1. The CIARD RING for building integrated information systems Ajit Maru GFAR Secretariat Rome

2. Outline  Increasingly Complex Information Needs for ARD  Change in Existing ARD Information Management Models  CIARD.RING and its role as a global support tool for building integrated information systems

3. Increasingly Complex Information Needs for ARD  Agriculture is increasingly becoming more knowledge Intensive Agriculture now with complex value addition chains in globally competitive markets New Challenges  Ensuring Food Quality and Safety  More Efficient Use of Natural Resources  Reducing environmental degeneration and enabling recovery from environmental damage  Adapting to and mitigating effects of Climate Change  Managing Agricultural Biodiversity

4. Consumer Fertilizer Seller Farmer Local Transporter Storage Packaging Bulk Transporter Retail Processing Retail Marketing Retail Packaging Seed Supplier Pesticide Supply Market Processing Agricultural Innovation System and Possible New Information Flows Researcher Farmers Extension Support NARO Research Manager Policy Makers Stakeholders

5. Change in Existing ARD Information Management Models Scientist/ResearcherExtension AgentFarmer Scientist/ResearcherExtension AgentFarmer Complex Information Networks

6. Change in Existing ARD Information Management Models Individual Farmers Market Intermediaries Farmer Organizations Extension Agents Government Non-Government Organizations Consumers and Consumer Organizations Researchers Input Providers Individual Farmers Market Intermediaries Farmer Organizations Extension Agents Government Non-Government Organizations Consumers and Consumer Organizations Researchers Input Providers PROSUMERS

7. Change in Existing ARD Information Management Models MULTIPLE PLATFORMS MULTIPLE CHANNELS FOR INFORMATION COMPLEX, MULTIPLE FLOWS OF INFORMATION MIXED MEDIA MODERN ICTS HAVE BROUGHT:

8. Change in Existing ARD Information Management Models SMS MMS BLOGS TWITS FAQs, Q&A Services SOCIAL MEDIA (FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, FLICKR) PHOTOGRAPHS, AUDIO and VIDEO MODERN ICTS HAVE BROUGHT: For Communication: Beyond the printed word

9. Change in Existing ARD Information Management Models GENERATE – MANAGE - USE (RE)GENERATE – ADD VALUE – (RE)USE

10. Change in Information Management Models  Internet and World Wide Web Web 1.0 – HTML and Hypertext Web 2.0 – Interactive, Dynamic Web pages Web 3.0 – “Semantic” Web Web 4.0 – “Prosumer” Web through Mixed Media

11. A New Way Forward Coherence in Information for Agricultural Research for Development

12. Why is coherence in agricultural information so important?  Innovation systems in agriculture are critical to the fight against hunger & sustainable use of natural resources and participation in markets  Rapid agricultural innovation is knowledge- intensive and depends on access to information  Coherence in information management will increase efficiency of knowledge sharing/exchange and reduce duplication Why enhance access to agricultural information? Most public domain agricultural information not yet widely accessible New types of research, organisations, and collaboration create new demands Improving the way the partners work together requires greater information and information flow systems

13. Global and Local Challenges in Research Communication Capacities –Lack of institutional policies to enable research communication –Lack of specialized skills in complex digital technologies Diversity of Responses –Customized Information/Knowledge Systems –In-house Information and Knowledge Management Programmes –Institutional Networks –National Initiatives –R&D Community Forums/Platforms –Virtual and Web2.0 tools for Participation/Interaction

14. A new partnership for truly accessible information CIARD - new global movement formed in 2008 building on consultations in 2005 and 2007 to provide a platform for coherence between information-related initiatives

15. Founding Partners and growing….. The Community

16. A Manifesto

17. The CIARD vision “To make public domain agricultural research information and knowledge truly accessible to all” All organizations that create and possess public agricultural research information disseminate and share it more widely CIARD partners will (a) coordinate their efforts, (b) promote common formats, (c) adopt open systems Create a global network of public collections of information

18. The CIARD Values To increase the benefits from investments in agricultural research and innovation for development, the partners in the CIARD initiative have agreed to make research outputs truly accessible, based on a common set of values

19. “Values” : capacity  promote and build self- sufficiency and local ownership  develop capacities needed to design and manage policies, skills and technologies  integrate action at policy, institution, and individual levels “Values” : content collect and make accessible outputs encourage use/re-use of outputs help researchers communicate their outputs build/use ‘open’ systems and applications customize outputs for specific audiences conserve outputs for the future ensure actions complement at local, national and global level promote dialogue and active collaboration adopt common principles and standards “Values” : coherence promote new approaches encourage change in attitudes, policies and institutions provide evidence of real benefits “Values” : investment

20. What are we already doing?

21. Advocacy Task Force Capacity Building Task Force Content Management Task Force

22. Developing Institutional Readiness 1. Introduce and gain support for the CIARD Manifesto and Values in your institution 2. Have your institution recognised as a CIARD partner 3. Adopt a formal institutional information/ communication strategy 4. Develop the capacities of your institution to achieve the CIARD Checklist 5. Develop national/local partner networks to share resources and skills Increasing the Availability, Accessibility and Applicability of Research Outputs 6. Ensure your research outputs are available digitally. 7. Develop institutional or thematic information repositories of your outputs as open archives. 8. Use international metadata standards, data exchange protocols, and agricultural vocabularies and thesauri. 9. Develop a clearly defined licensing policy for your outputs. 10. Optimize the structure and the content of web sites for search engines. 11. Share metadata by participating in international information systems. 12. Use ‘social’ Web 2.0 media and applications to share your outputs. 13. Build formal and informal networks to repackage your outputs. Checklist of Good Practices www.ciard.net

23. Routemap to Information Nodes and Gateways (RING) Pathways Creative Commons CAB Abstracts AgMES

24. CIARD: Benefits to Institutions  increased national/international visibility and use of their research output and content services  increased exchange of information content between their system(s) and others  increased awareness of other research outputs through information content and services  increased access to specialised expertise and knowledge and other partners’ proven solutions CIARD: Institutions’ Contributions promote and implement the CIARD vision and objectives register products and services on research outputs through the CIARD RING adopt/promote international standards related to digital research outputs register institutional profile on Checklist share lessons learned and experiences

25. For More Information visit www.ciard.net information@ciard.net

26. The CIARD RING “a Routemap to Information Nodes and Gateways (RING) that share information related to agricultural research and innovation for development (ARD)” A CIARD Initiative led by GFAR

27. ARD information now Agriculture-related information on the Internet is limited, widely scattered and not organized for easy access Complex information needs for agricultural research, innovation and development cannot be met

28. Availability is just not enough! HTML Users HTML We need to know if a certain technology has been used in a specific country and in a dry land area for a specific crop and if there are related projects completed or ongoing, who is funding them and where we can find the project outputs? TECA Best practices Country profiles CARIS WISARDAGRIS HTML Country NARS HTML ICARDA HTML AiDA HTML Crop database HTML OPACs Users have to locate and search several sources that provide partial answers to complex questions

29. CIARD RING  What information is available and Where?  How can we access and make effective use?

30. Solution: value added services Value added information services that enable to search, collate and integrate information from various sources acting as gateways to information sources OPAC

31. Change in Existing ARD Information Management Models (RE)GENERATE – ADD VALUE – (RE)USE CIARD.RING Contributing through CIARD to add value to value addition being done by information systems services for their users

32. Solution: value added services CARIS / WISARD Users We need to know if a certain technology has been used in a specific country and in a dry land area for a specific crop and if there are related projects currently ongoing and where we can find the project outputs? TECA Best practices Country profiles AGRIS Country NARS ICARDA AiDA Crop database Geo-ontology Crop ontology Organizations Directory Agrovoc gateway OA gateway OPAC Maize

33. What is missing? Value added services cannot be built without awareness of what others have done: which sources are available? how to tap into them? how to exploit their semantics?

34. The RING: supporting value added services The CIARD RING provides the missing route map to the existing services  an orientating service  an infrastructure for interoperability of agricultural research information services

35. Services in the RING: examples  Services that provide RSS feeds  Services that provide XML exports of information based on agreed metadata sets  Services that share their documents participating in the new AGRIS or in the Open Archive Initiative  Services that offer web services for accessing and re-using their information  etc...

36. Services in the RING The CIARD RING covers both information services and information sources The definition of "service" includes any form of providing information from one server instance (website, mail server, web services, XML archive...) to many clients (browsers, email clients, news readers, harvesters...)

37. The THAI CIARD RING  Have used services accessed automatically from CIARD.RING to help extension workers and Citrus farmers plan their operations in Citrus production in Thai language through documents available through services exposed by CIARD.RING

38. Outputs are available digitally

39. OTHER NATIONAL CIARD RINGS  China – CAAS  India - ICAR

40. The CIARD RING service The CIARD RING is a registry of existing ARD information services  the featured services are categorized and interlinked according to criteria based on: standards used, vocabulary used, technology used, protocols used, level of interoperability etc.  detailed instructions on how to interoperate the featured services are provided

41. Development Innovation Learning in Communities Through Continuous Conversation Increase in Social Capital A Generic Framework of ICT use f or Agricultural Innovation Information Platform Information Organization Information “Bus” / Pathways Knowledge Intermediary Extension Workers Input Suppliers Market Intermediaries Self Help Group Leaders, Community Leaders School Teachers, Postmen, Students Telecenter Radio Channels TV Channels Satellite Links Internet Services Cellular Telephony Providers Radio Station Television Station Website SMS Server Telephone based Q&A Services Research Institute, NGO, FO, Cooperative Private Sector Input Provider, Bank Supermarket chain Information Platform Information Organization Information Platform Information Organization Information Platform Information Organization Information Platform Information Organization Information Platform Information Organization

42. Development Innovati on Learning in Communities Through Continuous Conversation Increase in Social Capital A Generic Framework of ICT use f or Agricultural Innovation Information Platform Information Organization Information “Bus” / Pathways Knowledge Intermediary Extension Workers Input Suppliers Market Intermediaries Self Help Group Leaders, Community Leaders School Teachers, Postmen, Students Telecenter Radio Channels TV Channels Satellite Links Internet Services Cellular Telephony Providers Radio Station Television Station Website SMS Server Telephone based Q&A Services Research Institute, NGO, FO, Cooperative Private Sector Input Provider, Bank Supermarket chain Information Platform Information Organization Information Platform Information Organization Information Platform Information Organization Information Platform Information Organization Information Platform Information Organization CIARD MOVEMENT

43. Global Public Goods The CIARD RING and the featured information services will be free and publicly available, thus constituting Global Public Goods that can be leveraged by any organization, person or information service.

44. Who can benefit from the RING?  users looking for existing services into which they can tap for retrieving information and feeding it into their information systems  users looking for existing services to which they can contribute their contents and through which they can disseminate their information.  users interested in an overview of the current offer of information services in ARD

45. What you can build out of it  Services that offer a common browsing or searching interface to different sources  Integrated services providing relations between entities (organizations, projects, experts, documents) through semantic-web technologies  Services that interface the different knowledge organization systems (KOS) used by different sources  Services providing advanced services like digests, bibliographies, best practices, surveys etc.  etc...

46. Submission flow  The services featured in the RING are submitted directly by their managers and technical staff  Anybody can register and submit a service; the organizations responsible for the service will be alerted upon submission  If they are not already CIARD partners, the organizations that own and manage the submitted services will be invited to become CIARD partners

47. Be part of the RING  The CIARD RING service is available at: www.ciardring.net A logo is available on the RING website that can be used by all featured services to label them and indicate their participation in the CIARD RING

48. Invitation We invite you all to - make your services known through the CIARD RING - learn how to exploit other services in the CIARD RING Thank You