Paris, 17 March 2008


EFITA newsletter / 353 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


Move
Andy Offer would like his friends and colleagues in the farm IT world to know that he is moving on from ADAS at the end of March and his new contact details will be:
Andy@whylehouse.co.uk;
Telephone:  +44 (0)1568 750543 and Mobile +44 0 7831 256463 
He will be continuing his involvement in farm IT through BAITA and as a Board member of EFITA and will be undertaking freelance work in IT and business consulting.
Contact: Andy OFFER
E-mail: andy(a)whylehouse.co.uk


Milk production from pasture - 1st International Pasture Conference
4 - 6 July 2008 - LUXEMBOURG
See: http://www.glt2008.lu/pdf/reg_form_01.pdf
See: http://www.glt2008.lu/
Contact: Michel SANTER
E-mail : michel.santer(a)education.lu


Workshop on Learning Technology Standards for Agriculture and Rural Development (AgroLT 2008)
19 September 2008 - ATHENS
This is the first call of papers for the Workshop on Learning Technology Standards for Agriculture and Rural Development (AgroLT 2008), that will take place in Athens, Greece, on September 19, 2008 (http://infolab-dev.aua.gr/agrolt/2008/). AgroLT will be organised in conjuction with the 4th International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies in Bio & Earth Sciences (HAICTA'08). The deadline for abstract submissions is: April 15, 2008.
Interoperability has been judged essential in order to realize an open infrastructure for learning that can put a wide diversity of tools and content in the hands of learners and tutors. It allows the preservation of crucial learning and teaching information (such as competency profiles, learning activities, learning metadata and resources), as well as its future reuse among a large number of different systems and repositories. Recent standardization and specification efforts in the area of learning technologies have improved this vision.

On the other hand, in the field of agricultural education, the specifications and standards produced by groups and bodies working on learning technologies have not yet been widely adopted and implemented. It is essential to identify, collect and report experience from the large-scale implementation of learning technology specifications and standards in the
agricultural domain. Sharing this experience with other people working on similar topics, and providing feedback from such implementations to standardization initiatives of the agricultural information management domain, can prove valuable. Apart from leading towards a wider dissemination of learning technology standards for educational applications, it can help us reaching a potential consensus of related work by comparing and harmonizing similar/competing approaches.

The aim of the AgroLT 2008 Workshop is to bring together researchers and implementers that are working on the design and development of technology-enhanced learning systems and services to support the needs of the agricultural and rural communities. It aims to serve as a discussion forum where interested experts will present the results of their work, exchange experience, and establish liaisons with other groups that are working on related subjects. Overall, it aims to outline the rich potential of the agricultural domain as an application field for learning technologies.

See: http://infolab-dev.aua.gr/agrolt/2008/

Contact: Nikos MANOUSELIS
E-mail: nikosm(at)aua(dot)gr


Digital Soil Mapping: Bridging Research, Production, and Environmental Applications
30 September - 3 October 2008 - Utah State University, LOGAN, Utah, USA
See http://dsmusa.org/
Contact: Florence CARRE
E-mail: florence.carre(a)jrc.it


5 Day Weight Loss Programme
A somewhat obese man - concerned about his condition - phoned a "Pounds-Off", a weight loss company, and ordered their guaranteed 5-day, 10 lb weight loss programme.
The following day he answered a knock on the door. Standing before him was a voluptuous, athletic, 19 year old babe in shiney black leotards with a sign around her neck.
She introduced herself as a representative of the weight loss company. The sign around her neck read, 'If you can catch me, I'm yours.' Without a second thought, he took off after her. Some miles later, huffing and puffing, he finally gave up. The same girl showed up for the next four days and the same thing happened each time. On the fifth day, he weighed himself and was delighted to find he had lost 10 lbs, as promised.
He then called the company and ordered their 5-day/20 pound programme. The next day there was a knock at the door and there stood the most stunning, beautiful, sexy woman he had ever seen in his life. She was wearing a skimpy running outfit, running shoes and a sign around her neck that read, 'If you catch me, I'm yours.' Well, he was out the door after her like a shot. This girl was in excellent shape and he did his best - but no such luck. So for the next four days the same routine occurred, with him gradually getting into better and better shape. Much to his delight on the fifth day when he weighed himself, he discovered that he had lost the 20 lbs as promised by the company.
He was so thrilled that he decided to go for broke and called the company to order the 7-day/50 pound programme. 'Are you sure?' asked the representative on the phone. 'This is our most rigorous programme. 'Absolutely,' the man replied, 'I haven't felt this good in years.'
The next day there came the expected knock at the door, which he ran to answer in lascivious anticipation. When he opened it he was confronted by a huge muscular guy wearing nothing but pink running shoes and a sign around his neck that read, 'If I catch you, you're mine.'
He lost 63 pounds that week!


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