News detail:
20-22. February 2008, Hungary: Regional training workshop for portal managers and coordinators of thematic communities in the AW Network
The Godollo Agribusiness Division of St Stephen University, Godollo, Hungary will accommodate a regional training workshop for portal managers and coordinators of thematic communities in the AW Network. The organiser will also define the structure and functionalities of the Content Management System (CMS) empowered version of AgroWeb pages; install the selected CMS on the AgroWeb CEE server; and customize AgroWeb National, Regional and Thematic pages to the CMS format while the participants will prepare and/or modify from existing sources a set of resource materials for the training workshop on the installation of the CMS and the conversion of existing design and structure into CMS enabled pages
The AgroWeb international network was established in 1998 by organisations and individuals involved in agricultural and rural development in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries in order to contribute to agricultural and rural development by facilitating the generation, collection and dissemination of agriculture related information, sharing knowledge and best practices. Specific activities include:
- monitoring information about and related links to agricultural institutions;
- providing necessary environment for networking activities among different thematic groups;
- promoting national and international events related to the objectives of AgroWeb;
- undertaking capacity development activities and promoting inter-institutional cooperation;
- developing communication schemes at regional, sub-regional, national, intra-national levels.
AgroWeb is maintained by volunteers from participating countries (Balkan region, New Independent States, Baltic States, Caucasus region and Central Asia, and European Union). Currently, the Network consists of 25 national portals, which provide access to information in a standard format and structure about agriculture-related institutions - ministries, libraries, information centres, universities, research centres, NGOs, agro-marketing organisations and organisations involved in the European integration process. The AgroWeb national portals provide Internet links, if available, to these national institutions and to other relevant national web sites. In addition to the national portal pages, cross-cutting subject areas have been identified and a growing number of thematic sectors of the network are being coordinated by regional focal points.
During the first five, six years of its existence, AgroWeb was a pioneer initiative for agriculture related networking in the region in terms of the technology used and also for the unique ways of knowledge and information exchange. Regular meetings of the experts involved during these years (supported by FAO) strongly contributed to the efficient work and commitment inside the Network. In addition, the technological upgrades of the Network were carried out timely and at a very high professional level.
Lately, the development of the Network has stagnated, partially as a result of a lack of personal (face-to-face) communication. Attempts to share knowledge and best practices 'virtually' have not been as successful as workshops and conferences in the past.
The second challenge faced by the Network today is technological. Although in the past much attention was paid to uniformity in the appearance of the web pages (structure and design), the technology used was not standardized from the very beginning. In view of the recent rapid developments in this field, it is of crucial importance to use up-to-date technology and tools for successful networking and effective work.
A recently conducted review of the AgroWeb concluded that the Network urgently needs to be enhanced with new tools, in particular those based on Web2.0 technologies, in order to overcome problems with access for the growing community of National Coordinators of the various Thematic Knowledge Sub-Networks. The introduction of these tools will also prepare the platform for cooperation with similar initiatives within and outside the region. The implementation of a Content Management System (CMS) is expected to provide an environment that will facilitate access to areas that require regular updating, and to solve technical issues connected to searching within the Network, speed of jumping to other country portals, and the issue of broken links. In addition, it will provide an opportunity for improved communication in forms like forums, blogs and wikis, as well as the exchange of information in RSS feeds.
Whether or not the introduction of a CMS will affect the physical location of the information, the management structure will remain fully decentralized. Each manager of a national AgroWeb portal will have unique access to the pages and will be authorized to grant access to the National Coordinators and Web Editors for updating the respective sections of the portals for which they are responsible. New opportunities will be opened for technical improvement of the Network and provision of new tools and services for end users.
The proposed CMS is Typo 3, which is considered very suitable for use in the AgroWeb Network, and is been used by FAO's KCE Division, which has developed many add-on modules. KCE staff may act as the resource persons during the proposed trainings.
Although the proposed CMS itself is open source and free of charge, its installation and adaptation to AgroWeb needs will require a substantial amount of work. The Recipient Organization is expected to install the CMS on the AgroWeb server, and to adapt the graphical interfaces and templates of selected AgroWeb National, Regional and Thematic pages to the CMS used format.
Once the initial CMS installation has been completed and relevant templates and graphical interfaces have been prepared, a training workshop shall be organized for all portal managers and coordinators of thematic communities. The inputs to be provided by the Recipient Organization will comprise the preparation and/or modification of training materials, and all aspects of the organization and delivery of the workshop. FAO will provide the Recipient Organization with relevant training materials. Professional staff from the Recipient Organization specialized in information management will work with the FAO staff to customize and package the training resource materials.
Agenda of the Workshop is available from this webpage under the Agenda menu item.
News submitted on 3 December, 2007 by Laszlo Papocsi in subject "Events, meetings"
Link to original URL:
http://www.gak.hu/aw
| 
