All agricultural research and development organizations need updated and reliable information on other organizations and institutions, their expertise, projects and projects outputs.

Some organizations store these data in their own databases, which are difficult and costly to keep up to date.
Other organizations use external information systems but they cannot rely on just one system to comprehensively provide all information, because each information system differs in subject coverage, type coverage and quantity and quality of information. Besides, only a few of these systems share data among themselves.
Organizations also cannot be sure that their own information in other databases is correct and up to date. 

The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), in collaboration with FAO and Wageningen International, is now launching a 

Collaborative Project
for Managing Decentralized Information on Agricultural Organizations 

What the steps are and what the benefits will be for all the parties involved:

• Each organization only has to create one description record about itself and provide the url of that description to a central Registry; from that moment onwards, all information systems can use information in that record. 
• GFAR will facilitate the process of creating the record and registering the url by providing web tools that will create the record in the standard format based on a web form and will send the url to the central Registry. 
• Each organization owns its own record and can update it when necessary, with no need to notify anyone. 
• Information systems can easily update their databases by harvesting all url registered in the central Registry of GFAR. 
• Information systems can easily read and process the records as they are all in the same format. 
• The central Registry File itself will be a Global Public Good on which everyone can leverage.
  
  THE PROJECT WILL START IN AUGUST 2007
  
  Comments and early adhesions are welcome: