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FindingsHYPOTHESIS I: Bigger organisations, such as Multi- lateral Agencies, Academic Institutions and International NGOs are more likely to use some form of CMS than smaller organisations such as Community Based Organisations, National NGOs and Independent Consultants.With reference to Table 4, the results of the survey narrowly support this hypothesis, with 19% of 'larger agencies' using some form of CMS compared to only 15% of 'smaller organisations'. Taking each category of organisation in turn, the comparison between different organisation types and the method of website production employed is more complex. None of the Multi-lateral Agencies surveyed, for example, use any form of CMS to produce their website, and close-to 60% employ a professional web-developer. In the case of Academic Institutions, around half utilise an existing staff member and a proprietary software package, with just 14% using some form of CMS. For International NGOs, where the larger sample size has produced less skewed results, around one-quarter use some form of CMS. This proportion is equal to those for 'employ a professional web-developer' or 'staff who use a proprietary software package'. Only 14% of Community Based Organisations use some form of CMS and only 11% of National NGOs. Community Based Organisations, like Academic Institutions (by a majority proportion of over one-third) tend to have a staff member producing their website using a proprietary software package. Meanwhile National NGOs (also by a one-third majority) tend, like Multi-lateral Agencies, to employ a professional web-developer. In contrast well-over one-third of Independent Consultants use some form of CMS. Overall, larger agencies are more likely than smaller agencies to either employ a professional web-developer (almost one-third, compared to under one-quarter of smaller agencies) or to assign an existing staff member to the task of producing a website (at 28% compared to 21% respectively). Smaller agencies are, however, marginally more likely to contract an outside company (14% compared to 9% respectively.)
Table 4 (Summary Table): Survey Responses Showing Organisation Type by Method of Website Production
Appendix to Table 4 (Full Table): Survey Responses Showing Organisation Type by Method of Website Production
HYPOTHESIS II: Organisations in the poorer countries of the 'global South and East' are less likely to use some form of CMS than organisations in the wealthier countries of the 'global North'. Referring to Table 5, the survey data confirms this hypothesis with almost one-quarter of organisations in the global North using some form of CMS, compared to only 10% of organisations in the global South and East. According to this survey (with the exception of Africa where the use of existing staff is more prevalent) the most popular method of website production for organisations in the South and East is to employ a professional web- developer. Thirty percent of respondents in the global South and East stated that this was the case, compared to 20% of organisations in the North. Most popular for organisations in the North is to use an existing member of staff (27%, compared to 20% of organisations in the South and East.) Overall, the least popular solution was to contract an outside company (18% of countries in the North and 11% of countries in the South.) One exception to this trend is Asia/ Middle East where a significant 29% of organisations contract-out.
Table 5 (Summary Table): Survey Responses Showing Region by Method of Website Production
Appendix to Table 5 (Full Table): Survey Responses Showing Region by Method of Website Production
HYPOTHESIS III: Organisations using a Free Software CMS are most likely to have an inexpensive, quickly updateable, frequently updateable, simple to maintain website that is well-suited to its intended purpose. The survey data confirms that organisations using a Free Software CMS are more likely to operate an inexpensive, quickly updateable, easily maintained website compared to any other method of website production. Moreover, in terms of 'frequently updateable' and 'well suited to purpose' a Free Software CMS option is second only to a proprietary CMS. Looking at Table 6, Ninety percent of respondents who used a Free Software CMS stated that their website could be updated quickly, 86% stated that changes could be made frequently and an additional 90% stated that their website was simple to maintain. A further two-thirds of respondents currently using a Free Software CMS said that their website was well-suited to its intended purpose, whilst only 5% said that operating a Free Software CMS was expensive (compared to 75% of respondents currently using a proprietary system). After Free Software CMS and Proprietary CMS the third best performing option, according to our survey, was an Organisation Specific CMS. Two-thirds of respondents felt that after using their own system their website could be updated quickly, changed frequently and maintained easily. A further two-thirds stated that their website was well-suited to its intended purpose. In addition to being the least frequently employed method of website production, contracting an outside company was also found to be the least approved means of producing a website. Whilst 82% of respondents adopting this method found it to be expensive, only around one-third of respondents stated that the approach enabled them to update their website quickly or maintain their website easily. Furthermore, only 41% stated that contracting-out enabled them to change their website frequently, whilst just 44% said that their website was consequently well-suited to its intended purpose. Despite being the most common means of producing a website, employing a professional web-developer in-house performed only marginally better than contracting an outside company. Whilst close-to two-thirds of organisations employing a web-developer could make changes to their website frequently, less than half produced websites that could be easily maintained. Making use of an existing staff member using a proprietary software package scored moderately better, with two-thirds of respondents stating that their website could be updated quickly and almost three-quarters stating that changes could be made frequently. Only 50% of respondents employing this method, however, believed that their website could be easily maintained and just 36% stated that the resulting website was well-suited to its intended purpose.
Table 6 (Summary Table): Survey Responses Showing Method of Website Production by Method of Website Production Characteristics
Appendix to Table 6 (Full Table): Survey Responses Showing Method of Website Production by Method of Website Production Characteristics
HYPOTHESIS IV: Smaller organisations such as Community Based Organisations, National NGOs and Independent Consultants are less likely to have an inexpensive, quickly updateable, frequently updateable, simple to maintain website that is well suited to its intended purpose compared to bigger organisations, such as Multi-lateral Agencies, Academic Institutions and International NGOs. The survey data narrowly confirms this hypothesis. Community Based Organisations, National NGOs and Independent Consultants are marginally less likely to have quickly updateable, frequently updateable and simple to maintain websites that are well-suited to their intended purpose, when compared with Multi-lateral Agencies, Academic Institutions and International NGOs. However they are more likely to state that their website was inexpensive to produce. According to Table 7, thirty-eight percent of 'smaller' organisations stated that their website was expensive, compared to 47% of 'larger' organisations. Five percent more Multi-lateral Agencies, Academic Institutions and International NGOs stated that their website was quick to update, when compared to the percentage for Community Based Organisations, National NGOs and Independent Consultants. Three percent more of the bigger organisations than the smaller organisations stated that their website can be changed frequently, whilst 6% more said that their website was simple to maintain. Eight percent more respondents from Multi-lateral Agencies, Academic Institutions and International NGOs stated that their website was well-suited to its intended purpose. In more detail, respondents from Community Based Organisations reported having the most inexpensive websites, with only 26% stating that their website was expensive to produce. This compares to over two-thirds of Multi-lateral Agencies. Around two-thirds of all organisation types found their websites quick to update (slightly less in the case of Multi- lateral Agencies and National NGOs). Similar proportions for each organisation type said that their website could be changed frequently and maintained simply (although more respondents from Multi-lateral Agencies, at 86%, felt that their website could be changed frequently compared to any other organisation type.) Overall the organisation type apparently most satisfied with their method of website production are the Independent Consultants with an aggregate score of 64% 'Yes' responses, covering the five stated 'method of website production characteristics'. Independent Consultants are the most likely organisation type to use some form of CMS. The least satisfied organisation type, with a score of 49%, are Multi-lateral Agencies and National NGOs. This organisation type is most likely to employ a professional web-developer.
Table 7 (Summary Table): Survey Responses Showing Organisation Type by Method of Website Production Characteristics
Appendix to Table 7 (Full Table): Survey Responses Showing Organisation Type by Method of Website Production Characteristics
HYPOTHESIS V: Organisations in the poorer countries of the 'global South and East' are less likely to have an inexpensive, quickly updateable, frequently updateable, simple to maintain website that is well- suited to its intended purpose, compared to organisations in the wealthier countries of the 'global North'. Overall, the survey shows that organisations in the South and East are less likely to have an inexpensive, quickly updateable, frequently updateable, simple to maintain website that is well-suited to its intended purpose compared to organisations in the North. Looking at Table 8, two-thirds of respondents from the North stated that their website was inexpensive, compared with less than 50% of respondents from the South and East. Almost two-thirds of Northern respondents said that their website could be updated quickly, compared to 46% in the South and East. Nineteen percent more respondents from the North felt that their website could be changed frequently. Figures relating to ease of maintenance and whether or not sites were well-suited to their intended purpose are more similar, with around half of respondents in both cases expressing satisfaction. It is clear that websites in the South and East are perceived as more expensive to produce than websites in the North. Close-to two-thirds of respondents from Africa (where the majority of organisations were found to use proprietary software) found the process expensive, compared to only around one-third in Western Europe and North America (regions also revealing a high incidence of proprietary software use). Africa and Asia/Middle East in particular also scored proportionately much less than Western Europe, for example, on concerns around updating and changing website content; whilst Africa and Latin America/Caribbean scored just 35% each on issues around website maintenance. The region from the global South and East that expressed the highest level of satisfaction with their chosen method of website production was Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States, where employing a professional web- developer is predominant. Overall, however, the most satisfied region globally was Australasia/Japan, where some form of CMS is the most popular method of website production.
Table 8 (Summary Table): Survey Responses Showing Region by Method of Website Production Characteristics
Appendix to Table 8 (Full Table): Survey Responses Showing Region by Method of Website Production Characteristics
HYPOTHESIS VI: Organisations in the poorer countries of the 'global South and East' are less likely to be aware of Free Software CMS than organisations in the wealthier countries of the 'global North'. Table 9 confirms that according to our survey organisations in the South and East are less likely to be aware of Free Software CMS than organisations in the North. Fifty-four percent of respondents from the North were aware of Free Software CMS options, compared to only 29% of respondents in the South and East. The region with the highest level of awareness was Australasia/Japan, with 65% of all respondents for that region. This proportion was slightly greater than that for Western Europe, with 61%. Surprisingly the proportion for Latin America/Caribbean was 4% greater than that for North America. More predictably the proportion for Africa was the lowest, with just 19% of African based respondents stating that they were aware of Free Software CMS options for producing a website.
Table 9 (Summary Table): Survey Responses Showing Region by Aware of Free Software
Appendix to Table 9 (Full Table): Survey Responses Showing Region by Aware of Free Software
HYPOTHESIS VII: Smaller organisations such as Community Based Organisations, National NGOs and Independent Consultants are less likely to be aware of Free Software CMS compared to bigger organisations, such as Multi-lateral Agencies, Academic Institutions and International NGOs. The questionnaire results shown in Table 10 disprove the above hypothesis since 42% of respondents from both 'small' and 'large' categories of organisation stated that they are aware of Free Software CMS options for producing a website. Independent Consultants seem the most aware of Free Software CMS, with 58% of respondents for that group stating that they are aware of the option. This compares to only about one-third of respondents from Academic Institutions. The percentage differences between all other organisation types are marginal.
Table 10 (Summary Table): Survey Responses Showing Organisation Type by Aware of Free Software
Appendix to Table 10 (Full Table): Survey Responses Showing Organisation Type by Aware of Free Software
HYPOTHESIS VIII: Organisations that are aware of Free Software CMS will actually use a Free Software CMS. Using Table 11 to calculate the statistics, fouty-two percent of respondents stated that they were aware of Free Software CMS, but only around one-quarter of these currently use a Free Software CMS to produce their website. The survey results therefore disprove the above hypothesis. Perhaps not surprisingly only 15% of respondents who currently contract a web-development company were aware of the existence of Free Software CMS. In contrast two-thirds of those organisations using an organisation specific CMS were aware of Free Software CMS options, as were one hundred percent of those using a proprietary CMS and almost 50% of those employing a professional web-developer.
Table 11: Survey Responses Showing Method of Website Production by Aware of Free Software
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