About the CouncilNet Website

Goals of the CouncilNet Website

The CouncilNet Website was designed to achieve three main goals.

1. To provide clear, helpful and easily accessible information about the Council to Council members and others interested in learning about the Council and the field of less commonly taught languages.

Paper documentation published by the Council is expensive and time consuming to produce and distribute, and only Council's members have access to this material. The Internet provides a means of delivering more information about the Council that is both up-to-date and much less costly to publish and distribute than conventional information. The Internet and the World Wide Web also makes it possible for the Council to make this information widely available.

2. To use the Web medium in an expert way, but one that would not exclude or burden users.

We approached the design of the CouncilNet site with the belief that every communication medium has its strengths and weaknesses. Accordingly, we worked to adapt the medium of the Web to the meet the Council's needs while at the same time seeking to maintain an attractive, clean, quick and intuitive presentation of useful information. We worked to achieve a balance between the use of graphics and the need for technical efficiency to ensure that the site was attractive and responsive.

3. To use the capacities of the Web to enable the Council's members to more effectively and more easily share information about their work and to engage in periodic discussions on issues critical to advancing the Council's mission.

We focused our efforts on organizing useful information about the Council, less commonly taught languages and the Council's members, and in incorporating participatory functions where they would add the most value to this information. Staff involved in the development of this website will continue enhancing these participatory features.

If you have comments, reactions, or suggestions to make on either our rationale or our implementation of it, please send us your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.