M4Agric Conference

[MarkD]

Folks,

I spent the last morning in Joburg with Katrin and Allison planning a
proposed conference around MIS systems in agriculture. We may name it
mobiles in Agric to focus it (like this list) but it would be a bit
broader, and be focussed on bringing together practitioners to talk
about what solutions are out there, what's working and what's not. I
do see it as a very close correlation to this list. We were thinking
around 200 people in March, somewhere in Africa.

I got the feeling that are small group was keen to share experiences
and solutions, and I'm sure we could just expand the size of that
discussion, along the same lines that mobileactive08 was structured.
And i've had many discussions with organizations like infodev, USAID,
worldbank, CTA, IDRC, who are keen to support this kind of knowledge
sharing in AGric.

I guess it would be different to those big e-agric conferences as we
would limit it to practioners and solutions, rather than policy wonks
and per diem junkies.

But what do you think? Katrin and Allison would be magic organizers if
we just point them in the right direction.

Do you agree with the concept? If so what would you suggest in terms
of content, format, invitees, location, size?

Mark

[jacob mtalitinya]

Hi Mark
Thank for that quick initiative and I think it brilliant idea and
initiatives because recently there is no where these stake holders can
meet and discuss as we observed during our discussion .I do support
you that Katrin and Allison organize plus on any one who can give
useful inputs
thanks

[David Newman]

> Do you agree with the concept?

Yes.

> If so what would you suggest in terms
> of content

IS/ICT for Farmers First

> Format

A symposium. People prepare a book or practitioner guide at the event
(drafts beforehand, face-to-face reviewing and rewriting at the event).
See http://lihe.wordpress.com/ for an example.

> invitees,

Ask for abstracts from anyone.

> location,

Suggestions include the Doha IT4D conference, an island like Comoros, Sao Tome or Cabo Verde, or Second Life.

> size?

20 to 40 for a symposium, 200-400 for a one-day event before or after.

Dave Newman

[Yael Schwartzman]

Another possible format is a one-day or two-day workshop.
In addition to the book writting (which I think it's great)
I propose we have a way to hear about what EVERYONE is doing in this field. Maybe  each participant can do 
a two-minute talk (which in some conferences is refer to as the "maddness session" ) and then we could
break into mini-workshops proposed by the participants ( a la "open space"). This will certainly depend on the amount of
attendees.

I agree that we shouldn't constrain this venue  to mobiles.
I  know of some people doing really cool non-mobile initiatives in agriculture that we could learn a lot from.

Dave, are you talking about the ICTD 2009 conference that will be held in April? http://www.ictd2009.org/
If so I agree this is an excellent venue since ICTD is a practitioners/researchers conference that is gaining a lot of reputation
in the ICT for development arena.

The deadline for workshop proposals  is November 2nd so if you think this is a good idea let me know.
My advisor is on the organizing committee and one of the conference chairs (Dr. Kentaro Toyama)  has some projects
on ICT for Agriculture so I think they would be really interested in a workshop like this.

-Yael