Stephen Rudgard

Metadata Application Profile for Agricultural Learning Resources

Capacity and institution building is a core function of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FAO has recently started the “Capacity and Institution Building Portal” to provide structured access to information on FAO’s capacity and institution building services and learning resources. To ensure that the Portal can be searched by users and to enable interoperability with other recognized educational repositories, an Application Profile (AP) was created conforming to available and commonly used standards, to describe agricultural learning resources. This article presents the AP, provides an example of an FAO learning resource described and displayed using FAO Learning Resource AP, and presents the lessons learned.

Networks and communities at FAO: using lessons learned to nurture a learning organisation

In mid-2008, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) completed a review of its experiences with knowledge networks and communities. The review methodology included a series of focus groups and interview discussions with network sponsors, coordinators and members. Data from the focus groups were qualitative, and the findings were subjected to a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis. A range of key factors were identified for the networks and communities to thrive and to be useful to the organization, including the need to sponsor from top, to ensure the right blend of membership, to support demand, to ensure a sound business case, to facilitate continuously, to encourage flexibility, to recognize staff time, to promote the network(s), and to monitor and evaluate. The analysis further revealed the need to cultivate an understanding of knowledge sharing in the organization, to create incentives for participating in networks and communities, and to support the proliferation and growth of networks and communities with human resources initiatives and appropriate technical platforms. The lessons learned and recommendations from the review have informed the recently formulated FAO Knowledge Strategy, and they will continue to be leveraged in the implementing of the strategy, and in enabling FAO as a learning organization.

Information management resource kit (IMARK) : The methodology behind the modules

ABSTRACT An international partnership-based e-learning initiative called IMARK (Information Management Resource Kit) is providing a series of public domain training resources for information professionals. IMARK is based on a self-paced asynchronous pedagogical model, although the materials can be used to support face-to-face training in a blended learning approach, with a specific instructional design and production methodology, supported by sets of guidelines and a thorough peer-review process. The first two modules, which are available on CD-ROM and the Internet, are “Management of Electronic Documents” and “Digitization and Digital Libraries.”