En auge las Ferias del Conocimiento

Una publicación nueva presenta ocho estudios de caso de gestión del conocimiento que fueron presentados durante la Feria del Conocimiento América Latina y el Caribe llevado a cabo entre el 25 y 27 de mayo de 2010. En dicha feria se reunieron experiencias relacionadas con el desarrollo rural, principalmente agropecuario que pueden ser consideradas como una muestra de lo que viene ocurriendo en gestión de conocimiento en América Latina.

La sede del evento fue el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT). El evento fue organizdo por el Programa de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación y Gestión del Conocimiento (ICT-KM) del Grupo Consultivo para la InvestigaciónAgrícola Internacional (CGIAR), la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO), el Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA) y la Comunidad de Gestión de Concocimeinto para el Desarrollo (KM4Dev).

Una feria regional similar fue realizado en Ethiopia en Octubre pasado y está por celebrarse una feria global del 27 al 29 de septiembre de 2011 en la sede del FIDA (Fondo Internacional para el Desarrollo Agrícola) en Roma.

CIAT's new Capacity Strengthening and Knowledge Management Initiative

News from Simone Staiger at CIAT:

I am writing to you to share with you the launch of CIAT’s Capacity Strengthening and Knowledge Management Initiative. The focus of the Initiative will be on four areas:

1. Facilitate and cultivate knowledge exchange through a Regional Training Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean
2. Support the CIAT-Corpoica-Colombian Ministry of Agriculture initiative for Climate Change and the Ornioquía through interventions in capacity building and knowledge management
3. Carry out research on knowledge management and promoting organizational change
4. Strengthen training activities in CIAT

Read more at: http://ciatcapacity.cgiar.org/en

CIAT dives into social media and blogging

In May 2009, CIAT Director General Ruben Echeverría set out some information accessibility directions for CIAT - on the the 15 CGIAR-supported research centers.

He argued that CIAT "can gain a lot from social media like blogs and video that can increase our ‘social footprint’ – beyond words and text!" ...

It looks like our CIAT colleagues have been busy being 'social' ...

CIAT blogs, in Englsh and Spanish, are used to report on projects and developments at CIAT.

CIAT's new Decision and Policy Analysis Program (DAPA) website runs on a wordpress blogging platform and links to series of sub-blogs.

A recent CIAT blog post reports that the CIAT Flickr photo-sharing site has reached 100,000 visits, in under a year.

The CIAT and DAPA blogs also link to videos on Blip TV as well as posters and presentations on Slideshare.

Note: CIAT will host a regional knowledge share fair in Colombia, late in May 2010.

Web publishing for research impact at CIAT

This 2007 poster reports on ways that CIAT in Colombia shares research tools and results. Check out other postings on research communication at CIAT.

Abriendo el Acceso al conocimiento del CGIAR

Exponiendo en la Reunión RIBDA 2009 en Lima, Edith Hesse del CIAT explica porqué el acceso abierto es importante para el CGIAR y algunos pasos concretos que pueden tomarse para asegurar que los resultados de la investigación sean disponibles y accesibles.

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Acceso Abierto - RSS

Opening access to the CGIAR's knowledge

Speaking at the RIBDA 2009 meeting in Lima, CIAT's Edith Hesse explains why open access is important to the CGIAR, and some concrete steps that can be taken to ensure that research outputs are available and accessible:

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Open access - RSS feed

Disponibilidad, accessibilidad y aplicabilidad de los resultados de investigación de los Centros del CGIAR

En la XV RIBDA que celebrandose del 27 al 29 de octubre en Lima, Peru, Edith Hesse del CIAT presentó datos preliminares de un estudio sobre accesibilidad del los resultados de investigación del CGIAR.

ICT-KM knowledge sharing toolkit a 'nice success story'

CIAT's Simone Staiger-Rivas introduces the knowledge sharing toolkit initially developed by the CGIAR ICT-KM Program.

El proyecto de Biblioteca Virtual del CGIAR

Carlos Saa, Coordinador de Sistemas de Información en la Biblioteca del CIAT, presenta el proyecto de Biblioteca Virtual del CGIAR (CGVLibrary) y porqué es importante para el CIAT.

La CGVLibrary - http://vlibrary.cgiar.org/

La biblioteca CIAT - www.ciat.cgiar.org/biblioteca/biblioteca_es/

Knowledge sharing in agricultural research - let strategy follow actions

Simone Staiger-Rivas of the CGIAR advises research organizations thinking about knowledge sharing "not to start with a strategy."

She suggests instead to start small with different projects and experiments. She concludes that we need to adopt the basic approach used in research - to learn, to think about, to experiment, have trials, then scale up - "that's exactly what we should do in knowledge sharing."

Knowledge sharing 'principles' for agricultural research

Simone Staiger-Rivas recently published a series of blogposts and reports from the CGIAR Institutional Knowledge Sharing Project.

Following from earlier postings on this blog on knowledge management and data management 'principles', her report sets out 10 Key Lessons that could perhaps be seen as emerging principles in this area:

• When introducing KS, start with a small project and with people willing to experiment. Getting early wins and finding the right people in the right context is important.
• A successful intervention needs funds as well as explicitly mandated staff with the right skills and enough time to do the work.
• Without a specific focus, a KS initiative will grow beyond what is feasible to manage. Setting the initiative’s scope is important.
• KS enables us to pay attention to how we interact with each other and creates spaces where people can be heard.
• Formulating strategies using KS principles, tools, and methods allows staff to engage in the process and gives them a sense ownership of the results. This in turn ensures continuity in institutional cultures and facilitates the management of change.
• To successfully communicate KS principles and methods to scientists, practitioners need to show how KS can contribute to their research organization’s objectives.
• KS works best when applied simultaneously at the grass roots and the leadership level. Senior management buy-in is critically important for integrating KS principles, methods and tools into meetings.
• KS tools are not enough. To be successful, the KS Project needs champions to advocate for it and continue the work.
• It is important to build institutional capacity in KS principles and methods. In-house expertise will increase effectiveness of meetings and lead to mainstreaming KS within the institution.
• KS works best when it is integrated into the organization’s overall business plan, alongside communications and other activities, not as a separate department.

In this video interview, Simone argues that introducing knowledge sharing into a research organization requires attention to three entry points: The first is 'strategic' - making decision points more horizontal and participatory. The second is to work on concrete tools and approaches that staff can work with. The third concerns capacity building and staff empowerment. For knowledge sharing to really happen, an organization needs to "change profoundly."

CIAT's historic papers collection

This week we catch up with Mariano Mejia of the CIAT library in Colombia. He introduces the Center's collection of historic papers and reports - the institutional memory of CIAT.

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CIAT Semana para Compartir Conocimiento

Entre este lunes 18 y el 22 de mayo se realiza la Semana para Compartir Conocimiento 2009 (KSW09), uno de los eventos institucionales anuales más importantes del CIAT.

Dentro de la agenda de presentaciones y discusiones de proyectos y planeación de actividades habrá espacio para la revisión y ajuste del Plan de Mediano Plazo 2010-2012, al igual que una exhibición de pósteres científicos, que en esta oportunidad sobrepasan de 100.

Aprovechando las nuevas tecnologías, la KSW09 tendrá un cubrimiento interactivo que incluye un despliegue diario de fotografías en Flickr, RSS para que los usuarios puedan suscribirse y recibir actualización, también habrá un blog (en inglés y en español) y se hará uso de herramientas como Slideshare, para facilitar el acceso a todo el material que saldrá de este encuentro.

CIAT knowledge sharing week

CIAT's Knowledge Sharing Week (KSW09) started on Monday, 18 May.

Apart from presentations, project discussions, and planning activities, there will also be time for reviewing and streamlining the Center's Mid-Term Plan 2010-2012. This year the 4th Scientific Posters Exhibit has attracted over 100 posters.

Taking advantage of new technologies, KSW09 will offer interactive coverage including a daily display of photos in Flickr; RSS so users can subscribe and receive updates; and a blog in both English andSpanish. Tools such as Slideshare will also be used to facilitate the access to all the materials resulting from this event.

Social media for agricultural science?

Looking back on 20 years of the world wide web, the Economist reports on the original "bland title' of a document written by Tim Berners-Lee in March 1989: "Information Management: A Proposal." It argues that "his proposal, modestly dubbed the world wide web, has fulfilled the implications of its name beyond the wildest dreams of anyone involved at the time."

The short article illustrates ways that scientists are "using the web to further their research." However, it suggests that scientists have "tended to lag when it comes to employing the latest web-based social-networking tools to open up scientific discourse and encourage more effective collaboration."

"Scientists publish, in part, because their careers depend on it. They keenly keep track of how many papers they have had accepted, the reputations of the journals they appear in and how many times each article is cited by their peers, as measures of the impact of their research. These numbers can readily be put in a curriculum vitae to impress others.

By contrast, no one yet knows how to measure the impact of a blog post or the sharing of a good idea with another researcher in some collaborative web-based workspace."

CIAT's Simone Staiger recently shared a presentation to colleagues on the Potential of Social Media for Improving Organizational, Project and Personal Impact in an agricultural research institute. She invites them to join the social web, to increase their 'impact pathways' by increasing their networks and reaching out to more users.

Such social approaches were one of the features of the recent Rome sharefair; they were also used to report on IAALD's 2008 World Congress.

They are thus spreading among agricultural information, knowledge and communication people. However, demonstrating the personal and professional 'business case' for social media in science is going to be an important step towards wide adoption of these approaches and tools.