November-December 2013 CyberSelection: Digital Public Library of America

Digital Public Library of America is the CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research CyberSelection for November-December 2013.

After decades of visioning and two and a half years of planning, DPLA (http://dp.la; the Digital Public Library of America) went live on April 18. I have been waiting to see what this site would include and what it would look like ever since it was announced, because I viewed the project as the closest that the U.S. could get to a project on as grand a scale as Europeana (http://europeana.eu), the digital library, museum, and archive of Europe. DPLA launched with 2.4 million items, and as of this writing claims nearly 4 and a half million items from libraries, archives, and museums. That is only a hint of things to come, I trust, but it is enough to test the aims, organization, search capabilities, and other aspects of the site.

The full text of the November-December CyberSelection will be available in February 2014.

October 2013 CyberSelection: Collins Dictionaries

Collins Dictionaries is the CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research CyberSelection for October 2013. 

The Collins dictionaries, in various editions, seem to be the most popular paperback carry-along among my colleagues in Spanish language classes. A year ago, I bought Collins Spanish Idioms, a paperback of barely 200 pages, and started reading meaningful and literal translations of common idiomatic expressions. Only recently did I read the fine print in my book of idioms and discover that Collins operates a free site with lots of resources for language learning and reference (www.collinslanguage.com/easyresources). And it was only after I explored that page a couple times that I discovered Collins Dictionaries (www.collinsdictionary.com) with its tagline "Always Free Online."

The full text of the October CyberSelection will be available in January 2014. 

September 2013 CyberSelection: Nobelprize.org

Nobelprize.org is the CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research CyberSelection for September 2013.

The 2013 Nobel Prize awards will be announced the second week of October; applications for the 2014 prizes are already being accepted. The official Nobel Prize site (http://Nobelprize.org) unveiled a new look "adapted to multiple screens" in June, and now you can access it easily from a smartphone or tablet. An incredible amount of data about Nobel Prize winners--and their accomplishments--is available on the site, easily browsable and searchable. Nobelprize.org is a treasure trove of understandable information about some of the most important knowledge and culture in the world.  

The full text of the September CyberSelection will be available in December.

July/August 2013 CyberSelection: Travelers' Health

CDC Travelers' Health is the CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research CyberSelection for July/August 2013.
  
Travelers' Health

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel 

By Susanne Bjørner

I sat in the "international travel office" at my local hospital recently, answering questions about where and how I would be navigating around in Malaysia and Vietnam on my summer vacation after the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) World Library and Information Congress in Singapore this August. The doctor across from me--always curious whether I would be on a bus, train, boat or plane--knew exactly where there were jungle threats or possibly infectious bodies of water--even telling me of rivers and streams in my route that I didn't know about yet. After he determined which inoculations and preventive doses I should take, I asked him where he got his up-to-date detailed information about diseases currently affecting very specific parts of the world.

Some from WHO (the World Health Organization), he said, and some from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). It was all assembled on his computer screen, which was turned away from me, and I determined to go looking for the site when I got home. I don't think I found exactly what he was looking at during the interview, but I found an extremely useful site with lots of background, tips, and advice on what to do to stay safe while traveling, and what to do if you do fall ill.

Where Are You Going?

The main page of Travelers' Health (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/), with a new design launched in May, offers information For Travelers and For Clinicians; you select a destination from a dropdown menu. I didn't expect to find much risk of exotic discomforts or diseases in the highly populated metropolitan area of Singapore, but that's where my journey was starting out, so under For Travelers, I selected Singapore. I could have indicated some special conditions listed in checkboxes to receive more targeted help:

• Traveling with Children
• Chronic Disease
• Cruise Ship
• Extended Stay/Study Abroad
• Immune Compromised
• Pregnant
• Mission/Disaster Relief
• Visiting Friends or Family

None of these applied to me, however, so I clicked Go, and a page on Health Information for Travelers to Singapore appeared (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/singapore ); it had a small map locating Singapore among its surrounding southeast Asian neighbors. The content on this and all destination pages is divided into five standard topics, listed to the right of the map with internal page links:

• Vaccines and Medicines
• Stay Healthy and Safe
• Healthy Travel Packing List
• Travel Health Notices
• After Your Trip

Vaccines and Travel Notices

Vaccines and Medicines recommends visiting your doctor for immunizations 4-6 weeks before travel. It says that all travelers should be up to date with routine vaccinations like MMR (measles-mumps-rubella), diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, and a yearly flu shot. It further recommended vaccination against hepatitis A and typhoid, especially if you are "staying with friends or relatives, visiting smaller cities or rural areas, or if you are an adventurous eater." (I have twice in my life suffered the consequences of being slightly too adventurous.) Finally, it provided information about three other diseases (hepatitis B, rabies, and yellow fever), that might be a problem for some travelers under certain conditions.

Small colored icons in each section provide visual cues of how to protect yourself (Get vaccinated; Eat and drink safely; Keep away from animals; Reduce your exposure to germs; Avoid sharing body fluids; and Avoid non-sterile medical or cosmetic equipment). Each of the diseases and vaccines is hyperlinked to pages with more information. The Routine Vaccines page (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/diseases/routine) is a goldmine of links and data on standard vaccines for children and for adults (flu, Td/Tdap, HPV, shingles, pneumococcal, and meningococcal, as well as hepatitis A and hepatitis B).

Before following up on other travel information on the Singapore destination page, I moved on to Malaysia and Vietnam to check their Vaccines and Medicines data. Both introduced me to two diseases not mentioned concerning Singapore: Japanese encephalitis and malaria. Basic information is given in the Vaccines and Medicines section, but I also clicked the link on each disease to see the extended page for each disease. Both these serious diseases can lead to death; there is a vaccine for Japanese encephalitis, and you can take prophylactic medicine against malaria. The best prevention for both is to avoid rural areas and prevent insect bites.

I had to scroll down to see special Travel Health Notices on each destination page. There were no notices for Singapore, and the one notice for Malaysia, for sarcocystosis, pertained to a limited geographic area that I am not getting close to at all. Vietnam is a different story: "As of November 4, 2012, the Vietnam Ministry of Health has confirmed that approximately 134,929 people in 63 provinces have had hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) since the beginning of 2012." The CDC has placed a Watch Level 1 warning, advising to "Practice usual precautions." The usual precautions, plus the cause and symptoms of HFMD, are detailed on an expanded page (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/watch/hand-foot-mouth-disease-in-vietnam), linked from the warning.

Staying Healthy and Packing Right

The redesign of the CDC Travelers Health site in May moved some very helpful information to more prominent places on each destination page. The Stay Healthy and Safe section offers advice relating to nine key behaviors:

• Eat and drink safely
• Prevent bug bites
• Stay safe outdoors
• Keep away from animals
• Reduce your exposure to germs
• Avoid sharing body fluids
• Know how to get medical care while traveling
• Select safe transportation
• Maintain personal security

I clicked Prevent Bug Bites to open that section and found that I am right in assembling a long-sleeved and long-legged white and beige wardrobe for this trip. I also found specifics on tick and mosquito repellent, including specific brand names of several that meet the recommendations. Permethrin-treated clothing was mentioned as worth consideration, with a link to a page (http://npic.orst.edu/pest/mosquito/ptc.html) from the National Pesticide Information Center informing that the U.S. military has been pre-treating clothing with this pesticide for 20 years, and giving details on its proper use.

Each of the topics above can be opened or closed for viewing, and the resulting customized page copied or printed for individual study. Also on each destination page is a Healthy Travel Packing List with a handy checklist for Medicines and Medical Supplies (for existing conditions, special prescriptions for the trip, and OTC products), Supplies to Prevent Illness or Injury (with specifications on sunscreen and water purification tablets), First-Aid Kit, and the all-important Paperwork. You probably won't need all the items listed, the CDC acknowledges, but it doesn't hurt to consider them.

Other Navigation and More Data

So far we have only looked at the For Travelers section and some places to which it is linked. There is also a For Clinicians section, directed to healthcare professionals, but freely available to anyone. The destination pages here are very similar to those in the For Travelers view, but with a section on Non-Vaccine Preventable Diseases, some more detail, and more of an advisory focus.  

At the very top of Travelers' Health is an A to Z list so you can open an index of topics available; and at the top right is a search box where you can limit a search to Travelers' Health or expand it to All CDC Topics.

A left column on the home and most other pages also contains important links by which you can approach the data differently: There are Destinations, Travel Notices, Find a Clinic, Disease Directory, and Information Centers for travelers, clinicians, and travel industry.

There is also a link to the Yellow Book homepage (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/yellowbook-home-2012). This title is published by CDC and issued in print every two years; it is the comprehensive resource that collects most of the information that is reproduced elsewhere. Travelers' Health does such a good job of repackaging the data in useful doses that I thought the full book would be of interest only to professionals. I was wrong. A detailed table of contents

(http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2012/table-of-contents)

links to specific information about myriad topics, including altitude illness, jet lag, motion sickness, and travelers' diarrhea--all under the "self-treatable conditions" chapter. But there are other interesting specialized topics covering a variety of situations, including:

• Medical Tourism
• Obtaining Health Care Abroad for the Ill Traveler
• Travel Health Insurance & Evacuation Insurance
• Air Travel
• Death during Travel
• International travel with animals
• Immigrants Returning Home to Visit Friends and Relatives (VFRs)
• US Military Deployments

Whether you are off to exotic places for your summer vacation, or just want to know what insect repellent or hand sanitizer to buy, the first place to check is CDC Travelers' Health. And that map that my travel medicine specialist was using at the hospital, which I thought was for professionals only? I may just have found it, referred to in an appendix of the Yellow Book. Check out HealthMap (www.healthmap.org).

Susanne Bjørner provides editorial services to publishers, librarians, authors, and researchers. Contact her at bjorner@earthlink.net or www.bjorner.info.

June 2013 CyberSelection: E-Commerce Times

E-Commerce Times is the CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research CyberSelection for June 2013.

E-Commerce Times (www.ecommercetimes.com) covers the world of business online, and because, as it says in its tagline, "e-business means business," it covers all of business. It is the flagship of several components of the ECT News Network (www.ectnews.com/about/), which also includes LinuxInsider, TechNewsWorld, CRNBuyer, and MacNewsWorld (www.ectnews.com/about/advertising.xhtml#publications).

Cyber first mentioned E-Commerce Times in June 2000--back before all businesses were online--and again in July/August 2006. The site has changed in response to technology and markets over the years but retains much of its original focus, quality, and content.

Today's News

The bulk of the visible site space goes to top stories--four or five are posted each weekday, but a single story is usually added on the weekend, as well. When I started researching the site in depth in March, the big story was FCC Chair Genachowski calling it quits. Over the next ten days, stories covered the Blackberry Z10, Zynga and Facebook, the debut of Marin Software on the NYSE, Nevada's licensing of London-based 888 Holding to offer online gambling in the state, Yahoo's purchase of the Summly newsreader app, a Walmart in-store locker pickup service for online purchases, Amazon's acquisition of Goodreads, lots of speculation on Michael Dell and the activities of Facebook, and much more.  Most of the stories originate from E-Commerce Times, but occasionally one of the featured stories is from another ECT News Network publication.

To the right of the featured story line-up, shorter title lists from the other four ECT publications appear; rolling over the title brings up a text box blurb of the article. At the top of the right column there is a link to This Week on ECT News Network, which displays a page of linked headlines from each of the five publications. Another link from the main page, Most Popular, gives a page of linked "top ten" lists for the last 24 hours, the last week, and the last thirty days.

You don't have to go to the website to receive notice of the latest news, of course. A series of free newsletters is available for email delivery: the daily E-Commerce Minute, which, unlike some other technology site newsletters, really can be scanned in a minute, and Tech News Flash, which is a similarly formatted daily newsletter from the TechNewsWorld side of the ECT network. There is also an ECT News Network Weekly Newsletter,       and an Editor's Pick publication. RSS feeds are provided for E-Commerce Times and TechNewsWorld.

Alerts & Searching

Another link at the top of the right column leads to News Alerts (www.ectnews.com/about/newsalerts/) where there is a comprehensive description of how this free service works. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of this page you will also see the only search tips I was able to find on the site:

+virus +worm (finds articles with BOTH the word "virus" AND the word "worm")

virus worm (finds articles with EITHER the word "virus" OR the word "worm")

virus -worm (finds articles that contain the word "virus" but NOT the word "worm")

"computer virus" (finds articles that contain the exact phrase "computer virus")

You enter alerts on a separate page that is linked to your account. (Subscribing to newsletters and alerts requires registration--free, easy, and unobtrusive enough so as to be non-memorable). You can choose between daily or real-time alerts. Within minutes of setting up four, some as daily, some as real-time, I received my first email. Unfortunately, the four were grouped, but for each story, there was a notation telling which keywords were matched in that article. Within the email, a short teaser is given for each story, then you are pushed to the web for the completion. The email also tells you which ECT network publication the alert is drawn from.

Search functionality is fast but basic, in a single box that supports AND, OR, NOT, and phrases, and apparently searches all text words. Results are automatically sorted in relevance order but may be changed to date (newest first) and are displayed in pages of 20 items. Through a couple laborious tests (publication date searching is not supported) I deduced that content from as far back as 1999 is available. It is not easy to get to, however, as the jump list to subsequent pages only offers 6 pages at a time. It takes a long time to jump to page 6 and then 11 and then 16 and so on until you get to whatever page number contains item number 6158 for apple or 5517 for windows.

Article Tools

Every article in E-Commerce Times carries an impressive range of article tools. First, for browsing, there is the convenient A A text size icon at the top right. You can click on the larger A once or more to increase the size of the text, and on the smaller A to decrease size. All article text except the lead paragraph responds to the command. You can also click on a Print Version link to get the full article on one page without display ads (the clearly marked text ad that invariably follows the lead paragraph does not go away, however). Text size may be changed on the Print Version page, too.

On both the Print and the original article pages there is a link labeled "Get Permission to License or Reproduce this Article." A single click takes you, via a new window, to Copyright.com from the Copyright Clearance Center. You land at a pre-filled out form for the requested article, and an array of options where you indicate how you want to use the article. Click once more and usually you have a price instantaneously. Elsewhere (www.ectnews.com/about/reprints.xhtml) you can find information on how to buy multiple reprints from ECT for promotional purposes. Here also is a copyright notice and linking information (www.ectnews.com/about/link-to-us.xhtml#rss) that clearly indicate that E-Commerce Times means business when it comes to its intellectual property rights.

Other options for sharing notice of the article (not the text) abound on article pages. Icons to the left encourage sharing via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and a host of other networks. You can email a link to the article to up to five recipients at a time with a minimum of hassle--entry of a robot-discouraging security code is required, but it is only four characters in length and more legible than many.

The site encourages online commenting on individual articles via a TalkBack icon: "Be the first to comment on this story," and you can select from among several icons to lead your comment: an exclamation mark, flame, light bulb, question mark, thumbs down, or thumbs up. Comments are moderated and "gratuitous promotions or advertisements" are not permitted.

More Research and Services

Additional ways of delving into the deep archives of E-Commerce News stories are available from the navigation bar at the top of all pages. Major sections are offered in these categories:

• Business
• E-Commerce
• Enterprise IT
• Mobile
• Security
• SMB (Small and Mid-sized Business)
• Social Media
• Trends

Several of these have subcategories; Mobile includes BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), Carriers, M-Commerce, and Mobile Advertising sections. The layout of these archived stories differs from that in the current news presentation, but you still see the title, date, and lead paragraph for each selection.

A Research section opens to a list of several in-depth research reports (BYOD Deployment and Windows 8 Deployment, for two examples). You need to fill out a form to download the PDF versions of these reports, but they are free.

Finally, the Reader Services tab at the right end of the navigation bar is the place to control your account, newsletters, and alerts. It also leads to useful site maps for E-Commerce Times and its sister publications, a description of an affiliate program, and Discussions.

The Discussion link opens to a lively set of discussion boards. (www.ectnews.com/perl/board/mboard.pl). In addition to two general forums (Open Discussion and Wide World of Technology) there are Article Talkback forums for each of the five ECT publications. Threaded software and various views make it easy to follow the discussion. I checked five pages (out of more than 100) of subject headers, and found that "The High Cost of Free Shipping" had generated 11 comments. Clicking on the header reveals a link to the full story and to each of the comments. "Priceline: Flawed or Fraud" had garnered 82 comments, the most recent in February 2013. The article itself was published in 2001! Another post "Please respond all of you who have been suspended by ebay wrongly" was started in 2002, apparently not linked to a specific article; 280 had responded. Note that discussions are part of the content covered by the ECT search function, and results can be filtered by Articles and Discussions.

Bottom line: Don't forget E-Commerce Times for information, analysis, and customer opinion on the online business of any enterprise in the past decade.

Susanne Bjørner provides editorial services to publishers, librarians, authors, and researchers. Contact her at bjorner@earthlink.net or www.bjorner.info.

May 2013 CyberSelection: Disabled World

Disabled World  is the CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research CyberSelection for May 2013.

Today, about 1 in 5 people worldwide are living with at least one disability, and most people will experience a disability of some form during the course of their lives. So says Disabled World (disabled-world.com/health/#ixzz2MNSvG2XY), launched in 2004 as a source of independent news articles and reviews about all types of disabilities and assistive devices. Disabled World (disabled-world.com/) offers advice and information for those with chronic or genetic disabilities, as well as disability through accident, illness, or the natural process of aging. Daily news comes from press releases, journalists, and organizations. No medical or health expertise is claimed, although contributors may have extensive experience in the subjects covered. The site is managed and content curated by two individuals, Lynn and Ian Langtree, based in eastern Canada.

Terminology

What is "disabled"? An article attributed to Wikipedia, titled "Disability or Disabled--Which Term is Right? (disabled-world.com/definitions/disability-disabled.php#ixzz2MNbf2yBf), discusses the sensitivity in the U.S. and U.K. toward various terms covering "functional limitations that affect one or more of the major life activities, including walking, lifting, learning, breathing, etc." It acknowledges the effects of laws in various countries and the preferences of groups representing affected people themselves, and comes down unequivocally for "disabled persons" living with various conditions of "disability."

The definitions don't stop there. Indeed, there is a whole page, Glossary and Definitions of Disability Health and Medical Terms (disabled-world.com/definitions/), which lists general and specific glossaries. Links are provided to glossaries of conditions (paraplegia, quadriplegia, and hemiplegia, for example) as well as to the bureaucracy of disability ("Disability Alphabet Soup: Sorting Through the Maze of Legal Abbreviations") and to terms that are useful when buying assistive devices ("Stairlift Glossary of Terms"). Each glossary gives its date of publication and author; those glossaries that are not authored by Disabled World itself are often provided by representatives of professional or commercial organizations, but affiliations of authors are disclosed.

Navigation

Though I often use Ctrl+ to increase the size of type on websites, I am still able to read without screen reading software. Therefore I don't know whether the Disabled World site meets all current standards of visual accessibility, but I find it clear and easy to read (without increasing the font) and easy to move around. Across the top of the homepage are several tabs: Disability Information, Medical, Health, Travel, Sports, News, Community, Videos, and Products. Immediately below these large topic areas is an A to Z list of All Topics; there are hundreds.

The homepage itself gives top space to its mission statement, definition of disability, and several links to informative articles for those who are "newly disabled by accident or illness." Further down are headlines for the most recent news. When I checked in early March the top stories were:

• Handheld Talking Graphing Calculator for Visually Impaired, from Orbit Research
• Wireless Brain Sensor has Many Applications, from Brown University
• Helping Speech and Stuttering in Children with Down syndrome, from University of Alberta
• 30% of Adults Receiving Government Assistance Have a Disability, from U.S. Census Bureau
• Sequestration Cuts Will Have Devastating Impact on People with Disabilities, from National Organization on Disability

Each story was shown on a full page with the ability to print, email, add comments, and post comments or a notice to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Related content that had previously been published in Disabled World was also identified, and in some cases additional information was provided. The sequestration article, for example, gave a brief description of the sequestration battle, labeled as a "definition."

All story pages also contained ads from Google Ad Choices. Although the spots--at the top right of the article, the bottom middle, and the bottom right--are clearly labeled as advertisements, they are tiresome and not particularly pertinent (but most Cyber readers are probably not plagued by the limited selection presented to me: "Work from home in Spain," "Save money; live overseas," and virtually anything printed in Spanish). Such annoyance is the price we pay for "free" sites.

Assistive Devices

The most interactive sections of Disabled World are Products, Videos, and Community. Click on any of these tabs from the main pages and you will get a new top navigation bar that lets you choose from among just those three. I went looking for Products. The Product page (products.disabled-world.com/) immediately presented thumbnail photos of 60 devices--writing instruments, playing cards, light switch enlargers, large button universal TV remotes, arm extender reachers, and more. Click on a product picture to go to its page, and then click again for more information. Purchases are made from the supplier, not from Disabled World, but Disabled World has approved the merchants (products.disabled-world.com/suppliers) and apparently reviews them, as one source had been declared "no longer recommended" on the supplier page.

I soon realized that there is a product category listing in the right column of the product pages (it replaces those annoying ads). The most efficient way to review products is to click on the product category name. If you are new to caregiving or disability status yourself, you will benefit from browsing the categories and be intrigued by the many different types of assistive devices currently sold. The Dressing Aids category, itself just one of over 20 categories, opened up to all sorts of dressing, grooming, and bathroom aids. Of course you would go here for bathroom grab bars, long-handled sponges and brushes, wipes and other toiletry supplies, but did you know you could buy zipper pull-ups, special jewelry fasteners, adaptive nail clippers, and an "autodrop eyedrop guide" if you can't see well enough to hit the mark when inserting your own eyedrops? The pages on canes and cane accessories (products.disabled-world.com/category-444.html) show a huge variety of decorative and adjustable ones, in addition to the more prosaic, and are just the thing to examine if you are trying to help someone accept the use of a cane for the first time.

Disability Videos

As I was looking at some of the Mobility Products photos (products.disabled-world.com/c/11/mobility-products.html) I realized that I needed more description than I could get from a flat page. That's when I remembered the Video tab. On the Video homepage (videos.disabled-world.com/) I found a selection of thumbnail images of "recently viewed" and "new" video clips with title; clicking through to the individual video page lets you view the video itself and presents information about it, statistics, and related links. The Disabled World collection of short video clips (all free) includes demonstrations of assistive technology, classroom discussions of disability topics, general health topics, and inspirational videos of sports. Quality varies: some videos are professional, some are homemade. Many use Flash format and will not display on an iPad. Videos for those with hearing disabilities include British Sign Language (BSL), American Sign Language (ASL), and captioning.

As with assistive devices, there is a detailed subject list of nearly 40 categories to the right. Some of the topics that benefit especially from a video treatment include the following:

• Accessible Homes and Ramps
• Adaptive Driving and Hand Controls
• Apps for iPhone Android and Mobile Devices
• Disability Travel Films
• Lifts Hoists and Transfer Devices
• Sign Language Videos

Community

Click on the Community tab from the main menu or the Disability Community tab from the submenu and you come to Disability Community Q & A, where almost 100 questions have been asked and answered in just two months. Registration is required to participate here. This new community replaces an older forum, and reference is made to Disabled World's Facebook presence (facebook.com/Disabled.World) and the fact that most users keep in touch that way.

In addition to Facebook you can set up an RSS feed of the daily news or catch up on Twitter (https://twitter.com/DisabledWorld). Although I find it annoying that every time I viewed a device or article or video on Disabled World, I was asked to comment, it is obvious that Disabled World has been successful in creating its social community and is working to spread the word.

A Pearl of a Site

Because it is broad in scope, covering every type of disability and touching on regulations and culture in several English-speaking countries of the world, it should not be expected that Disabled World be totally comprehensive, and it is not. It is, however, an excellent starting point for those new to this world. It provides immediate practical help and makes you more aware and sensitive to issues of disability. Experienced searchers will recognize it as a research pearl. It speaks to you in language you understand and meets some needs right away. If you must extend your research, you will be able to do so much more efficiently because of the awareness of issues, resources, and terminology that you have gained in Disabled World.

Susanne Bjørner provides editorial services to publishers, librarians, authors, and researchers. Contact her at bjorner@earthlink.net or www.bjorner.info.

April 2013 CyberSelection: Country Insights

Country Insights is the CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research CyberSelecton for April 2013.

Country Insights (intercultures.ca/cil-cai/countryinsights-apercuspays-eng.asp) is a product of the Centre for Intercultural Learning (intercultures.gc.ca), a part of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, formerly Canada's Department of External Affairs. The Centre provides intercultural and international training to personnel in government departments and agencies, NGOs, and private sector organizations. For more than 200 countries of the world, the Country Insights website offers a short factual Overview, Country Facts, and Cultural Information. Cultural Information is the heart of the site, with data provided in these categories:

    Conversations

    Communication Styles

    Display of Emotion

    Dress, Punctuality & Formality

    Preferred Managerial Qualities

    Hierarchy and Decision-making

    Religion, Class, Ethnicity, & Gender

    Relationship-building

    Privileges and Favouritism

    Conflicts in the Workplace

    Motivating Local Colleagues

    Recommended Books, Films & Foods

    In-country Activities

    National Heroes

    Shared Historical Events with Canada

    Stereotypes

In each category, a "local" perspective is offered, followed by a "Canadian" perspective. Background information about the individual authors is given at the end of each Cultural Information page; usually the local interpreter was born in the named country or lived in it for many years, and also has living, study, and/or work experience in Canada. Likewise, the Canadian interpreter most likely is a Canadian native who has spent substantial time in the named country.

North American Perspectives

For some Cyber readers, a Canadian perspective is natural, but the majority are located in the U.S. Are there important differences between these two perspectives that will affect interpretation of the entire site? To find out, I selected United States of America from the dropdown list of countries. The United States of America page (intercultures.ca/cil-cai/overview-apercu-eng.asp?iso=us) immediately revealed, in the Overview section, the diversity of the country. Factual information is given for Language(s), Religion(s), and Ethnic Group(s); there were multiple entries in all categories.

I clicked on Conversations, the first category of Cultural Information, and the full cultural page was revealed (intercultures.ca/cil-cai/ci-ic-eng.asp?iso=us#cn-1). The question posed in Conversations is, what is safe to talk about when meeting someone for the first time? I was relieved to read that "At first meeting in a business setting the standard topics of conversation that are acceptable in Canada would apply in the US—likewise for social first encounters." Communication Styles covers how much space is usual between two people, handshaking, kissing, eye contact, facial expressions, and tone of voice. The Canadian interpreter says that "In the US, much like in Canada, the personal bubble seems to range between 2 to 3 feet" and that "As in Canada, people are not very tactile at first encounter." Both the local and Canadian interpreter commented that Americans are direct and want you to come to the point and not beat around the bush. Both interpreters also indicated, in the Display of Emotion section, that norms for display of affection and anger are similar in the U.S. and Canada.

Dress, Punctuality & Formality concentrates on the workplace environment; both interpreters noted that requirements vary greatly depending on the size and type of workplace, but that use of first names is common. I was surprised to read that "many people will consider you late if you don’t arrive 15 minutes early," but then decided that in a work situation where people do coffee, Facebook, and personal email before starting work, that may be true. Sections on Preferred Managerial Qualities and on Hierarchy and Decision making follow; here it is good to scroll down to read the background of the interpreters, in order to understand more about the environments they have worked in. A Disclaimer at the bottom of the page remarks that "Although cultural informants were asked to draw on as broad a base of experience as possible in formulating their answers, these should be understood as one perspective that reflects the particular context and life experiences of that person."

Subsequent sections give perspectives on religion, class, ethnicity, and gender in the workplace and on work environment questions including these:

How important is it to establish a personal relationship with a colleague or client before getting to business?

Would a colleague or employee expect special privileges or considerations given our personal relationship or friendship?

I have a work-related problem with a colleague. Do I confront him or her directly? Privately or publicly?

What motivates my local colleagues to perform well on the job?

The greatest revelation here was the surprise displayed by the Canadian perspective on encountering the U.S. health insurance "system" and the lack of a one-year paid maternity leave.

Further questions ask the two interpreters to recommend books, films, television shows, foods, and websites to learn the culture of the country, activities to pursue while in the country, who are the national heroes, whether there are shared historical events that might influence the relationship between the two countries, and what harmful stereotypes Canadians might have about people in the named country. The dual answers to these questions, while often too specific to draw generalities, do reveal individual opinions and suggestions. The site recommends cultural triangulation, which it defines as "using a variety of media (people, print, literature, television) and several different sources of each before deciding the meaning of something in another culture" to develop your own picture of the culture.

Beyond North America

Probably the greatest value of this site is for those cultures that are much more different from the one you come from than are the differences between two North American countries. It is easy to browse full reports by country, using the country name dropdown and then clicking any Cultural Information link.

In a lengthy Communication Styles section, for example, the Saudi Arabia page details appropriate and inappropriate distance and  touching norms and practices between men and men, between women and women, and between women and men. I was rather distressed to learn that in China women are expected to "dress up," wearing heels, for work, and in Mexico they not only dress up, but make up heavily. On the Vietnam page it says "Vietnamese prefer to speak in a very indirect manner.… This is different from Canada where, in work situations, it is better to get straight to the point." On the issue of punctuality: "Vietnamese use what translates roughly as 'rubber time'. For example, if you expect people to come to a meeting at 8am, you should invite them for 7.30am."

Time and Time Again

Making comparisons between cultures can be simply done because the subcategories are the same for all countries. I checked Dress, Punctuality & Formality for several.

South Africans also do not follow "first world standards" of punctuality and deadlines. "Many meetings do not start (or end) on time. Allow enough time in your daily schedule to take care of each event running over by at least an hour." In Mexico, the local interpreter advises one "to set up deadlines a week before the 'real' deadline" but the Canadian one says that "The … mañana mañana approach to life does not apply to deadlines, and while meetings might start 10 minutes late, much later than that is not the norm. It is considered rude, however, to show up for social engagements on time." And then, "there is always regular time and "Afghan time" which is 30–45 minutes after the designated time. The Afghan people generally are very hard workers but deadlines are really not of high importance. They may start 30 minutes late but rarely leave on time and often work 2-3 hours overtime." In Finland, on the other hand, "Lateness in attending meetings is not well received. Punctuality is a virtue. Deadlines are taken seriously. Working overtime is almost a norm in some sectors (but be mindful of the unionized work environment).  Always inform if you will be late."

Country Insights is a wonderful site to find the "soft" but vital information on how to deal with people from different countries, whether you are working with them or just visiting. There are some disappointments: a few of the countries are missing the Cultural Information (they do have the Overview and Country Facts, which assembles external links to History, Geography, Culture, Politics, Economy, Media, and a Map). Many pages have not been updated in three or four years. I would love to see a section added that gave suggestions for email communication with the culture in question.

Susanne Bjørner provides editorial services to publishers, librarians, authors, and researchers. Contact her at bjorner@earthlink.net or www.bjorner.info.