Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre Website
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), established in 1998 by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is the leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide. The IDMC website provides comprehensive and frequently updated information and analysis on situations of conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide. With just the click of a button, visitors can get a brief overview of the displacement situation in any given country, or browse for more detailed information on background, causes of displacement, maps, territories, humanitarian and human rights concerns and news on national and international responses. The website currently features tens of thousands of documents from a huge number of sources detailing the current situation in over 50 countries around the globe.
Online Solutions were commission in 2005 by the Norwegian Refugee Council to redesign the (what was then called the Global IDP Network) website and create a new Content Management System (CMS) to replace an old Lotus Notes database and numerous static HTML pages. The new content management system, developed using the latest Lotus Notes software, provides the IDMC with a central repository through which all website content and imagery can be managed and updated.
The CMS also features numerous tools to aid the IDMC in preparing website content including a PDF generator that creates files automatically by collating information stored with databases as well functionality that allows for an interactive (developed using Macromedia Flash) map to be dynamically generated on-the-fly simply from the information held within the Lotus containers.
The redesign and development project was a huge success and has provided the IDMC with a simple to use mechanism for updating what is a very large information heavy website with no technical ability whatsoever.