The work of the last two years has set our course for the future. For the next 4 months in the context of "Planning for the Future", we will be studying users' needs, consulting as widely as possible, improving and hopefully finalizing the strategy by the end of the year, all in the context of maximizing the access to and the use of CGIAR iGPGs. (Information Global Public Goods) Some specific steps in this process are: • Further development of the CGVLibrary (CGIAR Virtual Library), extending access to more bibliographic records and full texts. • Consulting African information workers at an IAALD workshop in Nairobi in 2006. • Consulting GFAR (Global Forum on Agricultural Research) stakeholders (with vocal representation from the farmer level) at the triennial GFAR conference in New Delhi in December 2006. • Launching "Knowledge Sharing in Research" pilot projects including CGIAR Centers and partners. • Hosting this three-week online consultation from September 12 to October 3 • A recent blog on the ICT-KM website by the title "Research and Development: show me the impact". • The annual CGIAR Information Managers meeting and the annual CGIAR IT Managers meeting. • Hosting half-day workshop on September 28 at FAO to further work on the users study and the strategy. If you are in Rome, we encourage you to attend. • Interviewing key staff within the CGIAR and partner organizations about their needs and situations. • Analysing existing studies of users and their needs. • Convening a focused consultation with representatives of all CGIAR Centers and Challenge Programs. • Working with the CGIAR Science Council and CAS-IP to address the issue of open access and reach of our published work • Carrying out information gathering and consultation activities at the science forum before the CGIAR's Annual General Meeting. All of this work is framed within a broader context that we are calling "Opening Access to CGIAR Research and Knowledge". This consultation with you, here on the e-agriculture platform is one of the important steps focusing on improving, updating and validating the strategy and on getting specific inputs on CGIAR iGPG users and needs. In early 2008 we plan to lead a process of developing an Investment Plan to address the objectives of the strategy and to fund raise for its implementation. You can influence the strategy and thus, by extension, investments in the future. We look forward to hearing your views. I now turn the "floor" over to Nancy who will guide our interactions.

The work of the last two years has set our course for the future. For the next 4 months in the context of "Planning for the Future", we will be studying users' needs, consulting as widely as possible, improving and hopefully finalizing the strategy by the end of the year, all in the context of maximizing the access to and the use of CGIAR iGPGs. (Information Global Public Goods) Some specific steps in this process are: • Further development of the CGVLibrary (CGIAR Virtual Library), extending access to more bibliographic records and full texts. • Consulting African information workers at an IAALD workshop in Nairobi in 2006. • Consulting GFAR (Global Forum on Agricultural Research) stakeholders (with vocal representation from the farmer level) at the triennial GFAR conference in New Delhi in December 2006. • Launching "Knowledge Sharing in Research" pilot projects including CGIAR Centers and partners. • Hosting this three-week online consultation from September 12 to October 3 • A recent blog on the ICT-KM website by the title "Research and Development: show me the impact." (LINK TO http://ictkm.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/research-and-development-show-me-…). • The annual CGIAR Information Managers meeting and the annual CGIAR IT Managers meeting. • Hosting half-day workshop on September 28 at FAO (http://www.e-agriculture.org/270.html?&view=single_conf&cat_uid=17&conf… USE THIS LINK) to further work on the users study and the strategy. If you are in Rome, we encourage you to attend. • Interviewing key staff within the CGIAR and partner organizations about their needs and situations. • Analysing existing studies of users and their needs. • Convening a focused consultation with representatives of all CGIAR Centers and Challenge Programs. (http://www.cgiar.org/impact/challenge/index.html) • Working with the CGIAR Science Council and CAS-IP (http://www.cgiar.org/who/structure/system/casip/whatwedo.html) to address the issue of open access and reach of our published work • Carrying out information gathering and consultation activities at the science forum before the CGIAR's Annual General Meeting. All of this work is framed within a broader context that we are calling "Opening Access to CGIAR Research and Knowledge". This consultation with you, here on the e-agriculture platform is one of the important steps focusing on improving, updating and validating the strategy and on getting specific inputs on CGIAR iGPG users and needs. In early 2008 we plan to lead a process of developing an Investment Plan to address the objectives of the strategy and to fund raise for its implementation. You can influence the strategy and thus, by extension, investments in the future. We look forward to hearing your views. I now turn the "floor" over to Nancy who will guide our interactions.

Welcome to this dialogue on Opening Access to CGIAR Research and Knowledge. I am Enrica Porcari, Chief Information Officer and Leader of CGIAR's ICT-KM Program. If you are new to the CGIAR, you can learn more about us at http://www.cgiar.org; and http://ictkm.cgiar.org. Many thanks to FAO for providing the platform for this dialogue. Welcome again to the more than 1200 participants from over 100 countries who have already joined the platform and the many more joining every day! Here is some background context to situate this dialogue: • ICT-KM Program created in 2003 to work towards a CGIAR "without boundaries" to enable us to work more effectively across our 15 centers. • An ICT-KM Investment Plan was developed and implemented in 2004. The focus of this Investment Plan was internal, on strengthening 15 CGIAR Centers with respect to ICT and KM, with projects and program work around 3 thrusts: Connectivity; management of Content (largely bibliographic); and Work Culture • While implementing projects, we were aware of importance of external linkages and of data and scientific outputs (non bibliographic) • The Program was asked to explore what needed to be done in the area of CGIAR "information Global Public Goods (iGPGs - see elaboration in Additional Documents space) in concert with other investments that were being made around CGIAR genebanks rehabilitation • In 2005 ICT-KM Program developed initial concept paper, held intensive consultation (internally and externally) and produced a strategy document - "ICT-KM 2 - Global Public Goods (GPGs): From Data and Information to Food". You can read a copy of this document in the "Additional Materials" area. The overall objective of the strategy is to make it easier for CGIAR staff, partners and potential partners to access, use and add value through collaboration to the research and scientific outputs of the CGIAR and so to have a positive influence on the lives of the poor. • While developing the strategy, it became apparent that work suggested was much bigger and broader than the ICT-KM Program, and, there was still considerable work to be done internally with the 2004 Investment Plan project. • At this point we developed a second Investment Plan in order to do two things: (1) consolidate the work carried out to date around KM/KS and the CGIAR intranet/extranet (CGXchange) (The Project Leaders for these activities will give overviews of their activities later in this dialogue.); and to consult more widely around the iGPG strategy and to develop a plan of action. We call this latter set of activities "Planning for the Future". As you can see, once we seriously explored the idea of sharing knowledge, we realized that we not only had a big challenge, but that we could not do it alone. Since our original consultation in 2005, we have embraced many ways to reach out to others who are working on and care about issues of food for the poor.