Connecting and engaging [1]

A major gain from the fourth Consultative Expert Meeting of CTA s Observatory on ICTs (information and communication technologies), held in May 2001 (see Spore 94), is the information it made available about wireless communication. The report of the meeting includes a wealth of clear detail. It discusses the applications of new technologies, such as mobile telephones and satellites in various orbits above the Earth. It discusses the bandwidth problems which determine the quantities of information that can be exchanged through the Internet, and it explains how data broadcasting allows documents to be transmitted to local receiver radios linked to a computer. Who knows, maybe one day soon Spore may be broadcast to subscribers? This Wireless Working Document can help you understand a lot of options and is a solid introduction to a complex topic. At the other end of the information spectrum, far away from the issues of delivering data, is the question of persuasion. How do you persuade someone to use particular information, to go and look for it and to assess its value? The new Working Document on Evaluating information tries a special approach. It is essentially an introductory manual for project managers. It recognises that evaluation can be threatening, and so it is written in a friendly and familiar style, in the form of a letter to you . Its goal is to provide the project manager with a series of guidelines, checklists and practical suggestions for carrying out an evaluation of an information project. There is nothing new in its content, but its novel way of talking with the reader is a good way to get evaluation accepted as part of the family, instead of as a stranger to be feared. The author, Byron Mook, has wide experience of evaluation in agricultural research. Wireless: a help line for agricultural development? CTA, 2001. 39 pp. CTA Working Document number 8024. 5 credit points Evaluating information: A letter to a project manager CTA, 2001. 63 pp. CTA Working Document number 8025. 5 credit pointsWireless: a help line for agricultural development