Document:        Project Proposal
Date:            August 9, 2005
Name:                  Dan Tran
Lab:             Computer Systems
Mentor:          Graeme Littler
Location:        The World Bank / International Finance Corporation


   An Implementation of an Efficient User Interface for the Generation of
                         Statistical Marketing Media

Objective

The objective of this project is to create a user interface product for  the
generation  of  pseudo  customized  mass   marketing   media   automatically
populated with specific statistical information calculated from a  pertinent
data set. Through the use of a web interface, a sender can quickly  generate
and send pseudo customized  emails  detailing  newly  calculated  statistics
focused  towards  the  recipient.  The  data  set  would  be  analyzed   for
noteworthy statistics such as favorable or unfavorable trends  or  standings
which then will be automatically  flagged  by  the  interface  to  ease  the
sender in the selection of data for the email. The  content  for  the  email
would then be built from preloaded templates, allowing for scalability  such
as new trend indicators or additional languages.

Justification

Each  year,  the  World  Bank  releases  its   flagship   "Doing   Business"
publication  -  a  guide  to  understanding  business  regulations  in   145
countries. While this publication receives a  substantial  amount  of  media
attention, a large percentage of this  attention  is  based  in  the  United
States. By notifying media channels across the globe  of  the  new  release,
the information would reach further than it would currently. Efforts to  tap
into the international media have been advanced by  the  use  of  additional
languages in the Doing Business  publication  and  website.  By  creating  a
product to generate  and  send  quick  and  pseudo  customizable  emails,  a
feasible and efficient process for mass  marketing  of  the  Doing  Business
publication to overseas  journalists  can  be  easily  executed,  containing
details such as  the  journalist's  country  statistics  regarding  business
regulations and trends. For example, one journalist  can  be  notified  that
his or her country is ranked in  the  bottom  10  for  ease  of  starting  a
business; other accompanying information can  also  include  trends  of  the
selected statistic and comparisons to  a  standard  average  statistic.  The
journalist can then find  out  more  information  by  requesting  the  Doing
Business publication or visiting the Doing Business website.

Description

The objective will be accomplished through the use  of  the  Microsoft  .NET
Framework. The C# programming language will be primarily used, pairing  with
the ASP.NET web technology in order to integrate with the  IIS  web  server.
SQL Server will be used for the  storage  and  access  of  applicable  data.
Development of the interface will be done through an integrated  development
environment such as Visual Studio .NET or SharpDevelop.

Limitations

The limitations of this project include a time constraint due to  the  short
term status  of  access  to  the  servers  in  which  the  project  will  be
implemented. The server has the  sole  copy  of  the  data  needed  in  this
project and the unique setup of the server  requires  that  the  project  be
developed and implemented  within  the  World  Bank  LAN.  Another  possible
limitation is finding the correct balance between a product  that  is  fully
automated with a possibility of uninteresting statistics and a product  that
is  manually  operated  with  a  human  analyzing  and   selecting   correct
noteworthy  statistics.  This  limitation  can  possibly  tie  in  with  the
previous in that a more sophisticated implementation of data  analysis  will
take more time to create.