Chapter 8 - Development of permanent DIAL facilities

• Recommendations concerning development stages
• Recommendations concerning host location
• Recommendations concerning funding levels
• Recommendation concerning assistance to users in DMCs
• Recommendation concerning possible extension of DIAL facilities

Recommendations concerning development stages

• The Bank should allow, in any follow-on RETA, for a completion stage of one year for the DIAL facilities, with allowance for funds to be rolled over into a second year in the event of delays.
• The Bank should allow up to an additional year and additional funds for the completion stage if a new host and new equivalent software is required.
• The Bank should allow for some level of funding for the production system stage of the project until full `stakeholder' funding is obtained. Bank funding should be provided for some years at a diminishing rate while stakeholder funding is phased in.
• The Bank should give consideration to providing a small amount of funding for the maintenance of the existing prototype system until a decision is made by the Bank concerning a follow-on RETA, and the RETA commences.

Recommendations concerning host location

• The most suitable location for the DIAL facility will be in the Asia-Pacific region, such as in North America, Australasia, Hong Kong, Singapore or the Philippines.
• The DIAL host should be situated on a high bandwidth link (at least T1 standard - 1.5 Mbps) to Internet backbones within the country in which it is located.
• If and when necessary, consideration should be given to providing DIAL mirror sites in North America and elsewhere.
• The Bank is most likely to find a suitable operator for a permanent DIAL facility among University-based `public legal information institutes'.

Recommendations concerning funding levels

• If the Bank decides to establish a new `start-up' DIAL system in an academic environment, it should allow $300,000 - $400,000 for the completion phase, plus the Bank's costs in finding an appropriate alternative host.
• If the Bank decides to locate DIAL at another existing public legal information institute (not the prototype host), it should allow $250,000 - $350,000 for the completion phase, plus the Bank's costs in finding an appropriate alternative host.
• If the Bank decides to continue the development of DIAL at the prototype host, AustLII , it should allow $200,000 - $230,000 for the completion phase.
• The Bank should support the adoption of a `stakeholder model' as the means of long term funding for DIAL, and should assist the DIAL host in the identification and contacting of stakeholders.
• If the Bank supports a `stakeholder model' as the means of ongoing funding of DIAL, the Bank should pay a portion of the ongoing `production system' costs for some years while the stakeholder support is being built up and phased in.
• If DIAL is located at a public legal information institute (AustLII or otherwise), the estimated annual cost for the `production system' phase is $120,000 - $150,000. The Bank should pay a portion diminishing over successive years, for example payments of $70,000, $50,000 and $30,000 over the first three years of the production system.

Recommendation concerning assistance to users in DMCs

• The Bank should consider providing at least $100,000 for the costs of assisting user access in DMCs, if assistance is to be given to at least seven countries.

Recommendation concerning possible extension of DIAL facilities

• At an appropriate time, the Bank should consider funding a SSTA to examine and report on how the Bank could capitalise on past and future TAs which deal with legal information facilities in individual DMCs, to ensure that the legal information of each DMC is available via the internet if possible. Such a SSTA should include examination of how such information can be made available for free access or low cost access, at least to users in other DMCs.