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The Agricultural Research (and innovation) for Development (ARD) Web Ring
A Draft Proposal
Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR)
As one of its main activities, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) actively promotes, advocates and enables the sharing of agriculture-related information and knowledge. The current implementation of the Web Ring on EGFAR (GFAR’s webspace at www.egfar.org) gives access to GFAR stakeholders’ information resources in different ways: through a custom full-text search on partner websites; by harvesting news from several partner organizations; through advanced searches on partner databases in those cases where agreement on protocols and standards has been reached.
GFAR partners have now recommended that the Web Ring concept needed to further evolve considering:
- a more participatory approach, based on voluntary participation, where the Regional Agricultural Information Systems (RAIS) and other partner organizations managing information on Agricultural Research (and innovation) for Development (ARD) play a more active role;
- the changes brought about by new technologies and new paradigms such as Web 2.0 in information access, sharing and exchange;
- the active participation of GFAR in the Coherence Initiative in Agricultural Research for Development (CIARD).
The Global ARD Web Ring is now defined as a “voluntary coalition of web spaces that share information related to agricultural research and innovation for development.” The Global ARD Webring is proposed to be developed as a network of cooperating partners that enable sharing and exchange of information in a coherent and integrated manner, agreeing on common standards and protocols and leveraging Web 2.0 technologies. This paper describes in detail how the Global ARD Webring is being designed by GFAR as a potential CIARD Initiative.
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