Paris, 13 April 2009


EFITA newsletter / 406 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


Next UN / CEFACT FORUM
20 - 24 April 2009 - ROME
The workshop TBG 18 "Agriculture" chaired by PREPIN (Agri EDI Europe) will continue its work on standardization of EDI in the agricultural domain.
After the publication of the eDAPLOS message as an international standard by the UN / CEFACT in 2008, work continues with other messages such as the "Cattle Registration Information Exchange" (animal passport) or yet the message "Electronic Data Exchange Proxy"
See: http://www.uncefactforum.org/TBG/TBG18/tbg18.htm
Contact: Gaëlle CHERUY - POTTIAU
E-mail: gcheruy(a)agroedi.asso.fr


Second course "Idea Development and Software Implementation for Web 2.0"
1-14 September 2009 - PRAGUE
Teachers can ask for subsidy for course, which has been validated by the National Agency and it is published in the Comenius - Grundtvig Training Database with the reference number "CZ-2009-049-001". Deadline of applications is 30 April 2009. Participants have to deliver "Acceptance Letter" of course supplier Agentura Agropro to National agency with request for grant.
See: http://www.onemore.eu/
Contact: Zdenek LINHART
E-mail: linhart(a)pef.czu.cz


ICT adoption among farmers in the EU

And in your country?
Contact: Guy WAKSMAN
E-mail: waksman(a)acta-informatique.fr


Call for Papers International Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems
(IJAEIS)
Special Issue on “Intelligent Systems for Engineering Environmental Knowledge and EcoInformatics”

>>> Aims and scope
This special issue deals with Informatics in Ecology and Environmental science, integrating environmental and information sciences. EcoInformatics focus is not only on the creation of tools to access and analyze natural system data but also on facilitation of environmental research and management by developing ways to access and integrate databases of environmental information, and to develop new algorithms enabling different environmental datasets to be combined to test ecological hypotheses. EcoInformatics deals with the semantics of natural systems’ knowledge, and thus, related research efforts are closely associated to Knowledge Representation.

Examples of key research areas of EcoInformatics are:
− Technology assisted systematic collection of data
− Easy access to relevant information (data and analysis), requiring interoperability and integration across formats (syntax) and concepts (semantics)
− Development of conceptual and computational frameworks for advanced modelling and analysis (e.g. complex ecosystems)
− Visualization and communication of analysis results and scenarios

The amount of data, the heterogeneity of data sources, the complexity and diversity of knowledge and terminology within environmental engineering are key obstacles to be overcome for successful interdisciplinary studies. For example, for a typical modelling assignment a researcher needs to acquire knowledge of individual computational models, search, gather and analyze raw data, ensure their high quality, transform these data into formats compatible to the computation models that he or she is to use, and then finally perform the modelling. This process may take several days to months.
To address these problems, the specification and use of semantics are major issues. Semantics can be understandable to both humans and machines, improving data/knowledge sharing and integration. Semantics may provide meaning to several domain concepts, describe a variety of domain/task models, and clarify the meaning and use of data and services in environmental engineering tasks. As it can be understood, ontologies are the key technology towards addressing these goals. Having solved these problems, we believe that we shall considerably advance the development of smart systems that meet environmental engineering challenges.

Based on the above description, we seek innovative work that can demonstrate intelligent applications and technologies which exploit semantics to solve environmental engineering and ecoInformatics problems. Furthermore, we seek innovative work that can demonstrate tools/systems focusing on the efficient management and integration of environmental and ecological data, semantics and knowledge.
The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Knowledge Engineering in the Environmental/Ecological domain
• Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Environmental/Ecological Education
• Environmental/Ecological terminology
• Engineering environmental/ecological semantics
• Semantics for efficient environmental/ecological data management
• Environmental/ecological data integration using semantics
• Environmental/ecological semantics integration
• Engineering environmental/ecological applications using semantics
• Semantic frameworks for environmental/ecological systems
• Semantics-based decision support environmental/ecological systems
• Environmental/ecological awareness content and applications with semantics support
• Semantic technologies in environmental/ecological sensors networks

>>> Submission Details
Submissions should include a PDF version of the manuscript and should be sent both to kotis@aegean.gr and pfox@cs.rpi.edu. When preparing your manuscript, please refer to the Journal Paper Guidelines (http://www.igi-global.com/development/author_info/guide.asp). All authors need to prepare high-quality submissions describing innovative work that addresses any of the related topics, that is not under consideration for publication in any other journal or conference.
For any further inquiries please contact kotis@aegean.gr.

>>> Important Dates
- Manuscript Submission Deadline: 30 July 2009
- Notification of Conditional Acceptance: 21 Sept. 2009
- Submission of Revised Manuscript Deadline: 30 Oct. 2009

>>> Guest Editors
Deborah L. McGuinness (dlm@cs.rpi.edu)- Tetherless World Senior Constellation Chair and Professor of Computer Science and Cognitive Science Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

George A. Vouros (georgev@aegean.gr) -Professor, Head of AI-Lab, Univ. of the Aegean, Greece

Konstantinos Kotis (kotis@aegean.gr) -Researcher, Ai-Lab, Univ. of the Aegean, Greece

Peter Fox (pfox@cs.rpi.edu) - Tetherless World Constellation Chair and Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA


The Mezuzah...
Opening his front door, a Rabbi found himself face to face with the local priest. "Rabbi, may I have a few words with you?" asked the priest.
 
 "Of course, Father," replied the Rabbi somewhat nervously.
 
 "Rabbi," began the priest, "It must be evident to you that in this town we are plagued by thieves. Scarcely a day passes without one of my flock coming to me bemoaning the fact that his house has been broken into. On the other hand, I have noticed that thieves do not bother you Jews nearly as much."
 
 "Father, you are correct."

"Yes, but why is that?" inquired the priest.

"Look at this little box here on the side of my doorpost," said the Rabbi.
"It's called a mezuza. We Jews believe that when we put a mezuza on the entrances to our houses, the Holy One, may His Name be blessed, protects both us and our property."

"In that case", replied the priest, "I must have one!"

Not wishing to be the cause of an incipient pogrom, the Rabbi reluctantly handed over a mezuza to the priest.

Some two weeks later the Rabbi was awakened by the sound of someone pounding violently on his door. Dressing himself hastily, he made his way down the stairs.

"Who's there?" the Rabbi asked tremulously.

"Open the door! Open the door!" screamed a voice on the other side.

Leaving the door on the latch, the Rabbi cracked the door wide enough to see the priest standing in front of him, his eyes wild with great distraught.

"What happened?" asked the terrified Rabbi. "Were you not protected from robbers?"

"I was! But these people were worse than robbers!" screamed the priest.

"Who?" asked the rabbi.

"Fundraisers"

Contact : I. KITRON
E-mail: kitron1(a)terra.com.br


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