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For on-line database demos see via
http://www.uia.org/db/
An infobase is a database in Folio Bound Views® hypertext format. There
are five infobases on the CD-Rom Encyclopedia disk:
world problems, strategies, human values, human development approaches
and a bibliography. On the separate Yearbook Plus
CD-Rom there are a further two infobases: international organizations
and biographies of organization executives. Portions of the data from
each infobase have been converted to enable access in the demo versions
available here. The demos do not have the Folio range of features, nor
are all hyperlinks active.
The Yearbook CD-ROM includes over 20,000
organization profiles, with over 105,000 working and other relationships
between them that can be navigated as hyperlinks. The types of organization
and the kind of information on them is described in the note on the
Yearbook of International Organizations
. The Yearbook CD-ROM includes profiles of
over 13,000 international organization executives, together with their
(hyper)links to international organizations.
The Encyclopedia includes over 12,000 world
problem profiles into an infobase with 120,000 hyperlinks between them.
The hyperlinks represent both vertical (hierarchical) relationships
between individual problems and horizontal (causal) relationships.
Navigating hyperlinks provides the user with unparalleled insight into
the complex network of the world problematique.
No other publication identifies such a complete range of problems transcending
national boundaries. Many of the problems are seldom described elsewhere
in specific or precise terms. For example, this is one of the few encyclopedias
to cover such phenomena as corruption (96 entries), torture (75 entries)
and others subjects which because of their ambiguous, unpleasant or
negative nature are disproportionately sensationalized or denied.
. There are some 4,400 individual entries in the
human development infobase. They document the diversity of approaches
to human advancement in the light of different disciplines, cultures
and spiritual traditions. Entries are hyperlinked to indicate developmental
pathways between them. They are also related to over 3,200 constructive
and destructive values in the values infobase, themselves in a network
of 23,000 hyperlinks. 1,400 development concepts cover themes such as
meditation and maturity. These are supplemented with 3,000 "modes
of awareness" or experience that are reported accessible through
such disciplines, such as depression and ecstasy. Buddhism, for example,
offers the most elaborate perspective, requiring 1,360 interlinked entries.
The subject area of psychology comprises 169 entries.
Human Values Infobase
. The Encyclopedia takes an unusual approach to
the range of human values. Rather than limiting its focus to the dozen
or so values most frequently discussed (peace, justice, and the like),
it identifies 987 "constructive" or positive values as well
as 1,990 "destructive" or negative values. The positive and
negative values are clustered into 230 value polarities (like beauty-ugliness)
to transcend the semantic confusion associated with many value-words.
This enables exploration of a variety of possibilities of organizing
value terms, for example in the light of the current preoccupation with
so-called "basic values".
23,000 hyperlinks exist between entries in the values infobase. It
becomes possible to trace, for example, the paradoxical connections
between positive values and problems, which become perceptible through
their value complements. The human values infobase also serves as a
unique index to world problems infobase from a value perspective. Also
for the first time, values are cross-referenced to the human development
infobase to show where particular approaches or experiences enhance
the understanding of a particular value. Such values can then be seen
as engendering sensitivity to world problems and enabling formation
of strategic responses to them.
. The strategies infobase profiles over 30,000
strategies and action proposals responding to world problems or enhancing
particular values or modes of development. It thus provides both an
active and a remedial focus to complement the other infobases -- the
global "resolutique" to the world problematique.
The strategy entries cross-reference each other through over 80,000
hyperlinks, relating them both hierarchically (families of strategies)
and horizontally (supportive or undermining strategies). In addition
they are linked both to world problems and to the international organizations
which are employing or advocating them, making a total of over 120,000
hyperlinks.
There are over 12,000 bibliographic cross-references
to entries in the other four preceding infobases. Bibliographic references
are given to support descriptions in an Encyclopedia entry, to point
to additional information on the subject area of the entry, or simply
to justify its inclusion in the case of a poorly documented or controversial
entry.
Network of Cross-References and Hyperlinks
There are cross-references between Encyclopedia entries (and to international
organizations), some of which are active in the demo versions available
here. These are listed after the text of each entry. Following the pattern
of cross-references, hyperlinks allow the user to "jump" from
one entry to another in the network. In some cases there are also hyperlinks
between entries in different infobases. In all, there are approximately
a quarter of a million hyperlinks in Encyclopedia Plus.
There are two main groups of cross-references between entries in an
infobase. These show logical (hierarchical) relationships or functional
(causal) relationships.
Vertical / Logical relationships
Logical relationships describe "families" and hierarchies
of similar types of entries according to the following designations:
- Broader, or more general, entries
- Narrower, or more specific, entries
- Related entries (not "mother/daughter" but perhaps second-cousins)
For example, broad "global" strategies, like the "World
Conservation Strategy" will embrace a number of narrower programmes
and plans, within each of which will be nested more detailed actions
and tactical approaches applicable to specific contexts.
Horizontal / Functional (causal) relationships
Horizontal relationships between organizations show linkages and
working relationships. Horizontal relationships in other infobases
usually show functional (or causal) relationships and the effects
that apparently dissimilar phenomena can have on each other. They
span sectors (eg family life/commerce), disciplines (eg medicine/botany)
and domains (eg world trade/subsistence farming). Generally, for any
entry functional relationships show:
- Causally preceding entries: other entries that precede this entry
in any causal chain or process;
- Causally following entries: other entries that may follow from
this entry in any causal chain.
Strategies may facilitate or undermine the implementation or effectiveness
of other strategies. Certain problems may aggravate or reduce the
impact of other problems. For problems, a further distinction may
be made in each case between a constructive and a destructive causal
chain, the latter being called vicious problem cycles.
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