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8.6. Possible extensions of the DIAL facilities and expertise


Once the DIAL facility exists on a permanent basis, both the personnel involved in its operation, and aspects of the facility itself, could facilitate other types of projects which may become relevant to the Bank[152] or particular DMCs.

Many DMCs only have a very limited range of legal materials available via the Internet, if any. The DIAL personnel and facilities could assist in making a country's materials available in at least the three ways specified below.

8.6.1. Assistance to establish local facilities and legal databases

DIAL personnel could provide in-country assistance in setting up an Internet server to provide access to local legal materials. Any DIAL host will have expertise in the use of at least one set of hardware and software suitable for the task, and perhaps ownership of some of the relevant software, so they should be able to provide such consultancy in an efficient way. A number of public legal information institutes have already provided their services to assist in the setting up of similar facilities in other countries.

8.6.2. Web spider solution - basic local databases, remote indexing and searching

DIAL already provides some assistance to countries which have a low level of expertise in operation of Internet facilities. If any country can at least provide its legislation on the web in simple HTML form, then that legislation can be made searchable using DIAL Search. The local web pages could then include a search form which is in fact a search over DIAL Search.

8.6.3. Interim facility solution - maintain databases on DIAL until local facilities available

In some cases, running any type of Internet server in a country for purposes of providing legal information might not be technically or financially feasible at present. In such cases, the DIAL host could act as an interim host for a collection of laws from that country.

8.6.4. Recommendation


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