The Management Group is invited to consider the issues concerning the presentation of and access to WWW Operational Information – WMO Publications No. 9 and No. 47, and Operational Newsletter – and of the Manuals on the GDPS, GOS and GTS and the Manual on Codes. The Management is particularly invited to consider the recommendations given in the paragraphs 7 and 10 of the document.

1. The purpose of the WWW Operational Information (OIS) Service is to collect from, and distribute to WMO Members and WWW centres detailed and up-to-date information on facilities, services and products made available in the day-to-day operation of the WWW. The WWW operation information includes the mandatory WMO Publications No. 9 – Weather Reporting - and No. 47 – List of Selected, Supplementary and Auxiliary Ships. CBS agreed that the objective of the OIS should be to provide interactive on-line access services.

2. The use of Information Technology makes it now possible for the WMO Secretariat to quickly receive updates from the WWW centres and update WMO Publications No. 9 and No. 47 in an electronic format.

3. Information on the Global Data Processing System is yearly included in a Technical Document – WWW Technical Progress Report on the Global Data Processing System. Further information on the processed information exchanged on the Global Telecommunication System is available in Volume C1 – Catalogue of meteorological bulletins. This information supersedes the information included in Volume B - Data processing – of WMO Publication No. 9. The ICT on Data Processing and Forecasting Systems is considering a proposal to suppress Volume B from Publication No.9.

4. The WMO Publications No. 9 and No. 47 are at present distributed to the WMO Members in a paper format. The production and dispatch of these Publications on CD-ROMs would be much more cost-effective than the paper format. Those WMO Members, who still prefer to receive the paper format, could be provided with the paper copy upon individual request.

5. Parts of the WWW operational information are already available on the WMO server. This makes it possible for the users to access directly the information updated in quasi real time by the Secretariat. This satisfies better the requirements of the users who need to receive as soon as possible updated information. Interactive access with search tools are also being developed, and are already available on an experimental basis for Volume C1 (http://ALTO-STRATUS.wmo.ch/WWWOIS/). It is proposed to use the Web access as the main distribution means for WMO Publications No. 9 (excluding Volume B) and No. 47, and to provide once a year, a new edition of the Volumes (excluding Volume B) on CD-ROM .

6. Parts of the WWW operational information are dispatched to subscribers on diskettes with a view to satisfying the requirements of users to receive the information in an electronic format. It is felt that the requirements of the subscribers of the diskette service can be best satisfied through direct access to the WMO server, backed-up by an annual CD-ROM. It is therefore proposed to discontinue the diskette subscription service.

7. The meeting may wish to recommend:

• Distributing the WMO Publication No. 9 (excluding Volume B) and No. 47 on a CD-ROM as from 2002. Those WMO Members, who still prefer to receive the paper format, could request the paper copy;
• Continuing developing the presentation of the WMO Publications No. 9 and No. 47 on the WMO server, and ;
• Discontinuing the diskette service.

8. The Operational Newsletters on the World Weather Watch and Marine Meteorological Services are available on the WMO Member. The meeting may wish to consider the requirement concerning its distribution on a paper format.

9. The Manuals on the GDPS, GOS and GTS and Manual on Codes, which are Annexes to the WMO Technical Regulations, are not made available in electronic format. This is not only unsatisfactory to users but hampers the activities of those working on changes to the Manuals. The experts and team members need to work on-screen usually in Microsoft Word in order to introduce revisions. It is therefore felt that the Manuals should be produced in Microsoft Word so as to avoid conversion problems with loss of formatting. At the moment, retyping is required each time a set of changes is to be introduced. Availability of the Manuals in Microsoft Word would eliminate the problem. Once the revised/updated editions of the Manuals are ready for publication they would also be posted in Word and pdf-format on the WMO server for easy access by the WWW centres as reference for the implementation and operation of the WWW. The on-going revision of the Manual on the GOS, which entails a comprehensive rewriting, would offer a good opportunity to move to the new procedure. Another possibility exists in the Manual on Codes, Part B, which is already handled in Microsoft Word. The Manuals could also be distributed on CD-ROM, if so requested.

10. The meeting may wish to recommend publishing the Manuals on the GDPS, GOS and GTS and Manual on Codes in Microsoft Word and pdf formats and posting them on the WMO Server and making them available on CD-ROM.