The emotion in the closing words of Oliver Oliveros, the DURAS coordinator, were a testament of his commitment to this very succesful project. After four years of implementation, the DURAS Project is wrapping up its activities. A project closing seminar took place under the auspices of GFAR on 11-13 June 2008 at the FAO Headquarters…
Author: Enrica Porcari
Over 150 participants from over 20 different countries…and the topic?
Interoperability of spatial data……a topic of great interest in the CGIAR and close to the agenda of the ICT-KM program. See other post . The uncertain weather this June is offering us did not scare away the many enthusiastic participants to the 2nd mediterranean workshop who met in FAO headquarters in Rome to discuss spatial…
Research data management and the CGIAR research process
Research data is fundamental to research, and therefore data issues are of great relevance to the CGIAR system. In April this year, Kwesi Atta Krah (DDG-Research at Bioversity) challenged the Directors of Research in the CGIAR System with the three following questions: 1. How concerned are you with issues of research data quality from within your…
You are what you share…or the economy of ideas
“The spread of the web invites us to look at the future from a different vantage point, to see that what we share is at least as important as what we own; what we hold in common is as important as what we keep for ourselves; what we choose to give away may matter more…
A meeting of very spatial people…..
I have been a supporter of the CGIAR Consortium of Spatial Information (CSI) since I started my job in the CGIAR. This is a group of highly competent, committed individuals with a common idea: using Geographic tools and methods to better Serve the Global Agricultural Research and Development Community. The ICT-KM program supported the CSI…
Doing our bit to support CGIAR researchers and scientists working in remote locations
Email, virus, and spam volume continues to increase. Consider this: in July 2007 , 5 million messages were being addressed to the over 8,000 CGIAR staff all over the world —by March-2008, this had risen to 24 million. This means 32,000 messages per hour are sent to us, a 500% increase over the 6,000 per hour…
Have a rice day! or how your computer can help fight world hunger
Next time you get up from your computer, consider this – you could be helping scientists discover new ways to attack the global food crisis, find a cure for cancer or understand the impact of climate change on Africa…..read more from super computers to super rice
Research and Development: Show me the Impact…
Scientific research has historically been assessed by the level of citations a publication or researcher has – the more the better being the mantra. The reasoning being that the “credible” researcher (or significant work) would automatically lead to citations or popularity: the more “credible” leading to more citations. Problems with this model are quite obvious,…