ICT-KM Newsletter - 2nd Quarter 2008

2nd Quarter 2008

In This Issue

News Archives

ICT-KM supports events and conferences

Enterprise Security in the Americas IT workshop: Providing Training for increased security
March 31-April 11, Peru

Advancing Agriculture in Developing Countries through Knowledge and Innovation
April 7-9, Ethiopia

International Farmers Conference on Participatory Plant Breeding
May 4-8, Syria

Data Management in the CGIAR
June 9-11, Italy

Annual Knowledge Management for Development Meeting
June 18-21, Portugal

Knowledge Sharing launch at IFAD
June 18, Italy

Snippets

Joint ICT supports ILRI – WorldAgroforestry (ICRAF)
A project for sharing ICT capacities between two centers has moved to a new level in Nairobi, which hosts the Headquarters for both ILRI and WorldAgroforestry (ICRAF). The project began in 2001 with the establishment of a joint ICT team and appointment of one IT manager for the two Centers and evolved through development of a common ICT strategy that advocated increased communication and collaboration and sharing of common needs such as Internet and email applications.

In 2007, the project activities expanded by establishing function-based rather than site-based teams. These teams now deal with customer service, infrastructure and applications for both Centers.

The next steps will be consolidating use of equipment and software applications, data storage and telephone equipment between the two Centers. This will require the upgrading of capacity, inter-campus connections and internet connectivity. Continued efforts to learn lessons from this inter-center collaboration will be shared with the IT managers and CGIAR Centers.

Email, virus, and spam volume on the increase
As all of us are well aware, the volume of emails received each day has risen astronomically in recent months. In the month of July 2007, the 8000 staff members of the CGIAR received a total of 5 million messages. Just nine months later, in March 2008, it had risen to 24 million messages. Breaking it down further, this amounts to 32,000 messages per hour or a 500% increase in nine months. And one last tidbit on this issue – more than 80% of this is spam.

However, thanks to a partnership between CGNET and Symantec that filters incoming mail, most of these spam messages do not reach our networks. This level of protection makes sure our valuable bandwidth, particularly in the CGIAR's remote locations, remains free and CGIAR scientists do not lose time dealing with troubling spam or viruses.
Click here for more information.

Bragging about our blog(s)
ICT-KM is using blogs as one of our tools for sharing knowledge updates, news, thoughts and ideas directly from the programs, activities and projects. All are welcome to participate in the blog communication, which can be accessed through http://ictkm.cgiar.org/.
The Knowledge Sharing Project's blog, one of the most active within ICT-KM, can be accessed from the KS Web site: www.ks-cgiar.org or directly at http://ictkm.wordpress.
com/category/knowledge-sharing.
The CGXchange blog offers insight into its operations, thoughts and ideas at http://ictkm.wordpress.com/
category/cgxchange. The information is there to be shared, discussed and added to – from learning more about "pics and maps" (photos in Google maps) to discussing what's up with social technology adoption, to informing about ICT-KM staffer Antonella Pastore's participation in the Italian Information Architect's Summit.

ICT-KM Homepage

Data Management in the CGIAR
June 9-11, 2008 Rome, Italy

Empirical data from field and lab observation are, when connected with secondary information, the raw material of all out research outputs.
They must therefore be valuable, yet we look after them in a surprisingly casual way. We have few standards or recognized good practices, few professional staff responsible, few incentives for good performance and no indicators of success.

But steps to correct this are being taken. A meeting of staff concerned with the issue of Research Data management took place in Bioversity in June to identify an effective way to tackle the problem.

Supported by a number of CGIAR system-wide programs and initiatives, the meeting identified a number of lessons:

Understanding the needs of the stakeholder: It was important to start by understanding the needs of the stakeholders (including partners) in research data management and bring like-minded people together to explore possible solutions to research data management problems. It will take buy-in and support from all levels (scientists, IT, partners, management).
Common approaches and gradual build up: There probably isn't a "mother of all systems" and common systems may not be the answer but common approaches are more likely. Whatever approach is used, a stepwise process that slowly elevates the performance rather than the design and adoption of the perfect system might be more successful.
The human dimension: There aren't a lot of professional research data managers out there…and given that the process is driven by people who will need to collaborate, finding appropriate rewards and incentives for such collaboration (data providing, data sharing) is necessary. It's a human as much as a technical problem so invest in human capacity.
Intellectual property: IP is a key concern in data sharing and access and this needs to be recognized.
Accessibility: Research data is a public good and where possible research data should be made easier to access. Solutions should aim for common standards, investigate Open Source and ‘participant architecture' approaches and use tools which are already available.

An action plan was prepared and presented to the Directors of Research from the CGIAR System who recently gathered in the WorldFish Center.

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We welcome feedback on the ICT-KM News, so please feel free to contact us at ictkm@cgiar.org