Paris, 22 December 2008
EFITA newsletter / 391 / European Federation for Information Technology in
Agriculture, Food and the Environment
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Peace and happiness for you, your families
and your countries. I hope to meet you next July in Wageningen (NL) at EFITA
2009.
Technology and management to ensure sustainable agriculture, agro-systems,
forestry and safety
17-19 June 2009 - REGGIO CALABRIA - Italy
The conference will give an opportunity for discussing a wide range of crucial
and timely issues related to technology and management to ensure sustainable
agriculture, agro-systems, forestry and safety. There will be plenty of time
for informal discussions to exchange ideas and practices.
The organizing committee has been working hard to make XXXIII CIOSTA Conference
a truly memorable experience for all participants. I believe that participation
in the Conference will be both professionally stimulating and personally enjoyable
experience for you.
Voir : http://www.ciosta.unirc.it/conference_2009.htm
Contact: Gennaro GIAMETTA
E-mail: gennaro.giametta(a)unirc.it
The Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building Division (KCE) of the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
>>> Introduction
Knowledge management and capacity building were highlighted as two of the
major cross-cutting Core Functions in FAO’s new Strategic Plan, after they
emerged as key themes from the Independent External Evaluation (IEE). Our
Division assumed the responsibility as corporate focal point for these two
areas in January 2007, which has included facilitating the various activities
that were brought under two Inter-Departmental Working Groups (IDWG) chaired
by the Division. The Division is working on the development of corporate strategies
for FAO on Capacity Building and Knowledge Management.
>>> Open-Source Collaborative Tools
The new corporate look-and-feel of the FAO Home page and web sites was finalized
and implemented in 2008. Major portals/web sites have been launched with the
new corporate layout using open source tools and improvements have been made
to the FAO Country Profiles site. A revised new Web Quality Assurance Checklist
was released with criteria for high quality publishing of technical information.
Further, advanced tools from Google for searching of FAO material and analysis
of web traffic have been implemented.
See: http://www.fao.org
See: http://webguide.fao.org
In knowledge exchange, new open source collaborative tools (e.g. Wiki, Blog,
forums) have been deployed to support Thematic Knowledge Networks, often in
collaborations with other UN agencies. A major review of 15 pilot Networks
was completed and recommendation made to FAO management.
Bioversity International, the CGIAR ICT-KM program, FAO, IFAD and WFP are
jointly organizing a 3-day event entitled Knowledge Share Fair for Agricultural
Development and Food Security to be held at FAO Headquarters on 20–22 January
2009. FAO also partnered with CGIAR ICT-KM Program to run a Workshop titled
“Collaboration for Excellence: Opportunities to discover, learn about, and
apply innovative knowledge sharing approaches for impact” for staff from FAO
and other agricultural organizations.
See: http://www.sharefair.net
See: http://www.kstoolkit.org
See: http://ictkm.wordpress.com/category/ks-course/
The Division worked together with the Global Forum on Agricultural Research
(GFAR), the International Organization of Agricultural Information Specialists
(IAALD) and CGIAR to develop the new AGRIFeeds Platform to collect news and
events feeds from agricultural websites. The site was formally launched this
year by the partners at the IAALD Conference in Japan.
See: http://www.agrifeeds.org/
>>> Knowledge Management Tools
We worked with partners in India and Thailand on development of a new generation
of knowledge management tools with several prototypes already published, and
on re-engineering of FAO’s Agricultural Thesaurus AGROVOC, which has also
been published in two new languages (Lao and Italian), together with a new
AGROVOC “Workbench”. We are also working with FAO’s Fishery Department on
key information management systems financed by the European Commission.
>>> e-Learning
We have continued to lead development of the e-learning programme to provide
on-the-job training for agricultural technicians including tools, methodologies,
and guidelines, with learning materials that also support face-to-face training.
The Division developed and delivered self-paced e-learning on CD-ROM and the
Internet, Internet-based training courses, and blended learning combining
electronic and face-to-face learning. The Information Management Resource
Kit (IMARK) curriculum was expanded to a total of 113 lessons in five modules
for technicians and managers at national and local levels, with four of these
now available in three languages. In addition, collaboration with other Departments
has led to the development of three other curricula, on Food Security Information
for Action, The Right to Adequate Food, and on Codex Alimentarius Activities.
FAO, other UN agencies, national and regional partners are involved in the
uptake of all of these materials, which have now reached over 90,000 individuals.
See: http://www.imarkgroup.org
See: http://www.foodsec.org/DL/dlintro_en.asp
See: http://www.fao.org/righttofood
See: http://www.codexalimentarius.net
>>> David Lubin Library
The David Lubin Library website was updated and published on the intranet
and the external public site offering a more user-friendly environment. The
Virtual Library was enriched with many new resources: (a) SCOPUS, allowing
searching of over 30 million articles from 15,000 journals, proceedings and
books, through the negotiation by the UN libraries consortium, UNSEIAC; (b)
Science Online; (c) Blackwell electronic journals (over 800 titles); (d) Elsevier
Handbooks in Economics; (e) Europa World of Learning, and (f) the full Oxford
English Dictionary. A blog was instituted for interaction with library patrons.
See: http///www.fao.org/library
The extended Library facilities (Facilitation room, Internet points and eLearning
Lab) were heavily patronised throughout the year and especially during widely
attended FAO meetings. The modernized Library display area hosted several
exhibitions associated with high visibility events organized by FAO. Refurbishment
of the renovated Library neared completion with modern furniture for the public
spaces under procurement.
>>> FAO Open Archive
Several groups in the Division have been collaborating on streamlining of
dissemination of FAO publications and documents by merging the library catalogue
of FAO publications with the Corporate Document Repository, which will create
of an FAO "Open Archive". Over 3000 records have been added to the
FAO Document Repository.
See: http://www.fao.org/documents/
>>> e-Agriculture
The Division has developed a web-based platform for the global Community of
Expertise on e‑Agriculture, which was launched in September 2007 at
the so-called “e-Agriculture Week” of meetings held at FAO Headquarters.
The Community now comprises approximately 4,000 individual members from more
than 150 countries. The web platform contains a wide range of resources on
ongoing initiatives, descriptions of best practices and lessons learned.
FAO and its partners have also facilitated several face-to-face e-Agriculture
meetings, and online discussion forums. The latest virtual forum, which examined
the challenges that rural communities face in enhancing the benefits of mobile
telephony, and looked at some examples of interesting initiatives and good
outcomes from around the globe, involved the participation of over 150 community
members from over 50 countries. The policy brief on the outcome will be published
on the website soon.
www.e-agriculture.org
>>> Global Access to Information
The Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) continued to expand
in terms of participating publishers, numbers of registered institutions,
and levels of usage. The first revenues were received from institutions in
the 37 lower-middle income countries in Band 2.
See: http://www.aginternetwork.org/en/
In 2008 FAO, together with GFAR, IAALD, the CGIAR, and other partners launched
the new initiative on Coherence in Information on Agricultural Research for
Development (CIARD) focused on making public domain information truly accessible.
The CIARD initiative incorporates the AGRIS initiative and the related information
resources and technology tools.
See: http://www.ciard.net
We have been working with Carnegie Mellon University to digitize FAO documents
and publications and publish them via the Internet through the Million Book
Project and the Universal Digital library. www.ulib.org
>>> Capacity Building and Outreach
A FAO Capacity Building Portal has been published on the FAO website. Contacts
have been initiated with several countries regarding involvement of FAO in
programmes offering fellowships and internships to agricultural specialists
from developing countries. Collaboration with the Government of Hungary led
to the launch of the first such collaborative fellowship programme in 2008.
See: http://www.fao.org/capacitybuilding
Input was provided to 24 ongoing field projects in 2008, including 11 technical
backstopping missions and the organization of three study tours. Seven advisory/formulation
missions were conducted to member countries. Eight new field projects were
formulated, and six projects were approved during 2008. Around 30 national/regional
training workshops were organized on agricultural information management in
cooperation with local, regional and international partners, most of them
using the IMARK suite of e-learning materials.
Contact : Anton MANGSTL
E-mail: anton.mangstl(a)fao.org
Una gallina pone un huevo de MEDIO KILOGRAMO (use Google translation tool
if you do not know Spanish...)
Prensa, televisión, entrevistas..., todos detrás de la gallina.
- ¿Cómo ha logrado esa hazaña, Sra. Gallina?
- Secreto de familia...
- ¿Planes para el futuro?
- Poner un huevo de un kilo..
Los flashes de las cámaras se ensañan también con el gallo...
- ¿Cómo han logrado semejante hazaña, Sr. Gallo?
- Secreto de familia...
- Planes futuros?
- ¡¡Cagar a trompadas al avestruz...!!
Contact: I. KITRON
Mél : kitron1(a)terra.com.br
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