WLE Information Management

Discussion points  What systems do we have?  Which to use for what purpose?  What information is missing and can be improved upon?  Way forward

 Website  AgEco blog  Wikispace  CGSpace  Monthly update  Sharepoint  Planning and reporting platform WLE Knowledge Sharing tools & Information Systems

Website Purpose:

Website PurposeProsConsComment s Action required Dual purpose: public face of the program- makes information and knowledge generated openly available. Centralized one stop shop. Also used to communicate the importance of ecosystem service based approaches and provide an evidence base Survey respondents said they use the website as a space to be informed about WLE updates, activities, and planning Helps communicate WLE’s goals, approach and results Website needs to be updated- this is currently taking place Revamp is also in process

AgEco Purpose:

AgEco PurposeProsConsComment s Action required Platform for engaging researchers, academics and development professionals. Aims to change the global discourse on sustainable agricultural production Provides opinion and editorial that is not necessarily controlled by WLE Reaches out to a wider network of partners, beyond the CGIAR

WLE Wikispace Purpose:

Wikispace PurposeProsConsCommentsAction required To allow partners to access on-going processes, events and meetings. This is a space for collaboration and making process documentation available to partners Allows users to collaborate Access can be restricted to a limited group as and when required Access is determined by users having to create an account; there is no fee involved Provides an internal space for all partners, within the center, CGIAR and beyond Not very attractive or user friendly Several bugs with regards to editing, depending on type of browser used etc. Difficult to share documents that have a lot of diagrams due to compatibility issues The wikispace acts almost as an intranet for WLE. It provides a space for different groups such as the working groups, communities of practice, etc. However, it too faces the issue of being yet another platform that is used. Collaborating on various documents can also be challenging. We need to better define why we use the wiki and for what purpose. The wiki is a great space to be used for knowledge and learning exchange. However, it requires a designated person to manage its upkeep and ensure that information is organized in a useful manner.

CGSpace

PurposeProsConsCommentsAction required To aggregate, collect and harvest all WLE related outputs Provides a single platform where all WLE publications can be hosted There have been issues with being to display the results on the website A plugin has been developed to help solve this Do we really make the most of this as a team? Could we do more with it? Are all the final CPWF documents on here or elsewhere (reports as well as pubs)? What types of publications are added to it?

WLE Monthly Update

Monthly Update PurposeProsConsCommentsAction required To update partners and donors on WLE activities and progress Helps improve internal communications among all centers Summary on what’s going on with the program, includes updates on partners beyond the lead center Latest update includes highlights from the ESR core theme Difficult to always get responses from partners; an is sent out to all comms focal points but only 3-4 centers usually respond Needs a dedicated person to compile the update Rachel will start to take on responsibility for this with support from Martina IWMI regional staff are often keen to contribute this, especially the India and Addis offices

WLE Sharepoint

Sharepoint PurposeProsConsCommentsAction required Repository of internal documents and space to plan internally for Management Committee, Science Focal points and other key staff amongst partners Library of internal documents Whilst the decision was made to use sharepoint as an internal space for collaboration on documents, there have been several issues: - It can be difficult to use given that certain features are disabled based on the browser used -Users have to login multiple times to access different areas of the system Other platforms are often used to solve the various problems. These alternatives however have their own issues. For e.g. dropbox is not at all collaborative. Rather it only allows for multiple users to have access to a document/file but does not allow them to edit -Google docs can be used as a collaborative tool, however, some diagrams and charts do not display well; also in an effort to make it more user friendly, a public link is provided which is not always the best option when a document needs to have restricted access - Re-evaluate the purpose of the sharepoint system Given that one of the challenges is that users need to have multiple logins for the various systems used, one quick fix maybe to create a single source which then gives them access to all these platforms- a start maybe through a page on wle.cgiar.org

Sharepoint PurposeProsConsCommentsAction required - High cost due to WLE having had to purchase licensing for multiple users - Alternative systems are often used such as dropbox, one drive, google docs, wiki as a means to solve the problems that users face with sharepoint - One drive: users have to sync their offline and online versions regularly, if the user does not have access to the internet they may not have the most up-to- date version

WLE Planning and Reporting Platform (WLE P&R)

Planning and reporting platform PurposeProsConsCommentsAction required To help all program participants submit their annual activity plans and their annual reports A single space where all participants can access and report on their activity plans Participants can download a pdf of all related activities Budget data is uploaded here Still in development PDF of activities needs to be improved So far, we have limited access to this as it is not yet very user friendly Further development needs to focus on ensuring that this system/data can be harvested and displayed on other platforms such as the website Keyword list needs to be updated to reflect consistency across the program Three major areas for development: 1. Ensure that existing data can be accessed, harvested, queried etc. 2. Upload IES work plans (2015) and previous plans (or some parts of them) from should we go back to 2012?

Planning and reporting platform PurposeProsConsCommentsAction required Removes version control issues. There will be a single version of each plan, on here - updates will be done directly by the project leader/Scienc e Focal point 3. Enabling partners to use the system for their reports. Could we have (part of) this ready by mid- year?

Discussion points/Way forward  The Wikispace and sharepoint seem to have some overlap  The issue of collaborating on documents has not been resolved What would be the best platform?  What about the Consortium move towards Office 365? What does that mean for us?