Paris, 31 May 2004 EFITA newsletter / 161 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment Looking for information I am the principal of a private agricultural school "COGULLADA" (owning by a saving bank). It is the oldest agricultural training school in Spain. Right now, we are involved to develop a Agricultural Information Center that it will be starting in November of 2004. The main aim of this service is to give classified and organized information for the more important agricultural sectors (fruits, horticultural, wine, pork production, ...) and it is based in a web pages plus some e-reports. But our second objective is to introduce the use of IT in small and medium agricultural enterprises. We have some European experiences to networking in agricultural education, but we are looking for some European network in this new area. Can you tell me, how is the EFITA contact person in Spain?. Do you know of some similar projects in Europe?. Contact: José A. DOMINGUEZ - Director Escuela Agraria de Cogullada - 50014 - Zaragoza E-mail: ib301235 (a) public.ibercaja.es Answer: - Our efita links in Spain are weak. However, I think that the Spanish subscribers of this newsletter will contact you. - You should contact Jos PAULUSSE (jpa (a) tref.nl), who is the leader of a LdV project called " E-business tools and strategy in SME in agriculture and food processing industries". Introduction to the following announcement We are forwarding you, the email that we have received from Mr. Olavi Luotonen (EC - IST) annunciating the AMI@Work launch 7/9 June Brussels event. CONSEN has done some contribution to the RURAL@Work community with the intention to develop this expert group and exchange experiences and knowledge. We are trying to build some project proposal for next FP6-IST programme or other world financing programmes. We want to point out that there are three main areas of interest: - First the workshop of the Rural@Work community (working together in European and cross-disciplinary scope) - Second the presentation of candidatures and elections to the Rural@Work community Chairman and Vice-Chairman. - Third the proposal of ideas and projects in a partnership day (finding partners for collaborative European "dream teams") Contact: Ferran Cabrer i Vilagut E-mail : consen (a) consen.org Launch Event of the collaborative AMI@Work communities and the Mobile Strategic Objective 7-9 June - Brussels The New Working Environments unit of the European Commission Information Society Directorate-General fosters Information Society Technologies (IST) research to catalyse systemic innovation, in order to enable high-quality and productive person-centric and collaborative new working environments in Europe. To achieve this aim it is necessary to link European "dream team" communities of research and deployment in a cross-disciplinary manner. >>>> Welcome to the Launch Event ofthe AMI@Work family of communities the IST Strategic Objective "Applications and Services for the Mobile User and Worker" projects! The launch programme on Monday - Wednesday, 7-9 June 2004, will bring us together on 3 different days. If you can come only for one day, do still join us for that one day! Once we have met, even virtual collaboration works better. You can register for one, some or all of the following parts : Monday, 7 June 10:00-20:00 AMI@Work Communities Monday, 7 June 20:00-23:00 Family Dinner Tuesday, 8 June 09:30-17:30 Main Launch Event Plenary Tuesday, 8 June 17:45-19:45 3rd&4th Call Focus Plenary Wednesday, 9 June 09:00-17:00 3rd&4th Call & AMI@Work SIGs Networking & Partnering The AMI@Work family of self-organising ERA communities links people in all 25 EU Member States (and beyond) for a European Research and Innovation Area (ERA) at work. This family facilitates new working environments innovation ERA-wide and in EU 6th and 7th Framework Programmes of research (FP6 and FP7). Please kindly register today, or latest 1st June, at : http://www.mosaic-network.org/registerAMI/index.html We strongly encourage rapid registration. This will allow you, if you wish, to get to know your fellow participants beforehand and to start collaborating at the AMI@Work Family Space and Community Spaces to prepare for the event. You become a member of these virtual collaboration spaces when you register. Your rapid registration will support our joint launch event planning. The event on 7-8 June at Heysel, Brussels Expo, is related to the MOSAIC Specific Support Action, an EU project started on 1st March, and collaborating closely in the AMI@Work communities launch. The event on 9 June is hosted by the Commission at Centre Borschette, Brussels. >>>> Why should I participate and encourage my networks to join us on 7-9 June in Brussels? Why would you wish to join us in Brussels in setting the AMI@Work family of communities in movement? Why would you rapidly and strongly encourage your colleagues, teams and networks to join us? Would you choose one or more of these reasons? * You wish to collaborate with leaders, users and experts for mobile or collaborative new working environments, throughout Europe (and beyond). You wish synergies, not to "reinvent the wheel". You wish to connect your current networks with complementary networks. You see AMI@Work communities as cross-fertilising development organisations or transition arenas to reach for crucial systemic changes collaboratively. * You wish to co-create a real working European Research and Innovation Area for leaders, users and experts related to corporate, professional, local, regional, national, European or global projects or "tribes" - where the whole is clearly greater than the sum of the parts, where cross-disciplinary value creation thrives, where "passionate pragmatists", visionary early adopters, create a path to the future, together with technological and societal innovators, to reach systemic innovation. * You are enthusiastic about finding partners for collaborative European "dream teams" with joint objectives and complementary competences for the smaller 3rd Call (deadline fall 2004) or the larger 4th Call for Proposals (deadline spring 2005) of European Information Society Technologies research projects. You want to link people, create ties and extend your networks across the 25 EU Member States (and beyond). While focussing on the EU 6th Framework Programme, you may already contribute to the conception of the 7th. * You want to find out how far collaborative technologies can help us in enabling a Rural Information Society, well-being at work or giving doctors and nurses more support and time to care and cure. How can innovative mobile work environments combine productivity and quality of life? What technologies, processes, cultural learning and societal innovations will sustain global 24-hour collaboration through time zones for product design and service creation? How to drive innovation through societal reality? How to test in living lab testbeds? * You still believe that the Lisbon strategy goals stand a chance for Europe to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, when we manage to truly spark and sustain the innovative, learning, agile, caring, pluralistic and collaborative spirit of Europe. To reach our goals by 2010, more than linear extrapolation of the past is needed. Catalyse innovation and set ambient intelligence at work. * You would like your AMI@Work communities to select leaders in open face-to-face and electronic processes to reach cross-disciplinary leadership by those who care, who convince and are trusted to lead, selected by interested individuals - corporate, entrepreneurial, professional, academic, government, media and citizens alike - also those who cannot (yet) afford to travel but will collaborate and vote electronically. You would wish to be among the drivers of the change. * You would like to know whether AMI stands for Ambient Intelligence, a friend (in French) or "Appel à Manifestation d'Intérêt" (call for expressions of interest)? Or all of these and open for new meanings? Make new working environments your friend by combining productivity growth with well-being at work. Take the lead and collaborate. Call for expressions of interest by European "dream teams" in "out-of-the-box" - cross-disciplinary - innovative research which can make a difference for the Europeans. * You believe that - fortunately - people may well desire to do their best, help other people and build a meaningful knowledge based society, even if they also want be innovative, entrepreneurial and successful. >>>> Join Commissioner Erkki Liikanen and leading European research and innovation visionaries and actors Can we collaboratively catalyse a European movement for reorganising us and our work, raising productivity, value creation and quality of life through new working environments? Can we get on a new S-curve for European growth through systemic innovation? The Launch Event plenary session on 8 June will be opened by Erkki Liikanen, the European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society, followed by leading European thinkers and actors from industry, academia, research and government, as you will find out at the registration website. >>>> Create, collaborate, construct in communities The AMI@Work community sessions on 7 June for challenging validation environments - and for technology themes and SEEM - will at the Launch Event in Brussels be titled as follows : - Collaboration@Work - Knowledge@Work - Mobility@Work - SEEM@Work - Rural@Work - Product Life-Cycle Management @Work - Well-being Services @Work - Media@Work (new community!) This suggested structure and the community initial ideas have their roots in a number of promising contributions in the past years and in two AMI@Work communities launch preparatory workshops held this spring. Join the Launch Event to contribute your ideas and to "make our common pie bigger" by collaborating. The visions, goals, next steps and structure are open for changes and for future self-organising organic growth. The first community launch sessions on 7 June will be facilitated by their initial EU project facilitators. As you will find out at the registration website, you are free to become a leader candidate for the community leadership elections on 7 June to take the lead from there on. The first community chairs and vice chairs will become members of the first AMI@Work family Leadership Group, to lead the way for the next 10 months until April 2005. Then wider community Leadership Groups 2005-6 will have been elected in electronic elections. Lead the way! You will be able to reserve at the registration website open one-hour sessions on 9 June for your 3rd & 4th Call project ideas - or for the 5th Call, to be well prepared for strategic projects. You can also reserve open one-hour sessions for your AMI@Work Special Interest Group (SIG) ideas for cross-communities or community-specific SIGs. You can collaboratively prepare for these sessions, using your AMI@Work session"s collaborative space to facilitate this interactive process before and after 9 June. >>>> Win-win investment Registration is mandatory. Participants will be confirmed in order of registration. Participation costs are indicated at the registration website. The way to organise an event at this venue is to include variable costs, such as meals, in a fee. Participants are responsible for their travel and accommodation costs. Participation is your investment in valuable collaboration and in preparation for future research, development and deployment. Create and share valuable ideas together to reach for meaningful systemic innovation - for personal, business and societal value. Participate in cross-disciplinary professional "dream teams". Win-win. As the next AMI@Work family step for your calendar and planning milestones, please note the Call for Ideas, closing 4 June, for the IST2004 Conference, to be held in the Hague on 15-17 November 2004. You can enter the Call for Ideas at : http://europa.eu.int/information_society/istevent/2004/index_en.htm . Contact: Olavi Luotonen E-mail: Olavi.Luotonen (a) cec.eu.int Second call for papers for EWDA-04 Silsoe Research Institute, UK, on 27-29 September 2004 Papers are invited for a workshop on "Decision Problems in Agriculture and Natural Resources" devoted to all aspects of management decisions in those areas and the research issues that arise. Both theoretical issues and application results are welcome. Topics covered by the workshop may include, but are not restricted to, the following themes: - Dynamic programming - Bayesian networks and decision graphs - Markov decision processes - Linear programming - Stochastic programming - Parameter estimation and knowledge acquisition - Learning from data - Descriptive and normative decision tree techniques - Agent modelling and simulation This workshop is organised under the recently established EURO (Association of European Operational Research Societies) Working Group for Operations Research in Agriculture and Forest Management and continues a series begun at the EFITA conference in 2001: - Symposium at EFITA 2001 on Sequential Decisions under Uncertainty in Agriculture and Natural Resources, Montpellier, France, June 2001 - First European Workshop on Sequential Decisions under Uncertainty in Agriculture and Natural Resources, Toulouse, France, September 2002 - Symposium at EFITA 2003 on Model Based Decision Support Systems, Debrecen, Hungary, June, 2003 See: http://www.sri.bbsrc.ac.uk/science/bmag/EWDA-04.html The closing date for submission of abstracts is 30 June 2004. Contact: David Parsons mailto: ewda04.sri (a) bbsrc.ac.uk I am the Boss One day a man goes to a pet shop to buy a parrot. The assistant takes the man to the parrot section and asks the man to choose one. The man asks, "How much is the yellow one?" The assistant says, "$2000." The man is shocked and asks the assistant why it's so expensive. The assistant explains, "This parrot is a very special one. He knows typewriting and can type really fast." "What about the green one?" the man asks. The assistant says, "He costs $5000 because he knows typewriting and can answer incoming telephone calls and takes notes." "What about the red one?" the man asks. The assistant says, "That one's $10,000." The man says, "What does HE do?" The assistant says, "I don't know, he does nothing but the other two call him boss." 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