The Assessment Tool asked you to treat each dimension independently. In reality, of course, they interact. The Diagnostic Tool takes these interactions into account and helps you identify ways to set priorities, make tradeoffs or create options that deal with them in a realistic way.

When the profile of characteristics indicates a problematic situation with one dimension, it is often possible to adjust others to compensate. The discussion below shows how different situations can be addressed by adopting policies or practices, setting limits or establishing certain requirements. These brief explanations of the interdependence among dimensions are not exhaustive, but they do illustrate key relationships and possible actions.

Users The more homogeneous and predictable the user population, the more focused the implementation of the program can be. Issues related to the sensitivity of the data may be more easily addressed when the user population is known and can be asked to agree to behave in certain ways. Your ability to predict the nature of use is also likely to be greater. Meta data can be developed to meet the known user community's needs rather than incurring the cost of developing meta data that is broad and detailed enough to serve an unidentifiable general population.

Uses When data collected for one purpose is used for a different purpose, there is potential for misuse or misunderstanding. The intended use, the nature and skill of the user and the status of meta data are therefore highly interdependent dimensions. Users must be made aware of the limitations of the data as well as its description. The more removed secondary users and uses are from the original purpose for data collection, the more they will need ready access to complete, accurate and timely meta data and perhaps some expert advice about data use.

Sensitivity of content Politically, personally and context sensitive content will have a strong impact on design and implementation. More sensitive content will require more stringent governance and access policies, regular review of their effectiveness and well-trained staff to handle the data appropriately. Sensitive content will also require the use of technical safeguards that ensure security and prevent improper access.

Needed frame of reference When an expert frame of reference is needed to interpret and use content, planners need to consider the capabilities of expected users and enhance the quality and usability of meta data and user support accordingly. They could also consider repackaging the content to make it more suitable for less expert users or provide some ready-made analysis for the most common uses or questions.

Meta data Meta data is a critically important dimension and the one over which you often have the most control. The quality, completeness and user-friendliness of meta data can be adjusted in many ways to account and compensate for variations in source data, the needed frame of reference for responsible use, or the unpredictability of users and the uses they have in mind. The more these characteristics tend toward the high or problematic end, the greater the importance of good meta data.

Uniformity and integration of sources These related dimensions have important implications for the design and operation of an access program. Consider these factors: Content from multiple sources or in multiple formats increases the overhead associated with managing relationships, handling the information and making it available for use. The larger the number of the sources, the larger the number of relationships that will need to be maintained with suppliers. The greater the variation among the sources, the more work needed to describe and maintain them. If the content from different sources will be integrated, the level of effort will rise as uniformity among sources diminishes.

The skill required to integrate multiple disparate data sources into a new information resource can be enormous. Integration demands a finely tuned understanding of the content and clear expectations about intended users and uses. Planners must also consider the frame of reference required to understand and interpret the integrated information and its sources and design user support services and meta data that are appropriate to the users and the information.

Usefulness over time If the content has enduring social, legal or historical value, meta data is critical to its long term and effective use. High quality and complete meta data that addresses context and frame of reference will help ensure that the content remains understandable to future users. A design for information of enduring value must also emphasize standards and make technology choices to ensure migration and preservation long into the future.

User and supplier relations If relationships are market-like, planners need to pay less attention to administrative activities which are much more important in formal arrangements that need rules, or contracts to guide them. Community relationships demand considerably more staff and leadership attention because they rely on long-term shared activities that build trust for joint efforts. These more labor-intensive relationships will require larger commitment of resources and must lie closer to the heart of the organization's mission than a program that will operate on a simple transaction basis.

Access provider involvement in data collection If the access provider plays no role in original data collection, it will be important to require information suppliers to include good meta data with their information sources. If the access provider participates in the original data collection strategy or work, the access program can benefit from staff who have a much deeper understanding of the information resources they are making available to users. However, the cost of the program is likely to rise to accommodate this additional role and the complex relationships with suppliers that it implies.

Data transformation and other value-added services Value-added services can compensate for inexperienced users, highly variable data sources and the need for an expert frame of reference. By providing indicators, normalized data, analytical reports and summaries, and user-oriented tools, instructions and support services, an access provider makes complex or voluminous data more consumable for more users. These services, however, add greatly to the cost of the access program and demand a broader range of staff skills and technical tools than in a program that does not provide these services.