Paris, 30 January 2006


EFITA newsletter / 244 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


This is what your friendly computer should do first every morning!
Click on the line below and then type in your “first name”...
See: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~geoffo/humour/flattery.html
Contact: Bernard P AUXENFANS
Mail: auxenfansb(a)attglobal.net


Point of view (in Fr-English): The need for a GeoID
Within the GTIS CAP project, it was found necessary to develop a specific geo-identifier that should enable to precisely identify fields and other CAP objects (e.g. grassy strips).
Let us precise that a geo-identifier is a data value, assigned to a spatial object, that provides information about the geographic location of the object but also that contains information allowing to characterise the object in space and time.
Why?
- All EU members have different field identifiers. An identifier based ob geographical co-ordinates could help to harmonise national systems.
- The use of a geo-identifier makes easier to develop geo-traceability since it enables to go on the spot to look e.g. at a given vegetable production field. It also enables to manage the aggregation of batches coming from different fields.
- Existing geo-identifiers are privately owned and / or protected by a copyright. There is a need for a geo-identifier free of licence.
How? I you want to enter into technical details, have a look at:
http://www.acta-informatique.fr?d=6277
Contact: Robert OGER, Guy WAKSMAN
Email: oger(a)cra.wallonie.be, waksman(a)acta-informatique.fr


Audit regulation and the improvement of benchmarking procedures among quality/environmental assurance schemes in agriculture
Mazé, A., Ait-Aissa, M., Verjux, N., Carotte, G., Hedouin, C., Vaucelle, A., 2005.
92th Seminar EAAE “Quality Management and Quality Assurance in Food Chains”, GÖTTINGEN, Germany, 2-4 March 2005
See: http://www.acta-informatique.fr?d=6287


International Workshop on Trust and Risk in Business in Business Networks
8 - 10 February 2006 – BONN - Germany
The workshop will discuss and analyze the state-of-the-art in research on trust generating factors and the management of risks in food networks with regard to e-commerce. Focus areas are the discussion and exchange of views on trust and risk in “traditional” supply and marketing environments of complex product such as food products, including the situation in different cultural backgrounds, as well as trust and risk in business networks supported by electronic commerce. The workshop will include more than 70 presentations in plenary and workgroup settings as well as group discussions.
See: http://www.uf.uni-bonn.de/trust2006
Contact: Melanie FRITZ
Email: m.fritz(a)uni-bonn.de


Next GIL-conference
06 - 08 March 2006 - POTSDAM - Germany
See: http://www.zalf.de/GIL2006
Registration: http://www.zalf.de/home_zalf/institute/lsa/lsa/gil/anmeld1.htm
Program: http://www.zalf.de/home_zalf/programmgil2006.pdf
Contact: Peter WAGNER
Email: peter.wagner(a)landw.uni-halle.de


Object-Oriented Modelling and Unified Modelling Language (UML)
26 - 27 April 2006 – BERLIN - Germany
Specialized training for the computer programming professional - Two day course organised by IFAS Information Technology Office, University of Florida and Design und Development-Gruda
See: http://www.design-gruda.de/uml.html
Contact: Petraq PAPAJORGJI
Email: petraq(a)ifas.ufl.edu


AGROVOC Thesaurus available through Web services
AGROVOC is a multilingual structured thesaurus of all subject fields in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related domains (e.g. environment). It consists of words or expressions (terms), in different languages and organized in relationships (e.g. “broader”, “narrower”, and “related”), used to identify or search resources. Its main role is to standardize the indexing process in order to make searching simpler and more efficient, and to provide the user with the most relevant resources.
The AGROVOC Thesaurus was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Commission of the European Communities, in the early 1980s. It is updated by FAO roughly every three months, and the users are informed of the changes via mailing list and the Web site.  AGROVOC is available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Czech, Japanese, Thai and Slovak.
AGROVOC is now accessible via Web services, which can be called from any client application. With Web Services, updates to the thesaurus are immediately available, reducing the time and effort necessary to regularly download and incorporate the latest version of the thesaurus into applications. The web services are realized on Apache Axis running on Tomcat and are invoked via standard SOAP calls, returning a standard SOAP response.
For more information on the used technology, visit: http://www.fao.org/aims/ag_webservices.jsp
For more on Agricultural Information Management Standards, visit: http://www.fao.org/aims/
Download a leaflet on AGROVOC from: ftp://ext-ftp.fao.org/GI/Agris/aims/references/flyers/agrovoc_en.pdf
To join the AGROVOC discussion group, visit: http://www.dgroups.org/groups/fao/agrovoc/index.cfm?op=dsp_join
Contact: Gauri SALOKHE
Email: gauri.salokhe(a)fao.org


Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP)
The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) is an independent and influential centre for the analysis and development of policies affecting the environment in Europe and beyond. We undertake research and consultancy work on the development, implementation and evaluation of environmental and environment-related policies in Europe. IEEP seeks to engage directly with relevant policy debates and works closely with the full range of policy actors from international agencies, and the EU institutions, to national government departments, NGOs and academics. The Institute seeks both to raise awareness of European environmental policy and to advance policy-making along sustainable paths.
See: http://www.ieep.org.uk/


Pluralities by Eugenie A. Nida

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese;
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?

Cows in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
But I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss be nicknamed kese?

Then one may be that and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat will never be hose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim.
So our English, I think you all will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.
Contact : I. KITRON
Email: kitron1(a)terra.com.br