Paris, 29 March 2004


EFITA newsletter / 152 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


Information Systems at Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Areas - Enlargement of EU - 10th International Conference
20. - 21. 4. 2004, Seè u Chrudimi, Czech Republic
Attend also Workshop on European Funds for Rural Development in the Knowledge Based Society, taking part at 19th April at the same place where the conference will be held. There will be discussed 3 proposals for IP projects during the workshop!
Have already confirmed their participation at the conference Bror Salmelin, head of unit Information Society DG; Directorate F - Emerging technologies and infrastructures. Applications; New working environments and Per Backe-Hansen, DG RTD - Environmental Research Actions; Unit I-1 - Political aspects and strategy for Sustainable Development! There will come also representatives from Czech ministry of Informatics and Agricultural!
The goal of 10th International Conference SEC Information Systems in Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Areas - New Large Europe will be organized shortly before access of new countries to EU and it will be focused on new e rural Europe as a part of European Research Area.
SEC conference will support raising publishing awareness and utilization of the newest results on the field of IST in the field of agriculture, forestry and rural development. The conference will offer traditional oral and poster presentations in combination with moderns Internet interactive presentation. The newest results in the fields of Ambient Mobile Intelligence (AMI) as semantic WEB, knowledge management, mobile technologies, utilization of Open source solutions for building of applications, modern Open GIS and Remote Sensing applications architecture, E(m)-commerce applications and e-learning will be discussed during conference.
The implementation of these technologies will support e-Europe initiative in relation to rural area and also in relation to new accessing countries. Results of many 5FP projects as WirelessInfo, Premathmod, REGEO, EMIRES, Rural Wins, AFORO, Iron Curtain and starting projects from 6FP will be presented.
The conference will be base for clustering of European research activities in the fields of e Sustainable Rural development, food safety, new economical activities in rural regions, new knowledge management, new educational strategy, socio economical aspect of utilization of new technologies, precision farming.
Contact: Dr. Karel Charvát
mailto:charvat@lesprojekt.cz


SIGOSSEE
Special Interest Group in Open Source Software for Education in Europe (SIGOSSEE) has been established to investigate, inform, and advise the education community on the uses and benefits of Open Source Software and Open Content. Open Source is of growing interest to the education and training sectors for a number of reasons:
- Often specific versions of educational software will be required to reflect particular course content or pedagogical approaches.
- A loose "community" of educational institutes already exists which supports the exchange of ideas and concepts. Thus, the basis of an OSS community is already in place.
- In many cases, larger institutes already have the human resources capacity in-house to perform the necessary software and content modifications, testing and deployment.
- Educational institutes are under increasing pressure to find the lowest-cost solutions for effective learning provision.
- Learners can be involved in improving OSS software and content making it possible to take an approach which sees education as the process of supporting learners in joining a community of practice.
- More generally, the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in education provision is being recognised and explored.
However, despite much interest from the educational software community and from individual education institutes and providers, there is a lack of clear and unbiased advice and information over the advantages and disadvantages of OSS and how appropriate the adoption of OSS is for education and training and of policy advice and direction on the subject.

The SIG is supported by the European Commission sponsored SIGOSEE and JOIN! projects, whose partners will form a steering group for the SIG in its initial period.

> The activities and services for the SIG include:
- The organisation of regional "open door" days providing advice and guidance on open source
- Undertaking research into key issues impacting on the development and implementation of Open Source Software in education
- The organisation of national and regional seminars
- The development of a catalogue of Open Source developments and software for education
- The development of a catalogue of examples of good practice
- The sharing of news and information about Open Source for education
- The management of a web space for discourse and exchange on Open Source and its uses in education.

> Who is SIGOSSEE for?
The SIG is for anyone interested in the use of Open Source software and contents in education. This includes:
- Teachers and trainers
- Policy and decision makers
- Institutional managers
- Software and content developers
- Researchers and project developers
Whilst the SIG is supported by two European projects it is open to members from any part of the world.

- What can members do?
- Attend the Open Days, seminars and project meetings and conferences
- Contribute to on-line discussions
- Access news and information
- Join in the research activities
- Contribute to the Resource catalogues
- Build SIGOSSEE

What are our hopes? We intend that the SIG becomes a sustainable organising centre for Open Source in education. Ultimately that depends on its members – in contributing and supporting activities and helping to shape the future direction.

See: http://www.OSsite.org/
Contact: Ferran Cabrer i Vilagut
mailto:ferrancabre@teleline.es


This is a compilation of "actual" student GCSE answers (First part)

1. Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and travelled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.

2. The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked, "Am I my brother's son?"

3. Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. He died before he ever reached Canada.

4. Solomom had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines.

5. The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth.

6. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.

7. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.

8. In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java.

9. Eventually, the Romans conquered the Greeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long.

10. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out: "Tee hee, Brutus. "

11. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his subjects by playing the fiddle to them.

12. Joan of Arc was burnt to a steak and was canonized by Bernard Shaw. Finally Magna Carta provided that no man should be hanged twice for the same offence.

13. In midevil times most people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the futile ages was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verses and also wrote literature.

14. Another story was William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.

15. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When she exposed herself before her troops they all shouted "hurrah."

Contact: Mick HARKIN
mailto:harkin@iol.ies


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