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Summary:

The organizers of the 2nd Expert Consultation on International Information System for Agricultural Sciences and Technology (IISAST) invited actors from the national level to document their experiences in developing information systems and institutional networks in the form of case studies. This approach had been recommended by the Advocacy Task Force, so that lessons drawn from these case studies would provide the basis of advocacy with the key stakeholders.

This case study documents the experience of the PhilAgriNet network in the Philippines. PhilAgriNet is a network that links agricultural knowledge generated in the Philippines to prospective end-users nationally as well as globally.

PhilAgriNet has been developed following the online consortium model. The online consortium is a formal network of institutions linked together electronically. Unlike the community of practice model, the major stakeholders in the online consortium are institutions bound by both formal organizational agreements and electronic networking ties. However, one feature that distinguishes PhilAgriNet from other formal networks is its spontaneity; it was established with little or no advanced planning involved. The main network initiators were information professionals from: The Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAORAP) in Bangkok; the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in Los Baños; the SEAMEO Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA); the Department of Agriculture Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), and the Agricultural Librarians Association of the Philippines (ALAP). A Memorandum of Agreement formally binds the aforementioned institutions together.

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