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2010-05 CIARD Detailed Presentation - English
- 1. www.ciard.net [email_address] A new way forward Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development Presentation by Dr. Stephen Rudgard Chief. Knowledge and Capacity for Development Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Conference United States. May 2010
- 5. Founding Partners and participation is expanding….. The Community
- 6. A Manifesto
- 11. How are we working?
- 12. Capacity Building Task Force Advocacy Task Force Content Management Task Force
- 15. Country representation at Consultations
- 18. Pathways Creative Commons CAB Abstracts AgMES
- 19. AGMES Initiative and Application Profiles AGROVOC Thesaurus Domain Ontologies & Knowledge Organization Systems Registry of Tools http://aims.fao.org Agricultural Information Management Standards
- 20. CIARD - RING Routemap to Information Nodes & Gateways
- 21. Open Archives to be added to the RING Name of the Institution Name of the open archive Texas A&M University Texas A&M University Libraries Digital Repository University of Maryland Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; College of Agriculture & Natural Resources University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln University of Massachusetts - Amherst ScholarWorks University of Illinois IDEALS - Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship Washington State University Washington State University Research Exchange University of Hawaii at Manoa ScholarSpace Rutgers University RU-CORE National Evolutionary Synthesis Center Dryad Texas AgriLife Research Texas AgriLife Research Utah State University [email_address] Kansas State University K-State Research Exchange University of Southern California University of Southern California Digital Library University of Minnesota University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy University of Minnesota AgEcon Search University of Washington ResearchWorks at the University of Washington IAMSLIC Aquatic Commons
- 24. Partnership-based e-learning initiative started in 2001 Collaboration with more than 45 international, regional and specialized organizations. Six modules covering information and knowledge management in multiple languages with 100,000 users 3 new modules are under development. Information Management Resource Kit
- 28. Other Learning Systems SCORM E-learning Content CD-Rom F2F Training Materials Online facilitated workshops Delivery Mechanisms Internet
- 29. So where do you fit in?
- 32. Website : www.ciard.net Thank you…and for more information
- 33. THANK YOU … and for more information, visit www.ciard.net www.ciard.net [email_address] Presentation by Dr. Stephen Rudgard Chief. Knowledge and Capacity for Development Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Conference United States. May 2010
Editor's Notes
- This slide sets the scene in the sense of drawing attention to the barriers to agricultural development and sustainable NR management – and how better information/knowledge access & exchange can overcome those barriers.
- This slide speaks to the fragmented approaches that currently dominate with every institution/player facing the same barriers and seeking to overcome them by individually supported actions towards often custom-built, unique, in-house solutions based on 1-2 individuals. This leads to very high cost and low sustainability. For many agricultural organizations the barriers are terminal – they simply don’t have (and cannot retain) the necessary skills for advanced IT-based solutions.
- So – here comes the global solution based on an open partnership-based approach for coherence in (a) actions and (b) technologies. The identity for the partnership emerged in 2008 after two rather positive but inconclusive consultations in which the stakeholders realised that a new/neutral platform was needed that no one partner dominated.
- The founding partners came together through a series of meetings in 2008 – and involves many of the principal agencies active in agricultural development in poorer countries. This core group of committed partners has since expanded to include many other key players.
- NOTE: At this stage you can refer to the purple brochure that ideally everyone should have. The early meetings in 2008 recognized the need for a statement of strategic goals/purposes - that could be adopted at the POLICY level and that would hopefully lead to a universally acceptable landscape of PRACTICE /action(s). The way this Manifesto was developed will be described later in the presentation.
- So - the vision statement was developed to focus on “access” to public goods derived from agricultural research. The other points are self explanatory.
- This slide is self-explanatory
- Note: The summary statements of “Values” are not meant to be read out in the presentation – everyone should have the brochure to read them at their leisure. You can refer to the titles of the four sections of Values – investment/coherence/content/capacity – as being the critical themes in which the Values are set.
- The contributors to the initiative saw the need for a distinct tool to support the Manifesto – as a sort of benchmark against which institutions could judge how closely that are aligned with the CIARD Manifesto. This tool was dubbed the “Checklist”. It is very important that this list is not seen as a compliance tool – where institutions are required to adhere at all the elements before they can be somehow independently assessed and given a sort of ISO standard. There is no international CIARD certifying authority/entity. The Checklist simply allows institutions to assess their status in an informal way, and then prioritise and schedule actions over time according to local needs and resources in order to achieve those items with which are not yet fully in line. The text on the insert in the main brochure explains this very clearly.
- Membership of the Task Forces is in theory open to all interested parties – although in the early stages we have tried to keep the groups to manageable sizes to facilitate interaction. All applications from US institutions will be happily received, although we may try to work towards a few representative parties if demand escalates.
- The Advocacy Task Force comprises senior representatives of all the founding partners in the CIARD initiative, and representatives of other organizations that have shown interest. Membership is open to new institutions – recognizing the need to keep the size of the Task Force manageable and work where possible/relevant through representatives of constituencies. Early actions have focused on the development of the main components of the initiative, namely the Manifesto, Checklist and associated materials and resources. These tools were developed through a series of consultations in the second half of 2008 through the end of 2009 – mainly with the first group of stakeholders the Information Professionals. We are now focused on bringing this agenda to the all three groups – and we may find that the message has to be adapted to fit the different interests of the three groups.
- Consultations in 2009 focused mainly on the areas of the world were the need is greatest and the capacity is the weakest – namely the less developed countries. A series of 5 regional consultations brought the CIARD agenda to around 150 information professionals from almost 70 countries. The main components of the CIARD, namely the Manifesto, Values and Checklist were comprehensively reviewed using participatory formats and the suggestions received were used to revise the materials substantially. There is no doubt the focus and approach of CIARD has changed for the better as a result of these efforts. Now in 2010, we are bringing the new profile of CIARD to more international and especially Northern hemisphere audiences of (a) information professionals and (b) research directors. This USAIN presentation is a key part of this year’s programme of action.
- The map shows those countries from which information professionals contributed to the consultations in 2009. USAIN-2010 represents the first step to bringing the detailed CIARD agenda to the institutions commanding the largest body of public domain agricultural information in the world.
- These are the other lessons that emerged from the Consultations in 2009/10.
- The CMTF actually predates the CIARD initiative – it was simply absorbed once the initiative was created. The Task Force currently comprises a small central group of “convenors” chosen to represent global regions and key constituencies. John Ferreira from Cornell Univ Mann Library was co-opted at the early stages and has remained a key member of the CMTF community. There is now a proposal to widen engagement in the CMTF. Actions in 2009 focused on three key areas which will now be considered in turn.
- The CIARD “Pathways” were developed in response to an expressed demand from information professionals from institutions who saw the CIARD Checklist and then asked “how do I achieve this item”. In reality, a wide variety of tools and services can be used to achieve the Checklist items, and the logos of just some of these are shown in this slide. Through 2009 the members of the CMTF assisted with the development of 16 Pathways (normally no more than 1000 words) – which for each area describe “What do you need to Know” and “What do you need to do” – with a short list of references and weblinks.
- A major resource has added significantly to the coherence agenda in CIARD is facilitated by FAO. The AIMS website encompasses a series of resources that form the backbone of international agricultural information standards and tools. All of these resources are being developed in a collaborative way with the support of a global community of agricultural information specialists. As an example, the AGROVOC thesaurus now exists in 20 languages, with each language version managed by a national/regional collaborating centre – and a new tool being launched in 2010 will allow online collaborative management/development of these resources - the AGROVOC Concept Server. FAO is actively seeking to increase its collaboration with USDA-NAL as part of the efforts to ensure that the different thesauri are properly mapped against each other for better interoperability.
- Moving on to the CIARD RING (Routemap to Information Nodes and Gateways) – this was developed by the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) with the support of the Content Management Task Force, and it was launched 6 months ago. It is intended as a global registry of information sources/services in agriculture – to provide a single reference point to assist discovery of public domain content and tools. Although in its infancy, this tool has received a strong positive reaction from stakeholders in many parts of the world.
- The key challenge in realising the value in the RING is to achieve a critical mass of registered information sources/services. The CMTF undertook a global survey of agricultural Open Archives in 2009, which led to the discovery of more than 90 resources of which the 15 listed in this slide are from the USA. This is in no way an exhaustive list of US public domain resources, with several notable repositories within the wider AGNIC domain still to be brought on board including the Agricola database. FAO and partners are now working with the owners of these repositories to register them on the RING.
- Last of the three areas of work for the Content Management Task Force has been the development of public domain tools for managing agricultural information, most notably the Agridrupal initiative.
- The third of the Task Forces to be addressed here is the one handling Capacity Building. This Task Force has been the least well constituted of the three, and has essentially reverted to the Steering Group of the IMARK initiative, whose membership comprises some of the CIARD founding partners.
- IMARK has grown from 2001 into a major global initiative for learning about information and knowledge management, pulling together inputs from a large range of specialist organizations and individuals and a Steering Group of 11 major international players. FAO facilitates/anchors the initiative and the Steering Group. IMARK has no specific disciplinary focus - ie generic approaches applicable to any area including agriculture – but FAO and other partners have ensured large uptake in the agricultural domain in developing countries. More than 100,000 learners have used IMARK materials. Universities are now beginning to integrate part or all of these modules into their curricula.
- The main topic areas relevant to CIARD are listed in this slide. Most of these modules are available in English/Spanish/French. All Modules include a “Personal Learning Path” facility which allows learners to customize the Curriculum to their own needs. The modules address many of the areas covered in the CIARD Pathways in some detail.
- This new module launching in May 2010 is an updated version of the first two modules of IMARK – bringing together almost forty 40 minute lessons.
- This Module was launched in 2009 and addresses the broad range of Web2.0 approaches to social media.
- IMARK Modules/Curricula support self-paced learning without the need for intervention by tutors. The materials can be delivered by CD and Internet. Most modules have a set of resource materials for each lesson for use in face-to-face training (i.e. ppt presentation, student notes etc). The IMARK partners have also run online facilitated workshops on a Moodle platform for collaborative learning.
- The Consultations in 2009 highlighted the need for a clear and concise list of Benefits and possible Contributions, to provide the basis for trying to persuade institutions and individuals to participate in CIARD. This slide presents the statements that emerged from those consultations.
- This is concretely what you can do!!
- Please note that the new CIARD website was launched in April 2010 – and includes all the updated materials – Manifesto/Checklist/Pathways. This site will be developed through 2010 especially to provide more detailed information around the Pathways, and present an Advocacy Toolkit to support efforts to bring institutions/colleagues onboard. To summarize – CIARD is an unprecedented “Movement” on enhancing access to agricultural public goods through global collaboration in a way that leverages all efforts without the need for a central “fund”, and especially benefits those with the least ability/resource. We desperately need the US community onboard!