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Infusing new information and knowledge in agricultural systems
There have been 3 distinct waves that have changed the flow of information and knowledge in human history and affected its course. The first was when human kind learned how to read and write through symbols, the second when printing was invented and the third was when text was made accessible universally through the Internet.
For agriculture, the first wave helped maintain records of farm produce and contributed to the formation of larger human societies. I am not sure how the invention of printing with movable type faces in its early stages contributed to the development of agriculture and progress in human society. It did bring greater access to information and there is evidence that agricultural processes and technologies were described in printed books of the medieval period. Apparently illiteracy among those who actually farmed was a constraint in spreading information through printed material. The western scientific revolution brought about the spread of information through printed letters, journals and books. Agriculture as a scientific discipline arose in the late 19th century and the methods of sharing information and knowledge about this science were adapted without much distinction from those used in other sciences. It is how agricultural science now adapts to the Internet in sharing scientific and technical information that intrigues me.
The Internet, when it was developed, was primarily for scientific interaction. The first major change the use of computers and the Internet brought in sharing scientific information was through sharing documents electronically and the use of e-mail as a means of communication in scientific institutions. Associated with the sharing of documents electronically was the use of computers and tools in indexing and cataloguing information in the documents for easier and effective access.
In my opinion, the use of computers and the Internet in sharing agricultural science and technology information has lagged behind compared to its use, for example, for physics, mathematics, chemistry or even medical sciences. The reasons could be that investment in agricultural science was in the wane across the world and especially in the North when the use of Internet and computers was emerging in the 1990s. With reduced capacities and interest in agricultural science in Northern institutions of research and education, there was reduced interest to use the latest technologies to share information. It could also be that whenever there is a financial crunch, libraries and information management are among the first to face budgetary cuts. Agricultural science had severe financial investment reduction in the 1990s. It is also important to factor that the South, where agricultural research for development was targeted, had very poor computing infrastructure and even poorer Internet connectivity. There was little reason to invest in the use of the Internet in the South for science and technology especially agricultural science.
However, the electronic medium and use of the Internet in sharing agricultural science and technology has gradually increased. AGRIS, followed by a decentralized approach through WEBAGRIS by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), AGRICOLA by National Agricultural Library, United States of America are some of the prominent initiatives to enable access to agricultural science and technological information, especially peer reviewed scientific papers, electronically and through the Internet. AGORA and TEEAL are among initiatives to provide subsidized access to papers published in scientific journals online and through digital/electronic media to countries that cannot access scientific information due to its costs. Almost all major actors in agricultural research provide documents through their websites or what are called “Virtual Libraries”.
New trends observed in this area of agricultural information include the Open Archives Initiative which promotes publishing and access to scientific papers outside the conventional proprietary channels such as journals. At the FAO, this is planned under AGRIS. AGRIS is now much more than a catalogue, search engine and gateway to STI information. It also is active in facilitating application of norms and standards, providing tools, applications and agricultural ontology and thesauri.
To me the future sharing of scientific and technical information through the Internet will be through community of practices with list services, wikis and blogs. This may be in addition to the traditional scientific paper but I do not really see how the paper, which takes anywhere between 3 months to an year to publish, as a means to share STI information can survive in an age where information and data can be shared instantaneously among peer groups. This would have deep implications to information and communications management in this area. First of all the traditional librarians are a threatened species. Information specialists who can add value not only through collection, collation, cataloguing and indexing but also integrating information not only for scientists and teachers but a wide variety of actors in agricultural innovation will take their place. Scientists will need new skills to participate in online peer groups and communities of practices. They will need to have skills to partner and create trust among their peers online. They may have to expose their datasets and tools to their peers through the Internet. This will bring issues of safeguarding intellectual property, information systems security and coherence in sharing data. The information and communications management community in agriculture is not yet geared towards how they can support and facilitate these emerging trends in sharing agricultural and technical information.
