Paris, 15 May 2006


EFITA newsletter / 260 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


Point of view (in Fr-English): Old Minitel
Many French farmers have now a broadband access to the Internet. Now it is quite common even if there are many zones where it is not possible. France is one of the countries where ADSL is the most successful with these amazing commercial offers gathering phone, TV and Internet access. Mick was always laughing at me because I liked very much the old-fashion Minitel… but to tell the truth, with the Internet, we need a broadband access to access train time schedules or a hotel address at the same speed than with the old Minitel because of all the advertisement windows and all these images that are arriving to our screens.
Contact: Guy WAKSMAN
Email : Waksman(a)acta-informatique.fr


Catalog of French Agricultural ICT companies
Voir : http://www.efita.net?d=5035


International Wine Exhibition in Israel
See: http://www.israwinexpo.com


Congress of the International Association of Hydrogeologists
30 May – 1 June 2006 – DIJON - France
Voir : http://www.brgm.fr/aih/accueil.htm
Contact : Pierre MARCHET
E-mail: pierre.marchet(a)eau-adour-garonne.fr


WCCA 2006 program
24 – 26 July 2006 - ORLANDO, FL, USA
See: http://www.wcca2006.org/TechnicalProgram.htm


Seventh Agricultural Ontology Service (AOS) Workshop on "Ontology-based knowledge discovery: Using metadata and ontologies for improving access to agricultural information"
…in collaboration with the Fifth Conference of the Asian Federation for Information Technology in Agricultural - AFITA - 2006
9 -10 November 2006 - Bangalore, INDIA
***** Extended deadline for submission *****
The topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
* Automatic and semi-automatic metadata generation
* Decision-support tools
* Knowledge acquisition methods
* Knowledge elicitation techniques
* Knowledge extraction techniques
* Knowledge representation techniques (in ontologies)
* Metadata and accurate knowledge mark-up
* Ontology application
* Ontology learning
* Ontology life cycle
* Ontology modelling
* Question-answering systems
* Rules in ontologies

Paper submission
See: http://caitian.cn:7001/lianong/en/send.jsp
See: http://www.fao.org/aims/pub_aos7.jsp
Contact : Gauri SALOKHE (GILW)
Email: Gauri.Salokhe(a)fao.org


Summer University on Information Technology in Agriculture and Rural Development
19 - 22 August 2006 – DEBRECEN - Hungary
The purpose of the conference is to give a forum to exchange information on education, research, applications and developments of Information Technologies in Agriculture and Rural Development and publish the most recent results. This forum is recommended for PhD students and of course everybody welcome! (submission deadline 15 June 2006).
See: http://odin.agr.unideb.hu/su2006/
Contact: Miklos HERDON
Contact: herdon(a)agr.unideb.hu


2006 Irrigation & Fertilizer Expo China
19-21 September - BEIJING National Agricultural Expo Centre
China will allow foreign companies to launch fertilizer wholesale and retail businesses in the Chinese domestic market before December 11th 2006.
Approximately RMB 380 million (USD 45 million) of special Government funds will be made available for the spread of “soil-testing and balance-fertilizer technologies” this year.
See: http://www.newaginternational.com/chinaexpos/chinaexpos.html
E-mail: newag(a)newaginternational.com


Pandemic Flu: Commission publishes evaluators? Report on test exercise
On 30 March, the European Commission published the final evaluation report on the Common Ground exercise on an influenza pandemic.
See: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/health_consumer/dyna/consumervoice/create_cv.cfm?cv_id=193


Avian Flu? latest updates: Ten key facts on avian flu for the public
The Commission, in cooperation with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), and with input from Member States and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has developed ten key facts for the public on avian flu.
See: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/health_consumer/dyna/consumervoice/create_cv.cfm?cv_id=194


May you always... Live Well.... Laugh Often... Love Much (1)
An elderly gentleman, (mid nineties) very well dressed, hair well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel smelling slightly of a good after shave, presenting a well looked after image, walked into an upscale cocktail lounge. Seated at the bar was an elderly looking lady (mid eighties). The gentleman walked over, sat along side of her, ordered a drink, took a sip, turned to her and said, "So tell me, do I come here often?"


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