Access to Research for Development and Innovation - WIPO supports free journal access

The United Nations has partnered with the scientific publishing industry to provide research institutions in least developed countries free access to online journals, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced at the launch of the scheme in Geneva.

The new UN-brokered programme, Access to Research for Development and Innovation (aRDi), will allow industrial property offices, universities and research institutes to subscribe free of charge to prominent science and technology publications including the American Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences, Oxford University Press and Royal Society of Chemistry, among others.

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Scientific and Technical Information at Agropolis

A flyer to present STI skills and activities within the largest French scientific community in Agriculture, Food, Biodiversity and Environment.

Open publication

Agropolis on Issuu ...

Comunidades Autónomas en España: Software libre, Internet "a bordo", fiestas digitales y bibliotecas online.

Las comunidades autónomas en España se abren a Internet y a las nuevas tecnologías de la información (TIC) con iniciativas como el software libre gratuito, fiestas masivas para internautas, bibliotecas digitales o conexión a la red en el tranvía.

En efecto, el informe "Sociedad de la Información en España 2008", publicado por la Fundación Telefónica, evidencia que Internet cuenta cada vez con más y mejor presencia en las autonomías, gracias, entre otras cosas, a la implantación de la banda ancha.

Bajo el lema "Internet gratis para todos", Cantabria ha subvencionado su instalación gratuita durante todo un año en hogares sin red, mientras que Extremadura ha logrado que el cien por cien de su territorio tenga acceso a este tipo de conexión gracias al Plan de Extensión de la Banda Ancha.

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Web2.0 in the 'green' knowledge system

Josien Kapma, Eelke Wielinga share their presentation on social media at the September 2009 European Seminar on Extension Education.

The authors "investigate differences between classical ways of knowledge transfer and
web 2.0 communication in the “Green Knowledge System”. . . The opening up, through ICTs, of information, communication, participation and collaboration leads to changes that are both incremental and entirely novel or transformational."

"Knowledge systems and their stakeholders finally have the possibilities they always wanted. Web 2.0 for the first time in history brings methods for knowledge sharing within the reach of those stakeholders themselves, for interaction with diverse and if needed numerous others."

Implications for extension?

"Not only have new media been added to the options, such as online video, blogging, skype; but these media can be used in entirely different ways."

"The organizational models that we avail of at present do not match the new dispersed form of organization which these technologies herald, nor are they particularly conducive to this change."

"Knowledge sharing and sensemaking become more and more important, as well as networking among colleagues and likeminded people."

"For agricultural extension and education the changes are not only incremental as was the case in the progress from print to photocopies or from radio to TV. The new technological options are in many ways transformational, marking the transition from the industrial age to the networking age."

Hacia una Biblioteca Digital Agropecuaria del INTA

Como organismo de ciencia y tecnología, el Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), necesita ordernar y publicar a la mayor audiencia posible sus productos.

Con una biblioteca digital se puede cumplir con este objetivo además de aumentar la disponibilidad y el acceso a los productos antes señalados.

Sin descartar las mejoras surgidas de la implementacion de Biblioteca Digital, se reconoce la importancia de subir un escalón más en la evolución, poniendo otro tipo de material digital, como videos y fotos, llegando incluso a digitalizar gran parte de la biblioteca para contribuir a la conservación del mismo.

Lea el artículo completo

Lista de trabajos presentados en la jornada de agroinformática JAIIO 2008

GLiPHA: Global Livestock Production and Health Atlas

GLiPHA is an interactive electronic atlas that provides a scaleable overview of spatial and temporal variation in quantitative information related to animal production and health. Against a back-drop of selected maps of livestock densities, land-use or elevation, sub-national statistics relating to the livestock sector can be mapped, or displayed as tables and charts.

The objective of the GLiPHA is to facilitate access to livestock sector information for analysis and informed decision making and to increase awareness of socio-economic, human and animal demographic and health related issues.

GLiPHA draws on sub-national data managed within the Global Livestock Impact Mapping (GLIMS). The interface uses KIDS-3g technology, the third generation of the Key Indicator Data System.

AgInfo innovation and communication among African farmers

A project to examine the state of local content in developing countries is starting to attract examples and stories from Africa.

"Rural people in Africa have amazing knowledge and wisdom, often expressed through proverbs, idioms, song, pottery and poetry, among other methods."

"The big question again is do we still need to be investing in tools, approaches, systems that facilitate vertical flow of information from research to farmers or we need to look for, and develop systems that facilitate horizontal communication among these farmers to be able to solve their problems?"

These contributions by James Nguo, Charles Dhewa, and Ben Kwasi Addom highlight some of the opportunities and challenges rural communities have in creating and exchanging 'their'knowledge and information.



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Maintaining the integrity and accessibility of research data

According to a new report by the National Academy of Science, "maintaining the integrity and accessibility of research data in a rapidly evolving digital age will take the collective efforts of universities and other research institutions, journals, agencies, and individual scientists."

The report recommends that researchers - both publicly and privately funded - make the data and methods underlying their reported results public in a timely manner, except in unusual cases where there is a compelling reason not to do so, such as concern about national security or health privacy. In such cases, researchers should publicly explain why data are being withheld. But the default position should be that data will be shared -- a practice that allows data and conclusions to be verified, contributes to further scientific advances, and allows the development of beneficial goods and services. Research data can be valuable for many years after they are generated -- for verifying results and generating new findings -- but maintaining high-quality and reliable databases can be costly, the report observes.

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ONU pide a México reducir brecha digital

Para Frank La Rue, relator de la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU), el salir de la pobreza para algunas comunidades está vinculado con el acceso a la comunicación y por tanto su participación en la democracia.

El relator de ONU para la Libertad de Expresión, lanzó un llamado a que México y otras naciones den el paso para abatir la brecha digital, porque no sólo se vincula a la pobreza sino a la democracia.

Frank La Rue dijo que “este salto digital, la reconversión digital de nuestros países es una preocupación. Yo hice una afirmación de que algunos países no de este continente sino de otros no entendieron bien, estoy tratando de vincular el tema de pobreza y acceso a la comunicación, porque el tema de democracia es el que va con libertad de expresión, pero ahora más allá de la democracia, el salir de la pobreza para algunas comunidades está vinculado con el acceso a la comunicación”.

Para el relator de la ONU la comunidad rural pobre si no tiene acceso a alguna forma de comunicación, en telefonía celular o comunicación electrónica no va a poder participar de los programas nacionales de desarrollo ni incrustarse en los procesos económicos de desarrollo de su país ni de sus regiones.

“Yo creo que eso sí es una reflexión importante porque en esta reconversión digital puede llevar la delantera los países con más recursos económicos o con más avances tecnológicos y lo que estoy tratando de hacer es plantear en Naciones Unidas una voz de alarma para que hagamos un consenso mundial en que esos países tengan la obligación internacional de contribuir con los países en desarrollo para generalizar la tecnología y garantizar ese acceso para que la famosa brecha digital no se agudice”.

Para el relator “es el momento en que los líderes de Estado tienen que sentarse y pensar. De aquí a 30 años no vamos a podernos quejar de que no hicimos la evaluación apropiada en el momento apropiado y ya nuestros hijos nos estarán cuestionando”.

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How journal articles may come to be published

"Cell Press and Elsevier have launched a project called Article of the Future that is an ongoing collaboration with the scientific community to redefine how the scientific article is presented online.

The project's goal is to take full advantage of online capabilities, allowing readers individualized entry points and routes through the content, while using the latest advances in visualization techniques. We have developed prototypes for two articles from Cell to demonstrate initial concepts and get feedback from the scientific community."

What do we think? Seems to be more about presentation and the introduction of other types and forms of results (podcasts, video). Doesn't seem to suggest any opening up of all or some parts of the content.

L’information scientifique et technique : un enjeu pour une formation et une recherche d’excellence

Une plaquette présentant les compétences et activités IST au sein du pôle scientifique agro-environnement de Montpellier et sa région vient d’être publiée.

Open publication

Agropolis sur Issuu ...

Comunidades Virtuales en Información Agraria

Cada vez más nos estamos involucrando en la convivencia en ambientes virtuales, en ocasiones no nos conocemos pero hemos cruzado más de alguna línea a través de ún sistema de comunicación social. El gran auge que han tenido las redes sociales en los últimos tres años y que en su momento convirtieron a Chile en uno de los países con más blogs y luego top ten de usuarios de Facebook nos invita a pensar cuánto nos puede favorecer la formación de Comunidades Virtuales en nuestra área específica, la Gestión de información Agraria, y no tan sólo en ella sino que en todos los temas asociados como metadatos, web semántica, repositorios, derechos de autor, brecha digital, alfabetización digital y un largo etcetera.

En el Curso Construyendo Redes y Comunidades Virtuales, hemos aprendido la importancia de formar comunidades aprovechando la posibilidades que la tecnología nos ofrece, pero no tan sólo el aspecto tecnlógico sino que también aprender de la capacidad de las personas para relacionarse en ambientes virtuales, valorando la comunicación intercultural y el aprendizaje colaborativo.

Hemos visto florecer muchas comunidades virtuales en el tiempo, unas permanecen y otras sencillamente quedan en el intento por una inadecuada planificación, falta de contactos o el grupo objetivo no ve el diálogo virtual como una necesidad.

Producto del curso antes mencionado, Marcela Ojeda nos propuso una serie de comunidades virtuales asociadas a la Gestión de Información Agraria. Una de las últimas comunidades virtuales surgidas es la de la IAALD, llamada Comunidad Información Agrícola, reune a decenas de especialistas de todo el mundo, incluso por zonas geográficas y fue desarrollada en la plataforma Ning

Lea este artículo en la Zona Ex-Alumnos IMARK de Chile

Knowledge portal in India to help farmers deal with climate change

A recent conference in India saw the launch of 'Bhoogyan' - an Integrated Knowledge System on Climate Change Adaptation. This ICT-based knowledge delivery system aims to help poor communities adapt to changing climate. Arun Seth, Chairman, British Telecom India, commented: "While technology should be used as an enabler; sufficiency can only come through knowledge."

To help people around the world get involved in climate protection efforts, OneWorld has also launched the OneClimate.net Web site, a social networking space for sharing ideas and experiences on climate change.

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INE y FAO realizaron seminario sobre estadísticas agropecuarias

El Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) y la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO) realizaron el seminario “Raíces del Chile Agroalimentario: el uso de la información estadística para el desarrollo agropecuario”.

El encuentro se llevó a cabo en la Sede de la FAO para América Latina y El Caribe, en Chile y trató la importancia de las estadísticas agropecuarias para la toma de decisiones y el desarrollo de este sector.

Según la Directora Nacional del INE, Mariana Schkolnik, existe “un siglo de estadísticas agropecuarias que han permitido a los organismos públicos y privados, nacionales e internacionales, academicos y ciudadanos, conocer y tomar decisiones informadas y así fortalecer una sociedad abierta y democrática”.

Una opinión similar expresó la Representante de la FAO en Chile y Representante Regional Adjunta para América Latina y el Caribe, Margarita Flores, quién detalló que la información estadística ayuda a “tener una visión conjunta y detallada para poder actuar y definir acciones en las políticas públicas. Por el lado de los productores, significa tener información relevante para tomar decisiones de inversión, por lo tanto la calidad de la información es un punto clave”.

Durante la actividad, el INE, la FAO y el Ministerio de la Agricultura intercambiaron cartas a través de las cuales manifestaron su voluntad y compromiso para trabajar en conjunto en la formulación de la iniciativa Country Stat para Chile.

El CountryStat es un sistema integrado de información estadística en alimentación y agricultura desarrollado por la FAO a nivel mundial e implementado en diversos países, el cual proporciona una sólida base para tomar decisiones de políticas en materia de alimentos y agricultura, al agrupar los sistemas estadísticos nacionales existentes, organizando los datos complejos para facilitar su utilización.

Durante el seminario, también se discutieron los aportes informativos de los Censos Agropecuarios, la necesidad de contar con información estadística sectorial actualizada, la visión de la FAO sobre el nivel de las estadísticas mundiales y la formulación de proyectos y políticas a contar del Censo Agropecuario.

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Qué es el SIDINTA? - el Sistema de Información y Documentación Agropecuaria del INTA

El SIDINTA es una red, coordinada desde el DDIB, de 53 bibliotecas de los respectivos institutos de investigación y estaciones experimentales de la institución.

El SIDINTA fue creado el 16 de junio de 1988 por disposición de la Dirección Nacional.

Sus objetivos: orientar la organización de la información bibliográfica y documental científico-técnica y socio-económica agropecuaria, contribuyendo al mantenimiento y aprovechamiento de los recursos bibliográficos, documentales y físicos existentes en las Unidades de la Institución;

Identificar, promover y difundir métodos y técnicas adecuadas para la recuperación y utilización de la información bibliográfica del sector.

Apoyar la generación y uso adecuado de bases de datos bibliográficas y estadísticas agropecuarias, procesando la información gerencial de orden institucional, destinada a aumentar la eficiencia y la acción sustantiva del INTA.

Listado de bibliotecas del INTA y otras instituciones agrícolas

Más : El Sistema de Información técnica del INTA

Cell phones turned into fluorescent microscopes can help to diagnose diseases

The prototype CellScope moves a major step forward in taking clinical microscopy out of specialized laboratories and into field settings for disease screening and diagnoses.

"The same regions of the world that lack access to adequate health facilities are, paradoxically, well-served by mobile phone networks," said Dan Fletcher, UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering and head of the research team developing the CellScope. "We can take advantage of these mobile networks to bring low-cost, easy-to-use lab equipment out to more remote settings

"The images can either be analyzed on site or wirelessly transmitted to clinical centers for remote diagnosis," according to David Breslauer, co-lead author of the study The system could be used to help provide early warning of outbreaks by shortening the time needed to screen, diagnose and treat infectious diseases." The software programs can be easily installed onto a typical cell phone, turning the mobile phone into a self-contained field lab and a "good platform for epidemiological monitoring."

The CellScope developers have even been approached by experts in agriculture interested in using it to help diagnose diseases in crops. Instead of sending in a leaf sample to a lab for diagnosis, farmers could upload an image of the diseased leaf for analysis.

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Open educational resources - State of the art

The February 2009 issue of Open Learning is dedicated to Open Educational Resources (OER) - "teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others."

The special issue, appropriately openly accessible, "present an overview of the OER movement, and the perspective is largely that of the OER provider."

In the words of Susan D'Antoni: "The production and use of OER raises a number of issues, and the concluding article addresses a crucial concern that brings us back to the perspective of the first article - open licensing. If materials are to be openly and freely shared, they must be licensed in a manner that promotes this objective. Ahrash Bissell's article aims to explain the logic of the open licensing that is essential to OER and to explore related considerations."

Looking for OER? Try out the search page by the Commonwealth of learning

Agricultores chilenos online: la tecnología mejora la producción

Ahora reciben correos electrónicos y navegan por el cyber espacio. Son pequeños agricultores que gracias a un programa del Gobierno pueden expandir sus límites.

La Fundación para la Innovación Agraria entregó los equipos, el centro de operaciones y la instalación de las antenas. Pero el programa considera algo mucho más importante que sólo conectarlos a Internet. Aquí se juntó "Conectividad Rural" con "Servicios de Información".

En palabras simples, los socios de la Cooperativa reciben conexión de Banda Ancha y además tienen acceso a una plataforma con datos que ayudan a optimizar la gestión de cada predio.

Durante los próximos 3 años casi 1.500 localidades rurales de todo Chile estarán conectadas a Internet. De cada cual dependerá el provecho y las utilidades que sepan obtener del beneficio

Al menos los campesinos de Coopeumo se organizaron y juntos están demostrando que sí se puede.

Lea el artículo completo.

Top IT opportunities for agricultural research organizations

Prepared by Enrica Porcari, this document lists and assesses thirty-three technologies likely to benefit the CGIAR.

She rated the technologies on five criteria: effectiveness, cost reduction, practicality, user satisfaction and low cost.

"The highest rated technologies and processes comprise: System-wide Software and Service Acquisition; Email Archive Appliance as part of the Storage Infrastructure; Virtualization 2.0; Chargeback; Training Programs; Hosted Email (a SaaS example); Social Software; Periodic Security Scans; BlackBerry, iPhone, ActiveSync and Upgrade to Exchange 2007."

"The middle tier is filled with specific technologies with considerable appeal, but which require decisions about their cost-effectiveness. Mashups & Composite Applications, Low-cost Desktops, Business Continuity, Unified Communications, Offline SharePoint, Automated Failover for Critical Network Components, Local SharePoint Services, Highly Secure Local Networks with Intrusion Prevention, Metadata Management, and Open Source for Servers and Desktops."

"The items at the end of the list comprise: Green IT, Upgrade to Windows Server 2008, Business Process Management, Secure Local Networks with Intrusion Prevention, Web Platform & WOA, NAC - Network Access Control, Computing Fabrics, Systemwide Central IP PBX, New Enterprise Architecture, Alternatives to Active Directory and Real World Web."

Empresas de turismo rural chilenas realizarán reservas vía mensajería SMS al celular

Para subsanar la brecha digital, 285 pymes de turismo rural del país accederán a una plataforma tecnológica para cotizar y reservar en línea, en un proyecto desarrollado por EuroChile e INDAP.

Según una encuesta realizada a 149 empresas participantes en el Programa de Turismo Rural del Instituto de Desarrollo Agropecuario, INDAP, un 69% de ellas dispone de telefonía móvil, mientras el 37% cuenta con computador. Aprovechando esta realidad, la Fundación Empresarial EuroChile anunció el inicio de un proyecto que permitirá a empresas pequeñas y medianas dedicadas a turismo rural recibir cotizaciones y reservas vía mensajería SMS en sus celulares.

La iniciativa, llamada “Innovación en la incorporación de TICS en el sector turismo: plataforma de conectividad de gestión y comercialización de pymes turísticas rurales”, cuenta con el apoyo de InnovaChile de CORFO y es realizada en conjunto con el Instituto de Desarrollo Agropecuario del Ministerio de Agricultura.

El proyecto busca superar la brecha de acceso a tecnologías de la información de las pymes turísticas rurales, que afecta su posicionamiento, gestión y ventas ante turistas y cadena de comercialización (touroperadores y agencias de viajes) del país y el extranjero.

“Queremos una agricultura en red con el mundo para crear la competitividad y consolidación del sector silvoagropecuario como pilar de la economía”, dijo la ministra de Agricultura Marigen Hornkohl.

Se estima que sólo un 11% de la población rural tiene conectividad a Internet. Por esto, algunos productores cuentan con sitios web, pero no pueden verlos desde sus hogares por falta de acceso a la red. Esta solución tecnológica permitirá reducir la brecha de acceso de las empresas de turismo rural a las TICs y sus potencialidades. Junto con la implementación tecnológica, el proyecto contempla la sensibilización y capacitación de los empresarios turísticos rurales en el uso de estas tecnologías.

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Mobile phones: Opportunities and challenges for AgInfo in Africa

Mark Davies (Esoko) and Sean Paavo Krepp (Nokia) were panellists in a session on 'public private partnership in m-agriculture'at the recent IAALD Africa conference in Accra.

Our starting point was the mobile phone. According to Mark Davies: "The opportunity that the mobile device presents is amazing"... we are "now beginning to get really powerful communication devices in the hands of people through the country."

Sean Paavo Krepp introduced Nokia, emphasizing to this audience of agricultural information and communication specialists that he sees many opportunities to work together, marrying content creators and mobile phones.

“We see ourselves as a media company” ... “I see this device [his phone] as an opportunity to communicate and interact with people worldwide.” With Nokia providing approximately 25% of the 4 billion mobile phones worldwide, this “makes us a potentially very interesting company to work with...”

Mentioning that more than a third of Africans already use mobile phones, and the declining costs of ownership - in some countries it is already less than $5 a month, Krepp predicted that they will soon be in the hands of everyone.

He argued that “the next frontier, I think, is mobile services” [on mobile handsets]. However, he mentioned, we need to overcome huge infrastructure, language, literacy, and income challenges.

Introducing Nokia Life Tools, he pointed out that Nokia's “effort is to go as local as possible” - in three areas: agriculture, education, and entertanment.

In agriculture, mobile phones are seen as a personal companion for farmers – a tool that is well-suited to support them along their cropping lifecycles – sowing, growing, harvesting, and selling (see example from India).

Key challenges encountered so far are "content, content, content" that people trust, is easy to use, is in digital formats, is timely, high quality, not too much, is localized, is customised, and is low cost. All of these, together, are a meaure of the 'relevance' of the content.

He argued that "such 'relevance' can only be achieved through partnerships" ... and that Nokia won't be able to generate all this itself. Hence the opportunities for others, especially those with the 'relevant content' needed by the farmers.

Mark Davies expressed a note of caution. Reflecting on his experience with market information systems, he stated: “as far as I am concerned, there is very little content out there that works for the people ... so we have to repurpose all of it.”

His Esoko platform is therefore largely moving from public to private information sources. He did wonder though if the best approach is perhaps “to allow everybody to upload content and let consumers sort it out”... to let the consumer vote with their feet.

One million dollar question is therefore whether the current content creators and providers can actually provide this 'relevant' information in forms that Nokia can use. Whether such partnerships between private AgInfo service providers and public content providers are likely to take off without some fundamental changes in the capacities and products of the public organizations.

Beyond the need to create content and make it accessible, the mobile phone is opening up other possibilities. According to Davies: "we suddenly realise there’s a new way to share information"... "the big awakening is not what we can push into the field, but what we can get out of it."

While the overwhelming paradigm is still to get info into the field, the underlying emerging challenge is to also get information "out and around" - from the field.

It seems we can count on an exciting future when we combine mobile devices with content that is mobile.

By Peter Ballantyne

Putting public AgInfo to use requires repackaging, transformation, and innovative partnerships

Accra, 17 July 2009: In a video interview with FARA, IAALD president Peter Ballantyne reflects on some discussions at the IAALD Africa conference in Accra.

Asked for a 'take home' message, he referred to a discussion on mobile agriculture and market information systems where speakers from private enterprises referred to the difficulties they have to find the essential information and content their customers will pay for. Their remarks suggest that public content creators and providers need to question their assumptions, particularly the notion that they have 'the' valuable content that others need to reach farmers.

For the private companies to "really put this [public] information to use, they have to repackage it, re-create it, start from scratch ... so are we in fact sitting on all those huge mountains of valuable information; do we have to pay much more attention to the re-use, repackaging, the transformation, really innovative ways of working in partnership with these private organizations."


He was interviewed by Francois Stepman of FARA

More FARA video interviews

Prospects for open access to AgInfo in Africa

Accra, 16 July 2009: One of yesterday's plenary session at the IAALD Africa conference examined open access potential in two African countries: Tanzania and Zambia.

Davy Simumba of the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute reported on a survey of attitudes to open access among agricultural researchers in Zambia. More than 85% of survey respondents indicated that their research is funded through public sources. Hence, it could be reasonable that the results would be publicly and openly accessible.

View more presentations from iaaldafrika.

His survey revealed a low awareness among researchers regarding open access, copyright options, and open access publishing in general. Also a greater than expected pattern among the researchers to publish in grey literature – non peer-reviewed journals.

His conclusions: Many of the researchers support basic open access principles - to be more visible and more accessible and most would support policies to improve access to literature. But, there was little support to deposit their grey literature in repositories or institutional websites....

In the subsequent open discussion, he argued that low accessibility is due to the lack of attention by research institutes to policies in this area. “Often we don’t capture the outputs; and the journal articles are not accessible because authors lack awareness of open access principles.”

Asked to suggest priorities for the future, he emphasized the need to understand how researchers see their own roles: “Scientists usually say they do research, anything else is by the way.“ It is important that research outputs are packaged for others to take them up - “it’s about linkages” between researchers and others working to apply agricultural knowledge.

Complementing Simumba’s survey, Frankwell Dulle from the Sokoine University of Agriculture reported on a survey of open access attitudes among university policy makers Tanzania. The overwhelming majority (95%) of respondents indicated that “dissemination of research outputs was a problem” in their institutions.

View more presentations from iaaldafrika.

Regarding open access, his research revealed a high general awareness of open access with 75% of respondents likely to support institutional interventions to foster open access.

He concluded by suggesting that the policy environment is favourable, so actions are needed to put in place the necessary funding, mechanisms and repositories to make Tanzanian research outputs open access.

Asked to suggest priorities for the future, he recommended that we “create content, make it in different formats, make it open accessible. We must not forget to empower users how to get to such content.”

Reflecting on these issues in the open panel discussion:

Elizabeth Dodsworth of CABI cautioned that open access should not be at the expense of good quality research – we need to continue to strive for ‘excellence’. It is essential that we provide “choices and policies” that allow researchers to publish in the most appropriate places.

Paa-Nii Johnson of Ghana’s Food Research Institute suggested that we need to look at ways to turn ‘classic’ research outputs into more user-friendly outputs. Beyond open access, we should make it “mandatory that bits and pieces from an output can be re-used.”

From an initial focus on the availability and accessibility of research publications (in repositories) the lively discussion concluded by focusing on ways to maximise the uptake and applicability of outputs in different forms more suited to the capabilities of different agricultural groups.

More:

AgInfo Africa newsfeed
Open AgInfo newsfeed
IAALD Africa presentations

Monty Jones on open access to AgInfo in Africa

Accra, 15 July 2009: In today’s keynote address to the IAALD Africa conference, Monty Jones – Executive Director of FARA and World Food prize laureate - argued that open access, to transform African agriculture, must:

• catalyse innovations
• improve African knowledge management
• strengthen Africa’s capacities to build its own capactities
• promote enabling policies
• facilitate access to markets

Arguing that “all of us should be doing advocacy in one way or the other,” he also posed some key questions to attain opening access:

• Are we advocating to the right people and the right institutions?
• Do we have the right systems for the intended users?
• Do the users have the skills and infrastructure to access the Knowledge?
• Do we have the appropriate institutional policies?
• Do we have the platforms that practitioners need to share and learn?
• How do we build and how do we manage knowledge - among all the different actors?

More:

FARA website
AgInfo Africa newsfeed
Open AgInfo newsfeed
IAALD Africa presentations

AgInfo management system for Southern Africa

Accra, 15 July 2009: Speaking in the opening plenary of the IAALD Africa conference, Krishan Bheenick of the SADC Secretariat traced the development of AIMS – the Agricultural Information Management System of SADC.

View more documents from iaaldafrika.

The idea is that AIMS will be an integrating platform - according to Bheenick, “ we are being asked to integrate and package and make sense across all the projects.”

AIMS, when fully developed, will give access to numeric data, spatial data, directories and repositories, and a range of content management and networking tools.

AIMS has emerged from a series of consultations and discussions in recent years. The strategy adoped was to “start by providing a common interface to these various information sources; then we can look at ways to integrate the various subsystems.”

Guiding principles adopted by AIMS participants:

• Focus on people and networks in instititutions in the regions
• Content – quality, accessible, timely
• International standards to allow sharing and re-use of content
• Satisfy multiple needs with multiple functionalities

More:

• SADC-AIMS Portal
• AgInfo Africa newsfeed
• Open AgInfo newsfeed
• IAALD Africa presentations

Knowledge creation and knowledge systems for African agriculture

Accra, 15 July 2009: Speaking in the opening plenary of the IAALD Africa conference, Myra Wopereis-Pura introduced FARA and its ‘RAILS’ initiative as a linking and connecting facility among agricultural research and aginfo activities in Africa.

She said that Africa needs comprehensive models and approaches to agricultural information exchange that address the limitations of the various systems and services already spread across the continent.

Arguing that “mere information, in the form of message is not enough” she emphasized the need to move towards knowledge creation. Across Africa, she anticipates – and FARA supports – the emergence of “dynamic and evolving knowledge systems – that each one of us is contributing to.”

At the heart of these systems: knowledge ‘tagged’ according to farmer needs, quality information databases, multi-media tools, as well as feed back and feed forward mechanisms.

She shared some lessons FARA has learned in building and animating such knowledge systems:

• “they must be people focused”
• “ownership has to be claimed by each of the partners”
• “the focus should be on partner priorities not on a particular tool”
• “we must be conscious of, and recognize, the value adding of each partner.”

More:

FARA website
FARA - RAILS
AgInfo Africa newsfeed
Open AgInfo newsfeed
IAALD Africa presentations

Open access to Indian AgInfo: Progress, barriers still to overcome

"It is paradoxical to note that despite the intent of scientists to make their published research as widely be read as possible, most of the world cannot access their work."

A paper by Paraj Shukla and Anand P. Singh for the 2009 IFLA Congress give a broad account of current open access initiatives in Indian agriculture.

They highlight some problems and barriers to the adoption of open access:

"There is a greater need of changing the mindset of researchers and policy-makers regarding
the public-funded research and access to information." The authors argue that generating sufficient "will" for open access in the scientist community is hampered because:

• Scientists mostly are ill-informed about copyright and prior-publication issues and fear losing opportunity of publishing their work in a high impact journal.
• Scientists are apprehensive that due to swift spread of OA concept, publishers of the ‘elite’ journals would change the subscription-based model of revenue to ‘author pays’ and levy charges for publication.
• Many scientists think website to be an adequate substitute for repository and lack understanding of advantages of using institutional repositories.
• Many scientists do not understand data on the impact of their work and how their performance compares against peers.
• Level of awareness about OA and its inherent advantages is low amongst scientists; even if they are aware, they have little understanding of self-archiving modes and methods.

These barriers in the science community are further compounded, they argue, by:

• Confusion and lack of awareness amongst Library & Information Science professionals about technical and functional differences between Digital Library, Archive, Repository, etc., and their respective uses.
• Policy makers and administrators have little understanding of both physical and functional aspects of repositories.
• At many libraries and network centres of agricultural institutions, minimum scalable infrastructure for establishing repositories is not available.
• Availability of trained manpower for creating and maintaining repositories is a problem at most of the institutions. Many agricultural institutions lack an independent cell for IT-related support.
• Most of the agricultural institutions seldom collect feedback from the scientists regarding their needs and preferences. It is important to incorporate the latter into implementation of OA.
• The need of compliance with OAI-PMH protocol is not appreciated by policymakers. Free access is often confused with OA.

Related postings

Open Access to AgInfo in Kenya faces many barriers

A paper at the 2009 IFLA Congress identifies many barriers to the adoption of open access (OA) initiatives in scientific research communication, with particular reference to agricultural information in Kenya. The study by Florence Muinde and Gary Gorman concludes that "progress in capitalizing on OA initiatives to enhance accessibility and visibility to Kenyan/African research has been slow. 

At the beginning they highlight one crucial issue: The researchers they interviewed argued that "the priority need in agricultural and scientific research in Kenya was reinforcement of strategic research communication capacity to first ensure there was a message that can be communicated either OA or otherwise." As the authors later conclude: "The availability of appropriate content remains crucial."

Other findings include:

"Many researchers in the public institutions, especially the universities, were yet to come to terms with e-communication processes in research, including e-publishing and the open access initiatives and software that can aid free sharing of scientific research information. "

"Computer-mediated ICT, on which OA is predicated, had not been integrated into work routines."

"Lack of institutional framework and policy regulations to guide online communication of government information made scientists unwilling to share research information online."

"Both research communication and ICT were not a priority in budget allocation, resulting in infrastructural problems that discouraged OA initiatives. Also, disconnect between the policy-making wing and the research community resulted in lack of enforcement to communicate research and so no efforts to spearhead open access initiatives that could facilitate access to scientific information."

"Researchers lacked skills to search and manipulate online information systems, write, speak, organize and present their research."

"There were no institutional repositories that could provide a platform for scientific knowledge sharing and full text open access journals were limited. "

OA is hindered by "conflicting institutional mandates and government regulations where those who produce scientific information are not charged with dissemination and those supposed to disseminate are unfacilitated." 

"The study recommends the need for massive awareness campaigns on available OA initiatives and introduction of institutional frameworks and strategies on harnessing OA initiatives to communicate local research outputs. This should be in addition to revision of prohibitive government policy and legislation and introduction of new policy legislation that creates an enabling environment for online communication of agricultural and scientific information. Capacity building, both in communication and ICT capability, should be enhanced. Above all, there is need for both government and donor and other agencies to increase support for research and ICT infrastructure to ensure sustainability."

Related postings

Ministra de Agricultura de Chile lanza programa de conectividad rural por $2.441 millones

La iniciativa, que beneficiará a pequeños productores, contempla la entrega de conexión a Internet por banda ancha, acceso a una plataforma de servicios, instalación de comunidades virtuales por rubro y alfabetización digital, entre otras acciones.

la Ministra de Agricultura lanzó un programa integral de conectividad rural que permitirá a los productores agrícolas, conectarse a Internet, recibir datos mediante mensajes de texto en sus celulares y acceder a una plataforma de servicios con información sectorial. Esta iniciativa es desarrollada y cofinanciada por el Ministerio a través de la Fundación para la Innovación Agraria (FIA), contempla una inversión de $2.441 millones, parte de los cuales proviene de recursos del Fondo de Innovación para la Competitividad (FIC).

La Ministra aseguró que "la incorporación de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TICs) en los sistemas productivos, es un factor determinante en el desarrollo del sector agropecuario". Además, agregó que que "el tema de las TICs en el mundo rural es una materia prioritaria. A través de los desafíos presentados en la Agenda Digital se busca fortalecer a las micro y pequeñas empresas, responsables del 80% de la fuerza laboral del país". También detalló que sólo en esta localidad de la Región de O´Higgins se están invirtiendo $200 millones en el marco del Programa, montos destinados a poner en funcionamiento la comunidad virtual del maíz y la red inalámbrica de Peumo-Pichidegua.

El Programa de Conectividad Rural y Servicios de Información para la Innovación, se centra en cuatro líneas de trabajo: conectividad, información, alfabetización digital y servicios. En cuanto a conectividad, se contempló la instalación de seis experiencias piloto de Redes Inalámbricas Rurales a Nivel Local, las que están ubicadas en las Regiones de Valparaíso y de O´Higgins. Éstas beneficiarán a localidades orientadas a diversos rubros y entregarán una solución integrada de comunicación capaz de dar conectividad de banda ancha a zonas rurales que carecen de una infraestructura técnica y operativa para la transmisión de datos, información, voz e imagen.

Junto con ello, FIA tiene en funcionamiento su Plataforma de Servicios de Información I+D+i para el Sector Silvoagropecuario cuyo objetivo es fortalecer la competitividad de la agricultura, a través del desarrollo de contenidos aportados por distintas entidades nacionales e internacionales proveedoras de información.

La Plataforma, a la que se puede acceder a través de Internet en el sitio www.innovacionagraria.cl, integra bases de datos especializadas con información de mercado, legislativa, técnico-productiva y agrometeorológica, este último también financiando con recursos provenientes del FIC, el fortalecimiento del Sistema de Información Agroclimático que cuenta con una red de 114 estaciones automáticas en zonas fundamentalmente frutícolas, que registran información de temperatura, humedad relativa y precipitación. El proyecto aportará 110 estaciones adicionales, se calibrarán las estaciones preexistentes y se implementará un sistema de envío de información y alertas agrometeorológicas a los dispositivos móviles de los agricultores.

También en el marco del Programa, se suscribió un convenio con el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) para instalar comunidades rurales virtuales por rubro. El proyecto piloto, que beneficia a unos 8 mil productores, contempla diseñar un portal en Internet, realizar capacitaciones y conformar comunidades virtuales de encadenamientos productivos. El portal estará en operaciones a fines de este año.

La última línea de trabajo tiene por objetivo promover la alfabetización digital entre los pequeños agricultores. Para ello se instalaron dos escuelas piloto de Informática y Ciudadanía las regiones de Valparaíso y de la Araucanía.

Ver artículo completo.

Open Access enhances accessibility and citation impact

A paper at the 2009 IFLA Congress compares the citation impact of open access (OA) and non open access (non-OA) agricultural research outputs.

Kayvan Kousha and Mahshid Abdoli from Iran posed themselves three research questions:

1. At the article level, is there significant difference between citation counts of OA and non-OA articles appearing in non-OA journals index by ISI?
   
2. At the journal level, is there significant difference between the Impact Factors of OA and non-OA journals as reported by ISI Journal Citation Reports?
   
3. Do OA publications deposited online by FAO tend to attract higher citations than its non-OA publications in the same year?

While mentioning some limitations, the answers they found are:

1. "The results showed that there is an obvious citation advantage for self-archived agriculture articles as compared to non-OA articles." - "results indicate that self-archived research articles published in the non-OA agriculture journals could attract nearly two times more citations than their non-OA counterparts."


2. "At the journal level, the average Impact Factor for OA agriculture journals during 2005-2007 was 0.29, considerably lower than the average Impact Factor for non-OA journals (0.73). - "although at the article level self-archiving could considerably increase articles’ citation impact in the same non-OA journal, this does not imply that open access journals themselves have a higher Impact Factor than non-OA journals."


3. "FAO publications which were freely accessible online tended to attract more citations than non-OA publications in the same year."

Related postings

Darwin Core - a standard to share biodiversity information

Similar to the 'Dublin Core' metadata standard, a 'Darwin Core' is a body of standards to facilitate the sharing of information about biological diversity.

TDWG is pleased to announce the commencement of the Public Review of Darwin Core. To participate, visit the Darwin Core Progress site for the latest background information on the process and critical links to content.

CGIAR Virtual Library: A vital tool to enhance access to agricultural research

A recent, closed access, article in the Journal of Agricultural & Food Information "provides an analysis of the content of the CGVLibrary, of the various information avenues it opens for improving access to agricultural research, and of how the tool is being improved and marketed to promote awareness and worldwide use."

More:

Blog posts on the CGVLibrary

Search the CGVLibrary

CGVlibrary blog

e-Knowledge about biodiversity and agriculture

From 9-13 November 2009, Montpellier hosts the annual TDWG conference. Co-organized with Agropolis International and Bioversity International, it will gather experts in biodiversity informatics from leading museums of natural history, botanical gardens and major agricultural research institutions and universities.

The conference is open to anyone working with biodiversity information and informatics wishing to discuss and define the most recent informatics tools and standards applying to taxonomy, imaging, biodiversity data exchange, specimen observations, and diversity analysis.

TDWG - Biodiversity Information Standards - is an international not-for-profit group that develops standards and protocols for sharing biodiversity data.

SIDALC: Sistema hemisférico de información agrícola cumple 10 años

SIDALC Sistema hemisférico de información agrícola cumple 10 años

Con más de 2 millones de registros de información compilados en una megabase de datos, cerca de 300 profesionales de la información congregados en una comunidad virtual y más de 25 mil visitas diarias, el Sistema de Información y Documentación Agrícola de América Latina y el Caribe (SIDALC) cumple este año su décimo aniversario.

SIDALC es un servicio internacional de información agrícola, pecuaria, forestal y ambiental que le permite a instituciones de una veintena de países del hemisferio compartir información y servicios informativos.

AGRI2000 reúne colecciones especializadas en agricultura y ciencias afines de 162 centros de información del hemisferio.

El sistema, que es administrado por el Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA), reúne en su megabase de datos AGRI2000 colecciones especializadas en agricultura y ciencias afines de 162 centros de información del hemisferio y es una ventana a otras bibliotecas de renombre internacional.

Más...

Hemispheric agricultural information service celebrates tenth anniversary

Agricultural information specialists from the hemisphere to meet in Costa Rica

The Agricultural Information and Documentation Service of the Americas (SIDALC), which operates a mega database comprising more than 2 million entries, brings together some 300 information specialists in a virtual community and receives 25 thousand hits on its Website every day, will celebrate its tenth anniversary this year.

SIDALC is an international agricultural, livestock, forestry and environmental information service which enables institutions in 20 countries of the hemisphere to share information services and provide access to their repositories of knowledge for others outside the region.

The Service, administered by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and coordinated by the Orton Commemorative Library, operates the AGRI2000 mega database, which contains specialized collections on agriculture and related sciences from 162 information centers throughout the hemisphere and provides access to other internationally renowned libraries.

More...

Media, ICTs, extension to accelerate agriculture in South Asia

This week, the SAARC Agriculture Centre held a workshop to discuss ways to strengthen linkages among research, extension, farmer and marketing through improved use print and electronic media in SAARC Member States.

The discussions were picked up in regional media:

• The News (Pakistan) reported that the experts "stressed the need for the establishment of the first agriculture e-chamber, besides utilising information and communication technologies to promote the agriculture sector in the region." Dr Qadir Bux Baloch, Agriculture Development Commissioner of Pakistan's Ministry of Food and Agriculture referred to a series of websites to be set up - see www.agroleadclub.com. He further "called for extending all kinds of support to the media to facilitate transfer of technology from research institutes to farmers."
  
  
• South Asia Media Net reported interventions by agricultural experts from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India. Md.Nazrul Islam from Bangladesh suggested to develop agricultural technology related farmers friendly contents for disseminating through ICT facilities and community based information centers; he also recommended the use of tools like mobile, CD, and Web to transfer technology at the village level - ensuring that agriculture technologies and information will be available at the "door-step of the farmers."
  

Download workshop paper - PDF

Question Box connects farming communities to AgInfo answers

Under the tagline 'Realtime Web for the Bottom Billion', a new type of service for farmers is emerging.

Piloting in India and Uganda, Question Box "brings information to people who cannot or do not access the Internet directly." It "leaps over illiteracy, computer illiteracy, lack of networks, and language barriers."

Combining mobile phones with the power of the Internet, rural people can pose their questions to local call centers where operators research answers. The questions and answers are in local languages and, notably, don't require users to be able to read and write. (Note, the Kothmale Internet Project in Sri Lanka did something similar by combining rural radio with questions and answers)

For information specialists, the project is also documenting and sharing some of the questions that they receive. Visit 'World Wants to Know' to see a visualization of the questions received. For the first time, we can all see examples of the kinds of issues on the mind of farming communities.

More info:

Question Box home
What is Question Box?
QuestionBlog
Ask Us Anything - podcast

Congrès IAALD 2010 : 1er appel à communications

Information scientifique et technique et développement rural : Eclairages sur des pratiques innovantes

Les communications et posters devront porter sur un des cinq thèmes suivants :

• Processus d'apprentissage innovants
  
• Services d'information : une évolution constante
  
• Communication et échange d'informations multi-acteurs
  
• Systèmes d'information pour une information structurée et intégrée
  
• Produits et services d'information en appui aux politiques publiques
  

Des informations plus détaillées sur les thèmes du congrès

Toute personne souhaitant présenter une communication ou un poster doit préalablement s'enregistrer et soumettre un résumé en anglais ou français (300 mots maximum) à l'adresse suivante

Fils RSS

IAALD 2010 Congress: 1st Call for papers

Scientific and Technical Information and Rural Development : Highlights of Innovative Practices

Papers must address one of the following themes:

• Innovative learning processes
  
• Information services, the need for a continued redefinition
  
• Communication and Information exchange for multiple stakeholders
  
• Information systems for structured and integrated information
• Information products and services as public policy enablers

Further information on the 5 themes of the congress

Those wishing to present a paper or a poster should register and submit their abstract in English or French (maximum 300 words) to the following address.

RSS Feed

El celular revoluciona países pobres

Asistencia médica y consejos agropecuarios llegan al celular. La teledensidad superará el 100% en menos de una década. Migrantes giran dinero a sus familiares por teléfono

El Diario El País reproduce un artículo del Economist, que señala que los teléfonos compensan la infraestructura inadecuada, como pueden ser caminos en mal estado y servicios de correo lentos, al permitir que la información circule con libertad, haciendo que los mercados sean más eficientes e impulsando a los emprendedores. Todo ello tiene impacto directo en el crecimiento económico: diez teléfonos adicionales cada 100 personas en un país en vías de desarrollo impulsan el crecimiento del Producto Interno Bruto (PIB) en 0,8 puntos porcentuales, de acuerdo con el Banco Mundial. Hasta en África, cuatro de cada diez personas ahora tienen un teléfono móvil.

Lea el artículo completo.

Animal health libraries, librarians, and librarianship

Vicki Croft at Washington State University has compiled a "comprehensive, international bibliography to works written about animal health libraries and by their librarians." Download the full text from the WSU Dspace.

Science blogging: The future of science communication?

The relationships between science journalism, science communication and new social media was one of the discussion points at the recent World Conference of Science Journalists.

A recent post by Daniel D. Brown on his Biochemical Soul blog explains why scientists and science students should follow science blogs:

1. To keep up to date on fascinating research
   
2. Join in the great discussion
   
3. Science blogs allow you to talk about science in an informal setting
   
4. Gain emotional and social support from like-minded people
   

Why they should start a science blog:

1. Share your passion for science
   
2. Be a part of the community
   
3. Make connections
   
4. Be a part of “the good fight”
   
5. Become a better writer
   
6. Hone your ability to distill complex research into understandable terms
   
7. Showcase your dedication to science and your interest in outreach
   
8. Get feedback on your own thoughts and/or research
   
9. Blogs are great teaching tools both inside and outside the classroom
   
10. Increase the visibility of yourself, your lab, your department, and your University
    
11. Have fun

ATI Interactive: e-extension for Philippine agriculture

The Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Training Institute (DA-ATI) maximizes the potentials of information and communication technology to empower stakeholders along agriculture and fisheries. The ATI is the "home of e-extension" in the Philippines.

'ATI interactive' is a source of information on various programs and services, knowledge products on various agriculture and fishery technologies as well as success stories and breakthroughs along extension and training, among others. It is a place for extension workers to share their views, stories and experiences in the field.

Check out the ATI e-extension portal - and especially the Interactive System for Agricultural Exchange and Electronic Learning.

FAO utiliza tecnologia criada pela Embrapa Informática Agropecuária

A Organização das Nações Unidas para Agricultura e Alimentação (FAO), lançou, em junho deste ano, uma página na internet construída a partir da interface da árvore hiperbólica, tecnologia criada pela Embrapa Informática Agropecuária (Campinas/SP), utilizada para a organização da informação. A base de dados, disponível no site da FAO, informa as instituições provedoras de capacitação em melhoramento vegetal existentes no mundo.

Desenvolvida em software livre, a ferramenta também está sendo usada em outra base da dados da FAO, que fornecerá informações de acordos internacionais sobre recursos fitogenéticos, diversidades e proteção de variedades de plantas. Segundo Guimarães, a tecnologia permitirá que sejam feitas buscas de elementos comuns em todos os tratados, facilitando aos países o entendimento sobre os temas abordados. A base de dados será lançada no final deste ano.

Ler artigo completo

Nouveau site Internet du CTA / New CTA website

Welcome to the new CTA website! / Bienvenue sur le nouveau site Internet du CTA !

It is not merely a facelift, but an all over body job. The improvements to the site include a new federated search engine, an improved Google map feature to showcase our partners and a new thematic feed from the site - http://www.cta.int/en/

Il ne s’agit pas d’une simple rénovation, mais d’une transformation de fond en comble. Un nouveau moteur de recherche fédérée, une nouvelle présentation des cartes Google afin de référencer nos partenaires et un nouveau contenu thématique sont autant d’améliorations apportées à ce site - http://www.cta.int/fr/

Knowledge sharing in agriculture and development

In October 2009, the KM4Dev community organizes its next meeting in Brussels...

One of the 'huddles' will be on knowledge sharing (and knowledge management) in agriculture.

Sign up to the KM4Dev community of practice if you work with KS or KM in international development - and with an agriculture/rural focus.

CIARD research accessibility news

Stephen Rudgard of FAO recently shared some information on the CIARD initiative.

• Regional Workshop with AARINENA: AARINENA called a regional workshop of information specialists from national agricultural research services in its member countries, which was held in Cairo in May 2009. One day of this workshop was allocated to introducing and discussing the CIARD agenda with the colleagues from national institutions, with facilitation provided by Ajit Maru of GFAR, Nihad Maliha of ICARDA/CGIAR, and Stephen Rudgard of FAO.

• CIARD Pathways: In addition to the Manifesto and Principles, now published on the CIARD website, a CIARD Checklist and set of Pathways are being developed. The Pathways are being identified and drafted by a joint working group comprising the CIARD Content Management Task Force and an ad-hoc group comprising representatives of some of the members of the Advocacy Task Force. Good progress has been made to date, with around half of the pathways available at least in draft form. A small "writeshop" was convened in late May at the headquarters of Bioversity International in Rome, bringing together a few of the people involved in the drafting exercise. In due course, an area of the website will be opened where the Checklist and Pathways will be available for comment and input, and we will inform you of this as and when appropriate.

• Capacity Building in CIARD: In association with the IMARK Steering Group held recently at CTA headquarters, a short impromptu meeting was organized with some of the CIARD partners to have an initial discussion on the role and justification of a CIARD Capacity Building Task Force (CBTF), which has long been foreseen but not yet activated. 
  

IAALD is a partner in the CIARD initiative

Social media tips for agricultural research

Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. - wikipedia

Meena Arivananthan of the CGIAR ICT-KM Program recently published 10 blog posts introducing different social media and how she and her ICT-KM colleagues are using them.

Here's the full set:

10. Put it out there! Tools for photo, video and slideshow sharing

9. Newsfeeds: delivering the latest news to your virtual doorstep; and ways to share it!

8. Are newsletters a dying breed?

7. Wikis, sites, docs and pads: the many flavours of collaborative writing

6. Social Bookmarking: storm-a-brewing

5. Social Media: Are You Listening?

4. Social Networks: friend or foe?

3. Social Media: how do you know it’s working?

2. Blogging for impact

1. Microblogging

More IAALD blog postings on social media

ICT-KM knowledge sharing toolkit

ICCO - Euforic web2 toolkit (en français

Research4Life website launched today

In London this morning, the Research4Life partnership website was launched at the World Conference of Science Journalists.

Research4Life is the collective name given to HINARI, AGORA, and OARE, the three public-private partnership programs of the WHO, FAO, UNEP, Cornell and Yale Universities and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers.

Speaking in London today, Andrew Plume (Associate Director of Scientometrics and Market Analysis at Elsevier) showed data suggesting that Research4Life has a "profound impact on the scholarly landscape" in the countries where the partnership is active.

His analysis of data from the Thomson Reuters database shows a "dramatic rise in research outputs by scientists in the developing world since 2002." The study compared growth in research outputs for the periods 1996-2002 and 2002-2008 - before and after HINARI was launched.

His data showed growth of research publications in countries that are 'non-eligible' for Research4Life to be 67% in the 2002-2008 period. In the same period, Research4Life 'Band 1' countries (institutes get free access) reported 145% growth while 'Band 2' countries (institutes pay a small fee) reported 194% growth.

According to Plume: "We can attribute this, at least in part, to the provision of literature through the Research4Life programme."

It seems that these initiatives are improving the abilities of scientists from developing countries to publish in international peer-reviewed journals.

Note: the analysis is based on peer reviewed publications outputs in the Thomson Reuters database and does not include other factors such as changes in levels of research funding, improved connectivity, or efforts of other initiatives. [See also critical blog post]

The video explains how Research4Life helps researchers in Kenya:



More videos from research4Life

Science communication and science journalism

In London this week, some 900 people have signed up for the 6th world conference of science journalists.

There is a wide range of presentation and discussions - looking at mainstream science communication, journalism, and the use of new media.

As well as the WCSJ news site, an especially good place to follow the discussions is on Twitter – http://twitter.com/#search?q=wcsj

See also the excellent Nature magazine special on science journalism as well as blogs from SciDev.net and by Angela Saini.