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Online offline project (OOPS) designed for field usage

OOPS is a project being developed with the WFP to answer a very basic need: to have always updated information available in the fields, without the need of a permanent internet connection.

Using our experience with humanitarian organizations and knowing their problems, we have created OOPS (Online Offline Publication System) with the aim to contribute to improving the capacity of organizations to cooperate in field where Internet connection can be limited.

www.reflab.com screen capture 2010-10-15-11-59-8.png

Many organisations share the need to make knowledge available where Internet connectivity is a challenge. Thus the idea of a web-based delivery, with navigation, search, private or public access available both online and offline.

The initial project started for the development of the Logistic Operation Guide (http://log.logcluster.org), which is a manual for all humanitarian logisticians; originally produced as a MS Word document and updated and published on the web (intranet / public site) two times a year as a series of static HTML pages.

The goal, for our Team, was to design a system that would use simple technology to make the LOG manual available both online and offline.

Moreover the OOPS approaches the editing of the manual as a collaborative, ongoing activity aimed to produce a web-based electronic manual, catalogue, reference library or application.

This project is designed for the field because recognising the potential obstacles in the field where Internet connection can be limited, the OOPS provides two different offline modes:

  • Portable version

  • Offline with Gears

The publication produced with OOPS can be downloaded onto either a computer, USB-stick or other storage device. This portable version is based on Portable Firefox or Google Chrome.

The web publication can also be accessed directly in the browser, even offline, after installing the Gears add-on. Gears is an Open Source product developed by Google, the same used to make Gmail available offline.

Both versions allow the user to search and extract tools and templates. When downloaded to a USB-stick, the web publication can be carried by and offers full access to the user.

Both versions supports updates: whenever an Internet connection is available the system will check for updates, notify the user and ask to update. To mimimize bandwidth usage and resources, when updating to the latest revisions only the revised parts will be downloaded.

OOPS is an Open Source product available with no restrictions to use to any organization: no-profit, commercial or governamental.

 

More on the OOPS product.

OOPS Demo: http://alice.reflab.com/ and http://alice.reflab.com/mobile/

OOPS on Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/francescociriaci/online-offline-publication-system-overview
Quotes

"OOPS is a very innovative way to collaboratively work on a document repository, and to replicate the data to the field,
whenever whatever connectivity is available. The whole library basically resides on a memory stick, independent of
the computer platform you use. Any updates are incrementally updated, optimizing bandwidth.

For the work we did in WFP, and for many places where the connectivity is not always or barely available, this is THE
way to propagate information to many different individuals.
This is the answer we have been looking for, for over a decade, in WFP, on how to replace large sets of data (be it
libraries, knowledge sets, documentation, reference documents, etc..).

We have the system in production already in WFP, since almost a year, and made a repository library in a collaborative
effort between a dozen different agencies. It worked beautifully."

Peter Casier WFP