October 2, 2013.
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has developed a new way to manage agricultural information and make it easily accessible. EXPLOREit@ICRISAT breaks information barriers by making large volumes of agricultural scientific knowledge and information easily accessible by the public.
“We are doubly excited – not only have we given easier access to all of ICRISAT’s 40 years of scientific research through EXPLOREit, but we have achieved this through the MultiProfiler concept, a revolutionary way of making information accessible,” said Dr William Dar, ICRISAT Director General.
“We found that typical websites are too restrictive in giving access to information, and do not present the information in ways that are easy for people to view the detail of the content. ICRISAT’s new MultiProfilerconcept provides information through multiple navigations and creates easy to view profiles on the subject areas,” explained Ms Joanna Kane-Potaka, ICRISAT Director of Strategic Marketing and Communication.
“Sharing publicly-funded agricultural information in the most accessible way is critically important to achieve our agricultural development goals of reducing rural poverty, increasing food security, improving human health and nutrition, and ensuring more sustainable management of natural resources,”stressed Dr Dar. “ICRISAT is leading this growing global movement, and commits to playing a dynamic role in the processof mainstreaming open access toinformation through EXPLOREit.”
EXPLOREit is now to become the main source of ICRISAT’s scientific information, with profiles of all topics, systems, crops, locations and resources where it works.
“EXPLOREit reflects our commitment to make ICRISAT’s scientific information available to the public,” said Dr Nigel Poole, ICRISAT Board Chair. “It sets a new standard for sharingof information, and therefore promotes collaboration. To achieve this, ICRISAT has made a momentous leap in its use of technology with EXPLOREit– a dynamic site that feeds information from databases using tags and harvests information from other websites,” he added.
In today’s world, where the value of information increases with the number of people sharing it, EXPLOREit speeds up ICRISAT’s journey of transformation as an open access organization, with theultimate goal to ensure that broader access to agricultural research, knowledge and information contributes to greater food security and improved livelihoods, especially in developing countries.
For more information log on to (exploreit.icrisat.org)
By Allan Muturi
