Report prepared for the Experts Meeting Towards the Implementation of a Global Invasive Species
Information Network (GISIN), 6-8 April, 2004. Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Page 16
8/30/2004
sets or distributed database systems
(DDSs). A fourth survey allowed
respondents to evaluate the other three.
Survey 1--Online Database Survey:
questions focused on the respondents'
online databases or information systems
and their availability to others. This
survey consisted of seven questions
(
Survey 2--Database Content Survey:
questions were divided into two sub-
sections. The first focused on the
specific content of the respondents’
database(s), languages, information
types, standards, subject, and
geographical area focus and could be
taken more than once if a respondent
represented multiple information
systems. The second section was for all
respondents (whether or not they
represented a specific information
system) and asked respondents to
identify priority search criteria or
desirable characteristics for IAS
databases (Appendix D2).
Survey 3--Database Development and
Technology Survey: questions were also
divided into two sub-sections. One
focused on database import/export
format, development software, funding,
developer, purpose, technical and non-
technical limitations, and whether or not
it is available online. The other section
asked about respondents' hardware,
computer platforms, operating systems,
internet browsers, internet access, and
to rank in importance the different IAS
database types (Appendix D3).
Respondents were encouraged to take
the first part of this survey more than
once if applicable.
Survey 4--Evaluation of Survey:
questions allowed respondents to
provide feedback on the
effectiveness/applicability, content, or
effort involved in completion of, or
suggestions for improvement to, any or
all of the three surveys (Appendix D4).
Completion of the surveys was entirely
voluntary. The only required fields in the
survey were those for name of respondent,
phone number, and email address. The
surveys were conducted in English in a
format that included text entry answers,
check box selection, ranking, and list
selection.
The results were tallied for each question
and analyzed using Microsoft Excel. Text
answers are cited as they were received,
with spelling errors corrected. Since
respondents were able to choose more than
one option for the check box questions, the
data received from these questions are
represented in bar graphs showing the
number of responses for each choice (i.e.,
the totals do not indicate the number of
respondents, but rather the number of
responses).
For ranking questions, respondents were
requested to rank every choice and use
each rank number only once. Responses
that did not rank the options were not
included in the analysis (i.e., if all options
were ranked highest, then the respondent's
answers for that question were not included
in the analysis). For analysis purposes on
ranking questions, the mode (the rank that
was most frequently chosen) and the
average scores are shown.
Results
Overall Survey Response
At the time that the surveys were distributed
to the GISIN Community, there were
approximately 140 members. Sixty
respondents from 26 countries (Argentina,
Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada,
China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland,
Germany, India, Jamaica, Lithuania,
Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand,
Peru, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Sri-
Lanka, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United
States of America - USA, and Venezuela)
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