Presented at the IAALD-AFITA-WCCA Conference held in Atsugi (Japan) in August 2008. The WebRing concept has evolved in the meantime and the resulting service is the CIARD RING, available at: http://ring.ciard.net A more up-to-date presentation is available here: http://www.slideshare.net/valeriap/the-ciard-ring-an-infrastructure-for-interoperability-of-agricultural-research-information-services

1. The Global ARD Web Ring “ a voluntary coalition of web spaces that share information related to agricultural research and innovation for development” Ajit Maru and Valeria Pesce

10. The past (current?) flow of information Information Processed information Information processing Node Gateway Website Database Cross searches, federated searches Information service interested in interfacing information from other networks and databases to give customized access to it to its users Database Website Closed network with good internal information flow Network Node with website and database [e.g. WISARD, Infosys+, FAO NARS database] HTML, custom dynamic XML, static export HTML Surveys Data entry Surveys Data entry Complex parsing Web searches

11. The current flow of information Submits data to 1 info system Submits data to 2 systems Research center DB National Institute Thematic info system DB Regional info system DB National thematic info system Where do I look for the information I need? User ? NALT Agrovoc Special classification Data entry Will our information be visible in all info systems? Research outputs Research data Funding sources Experts Paper Electronic tables Online forms XML files What How

15. Architecture of the Web Ring Information Processed information Information processing Node Gateway Website Database Cross searches, federated searches Gateway processing information from distributed sources and exposing processed information [e.g. AgriFeeds, GFAR, SIST] Database Website Search engine [e.g. GFAR GCSE, GFAR institutions search, SIST] Gateway processing and exposing information from an integrated network [e.g. CGIAR, FAO, or Regional Forum gathering information from integrated national systems] Network Search engine [e.g. AGRIS, CG Virtual Library) Node exposing database records [e.g. FAO NARS database] Node with website and database [e.g. WISARD, Infosys+] Node with website, consuming/presenting information

33. Thank You Ajit Maru and Valeria Pesce