Paris, 9 August 2010


EFITA newsletter / 473 / European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


Normandy and Impressionism: A fantastic exhibition in Rouen: Europe, France and Normandy at their best
See: http://www.normandie-impressionniste.fr/en/home
See: http://www.unevillepourlimpressionnisme.com/


Seminar “What’s new, what’s next in dynamic system modeling in agronomy”
7 September - PARIS
Register soon, places are limited. Preliminary program and inscription:
http://www.modelia.org/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=53
Contact: François Brun
E-mail: francois.brun(a)acta.asso.fr


Geo-Information and Information Management for Farms, Agribusiness and Administration
24 – 26 November 2010, BONN (Germany)
You should not miss this interesting seminar!
Contact: Sjaak WOLFERT
E-mail: sjaak.wolfert(a)wur.nl


Wanted: Information on Organic farming and crop modeling
Do you know some crop models that are used especially for organic farming issues?
Or decision support tools designed for pest control in organic farming systems?
Contact: François BRUN
E-mail: francois.brun(a)acta.asso.fr


Invitation to participate in the online forum in Spanish: “The Role of ICTs in Improving Competitiveness in Agricultural Value Chains” (it is too late!)
26 July - 6 August 2010
e-Agriculture and IICA are hosting an online forum in Spanish on “The Role of ICTs for Improving Competitiveness in Agricultural Value Chains”. This international event will provide a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge on best practices, challenges and expectations for the future, with a focus on the experiences of public and private sectors and rural communities in general. The discussions will benefit from the valuable input of six Subject Matter Experts from different countries and backgrounds.

Question # 1 is now available: What types of ICTs are used more regularly in agricultural value chains? Do you consider that certain types of ICTs play different roles in food chains?

See: http://www.e-agriculture.org/650.html
e-Agriculture on Twitter  and Facebook
E-mail : info(a)e-agriculture.org


Grant Opportunity for Winter School on "Designing and Exploiting Certified Competence-based VET Curricula in Agriculture, Food & Environment"
The winter school will take place in Athens, Greece from 28 February to 05 March 2011. This course aims to enhance trainees’ understanding of the concepts of skills and competences; their appreciation of how competence models, when supported by IT tools, can improve the opportunities of vocational education and training curricula design and development; and their knowledge of how this can work in practice.
The participants can apply for funding since the program is approved by the Grundtvig Program of the European Commission
See: http://88.198.194.115/~agroknow/ecotool/schools/2010-winter-school-for-teachers/
Contacts: Cleo SGOUROPOULOU, Charalampos THANOPOULOS
E-mails: csgouro(at)teiath(dot)gr, CThanopoulos(at)agroknow(dot)gr


Tourism: Nb of international entrances in 2009 (in millions)

France	81.9
Spain	59.2
USA	56
China	54.7
Italy	44.7

When travelling in France, why not use rural tourism facilities?
See: http://www.accueil-paysan.com/indexen.htm
See: http://www.bienvenue-a-la-ferme.com/en/
See: http://www.gites-de-france.com/gites/uk/rural_gites
See: http://www.france-passion.com/gb_formule.php?
PHPSESSID=07968929234edecf1da9d498c4ecf8b0


Agritourism web sites in Italy and elsewhere
> Agritourist Confagricoltura (IT)
See: http://www.agriturist.it/uk/

> Developing Quality standards for Agro-tourism
See: http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/bitstream/1892/8851/1/b36491809.pdf

> The eco-agro-tourism farms in Poland, Italy and Germany
See: http://www.kpodr.pl/leonardo_old/katalog%20eko-agroturystyczny-an.pdf

> DestiNet - Sustainable Tourism Information Portal
See: http://destinet.ew.eea.europa.eu/topics/ecotourism/eco-destinet/

> Discussion Forum: Ecotourism in Europe
See: http://destinet.ew.eea.europa.eu/topics/ecotourism/eco-destinet/frm963213

> ECOTRANS, the European network for sustainable tourism development
See: http://www.ecotrans.org/Englishfr.htm

> Eco-Destinet
Eco-Destinet is a network developing a European Quality Label for Ecotourism Destinations. It is a project co-funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning Programme. Eco-Destinet initiative produced a training package for trainers of ecotourism providers wishing to apply the labelling standards of the European Ecotourism Labelling Standard EETLS across Europe.
See: http://www.ecoroute.eu/destinet_index.htm

> EDEN – European Destinations of Excellence
EDEN is a project promoting sustainable tourism development models across the European Union. The project is based on national competitions that take place every year and result in the selection of a tourist “destination of excellence” for each participating country.
See: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/eden/what-is-eden/index_en.htm

> National Associations in the Eco-Tourism sector
See: http://www.european-ecotourism.com/directory/national-associations/

> Turismo Verde (CIA) (in Italian)
See: http://www.turismoverde.it/

> Terranostra Agriturismo e Ambiente (Coldiretti)
See: http://www.terranostra.it/

> Chamber of Commerce
See: http://www.vb.camcom.it/Page/t05/view_html?idp=1213

> Links to eco-agri-tourism web sites
See: http://www.tringos.eu/agrotournet/?Links_%26_Resources:Resources

Contact: Maria DELLA GIOVAMPAOLA
Email: serifosrl(a)serifo.it


UK Farm Software Systems and organic farming
A list of software, you can notice that there are some specialized for organic farming, with special attention put on traceability.
See: http://www.farminguk.net/software.htm


IEEE ICDM Data Mining Competition
The task is to predict city road traffic for the purpose of intelligent driver navigation and improved journey planning. The three contest problems are related to congestion forecasting, modeling of traffic jams, and smart navigation based on real-time GPS monitoring. Datasets come from a highly realistic simulator of city traffic, Traffic Simulation Framework.
Everyone is welcome to participate. The competition lasts till 6^th September 2010
See: http://tunedit.org/challenge/IEEE-ICDM-2010
Contact: Magdalena PANCEWICZ
E-mail: m.pancewicz(a)tunedit.org


OpenURL
The OpenURL standard is a protocol for interoperability between an information resource and a service component. The underlying concept of the OpenURL standard is that links should lead a user to appropriate resources. A link server (such as SFX) defines the context of the user. When the link server accepts an OpenURL as input, it offers the user a range of services: such as links to licensed and/or free e-copies of full-text articles, physical library holdings information, docdel/ILL services, and a range of other services as defined and customized by the library.
Voir : http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/category/sfxopenurl


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
See: http://aims.fao.org/website/ Documentation


Agrotagger
See: http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/auto_tagger/callable_auto_tagger.html
Words used for tagging…
See: http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/agro_tag/agro_tree.html


The Historians amongst you will really appreciate this Greek Philosophical Test

Keep this in mind the next time you are about to repeat a rumour or spread gossip.

In ancient Greece (469 - 399 BC), Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom.

One day an acquaintance ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about Diogenes?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied, "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

'Triple filter?" asked the acquaintance.

"That's right," Socrates continued, "Before you talk to me about Diogenes let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "Actually I just heard about it."

"All right," said Socrates, "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about Diogenes something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something about Diogenes that may be bad, even though you're not certain it's true?"

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed. Socrates continued, "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter, the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about Diogenes going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me or anyone at all?"

The man was bewildered and ashamed. This is an example of why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.

It also explains why Socrates never found out that Diogenes was shagging his wife.


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