12 April 2012 presentation to FAO headquarters colleagues on the e-Agriculture Community, how it fulfills a mandate, and its potential in supporting the activities of the Organization. Also discussed were issues around online community management.
2. About e-Agriculture
A global Community of Practice.
People networking, and exchanging information,
ideas and resources on the use of information
and communication technologies (ICT) for
sustainable agriculture and food security.
5. Growth of the Community
14000
12000
10000
8000
Twitter followers
6000 Registered
4000
2000
0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 today
6. 10,000 Members registered
Africa 25% Government 11%
Private sector 15%
Asia 29%
NGO/CSO 21%
Europe 13%
UN/international organizations 16%
LAC 23% Research organizations 11%
Universities 23%
Near East 3%
Media organizations 3%
North America 7%
Southwest Pacific 2%
As of Jan. 2013 for all reported data. Rounding results in total >100.
8. Sharing and social
Content Highlights
1,915 news items
648 Knowledge Base Social Media
references 12,877 Twitter followers
552 forum posts 2,071 Facebook Likes
503 event listings 1,684 LinkedIn group
124 blog posts members
16 policy briefs
e-Agriculture stats 11 Apr. 2013
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14. Discussion forums & policy
5 years, 20 forums, 3 languages,
over 50,000 participants
Policy briefs used at Rio+20, GCARD 2
16. Capacity development
ICT skills and the IMARK partnership
Freelearning/training resources for the
Community
www.imarkgroup.org
Community experience informs contributors to
IMARK content
17. e-Agriculture’s Success
Value from
networking and collaboration
=
active people animating
the Community
18. What e-Agriculture can do for
you
Promote FAO’s use of ICT in its work across the
world:
• on the e-Agriculture platform
• at ict4ag conference in Kigali in November 2013
21. Daily management
Community Facilitation Information Management
The e-Agriculture Team Supported by OEKCS
Staff member Drupal - an open source
Intern content management
Virtual volunteers system
http://drupal.org/
Active in English, Spanish
and French. AgriDrupal - an extension
for agricultural information
systems
http://aims.fao.org/tools/agridrupal
Editor's Notes
All these organizations came together to found the e-Agriculture Community, with OEKC holding the “secretariat” like function. Many are still active today, each role evolving based on the needs and programme of the different organizations.
Why are ICT important in agriculture, and why would someone join the e-Agriculture Community?
The growth of e-Agriculture Community members REGISTERED on the platform www.e-agriculture.org and of Twitter followers.
About 80% of the registered members are in developing countries. The members cover a broad range of professions, in both the public and private sectors.
Day to day facilitation of the Community is led by a FAO staff member and an intern (introduce Andrea), with support from the Community’s “virtual volunteers”. Sushil in Nepal, Darline in Senegal, Frejus in Cameroon.
All members can contribute content. Interest of USAID/FHI360, Mercy Corps., Grameen Foundation, etc. due to focused traffic (about 10,000 visits/month, about 25,000-35,000 page views/month) and neutral domain.Twitter began mid-2008,Facebook page and LinkedIn group began mid-2010. About half of website traffic referred from social media (the other half being direct visits or search engines).
Some of the information about FAO’s use of ICT that has been promoted recently on e-Agriculture.
An example: promoting an external source publication about AGA’s work tracking livestock diseases with ICT.
An example: promoting an FAO article about an ICT4ag partnership between TECA (NRD) and the Grameen Foundation.
An example: promoting an AGS publication about ICT and the value chain, with link to the document in FAO’s CDR.
An example: Taka from TCI discusses his field work in an online discussion forum co-hosted by the World Bank.
The forum outputs and other Community activities inform EVENTS such as the annual WSIS Forum, ICTD Conference, infoDev Global Forum on Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship; and PUBLICATIONS such as the ICT in Agriculture Sourcebook (World Bank), the 2011 Information Economy Report (UNCTAD), RAP’s Mobile Technologies for Food Security, Agriculture, and Rural Development.
4 November: Day Zero – Let the hackathon begin!5-7 November: Main conference (with an unconventional twist)8 November: Field visit(s)Mark your calendar and help create the future of ICTs for agriculture.We look forward to welcoming you in Kigali!ICT4Ag is cohosted by CTA and the Rwandan Ministry of Agriculture and AnimalResources (MINAGRI). Partner organisations include Rwandan Ministry of Youth and ICT, EAFF, FAO, FARA, IFAD, FHI 360, IICD, ILRI, CGIAR, IFPRI, World Bank, infoDev, KINU, eAgriculture, AgriProFocus, IPACC, NEPAD, RTN, UBC Okanagan, UNITAR, USAID, WOUGNET, and Yam Pukri Association.