant events in the database would automatically be sent to the concerned party.
3. It should be possible for NATO member nations to modify, delete or add new entries without too much trouble.
4. It should be easy to search the data, sort it, or filter it according to set criteria.
5. It should have an easy-to-use data export feature, so that the data can be easily transferred to other database management systems.

4. So, the solution I finally came up with might not be very original or great-looking, but at least it seems to work.
It is based on the Danish Defence Foreign Languages Sitescape Forum portal, which is intended as a platform for internet course delivery and linguistic support for Defence personel.
Here is what the ”front page” now looks like after the data has been transferred from the original Access database.
Some of the same data is represented here as you saw in the pdf-file earlier on. There is the name of the country offering the course, the language, the duration, the course dates, an indication of whether or not the course is open to foreign nationals, the entry’s ”author”, and the state, that the entry is in. I will tell you about these states in a few seconds.
The data shown can be sorted alphabetically by clicking on the title of a specific field (the blue links at the top of each column), and it can be filtered by clicking on one of the ”filter buttons” near the top of the page or by creating your own filter. You can even customise which fields are shown on the front page, choosing among all the data present in the database.
Now, you will notice that the course titles are also hyperlinks, and if you click on them, they will take you to the detail section of the entry.
[Click on the link at the bottom of the page to access this page on the internet]
Make filters!!!
Hyperlink
Link

5. This shows the detail section for an entry
This shows the detail section for an entry. It shows the title, an ”as of”-date, the country and institution offering the course, the language, a ”reorientation” field, the course goal or description, the course duration in hours, days, weeks and months, notes concerning the course duration, the course status, whether or not the course is conducted on request, is recurrent, or open to foreign nationals, the course dates, maximum number of students, any additional course information, and contact information. Finally, it shows you who accessed this entry so far.
Link

6. This is a simplified version of the workflow process I created for the maintenance of the database. This particular workflow process is aptly named the ”course update cycle”, ”course update”, since the aim is to keep the database continuously updated with course data, and ”cycle”, because it is a circular process.
The blue boxes symbolise the different workflow states a course entry can have, and the yellow boxes are notifications sent out to the entry creator. The arrows of course indicate the flow of the process, and the phrases written in conjunction with the arrows are conditions to be met in order for the transition from one state to another to occur. This chart does not show each and every state, notification, condition or transition, but nevertheless it gives an idea of how it works.
Let me take you through the steps of this process.

7. The wide, blue arrow at the top indicates the starting point of the process. A new entry is added by one of the NATO countries. This is done basically just by logging on to this particular forum, clicking ”Add course entry” and then a form comes up for you to fill in.

8. This is what the beginning of the ”add entry” form looks like
This is what the beginning of the ”add entry” form looks like. You type in the data on a particular course, which you are willing to disclose, and at the bottom of the page there is an ”OK”-button. Voila – the entry has been created.
[Click on the link at the bottom of the page to go to the form]
Link

9. 90 days or less before the course starts, the forum or database will send an automatically generated notification to the entry creator asking him/her to add any additional information he/she might have concerning that particular course. This contains a link to the course entry.

10. This is the template from which the forum builds one of its automated notifications. It shows to whom the will be sent, what the subject of the will be, and what the text will contain.

11. This is an example of an automatically generated notification
This is an example of an automatically generated notification. The is not visible in its entirety, but as you can see, it gives a short description of what is required of the recipient, it shows the title of the course entry, and underneath all available information on the course is displayed . On the right hand side there is a button saying ”Go to entry”, and if you click on that button, guess what happens.

12. Here is what you will see if you click on the ”go to entry”-button
Here is what you will see if you click on the ”go to entry”-button. There will be a query box at the top of the page telling the entry creator what to do. In this instance, it is telling us to provide additional information and press ”done” and ”OK”. So if you would like to add details on the course, you click on ”Modify/delete”, add what needs adding, press ”done” and ”OK” – and the query box will disappear.
Link

13. So, we have already covered the ”add info” bit.

14. Once the entry creator has done what the query box says, that particular course entry transitions into another state, in this case, a resting state, where it remains until one of the conditions leading to another transition is met

15. For instance, when the course starts, the entry creator will be asked to update the status of the course (the course no longer being ”scheduled”, but ”current”).

17. Six months after a particular course has ended, the entry creator will be required to either delete the entry or to update it, maybe by changing the course dates, if it is a recurrent course.

19. If the entry creator chooses to delete the entry, a notification is sent to the forum administrator.

20. But if, instead, the entry creator should choose to update the entry providing the dates for next year’s corresponding course, the course entry will return to the beginning of the workflow process.

21. What the Future Holds… Send out formal invitation (June 2007)
Provide nations with login information (June 2007)
Link from ACT website or regular data transfer (July 2007)

22. Questions?