Paris,
31 August 2009
EFITA newsletter / 426 / European Federation for Information Technology in
Agriculture, Food and the Environment
Global Change: Facing Risks and Treats to water Resources - 6th World FRIEND
conference,
25 – 29 October 2010 – FEZ - Morocco
And because TIC are everywhere, the 4th topic for the conference is related
with “Environmental Information and Monitoring Systems”, including subjects
like: information systems, modelling tools, remote sensing and field monitoring.
See: http://www.geo.uio.no/edc/downloads/call_for_papers_friend_2010.pdf
Information provided by Jorge MAIA
E-mail: jorge.maia(a)cotr.pt
Good / bad jokes
Keep on the jokes! The secret of jokes is that they can make bad things
inoffensive! Political correctness only makes bad things more dangerous.
Actually I like "the thoughts of the day" and "pensées du jour"
in your letter in French even better - but they do not make me laugh so much.
Contact: Gert Jan HOFSTEDE
E-mail: Gertjan.Hofstede(a)wur.nl
"Simple" question
I have a simple question that you may be able to answer easily: Are you
aware of any recently published study of the potential of ICT in agriculture
and agribusiness that is based on more than the personal insights and visions
of its author?
I would appreciate any answer.
Contact: Dr. Rolf A.E. Mueller, Prof.
Email: raem(a)ae.uni-kiel.de
My answer (GW): Your question is difficult. In France, all farmers having
an "economical impact" have today a computer connected to the Internet,
most of them with an adsl connection. The main use remains accounting rather
complex and expensive in France. Many technical applications are available
through the web or off-line. In animal productions, keeping records of many
events is compulsory.
It seems to me that many applications are used by farmers only for a while
(e.g. models predicting plant diseases). After using technical applications
for a few years, farmers stop when they cease to learn something from these
applications. "Rooms for manoeuvre" are identified as well as suboptimal
solutions. Reasons of using a PC disappear when brains are enough. But it
does not answer your question!
And Rolf answers: I think it is a very good answer as it points towards a
basic principle, which many of us tend to forget when they think, talk, and
write about computers: The brain and computers are sometimes complements -
when I can learn something from my computer, and sometimes substitutes, when
I do something either with the brain or the computer. When they are substitute
and the choice is to switch on either the brain or the computer, most of us
chose the brain.
Efita at Agritechnica (Germany)?
I am Danilo Herrero, a Brazilian Agribusiness consultant, specially on
Information Technology. I'll be in Agritechnica to represent some corporations
to make a market analysis, and a information from Efita could be very useful
on our project. Do you have any database of IT enterprises that will be in
Agritechnica? the number of these enterprises?
Any information about European corporations that act in this sector would
be useful.
Contact: Danilo HERRERO
E-mail: danilo.herrero(a)gmail.com
My answer (GW):
- You should contact Mrs Malene Conlong.
m.conlong(a)dlg.org
- I published a list of German companies in a last issue of the efita newsletter
(a contribution of Karsten KÜHLBACH.
- You will find lists of French and Italian Agricultural IT providers on the
efita web site.
I see that the links are up for the EFITA conference…
What is the proper reference format for the EFITA proceedings? Who are
the editors? Is the acronym EFITA typically spelled out in references? Here
is my publication:
Bewley, J.M., M.D. Boehjle, A.W. Gray, H. Hogeveen, S.D. Eicher, and M.M.
Schutz. 2009. Modeling precision dairy
farming technology investment decisions . Abstract 2410. European Conference
on Precision Livestock Farming. Wageningen, The Netherlands.
See: http://www.bewleydairy.com
Contact: Jeffrey BEWLEY
E-mail: jbewley(a)uky.edu
Answer by Sjaak WOLFERT: Was a good question and we first had to discuss it,
but we came up with the result as indicated at the following URL. I hope this
answers your question.
See: http://www.efita.net?d=6694
Contact: Sjaak WOLFERT
E-mail: sjaak.wolfert(a)wur.nl
Efita 2009: An error
I was also updating my publications for our library and noticed that at
one place something has gone wrong in publishing the EFITA proceedings at
the website. It concerns my paper in section 11 'Living Labs', referring to
the file 'Wolfert2.pdf'. The title page of this file is correct, but then
it is a large mixture of many pages from other papers. Could you please repair
this?
My answer (GW): Correction done
See: http://www.efita.net?d=6551
I invite all authors to have a look at the efita.net web site to check if
I did something wrong.
Hi Guy, thanks for loading the EFITA 2009 papers. Unfortunately the section
7 (DSS) does not function properly
Contact: Brett WHELAN
E-mail: b.whelan(a)usyd.edu.au
My answer (GW): Thank you for your message. I load the missing papers as
soon as possible.
Open access innovations in agricultural and environmental information
AIBDA, the Inter-American Association of librarians and specialists in
agricultural information, announces its Fifteenth Meeting called RIBDA 2009.
This new invitation comes from Peru as host country and its National Library
as location. The main purpose of the meeting is to carry out a debate on Open
Access innovations in agricultural and environmental information and share
progress in the free transfer and dissemination of knowledge through the Open
Access movement(OA) for agricultural, environmental and related sciences in
the inter-American community and worldwide.
Prominent international speakers confirmed their participation:
Stephen Rudgard, from World Agricultural Information Center (WAICENT) of the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Abel Packer
BIREME / PAHO / WHO Brasil, Jean Claude Guedon Open Access Publishing in European
Networks, France and Michael Nelson Computer Science Department. Old Dominion
University United States.
>>> Satellite Workshop on Information Technologies
As part of the activities of the RIBDA 2009 has been programmed of 23 to 26
October a cycle of workshops satellites on technologies of the information
that take as aim qualify the professionals of the information in the management
tools of forefront. The experience of the SISAV http://sisav.valledelcauca.gov.co
as a social semantic web has been selected to be presented during the workshops.
See: http://www.aibda.com/eventos/index.php/ribda/2009/announcement/view/22
See: http://www.aibda.com/eventos/index.php/ribda/2009
Contact: Piedad MONTAÑO DE MAYOLO
E-mail: sisavagricola(a)gmail.com
The French President is sitting in his office when his telephone rings
'Hallo, Mr. Sarkozy!' a heavily accented voice said. 'This is Paddy down at
the Harp Pub in County Clare, Ireland. I am ringing to inform you that we
are officially declaring war on you. We voted to reject the Lisbon treaty.'
'Well, Paddy,' Sarkozy replied,’ this is indeed important news. How big is
your army?'
'Right now,' says Paddy, after a moment's calculation, 'there is myself, me
Cousin Sean, me next door neighbour Seamus, and the entire darts team from
the pub. That makes eleven.'
Sarkozy paused. 'I must tell you, paddy that I have 100,000 men in my army
waiting to move on my command.'
'Begoora!' says Paddy. 'I'll have to ring you back.'
²
Sure enough, the next day, Paddy calls again. 'Mr. Sarkozy, the war is still
on. We have managed to get us some infantry equipment!'
'And what equipment would that be Paddy?' Sarkozy asks.
'Well, we have two combines, a bulldozer, and Murphy's farm tractor.'
Sarkozy sighs amused. 'I must tell you, Paddy that I have 6,000 tanks and
5,000 armoured personnel carriers. Also, I have increased my army to 150,000
since we last spoke.'
'Saints preserve us!' says Paddy. I'll have to get back to you.'
Sure enough, Paddy rings again the next day. 'Mr. Sarkozy, the war is still
on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne! We have modified Jackie McLaughlin's
ultra-light with a couple of shotguns in the cockpit, and four boys from the
Shamrock Bar have joined us as well!'
Sarkozy was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat. 'I must tell
you, Paddy, that I have 100 bombers and 200 fighter planes. My military bases
are surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile sites. And since we
last spoke, I have increased my army to 200,000.'
'Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!' says Paddy, 'I will have to ring you back.'
Sure enough, Paddy calls again the next day. 'Top o' the mornin', Mr. Sarkozy.
I am sorry to inform you that we have had to call off the war.'
'Really? I am sorry to hear that,' says Sarkozy. 'Why the sudden change of
heart?'
'Well,' says Paddy, 'we had a long chat over a few pints of Guinness and packets
of crisps, and we decided there is no feckin' way we can feed 200,000 prisoners.'
Contact: David TINKER
E-mail: secgen(a)eurageng.eu
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