On the e-agriculture.org web site, a report from the e-Agriculture panel at the recent IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Congress.“How can we make agricultural information and information technology truly accessible?” This question was put forward by Peter Ballantyne, IAALD President, on the first day of the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Conference 2008.On the final day of the conference, the challenge was taken up by an e-Agriculture participatory panel discussion facilitated by FAO focusing on multi-stakeholder partnerships and the roles of mobile phones in support of agricultural development.There was a lively debate focusing on issues of ICT as enablers in various critical areas of development, as well as the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in support of e-Agriculture.Read the...
Simone Staiger recently compiled a short list of some knowledge sharing tools used and learned about in the (just ended) FAO-CGIAR KS Workshop:Peer assists; tags and tagging; social reporting; discussion groups; blogs and blogging; wikis; and intranets.Under each of the tools, some useful reflections from course members and links...
Bioversity International, the CGIAR ICT-KM program, FAO, IFAD and WFP are jointly organizing a 3-day event entitled "Knowledge Share Fair for Agricultural Development and Food Security" on January 20 - 22, 2009.The purpose of the event is to showcase examples of good knowledge sharing practices in the field of agricultural development and food security.Please write a short story about your project/initiative. How do you effectively:Work in geographically distributed environments?Capture and share local (indigenous) knowledge, issues and ideas?Deal with culture and gender issues?Retain knowledge when workers leave?Build relationships or networks?Facilitate collaborative practices?Communicate internally?Call for submission closes on 15 October 2008.For further information, please visit...
Bioversity International, programme du GCRAI ayant trait aux technologies de l’information et de la communication ainsi qu’au partage des savoirs (ITC-KM), la FAO, le FIDA et le PAM organisent une manifestation de trois jours intitulée « Foire du partage des savoirs pour le développement agricole et la sécurité alimentaire » qui se tiendra du 20 au 22 janvier 2009. Le but de cette manifestation est de présenter des exemples de bonnes pratiques de partage des connaissances dans les domaines du développement agricole et de la sécurité alimentaire.Rédigez un court résumé de votre projet/initiative. Comment effectivement:travaillez-vous dans des environnements géographiquement décentralisés?réussissez-vous à saisir et à partager les connaissances, les problèmes et les...
Two colleagues from FAO, Michael Riggs and Gauri Salokhe, are using Twitter to report and reflect on what they hear and who they...
On 27 August, FAO facilitates an e-Agriculture panel at the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA World Congress. The panel will deliberate issues of ICT as enablers in various critical areas of development, as well as the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in support of e-Agriculture.The session will be an interactive discussion with the audience, with the panel anchored by:Alexander Flor, Dean, Faculty of Information and Communication Studies, University of the Philippines Open University;Manish Pandey, Deputy Director, Katalyst-Swisscontact;Michael Riggs, Information Management Specialist, FAO Regional Office for Asia-Pacific;Roxanna Samii, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD);and Stephen Rudgard, FAO, as the moderator.The panelists will share knowledge and experiences,...
The 400 plus pages report of the 'Independent External Evaluation of FAO' was recently made available on the FAO website (en français, en español). Looking at all aspects of the organization's work, the evaluation team discusses its information, knowledge sharing and communication activities in several places.It shows a lot of progress in the information area; it sets out some visions of FAO as a “partner in interlocking and overlapping knowledge networks … a facilitator rather than a central knowledge manager;” it also poses some tough questions.The authors position information and knowledge at the heart of the organization, which is very positive, they also provide argumentation why this should be so.The role of FAO as a 'knowledge organization' pervades the report, and...
Profesionales y funcionarios de las Unidades de Información, ligadas al sector silvoagropecuario de Chile, tendrán la oportunidad de aprender procesos, tecnologías para la creación, manejo y difusión de información digital.La Fundación para la Innovación Agraria de Chile (FIA) y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), dieron inicio oficial al nuevo ciclo de capacitaciones para el manejo de documentos electrónicos en Bibliotecas Digitales –orientadas al sector silvoagropecuario-, el cual ofrece, por primera vez, una versión para la Región Metropolitana.El objetivo de los Talleres de Capacitación en Gestión de Información Agraria:, es capacitar a los funcionarios a cargo de Unidades de Información que formen parte de la...
Thanks to the announcement on the Lubin Library blog, we can see the new FAO space on YouTube. With its shorter video's and more web 2.0 closeness to general audiences, the new channel seems to complement the more formal and more established FAO webcasting site.Tags: agricultural information fao...
The latest e-agriculture discussion begins 10 March.It will examine ways that Public Private Partnerships can help implement e-Agriculture successfully and explore the roles of different stakeholders in this area: government, private sector, and others.The discussions will lead into the eAgriculture India conference in July 2008.Tags: agricultural information e_agriculture...
The 2nd Expert Consultation on International Information Systems for Agricultural Science and Technology (IISAST) was held on 23 – 24 September 2007 in FAO, Rome, and organized by seven organizations CGIAR, CTA, DFID (UK), FAO, GFAR, IAALD, and MAE (France).In January 2008, IAALD joined the other partners at the subsequent planning meeting of the initiative to examine ways forward. The partners agreed that a 'manifesto' would be highly beneficial for the initiative, in terms of laying out the substantive agenda that was being addressed. This could act as a common declaration at a global level on collaboration and consistency between various organizations building, supporting, and maintaining information systems in agricultural research for development.After considerable discussion, it...
In February 2008, some 30 members of the Agricultural Librarians Association of the Philippines (ALAP) joined an FAO-supported Seminar-Workshop on Enhancing the Capacity of Information Professionals for Effective Agricultural Information Management, Sharing and Dissemination. IRRI librarians were among the resource persons.Also check out the ALAP blogTags: agricultural information...
from IRIN NewsJOHANNESBURG, 9 February 2007 (IRIN) - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has suggested major reforms in the way food aid is managed and distributed in its annual report."In many cases, food aid is used because it is the only available resource, not because it is the best solution to the problem at hand. Increased and more flexible resources are needed to address food insecurity," said Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO.Food aid should not be linked, either explicitly or implicitly, to commercial transactions or services in the donor country, the report proposed, reiterating what most development agencies, such as Oxfam, have been saying for years.The 2006 'State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA)' report, released in January, recommended that aid...
FAO Bangkok recently published the report of an expert meeting in 2005 to to advance knowledge about the use of ICT for agricultural development and rural poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific. The report gives an account of the presentations and discussions as well as of the recommendations.
A particularly rich element of the report is the synthesis of different sessions and the various...
To support its work on the development of semantic standards in metadata and controlled vocabularies in the agricultural domain, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has established a web-based clearinghouse to provide a first access point for anyone is interested in agricultural information management standards and interoperability.
The Agricultural Information...
In June 2007, FAO and GTZ are holding a workshop on 'Communicating Knowledge: From good practice to systematic change.' Among the objectives:Give an overview on currents methods, disciplines and good practices in Knowledge management and communication for rural development;Create an understanding of how to implement Knowledge management strategies in rural areas and within development...
IMARK lanza la versión en español del módulo de auto-aprendizaje electrónico titulado: "Inversión en la información para el desarrollo" diseñado para que los gerentes en el ámbito del desarrollo internacional puedan adaptarse a los nuevos desafíos del mundo de la información. El módulo toma en consideración las cambiantes necesidades y nuevas habilidades requeridos por los gerentes para...
The EC-FAO Food Security Information for Action Programme has produced some useful distance learning courses on different aspects of food security information. The courses are mainly designed for self-paced learning, with no personal instruction. They use the latest instructional methods in e-learning such as: personal pearning paths, illustrative case studies, learner tracking, and interactive...
Le CTA, la FAO, Euforic et d'autres organisations dans le domaine du développement se sont joints dans l'organisation d'une conférence internationale sur l'utilisation des soi-disantes applications « Web 2.0 » afin de faciliter la mise en réseau, la collaboration et le partage des connaissances dans les domaines de l'agriculture, du développement rural, et de la gestion des ressources...
A recent paper from FAO outlines how open access architecture and models can be used within the AGRIS Network to share and disseminate research outputs.
The proposed architecture combines the experience and history of the AGRIS network with the new scholarly Open Access publishing paradigm and the international Open Archive Initiative. Implementation of this architecture will lead to a very...
CTA, FAO and other development organizations are joining forces to hold an international conference on the use of so-called 'web 2.0' applications to facilitate networking, collaborating and exchanging knowledge in agriculture, rural development and natural resource management.
The conference will be held at FAO in Rome from 25 to 27 September 2007, with pre-conference seminars on 24......
Following discussions in Rome in October 2005, FAO has convened several task forces looking at ways to enhance the coherence among different agricultural information systems.
On 1 and 2 March, members of the 'agriscontent' task force meet to take stock of progress and to identify potential new areas for collaboration in the field of content management.
Tags: agricultural information agris...
In November 2006, FAO convened the 7th Agricultural Ontology Service Workshop in India to explore how ontologies can be used to extract and acquire additional knowledge from existing agricultural information systems.
The workshop brought together more than 30 key persons in Library and Information services, Researchers and Research Information Managers, providers of extension services and...
As part of the evolution of FAO as a Knowledge Organization, 2007 will see the main 'information' Division in FAO (currently 'Library and Documentation Systems Division - GIL) becoming the 'Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building Division' as part of the new Knowledge and Communication Department (KC). Major FAO initiatives in this area include:
The Knowledge Forum : Includes the ASK FAO Portal and Thematic Knowledge Networks.
Corporate Document Repository : As part of the more than 2,400 records added in 2006, a new series of Information and Knowledge Management Papers was launched.
Information And Knowledge Management Standards : Including the AGROVOC thesaurus.
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide Programme : Provides a framework of good practices, valuable case studies, and...
On the 6th and 7th November about twenty participants - including the vice chancellor of an agricultural university, editors of agricultural journals, scientists and librarians of agricultural universities and institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)participated in the first AGRIS workshop on Open Access in Agricultural Science and Technology at ICRISAT in India.
The workshop was largely conceived by Jai Haravu, former librarian at ICRISAT and now an information management consultant, and Johannes Keizer of FAO, Rome. Johannes spoke about the AGRIS network and how it can help India develop an open access agricultural information network. Dr D K Sahu of MedKnow spoke on how we could convert Indian agricultural journals into open access 'feeless-free' journals;...
Le Sommet Mondial sur la Société de l’information et d’autres plates-formes mondiales ont mis en évidence le potentiel des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) pour contribuer au développement durable et pour promouvoir l’agriculture. Une utilisation efficace de la cyberagriculture est une priorité pour la communauté internationale. L'Organisation des Nations Unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture (FAO)a été désignée pour faciliter la grande orientation du Somment Mondial sur la Société de I'information sur les application des TIC: cyberagriculture. La première activité d'importance est l'élaboration d'une enquête mondiale.Votre opinion, vos idées et votre expérience pourraient nous aider à mieux comprendre le rôle des...
La Cumbre Mundial sobre la Sociedad de la Información y otras plataformas globales han puesto en resalto el efecto que las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones (TIC) pueden tener sobre el desarrollo sostenible, y en modo particular, sobre la agricultura. Una prioridad entre la comunidad internacional es la de poner en marcha un efectivo uso de la ciberagricultura. La Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO) ha sido designada facilitadora de la línea de acción sobre Aplicaciones de las TIC: ciberagricutura en el Plan de Acción de la CMSI. La primera actividad de mayor importancia es la de poner en pié una encuesta mundial.Sus opiniones, ideas, y experiencias ayudan a mejor definir el rol que las tecnologías digitales tienen...
The impact that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can have on sustainable development, and in particular, agriculture, has been highlighted through the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and other global platforms. The realization of the effective application of e-agriculture has become a major priority for the international community. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was given the responsibility for facilitation of the Action Line on e-agriculture in the WSIS Plan of Action, and the first major activity is the development of a worldwide survey.
Your input to this survey - your views, ideas and experiences - are much needed to help better define the role that digital technologies can have in improving information exchange and communication related to...
Working and educational seminars related to FAO information resources are being held at the National Agricultural University of Ukraine in Kiev in the period 25-29 September 2006.
The first seminar is dedicated to the 'Agricultural web-resource of the Ukraine and an increase of their efficiency' with the objectives of getting acquainted with the newest library information technologies. The second seminar will address the 'application of databases and web-technologies in a library service'. Lectures will be held by an FAO consultant and international guest partners. Host country presenters will also address different issues related to agricultural information.
Some specific topics will include Agroweb CEE, Waicent, Agora, and IMARK. Seminars will be attended by researchers and professors...
Over 100 of the world's poorest countries will now be able to access leading food and agriculture journals for little or no cost with the launch of the second phase of the Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) initiative, FAO announced today.Introduced in 2003 providing access to 69 low-income countries, AGORA today expands to include universities, colleges, research institutes and government ministries as well as non-governmental organizations in an additional 37 lower-middle-income countries.Tags: agricultural information agora...