Dear Colleagues,

Collaborate, Create, Communicate..

The ICT-KM-2 online consultation kicked off successfully on 28 February 2005. 180 professionals and scientists from across the CGIAR and from CG partners – from donor agencies, National Research Systems, research institutions, international networks or members of the international development community have joined this e-consultation.

We have interesting discussions and good learning opportunities offered.

If you’d like to join the discussion, send a message to ictkm@cgiar.org.

ICT-KM 2004
INVESTMENT PLAN UPDATES

Global Advanced Research Networks

The first Access Grid (AG) node was successfully inaugurated in the Philippines at the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) in early February which will allow the Philippines's research and development, academic and policy makers to connect to their counterparts within the global Access Grid Project.

AG is composed of the latest multimedia and cross-border communications equipment that enables schools and research institutions to conduct large-scale meetings and training sessions with interactive software sharing and video conferencing.  The Philippine AG node uses a 6- megabits per second fiber optic link to the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), an international R&D facility that also strings remote AG nodes together.

ASTI was subcontracted to prepare materials on the uses of ARN connectivity for the project. A MOA with ASTI for support in commissioning the AG node will be signed soon.  ASTI would be assisting IRRI to build a second AG node in IRRI’s headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna.  The ASTI AG node had its first test last December 9 when it was used when the Philippines joined the Supercomputing Global Conference 2004.

Desktop Videoconferencing

ILRI has successfully tested its video conferencing facilities in early February with Texas A&M University.  ILRI uses a Polycom Viewstation and standard TV over the Internet and plans to use the link for voice, video conferencing and special projects that require non-congested bandwidth.

Utilization of Intelligent Information Systems for Plant Protection

The Project Planning Meeting was successfully held from 9-10 February in ICARDA. This project has a consortium of four centers participating in it: CLAES, ICARDA, ICRISAT and IRRI. Prof Ahmed Rafea represented CLAES and Dr David Shires represented IRRI. Representation from ICARDA was particularly strong with many scientists and staff from Computer and Biometrics Services, Communication, Documentation and Information Services, Mega Project 2 (Integrated Gene Management) and Mega Project 4 (Diversification) actively participating.

The meeting was opened by Dr Madgy Madkour, Director of International Co-operation at ICARDA representing Dr Willie Erskine, Assistant Director General- Research. He highlighted the importance of using expert systems technology to enhance our technology dissemination to the NARS. There were several presentations on the project overview and goals, a generic expert systems tool and IRRI experience with the Rice Information Bank. The meeting discussed and agreed on the detailed activities of the project and the assignment of the responsibilities, reached better common understanding of the deliverables and agreed on the future workshops to be held in the first phase of the project.

Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics

The VASAT's approach to the use of IT in rural areas is founded on blending the top-down approach to development communication with a bottom-up approach that stresses the need for enabling intra-rural communication.

The advantages of this blended approach were visible during the recent Tsunami attack on the fishing hamlets in the east coast of India. Village communities that had practiced local communication channels to alert people about adverse weather (information derived from the Internet) were able to save literally thousands of lives in the villages (less than 10 losses of life in a population of nearly 7000). The VASAT actors have been approached by leading NGO's in the affected areas to help them in providing information and technical support in rebuilding post-Tsunami livelihoods.

Knowledge Management and Sharing

In collaboration with the ILAC Initiative, the Project successfully held a workshop on “Group Facilitation Skills and Participatory Decision Making” at IPGRI headquarters from 15-17 February 2005. It was led by Dr Sam Kaner, noted trainer on group facilitation and senior author of The Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. The workshop was limited to 20 participants, mostly those who are actively involved in the ILAC and/or KS projects. Feedback from the participants to this workshop was extremely positive.

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ICT-KM 2

“How can we make global public goods as useful as possible; how can we share knowledge continually?”

The ICT-KM-2 online consultation kicked off successfully on 28 February 2005. 170 professionals and scientists from across the CGIAR and from CG partners – from donor agencies, National Research Systems, research institutions, international networks or members of the international development community – who have shown the enthusiasm to come together to work on ways to improve the quality and relevance of Global Public Goods information systems for rural development have joined this e-consultation.

Introductory remarks were offered by the Director of CGIAR and the Director General of WorldFish:

Francisco Reifschneider, Director CGIAR:

The CGIAR’s public goods assets are growing. But to have a real impact of lives of poor people, we need to make available practical knowledge.

Stephen Hall, Director General The WorldFish Center:

The generation of useful and accessible knowledge about food, water, fisheries and forestry is becoming a fundamental element of our global public goods.

Have you signed up? If you are interested in participating, please contact the ICT-KM Program staff at ictkm@cgiar.org. 

Join us in this learning and sharing initiative!

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ICT-KM PROGRAM MONITORING AND EVALUATION PLAN

The Program is currently developing its first Monitoring and Evaluation report.  The report is scheduled to be completed in March. At the end of the first quarter of 2005, we will release a report documenting the lessons from the Program activities and practical applications, communication and learning are central to the ICT-KM Program’s efforts to encourage a System-wide culture of learning and knowledge sharing. 

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OTHER ACTIVITIES

ICT-KM Website

This month person "Behind the Scenes" is Paul O’Nolan, coordinator of the Global Advanced Research Networks project.

With more profiles added regularly, remember to visit the "Behind the Scenes" section of the http://ictkm.cgiar.org.   

Please visit us often to stay abreast of our efforts towards creating a CGIAR without boundaries.

New Faces in the Program

We would like to welcome the new ICT-KM Program Manager, Mr Teck Hong Lee to the CGIAR community. Reporting to the CIO of the CGIAR, he is primary responsibility is to coordinate the implementation of projects under the ICT-KM 2004 Investment Plan. This includes championing the projects throughout the CGIAR system, coordinating the activities of the various project coordinators, and acting as an operational and technical resource. He will also be helping the CIO and the Program in other relevant activities.

Teck was a Consultant to British Petroleum Singapore ’s Business System Infrastructure Review Project in 2004.  Prior to that, he was Head of IT Operations (Outsourcing Business) with Singapore Computer Systems Ltd.  A trained Network Engineer, he has strong background in project management, IT services outsourcing, and technical operation solutioning.   

Married with 3 children (the family is in Singapore ), he is passionate about making a meaningful difference to the community, immediate and at large, through knowledge and technology.   

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TECHNICAL CORNER...

Active Directory and Exchange 2003

We now have 9 Centers migrated to Exchange 2003.  The next two centers scheduled to migrate to Exchange 2003 are IITA and IFPRI.

ICARDA has decommissioned their Exchange 5.5 server, completing their migration to Exchange 2003. WorldFish and ILRI-Ethiopia are also preparing to remove their Exchange 5.5 servers.

The IT Managers continue to work with CGNET on the Exchange 2003 Global Address List issue. Currently, ICARDA has volunteered to manage contacts for external addresses and Listservers. Thank you!

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TECHNOLOGY WATCH

This column is dedicated to keeping a regular watch for emerging ICTs of potential interest to the CGIAR.

New WinZip Companion for Outlook

WinZip has recently introduced the new WinZip Companion for Outlook which aims to make it easy for users of Microsoft(R) Outlook to zip and encrypt attachments to outgoing e-mail messages.

The Companion can be configured to automatically zip the attachments, to ask whether or not the users want them zipped, or to let the users zip and attach files manually with just a few mouse clicks.  Toolbar and menu items allow users to control the Companion's functionality on a message-by-message basis.  In addition, sensitive attachments can be easily protected with the same built-in advanced AES encryption found in WinZip 9.0.

The recipient of the zipped attachments does not need to have WinZip Companion for Outlook installed to open attachments.  All the recipient needs is a compatible Zip utility such as WinZip 9.0.

Contact your IT manager to know more…

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Drafting Meeting in Penang

Michael Devlin, representing the Advisory Group, David Balson, consultant, will be in Penang in the week of March 13, at the end of the on-line consultation, to help the Program write the proposal on “Global Public Goods Information Systems: Maximizing Value and Use".

Rome Meeting

A C4D decision meeting will be held in Rome 23-28 May. Details to follow.

WSIS 2005

The ICT-KM Program will be participating to the satellite event preceding Phase II of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which will be held from 13-15 November 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia . This event will examine the role of research and the production of knowledge in the information society, with special emphasis on developing areas of the world. Core issues of the conference lie at the intersection of Science and Engineering, Information and Communication Technologies, and Development.

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Collaborate, Create, Communicate...

this is the motto of the ICT-KM Program. We believe that by expanding the CGIAR's opportunities to work together and communicate we will produce better science to help poor in developing countries.

Your comments are especially welcome. Please visit the Website, http://ictkm.cgiar.org/ or write to ictkm@cgiar.org with comments and/or ideas for the next monthly update.

Working together for a better future,

Enrica