Consultations
Coherence in Agricultural Information
The amount of digitally available information is growing exponentially and appropriate steps need to be undertaken to facilitate access and consequently reduce costs. The goal of this initiative is to facilitate dialogue and collaboration between experts in this field to develop existing standards and tools and to create new ones. The facilitation mechanism will be a "Clearinghouse for Information Management Standards in Agriculture", which is being created to allow exchange and promotion of common methodologies, standards and applications. The expected benefits are reduction in development costs for new information systems and increase in the quality of services provided to users.
The main objectives of the initiative are to:
- facilitate collaboration, partnership and networking among partners by promoting information exchange and knowledge sharing;
- harmonize the decentralized efforts currently taking place in the development of methodologies, standards and applications for management of agricultural information systems; consequently, providing a 'one-stop' access to system designers and implementers.
Organizations can participate in this initiative by sending a letter of intent with explicit mention of adherence to the basic principles. Each stakeholder should also be willing to commit themselves to contribute staff time to support the activities of the project.
Workshop on Coherence in Agricultural Information
(Lexington, Ky, USA, May 2005)