Paris, 28 June 2010


EFITA newsletter / 467 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


ROBOTICS2010 International
3 - 4 September 2010 - CLERMONT-FERRAND (France)
This workshop will give the opportunity to show in live demonstration a dozen of robotic platforms from France and Belgium (Robotic companies, Research laboratories) in close relationship with off-road applications including agriculture. Beyond official exhibitions, time-share will be opened for sharp and interesting discussions between all participants around exhibited robots. This event organized by Cemagref September 3rd and 4th (just before AGENG conference) and supported by Automation Technology for Off-Road Equipment (ATOE), International Advanced Robotics Programme (IARP) and French Robotic Working Group (GDR Robotique - CNRS) will gather scientific and engineering communities. During the second day, eminent invited keynote speakers will introduce four specific sessions. A "table ronde" will be another appointment of the event for successful discussions on off road robotic applications.
See: http://www.robotics2010.org


ECOTECHS2010 International
3 - 4 September 2010 - CLERMONT-FERRAND (France)
A workshop focused on applied research in the area of eco-design practices serving agricultural equipment. This event is organized by Cemagref September 3rd and 4th of September 2010 and is composed of two days: first day dedicated to academic presentations on the environmental assessment methods and the levers of technological creativity to benefit eco-design in the industrial agricultural equipment sector - second day dedicated to some presentation of Eco-innovation examples applied to agricultural machinery and an outlook for eco-labelling of agricultural equipment in Europe. This workshop is sponsored jointly by the European network ENTAM and VIAMECA competitivity cluster.
See: http://www.ecotechs2010.org/


Online Survey on Needs of the Water Sector Concerning Competence Modelling
The project WACOM transfers the European Qualification Framework (EQF) and the German Reference Model for the Competence Modelling PAS 1093 in the water sector and its Vocational Education and Training (VET) system throughout whole Europe. The major result of the WACOM project is the creation of a competence model in the sewage treatment plants (http://www.wacom-project.eu).

In this context, an online survey has been launched. It aims to identify the current level of awareness and knowledge of participants upon the needs in the water sector and competences modelling.

Topics of this survey include the following issues:

* Current Awareness of Competence Standards

* Perceived Need of the implementation of Competences Model in the Water Sector

* Vocational Education and Training in Water Sector

The results of the Online Survey will contribute to the identification of the needs in the water sector and will be integrated into the competence model that will be created in the WACOM project.

Your opinion is of great value to us. Therefore we would like to ask you for your participation in our survey. Please, follow the link:

See: http://survey.agroknow.gr/index.php?sid=38344&newtest=Y&lang=en

The questionnaire can be accessed in 5 languages (English, German, Greek, Hungarian and Romanian) and will take about 15 minutes to complete. To get familiarized with the questions of the survey, you can browse through them using the "Back" and "Next" button. But please do not proceed after the questions related to your personal info, because then the questionnaire will be considered completed and will be submitted to our database with blank data.

See: http://www.wacom-project.eu

Contact: Christian M. STRACKE
E-mail: Christian.Stracke(a)icb.uni-due.de


ICT Update Issue 55, June 2010: Cooperatives
Working together in a cooperative has many advantages for farmers. Collating their harvested crops means they can sell in bulk, demand better prices and have greater bargaining powers with buyers. Pooling resources also creates the opportunity to buy expensive equipment, such as food-processing and packaging machinery. Many cooperatives now also invest in communications technology to help train farmers, find new markets, improve management processes and deliver information services to their members.

> 'Cooperatives can do a lot to improve food and nutrition security, foreign exchange earnings, and foreign savings.’  Jethro Greene, coordinator of the Caribbean Farmers’ Network.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/regulars/perspectives/(issue)/55

> ‘Personally, I can’t see how we could work without ICTs anymore; telephones, e-mail and the internet have become such an integral part of our everyday work.’  Agnes Namuhisa, director for cooperative development with the Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/regulars/Q-A/(issue)/55

> The Coffee Growers Association of Oaxaca in Mexico uses software, called DigitalICS, to help farmers to improve the quality of their coffee.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/A_standard_system

> A cooperative of shea butter producers in southern Mali uses ICTs to market their product, improve management systems, and train members in new processing techniques.
See: http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/The_market_spread

> Specially developed software helps Kenyan coffee cooperatives manage their business, and provides their members with accurate accounts and transparent record keeping.
See : http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/A_program_to_build_trust

> A broad partnership of individuals, businesses, NGOs, and government departments is supporting an ICT cooperative to improve rural connectivity in the Butajira area of Ethiopia.
See : http://ictupdate.cta.int/en/Feature-Articles/Collaboration_in_communication

ICT Update (http://ictupdate.cta.int) is a bimonthly printed bulletin, web magazine, and accompanying email newsletter focusing on the use of information and communication technologies in agriculture in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. It is published in English and French, by CTA (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation) in Wageningen in the Netherlands.


>>>> VOA3R project
See: http://www.acta-informatique.fr?d=8161

>>> Useful links to understand the VOA3R approach

Agrovoc Thesaurus
AGROVOC is a multilingual, structured and controlled vocabulary designed to cover the terminology of all subject fields in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related domains (e.g. environment).
See: http://aims.fao.org/website/AGROVOC-Thesaurus/sub


Open Access Publishing in European Networks
OAPEN is a project in Open Access publishing for humanities and social sciences monographs. The consortium of University-based academic publishers who make up OAPEN believe that the time is ripe to bring the successes of scientific Open Access publishing to the humanities and social sciences.
See: http://www.oapen.org/


CIARD
The Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development (CIARD) initiative is working to make agricultural research information publicly available and accessible to all. This means working with organisations that hold information or that create new knowledge – to help them disseminate it more efficiently and make it easier to access.

CIARD is a partnership-based initiative which reflects the value of collective action to mobilize and build upon existing resources and activities to create a coherent global approach to information management and knowledge exchange related to agricultural science and technology.

The institutions that participate in CIARD endorse the Manifesto, evaluate their information management practices against the Checklist of good practices, share and follow the Pathways towards better accessibility of information, contribute case studies and register their information services in the RING.
See: http://www.ciard.net/network


The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH)
The Open Archives Initiative develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content. OAI has its roots in the open access and institutional repository movements. Continued support of this work remains a cornerstone of the Open Archives program. Over time, however, the work of OAI has expanded to promote broad access to digital resources for eScholarship, eLearning, and eScience.
See: http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/openarchivesprotocol.html


Car, Haircut and Bible
A young boy had just gotten his driver's permit and inquired of his father if they could discuss his use of the car.

His father said he'd make a deal with his son.
"You bring your grades up from a C to a B average, study your Bible a little get your hair cut and we'll talk about the car."

The boy thought about that for a moment decided and he settle for the offer and they agreed on it.

After about six weeks his father said, "Son, I've been real proud. You brought your grades up and I've observed that you have been studying your Bible, but I'm real disappointed you haven't gotten your hair cut."

The young man paused a moment then said, "You know, Dad, I've been thinking about that, and I've noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair and there's even a strong argument that Jesus had long hair."

His father replied, "Did you also notice they all walked everywhere they went?"

Contact: Israel KITRON
Mél : noga96(a)yahoo.com


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