Information and Communication Technologies— Opportunities to Mobilize Agricultural Science for Development

Knowledge, information, and data—and the social and physical infrastructures that carry them—are widely recognized as key building blocks for more sustainable agriculture, effective agricultural science, and productive partnerships among the global research community. Through investments in e-Science infrastructure and collaboration on one hand, and rapid developments in digital devices and connectivity in rural areas, the ways that scientists, academics, and development workers create, share, and apply agricultural knowledge is being transformed through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This paper examines some trends and opportunities associated with the use of these ICTs in agriculturalscience for development

If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0

Over the past 15 years, the web has transformed the way we seek and use information. In the last 5 years in particular a set of innovative techniques – collectively termed ‘web 2.0’ – have enabled people to become producers as well as consumers of information. It has been suggested that these relatively easy-to-use tools, and the behaviours which underpin their use, have enormous potential for scholarly researchers, enabling them to communicate their research and its findings more rapidly, broadly and effectively than ever before. This report is based on a study commissioned by the Research Information Network to investigate whether such aspirations are being realised. It seeks to improve our currently limited understanding of whether, and if so how, researchers are making use of various web 2.0 tools in the course of their work, the factors that encourage or inhibit adoption, and researchers’ attitudes towards web 2.0 and other forms of communication. Context: How researchers communicate their work and their findings varies in different subjects or disciplines, and in different institutional settings. Such differences have a strong influence on how researchers approach the adoption – or not – of new information and communications technologies. It is also important to stress that ‘web 2.0’ encompasses a wide range of interactions between technologies and social practices which allow web users to generate, repurpose and share content with each other. We focus in this study on a range of generic tools – wikis, blogs and some social networking systems – as well as those designed specifically by and for people within the scholarly community. Method: Our study was designed not only to capture current attitudes and patterns of adoption but also to identify researchers’ needs and aspirations, and problems that they encounter. We began with an online survey, which collected information about researchers’ information gathering and dissemination habits and their attitudes towards web 2.0. This was followed by in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a stratified sample of survey respondents to explore in more depth their experience of web 2.0, including perceived barriers as well as drivers to adoption. Finally, we undertook five case studies of web 2.0 services to investigate their development and adoption across different communities and business models. Key findings: Our study indicates that a majority of researchers are making at least occasional use of one or more web 2.0 tools or services for purposes related to their research: for communicating their work; for developing and sustaining networks and collaborations; or for finding out about what others are doing. But frequent or intensive use is rare, and some researchers regard blogs, wikis and other novel forms of communication as a waste of time or even dangerous. In deciding if they will make web 2.0 tools and services part of their everyday practice, the key questions for researchers are the benefits they may secure from doing so, and how it fits with their use of established services. Researchers who use web 2.0 tools and services do not see them as comparable to or substitutes for other channels and means of communication, but as having their own distinctive role for specific purposes and at particular stages of research. And frequent use of one kind of tool does not imply frequent use of others as well

DataONE: Facilitating eScience through Collaboration

Objective: To introduce DataONE, a multi-institutional, multinational, and interdisciplinary collaboration that is developing the cyberinfrastructure and organizational structure to support the full information lifecycle of biological, ecological, and environmental data and tools to be used by researchers, educators, and the public at large. Setting: The dynamic world of data intensive science at the point it interacts with the grand challenges facing environmental sciences. Methods: Briefly discuss science’s “fourth paradigm,” then introduce how DataONE is being developed to answer the challenges presented by this new environment. Sociocultural perspectives are the primary focus of the discussion. Results: DataONE is highly collaborative. This is a result of its cyberinfrastructure architecture, its interdisciplinary nature, and its organizational diversity. The organizational structure of an agile management team, diverse leadership team, and productive working groups provides for a successful collaborative environment where substantial contributions to the DataONE mission have been made by a large number of people. Conclusions: Librarians and information science researchers are key partners in the development of DataONE. These roles are likely to grow as more scientists engage data at all points of the data lifecycle

Kősivatag és adattenger. A digitális adatmegosztás hasznossága a régészeti kutatásban egy pattintottkő-leletegyüttes kapcsán

With modern means of communication, the profession of archaeology gains unprecedented possibilities. Thoughtful digital data management became a key ingredient in constructing and applying scientific knowledge. Through digital media, archaeologists are increasingly and inevitably engaged in a cooperative system of stakeholders, which affects many existing norms of disciplinary behaviour. One of the grand challenges for archaeology is not just the use of software or the Web, but to understand their effects on the very core of its method, and to create a cyberinfrastructure for its own. My essay examines one of the key component of this process, digital data publication. | Az átgondolt adatkezelés egyre fontosabb szerepet tölt be a régészettudományban. A kutatók és más érintettek együttműködésére épülő digitális infrastruktúrának a régészet elkerülhetetlenül a részese. Fontos kihívás ezért ma olyan „jó gyakorlat” kialakítása, ami a létező számítástechnikai eszközök használata mellett alkotó módon lép be a kibertérbe, és a régészeti módszertan alapjain igazgat. Esszémben a jó gyakorlat egyik kulcsmozzanatát, a digitális adatpublikáció lehetőségeit vizsgálom egy pattintottkő-együttes esettanulmánya segítségével