IMARK e-learning course on managing spatial information

The Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) Steering Group has announced the release of the course entitled: “Management of Spatial Information ”, available in English. The course provides a comprehensive overview of the nature and characteristics of spatial data, how it can help improve the quality and scope of activities in organizational processes, how to manage the infrastructure internally and how to integrate the infrastructure in a wider context of data acquisitioning and provisioning. The course was developed by FAO in partnership with ITC - Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente.

The course is available on CD (on request) and online.

Other IMARK modules/courses, also available CD and online, are:

• Knowledge Sharing for Development
• Digital Libraries, Repositories and Documents
• Web 2.0 and Social Media for Development
• Networking in Support of Development
• Building Electronic Communities and Networks
• Investing in Information for Development
• Digitization and Digital Libraries (superseded by the module Digital Libraries, Repositories and Documents)
• Management of Electronic Documents (superseded by the module Digital Libraries, Repositories and Documents)

IMARK courses provide an opportunity for self-paced learning to individuals who want to acquire skills in modern information management and exchange.

“African researchers are active consumers of content but inactive contributors”

In late March 2013, I took part in a workshop on National Digital Repository Framework organized by the Association of African Universities (AAU) in Accra. Participants, mainly from universities, discussed setting up national digital repositories of theses and dissertations, as part of AAU’s Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD) initiative. A comment made by one presenter, that “African researches are active consumers of content but inactive contributors”, attracted my attention. I decided to give it a thought and I am afraid I have to say that he was largely right.

Most public research organizations and universities on the continent cannot afford to subscribe to scholarly publications without donor funding. For most of these institutions, they last paid for journal subscriptions using institutional budgets in the late 1980s and in 1990s. Since then, they largely depend on the good will of the international community to sustain their research and academic information needs.

At the click of a computer mouse button, thanks to modern information and communication technology (ICTs), today researchers, faculty members and students in Africa have access to thousands of journal titles, books and other information materials in digital format. This is possible due to several initiatives including the Research4Life Programme, the Programme for Enhancement of Research Information (PERI) and open access initiatives such BioMed Central. Availability of easy and around the clock access to these digital resources puts researchers, faculty staff and students on the continent at par with their colleagues in the developed world in as far as access to the latest research is concerned. However, how much of the research generated in Africa is accessible to the outside world?

Data available from the 2010 Thomson Reuters’s Global Research Report: Africa shows that from the years 1999 to 2008, on average Africa produced about 27,000 scientific papers per year, about the same volume as that of The Netherlands. Furthermore, Africa’s research scene, in terms of published outputs, is dominated by three countries – Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. 

What then, are our researchers doing? 

Africa, as indicated by the BBC, has the potential to play a big role in the global science. However, there is little government-funding going into research. For example, in 2006, the African Union’s Executive Council endorsed that by 2010 governments in Africa should spend at least 1% of the GDP on research and development. How many countries have met this target?

Another web 2.0/social media training workshop is over. But...

Amuda, Justin (facilitator) and Linda

Agricultural research scientists, faculty staff, development practitioners in the agricultural and rural domain, and information professionals in Africa are slowly turning to web 2.0/social media to support their networking activities and for accessing and disseminating information more effectively. The use of web 2.0/social media requires new knowledge and skills and for the past five days, I have been sharing my knowledge of social media with 20 enthusiastic individuals at a Web 2.0 Learning Opportunity workshop in Accra, Ghana.  These individuals are actively engaged in agriculture and rural development, agricultural related research, agricultural information management, and media. They were selected from among 47 applicants who had expressed interest in the training workshop.

The workshop was hosted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Institute for Scientific and Technological Information (INSTI) and supported by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) and the Regional Office for Africa (RAF) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). The content focused on developing social media strategies, using social media tools such as Twitter, blogs, wikis and LinkedIn in building communities and knowledge sharing, and content licensing using Creative Commons.

Since 2008, I have conducted several training workshops on web 2.0/social media. Sharing knowledge with the workshop participants is the easy part of any workshop for me.  The hard part comes after the workshop and it has to do with the participants.  At the end of each workshop that I have conducted, I ask myself the following questions:

• How many workshop participants will go on and adopt the social media tools that were introduced to them?
• How many blogs created during the workshop would continue to be populated with content? 
• How about tweeting? Will they continue to do so?

I have several examples of blogs created by some participants at the

Doreen and Esther from CISIR-INSTI

workshops in 2010 and 2011. Today, these blogs only contain content that was posted during practical work during the workshops. It is worrying. Several factors contribute to this state of affairs. Experience has shown that a good number of participants turn up for training workshops and that is all. There is no after life. In addition, some of them do not have access to suitable technical infrastructure and policy environment that support the use of social media in their institutions. Therefore, no matter how much some workshop participants would want to continue using social media, once back in their work environment, it is back to business as usual.

It is a challenge to think that a large number of people who may be taking part in a training workshop may not have time and opportunities to practice their newly acquired skills. Social media is personal and I always expected participants at my workshops to take a personal decision to adopt social media tools and integrate them in their professional life.

I have done my part!