AIMS

AIMS Newsletter no.30, May 2014

Focus on the CIARD RING

The CIARD RING is a project of the CIARD movement led by the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR).

The CIARD RING (referred also as the RING) is a global directory of web-based information services and datasets for agriculture, currently featuring 1,011 information services provided by 477 organizations. It is the principal platform created through the CIARD initiative to allow information providers to register their services and datasets in various categories. The RING facilitates the discovery of agriculture-related information sources across the world.

Over the last year, the CIARD RING has strengthened its functions as a dataset sharing platform and its machine-readable layer, thanks to inputs and infrastructural work provided under the agINFRA project of the FP7 programme of the European Commission (http://aginfra.eu). It is also exploring ways to federate other existing catalogs of dataset: the first experiment in this direction is taking place with the International Food Policy research Institute (IFPRI)

The improved Linked Data layer of the RING is described at http://ring.ciard.net/rdf-store and some sample SPARQL queries are provided on the same page to help developers write their own queries. The RING data model is based on the W3C Data Catalog vocabulary (DCAT) and links to published Knowledge Organization Systems such as AGROVOC and the Geopolitical Ontology (see http://ring.ciard.net/concept-linked-uris).  

Highlights from the community

  • COAR Launches Strategic Initiative to Align Repository Networks. COAR launched this strategic initiative  in a meeting in March 2014 where several major repository networks agreed to work together to further align their activities. More info 
  • The AIMS Community reaches 1,800 members! The AIMS Community received its 1,800th user on the 5th of May. AIMS offers Information Management Resources, Capacity Developments and a Community of Practice. More info
  • OCLC releases WorldCat Works as linked data. OCLC has reported that it has made 197 Million bibliographic work descriptions -WorldCat Works- available as linked data. More info
  • AIMS participates in the "Open Access for Agricultural researchers workshop in Uganda". AIMS team participated in this workshop coordinated by the EIFL, to discusss agricultural research dissemination and maximizing the visibility and impact of research output for agricultural scientists and professionals. More info
  • G8 and FAO's open-agricultural projects set to join forces - Is an article on the recent CIARD/GODAN consultation describes the proposals to allign the two movements towards a common goal. More info
  • Creative Commons Licenses: Fostering reuse and sharing.This was the title of the webinar which was presented by Ignasi Labastida and detailed the different Creative Commons licenses and their use. More info
  • Providing access to agricultural information to developing countries through the AGORA programme. ln this interview Dr. Johannes Keizer the new AGORA Programme Manager and Team Leader of AIMS shares some insight on the role and future of AGORA. More info

Conferences and Workshops

Upcoming Webinars@AIMS

The following webinars are on schedule and registration is still open,

  • 29th of May 2014 at 16:00 hrs Rome Time -"Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA): Helping Build the Global Research Community". The webinar will present AGORA, a program to provide free or low cost access to major scientific journals in agriculture and related biological, environmental and social sciences to public institutions in developing countries. The webinar will be presented by Kristin Kolshus (Information Management Specialist, FAO) , Florence Robertson, Communications Intern, Research4Life and Johannes Keizer (AGORA Programme Manager and AIMS Team Leader, FAO).
  • 06th of June 2014 at 16:00 hrs Rome Time - "Open Journals Systems". This webinar will present the Open Journals Systems and delivered by Julio Santillán in Spanish.

To view a list of past webinars click here

Glossary

What is Ontology Alignment? It is the process of determining correspondences between concepts. A set of correspondences is also called an alignment.

More info:

 

"My feeling is that the CIARD RING is the essential data registry backbone for agINFRA.."an interview with Nikos Manouselis (Agrow-Know).

Nikos Manouselis is the CEO of Agro-Know,an extraordinary company that captures, organizes and adds value to the rich information available in agricultural sciences, in order to make it universally accessible, useful and meaningful.

Read the interview " ..CIARD RING is the essential data registry backbone of agINFRA" found in the AIMS Interviews section.

The scope of the AIMS Newsletter is to bring under the attention of the AIMS community recent news, events and achievements in the field of agricultural information management. If you have any contribution, suggestion, or need assistance with the newsletter, please contact us at [email protected]

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