ROME: 24th February 2005 --  Here is something you may have wished was always available  - an accessible set of raw and treated statistics regarding the East Asia Oceania Region: 'raw' in the sense that just the plain figures are available, 'treated' in the sense that you can also see these in charts or as spreadsheets.  The entire package is available from www.bosconet,aust.com under either 'what's new' or the 'Bosconet special services'.

    The source of the statistics is what every province knows of as FLASH, a set of province-based statistics filled in each year then returned to Rome.  The stats in the eaostatsv2bn.zip (around 2mb even as a zipped package) are as accurate as the FLASH.  Human error is always possible however, so if you discover a stat that seems obviously wrong to you, please let me know promptly and I will check the entry against originals.

    Some of these statistics are available from the back pages of vol 2 of the Annuario or Yearbook each year, but not all of them.  And many Houses do not keep copies of the Annuario (formally the Elenco) more than several years back.  Besides, the digital package allows for much, much more - maps of every country in the region, for example.

    The current package allows you to preview statistics from 1990-2004, a period, then, of 15 years which enables a number of trends to be viewed.  The reports available at the click of a button range over a ten year period however, 1994-2004.  This is a choice.  You could alter that if you know how.

    You will need Msaccess or another database program to open the package, once unzipped.  Note that some buttons indicate 'entry' of new data - in actual fact the entry forms have been locked so that you will not accidentally enter or alter data; but nothing else has been locked.  If you know how to 'go behind' the front end and bring up the database tables, queries, reports etc., you could set up different queries and achieve your own results quite easily - you could also draw up additional reports.  If you are not particularly literate where Msaccess is concerned, the reports currently available will suffice, and individual results can be found from the forms, using the sort and filter functions.  Experiment - you can always download a second version if you muck things up!!

    Note two more things: (1) the title eaostasv2bn refers to the fact that this is the second version set up for Bosconet.  The first version was a trial only which you did not have access to; (2) there will obviously be more versions available.  You cannot currently access material on individual confreres.  The non-bn version contains autobiographical data on each confrere in the region - or will, when it is completed.

    One final note.  Are there particular displays of stats that you would like to see? Let me know.  Now that the basic data is entered in a package that has few limitations, almost anything is possible.  The ultimate aim is to make the database accessible to those with due 'permission' to access directly from the website, but there are some technical issues to resolve before arriving at that point.  Sorry if the zip is still too large for some to download; future versions will be larger still!

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