Draft Documentation of the UNVacancyXML

The UNVacancyXML is an extension of Atom 1.0 with the goal to exchange data about UN (and NGO) job vacancies easily. The feed allows for a human readable feed in which it is suggested to consolidate relevant information for easy reading in any Atom compliant Feed Reader as well as machine to machine exchange of vacancy data.

An example of a simple UNVacancyXML feed is:

<?xml version="1.0"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:unva="http://unjoblist.org/resources/UNVacancyXML">

<title>UN Job List</title>

<subtitle type="html">UN vacancies compiled by Sebastian Rottmair</subtitle>

<link href="http://unjoblist.org/" rel="alternate" type="text/html" />

<updated>2010-12-01T19:59:56+01:00</updated>

<author>

<name>Sebastian Rottmair</name>

</author>

<id>tag:unjoblist.org,2010:1</id>

    <entry>

        <title>RULE OF LAW OFFICER in NY</title>

        <id>tag:unjoblist.org,2010:jobID/246743</id>

        <summary><![CDATA[UN DSS: RULE OF LAW OFFICER - Legal, Legal Affairs in NEW YORK. Closing date: 2011-01-01]]></summary>

        <link href='http://unjoblist.org/r/?246743' />

        <updated>2010-11-24T00:00:00+01:00</updated>

        <unva:status>Open</unva:status>

        <unva:posttitle>RULE OF LAW OFFICER</unva:posttitle>

        <unva:closingdate>2011-01-01</unva:closingdate>

        <unva:grade>ICS-10</unva:grade>

        <unva:dutystationcountry>USA</unva:dutystationcountry>

        <unva:dutystationcity>NEW YORK</unva:dutystationcity>

        <unva:organisation>UN DESA</unva:organisation>

<unva:orgcontact>http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/</unva:orgcontact>

        <unva:contracttype>Fixed Term (FTA)</unva:contracttype>

        <unva:vacancyno>n.a.</unva:vacancyno>

        <unva:keywords>

                <unva:keyword>Rule of Law</unva:keyword>

<unva:keyword>Legal</unva:keyword>

        </unva:keywords>

        <unva:language>en</unva:language>

  </entry>

</feed>

The elements of the feed in detail are:

1) Status: <unva:status>Open</unva:status>

Use: Mandatory (use “Open” as a standard value)

The suggested use is:

Open - for open regular vacancies

Closed - for vacancies that have been closed

Revoked - for vacancies which have been revoked

The UN Job List will not show vacancies which are revoked or closed, however, the UN Job List may show these vacancies in Atom feeds to communicate to other vacancy aggregators that these vacancies should be taken off the sites since they are either closed or revoked.

The rationale behind the status field was to ensure that vacancies which have been issued once don’t continue to be on external websites even if they have been closed or revoked by the issuer of the vacancy.

2) Post Title: <unva:posttitle>RULE OF LAW OFFICER</unva:posttitle>

Use: Optional

The suggested use is the pure post title without any further additions. The attribute may carry the same content as the Atom <title> tag. Since the <title> tag can be “enriched” with other relevant data for the “human readable” aspects of vacancy advertisement the <unva:posttitle> tag was introduced to contain the clean post title only.

3) Closing Date: <unva:closingdate>DATE</unva:closingdate>

Use: Mandatory

Use the ISO 8601 date where the vacancy is closing. Use 00-00-0000 or “Open” as marker for open vacancies.

4) Grade: <unva:grade>ICS-10</unva:grade>

Use: Optional

Convey the grade of the contract as applicable. Suggested use is to have the ICSC classification (ICS-1 to ICS-14) or alternatively (G1 to G7 and P1 to P6, D1, D2, ASG, USG) denomination.

ICSC labeling is strongly preferred.

Use most appropriate labeling for non-UN system vacancies.

5) Duty Station: <unva:dutystationcountry>USA</unva:dutystationcountry>

        <unva:dutystationcity>NEW YORK</unva:dutystationcity>

Use: Optional

Use both attributes of Duty Station if they are known. The optional use of GeoRSS ^[a]has been discussed but is currently not supported by the UN Job List.^[b]

6) Contract Type: <unva:contracttype>Fixed Term (FTA)</unva:contracttype>

Use: Optional

Suggested use is:

Fixed Term (FTA)

Temporary (TA)

Continuous (CA)

Consultant (SSA)

Volunteer

Internship

7) Vacancy Number: <unva:vacancyno>1234567890</unva:vacancyno>

Use: Optional

Use to identify a vacancy. Could be used to provide a unique ID to vacancies and allow applicants (and others) to independently verify the validity, authenticity of a vacancy e.g. by entering the unique number on the organisation’s website and retrieving the original vacancy published under this number. This could be used to combat fraudulent vacancy announcements

8) Keywords: <unva:keywords>

                        <unva:keyword>Rule of Law</unva:keyword>

<unva:keyword>Legal</unva:keyword>

                         </unva:keywords>

Use: Optional

Use to assign tags (keywords) to vacancies.

9) Organisation: <unva:organisation>UN DESA</unva:organisation>

Use: Optional

Use to designate original organisation issuing the vacancy

10) Contact in the Issuing Organisation: <unva:orgcontact>http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/</unva:orgcontact>

Use: Optional

Could be a link, e-mail address or other means to contact the issuing organisation about the vacancy.

11) Language: <unva:language>en</unva:language>

Use: Optional

The ISO 639-1 code of the language the vacancy announcement is written in.