| Dear
Colleagues,
Collaborate,
Create, Communicate...
Let me share with you the events
which have kept us busy in April and the plans for the
month of May.
ICT-KM
2004
INVESTMENT PLAN DEVELOPMENTAL UPDATES
The Project
Coordination Meeting will be held from 20
- 21 May, Rome and is especially critical to Thrust
2, Content for Development. To date, 12 Project
Coordinators have already confirmed their participation.
Meeting face-to-face at this early stage of the project
implementation will definitely allow specific project
plans to forge and complement each other to produce
much greater results. The meeting will be professionally
facilitated and we will be sharing the proposed agenda
in the coming week.
Current Projects Status
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PROJECT
UPDATES
E-Publishing
The E-Publishing
project is currently enrolling people for the e-consultation
leading up to the All-team meeting and resulting agreements
between centers in late June. The strong working partnership
between the CG's Information Manager (library) and Publishing
communities will make this project a success. Key participants
in the consultation will be invited to a special
seminar and working meeting in late June
to explore and agree on the future approaches of the
CGIAR's e-publishing and content management. For more
information on this project, please visit the e-publishing
website,
http://ictkm.cgiar.org/epublishing/index.htm.
Virtual Resources Center
The VRC project
is in its initial stage to set up a mechanism that will
represent the system expectations for the VRC. They
are now recruiting volunteers for the "Content
and Policy Advisory Team".
Implementation Support for ICT-KM2004
Investment Plan
As you are aware,
David Balson the current consultant to the
ICT-KM Program has agreed to extend his consultancy
to cover the coordination of the implementation of the
ICT-KM 2004 Investment Plan. Currently David is
working closely with the project coordinators on their
activities in support of coordination across the projects.
Collaboration Software
We have had 19 colleagues
volunteer to participate in the users' requirement analysis
to review available collaboration tools and make recommendation
for adoption.
The Evaluation Team led by Dario
Valori, the Virtual Resources Center Project Coordinator,
together with an external consultant will carry out
a consultation to develop a list of updated requirements
and evaluation metrics for the CGIAR Collaboration needs.
We plan to publish a new report on collaboration tools
suited for the CGIAR late in the summer.
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RECENT
MEETINGS AND INITIATIVES
Global Public Goods 2
In response to the
CGIAR Center Directors' Committee (CDC) request, I have
worked collaboratively with centers' focal points on
developing the Global Public Goods Information Systems
Rehabilitation - Phase 2 (GPG2) Project proposal. This
proposed Project will build on the work of the first
phase of the GPG investments and on the work of the
ICT-KM 2004 Investment Plan. The proposal is being integrated
with the GPG2 genebank project coordinated by SINGER.
At a 3-day meeting
held from 29 - 31 March, 2004 in Penang, discussions
were held on the formulation and drafting of the GPG2
proposal with representatives from the gene and non-genebanks
centers, the Challenge Program on Unlocking Bio-diversity
and the Consortium for Spatial Information. A common
vision and strategy was reached.
Participants then
worked collaboratively on developing the proposal.
This proposal is a result of work and consultations
not only with the drafters but also with other centers
and communities such as Internal Audit Unit, CAS-IP,
and the IT community. The document has just been
submitted to the Center Directors' Committee for consideration.
I would like to take this opportunity
to thank all the drafters and contributors for their
help in the preparation of this document.
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UPCOMING
MEETINGS
Program Evaluation Design Workshop
Following on from
the Project Coordinator's Meeting, this will take place
from the 24 - 26 May at IPGRI, Rome.
Critical for Project
Coordinators, the identification of clear linkages between
project actions and the changes/outcomes the Program
is trying to achieve will be reached. This workshop
will also be practically useful to individual project's
M&E planning.
The Director of
IDRC's Evaluation Unit, Terry Smutylo, will be leading
and facilitating this workshop.
29 participants
have confirmed their attendance to this workshop including
key stakeholders and/or their representatives.
More information on the upcoming
meetings can be found on the ICT-KM Collaboration Site
http://collaborate.ictkm.cgiar.org/project/.
Login is "browser1", with password "browser".
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TECHNICAL
CORNER...
Active Directory Project
This project is
almost complete with IITA, IFPRI, WARDA and IRRI to
join. IITA is continuing with their preparations
to join the CGIAR Active Directory forest in the coming
weeks. WARDA is proceeding with plans to upgrade to
Active Directory and join the forest in May.
Reminder:
weekly updates on the Active Directory project are posted
on the IT collaboration site at http://forum2.ipgri.cgiar.org/cg-it/
IT Managers can log on to the website for details.
Exchange 2003
CGNET is currently
assisting CGIAR in planning and executing its migration
to Exchange 2003 by preparing detailed guidelines and
providing center-by-center guidance throughout the transition
process. The Active Directory and Exchange teams
at CGNET have identified the areas requiring system-wide
guidelines.
A policies review
team was set up to review the proposed guidelines by
CGNET in consultation with the CGIAR IT community at
large.
The draft system-wide Exchange 2003 policies
can be reviewed by IT Managers at http:\\docad.cgiar.org.
CGNET Contract
A 2-year extension
on the current CGNET contract for the provision of messaging
and web-hosting services has just been signed and will
enter into effect on 1 May 2004.
This new contract
brings about significant savings in the area of voice
and TAS rates, and a series of new services.
Once again, I take this opportunity to
thank all IT Managers and Web Managers for their contributions
to the preparation of this contract document, and especially
Nancy Walczak and Ian Moore for their support in this
effort.
Bibliographic Management Software
Discussions have been underway in relation
to this software by the Information Managers in CGIAR.
We are exploring
the possibility of negotiating a consortium agreement
for the purchase of Bibliographic Management Software
to bring about savings and benefits to CGIAR as a whole
and as a result I am currently in contact with the Information
Managers community to obtain the latest information
on Bibliographic Management Software commonly used across
the CGIAR system. Contact with relevant vendors will
then commence.
TECHNOLOGY WATCH
This column is specially
dedicated to keep a regular watch for emerging ICTs
of potential interest to the CGIAR. This month features
the IT Managers looking at:
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COMING UP
The FAO Expert
Consultation Workshop on Mechanisms for Documenting
and Communicating Outputs of Agricultural Research in
Sub-Saharan Africa will be held from 12 - 14 May,
2004 at Nairobi, Kenya. Two CGIAR representatives have
been invited to attend.
The CGIAR Women's Negotiation Course
organized by the Gender and Diversity Program will be
held from 17 - 19 May at IPGRI, Rome. I will be attending
this course.
I have been invited
to attend the Human Resources Management Meeting
scheduled for 6 - 8 June at Colombo, Sri Lanka.
This workshop is organized by Nellooli Rajasekharan,
the SAS-HR Director. We hope to strengthen the strategic
partnership between the ICT-KM program and the SAS-HR
program.
The Gender
and Diversity Strategic Planning Workshop organized
by the Gender and Diversity Program will be held from
8 - 11 June at Colombo, Sri Lanka. I will be attending
this workshop which focuses on helping Centers set their
own 1-, 3- and 5- year goals for gender and diversity
and designing G&D's new 4-year action plan.
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, and we will get that knowledge
to them.
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 |
