Knowledge Sharing

Why communication and knowledge sharing in our Megaprograms?

Posted on Sat, 08/21/2010 - 09:05


As new  Megaprograms were being finalized, research defined, new partnerships forged for a new more impactful agriculture research agenda… as the  texture, the vital structure of the new CGIAR  was being defined it became apparent that communication and knowledge sharing related issues were “missing in action”…. but not everywhere… signs that there was a growing awareness of the value of knowledge sharing in research became apparent… the heads of communication of the various CGIAR centers started to make noise around the fact communication and knowledge sharing were being neglected… so these topics made it back to the “must be there” list in a Megaprogram.

“AgKnowledge Africa”: focus on agriculture and climate change, land, livestock, and water – register NOW!

Posted on Wed, 08/18/2010 - 04:54
Join us in Addis Ababa on 18-21  October 2010 for  ‘AgKnowledge Africa’ Share Fair : a new event  to  showcase the ways agricultural and rural knowledge in and of Africa is created, shared, communicated, and put to use.
Like the 2009 edition in Rome, and the recent edition in Cali, this event will be a ‘fair’ that brings together the diverse knowledge (in this edition focus is on  Africa)  and the multiple innovative ways it is created, shared, communicated, and applied.
Farmer organizations, extensionists, researchers, students, academia, policy shapers, information and

‘Insuring’ appropriate delivery mechanisms: Facilitating sharing at IBLI project workshop

Posted on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 08:40

On July 12th 2010, an innovative new project hosted at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) held a one day workshop on ‘developing index-based livestock insurance to reduce vulnerability due to drought-related livestock deaths’. The project -Index-Based Livestock Insurance-,  better known as IBLI, has been operating in Kenya already and is now looking to expand its activities into Ethiopia.
The objectives of the workshop were to:

A picture is worth a thousand words: My experimentation with graphic facilitation

Posted on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 08:26

They say  ”a picture is worth a thousand words” and I have always been intrigued by pictures, images and visuals and their production as tools for knowledge sharing and learning. The field of ‘graphic facilitation’-in which the creation of graphics are a key part of the facilitation process- is a growing field.
According to the KS Toolkit: “Graphic recording at its core is visually capturing what is happening in a group or presentation. It is part of a large set of visual practices which use images as part of group processes, which includes graphic facilitation, collaborative graphics work, etc. ”

African ‘carrots’: Results of a consultation at the African Agriculture Science Week

Posted on Mon, 07/26/2010 - 10:44

On 5th July 2010, I posted a blog entitled “How to motivate more knowledge sharing in research: using the carrot or the stick?” to explore what makes or would make researchers and research projects share their agricultural research knowledge. This received some interesting responses.

Open Access Workshop in Bioversity – a summary

Posted on Tue, 07/13/2010 - 04:37

On July 7th, 2010, Antonella and I had the opportunity to participate in the one-day workshop titled: ‘Open Access- Maximising Research Impact”, hosted at Bioversity International; organized by Maria Garruccio (Bioversity) and the CGIAR’s Central Advisory Service on Intellectual Property (CAS-IP) group.

How to motivate more knowledge sharing in research: using the carrot or the stick?

Posted on Mon, 07/05/2010 - 06:36

As the CGIAR moves ahead with its change process, it is continuously being told that it needs to do a better job at sharing its vast wealth of research-generated knowledge, so that this knowledge can be applied to solving real problems.
While the publications written-the major output of most projects- are a key source of high quality information these are not often widely available or accessible, and for the majority of stakeholders working in agricultural development, are not applicable to them.
So the message: we need to do a better job at sharing our agricultural science data, information and knowledge in ways that make them available, accessible and applicable.

Want to make knowledge move around: Is the roundtable approach applicable?

Posted on Tue, 06/29/2010 - 09:00

How can you make knowledge move around?  Well like any mechanism that moves around you need the right kind of apparatus to be moved around,  some sort of push or force to make it move, a good track for it to follow, and some momentum to keep it going.  You need the whole system to be applicable to the job.
And this is true of making knowledge travel around- you need it to be in the right format, you need energy to make it move, you need some sort of plan or framework for it to follow, and it definitely needs momentum to keep it going. We see various mechanical contraptions achieve this movement- like the ferris wheel shown in the image- but what kind of systems can achieve moving knowledge around?

ShareFair Cali Roundup

Posted on Fri, 06/25/2010 - 00:46

The recently concluded ShareFair in Cali was a huge success and generated a number of posts on the ICT-KM Program’s blog. To help give you a more complete picture of this week-long event, we’ve consolidated the various posts for easy reading.

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