Information Management and Networking

MOU No. RD009D

Staff

Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon

Danielle Clair	Information Manager
Ingvar Elle	Systems Administrator and Webmaster (through September 1999)
Kris McElwee	Assistant Information Manager; System Administrator (from October 1999)
Deborah Burke	Graduate Research Assistant (CRSP funded; through September 1999); Research Assistant (from May 2000)
Anu Gupta	Graduate Research Assistant (CRSP funded; from April 2000)
Matt Niles	Graduate Research Assistant (CRSP funded; through June 2000)
Jeff Burright	Undergraduate Student Worker (from June 2000)
Heidi Furtado	Undergraduate Student Worker

Conferences

Central American Symposium on Aquaculture V at San Pedro Sula, Honduras, 18–20 August 1999. (Clair)
PD/A CRSP Annual Meeting at New Orleans, Louisiana, 31 January–2 February 2000. (Clair, McElwee)
Western Regional Aquaculture Expo at Desert Hot Springs, California, 27 February–1 March 2000. (Niles)
Website Development and Design at Eugene, Oregon, 1 June 2000. (McElwee)

Work Plan Activities

The following report describes Information Management and Networking Component activities in the second year of the Ninth Work Plan.

Report: Annual Activities of the Information Management and Networking Component

Ninth Work Plan, Information Management and Networking 2 (9IMNC2)

Danielle Clair, Kris McElwee, and Xena Cummings
Oregon State University
Corvallis, Oregon, USA

Background

The mission of the Information Management and Networking Component (IMNC) is to increase awareness and visibility of the PD/A CRSP by publishing and providing accessible technical and programmatic information, to monitor and report CRSP impacts, and to foster networking among persons involved in aquaculture.

Of the CRSPs research support components, IMNC works in closest concert with the Program Management Office (PMO) in disseminating technical and programmatic information in accordance with grant reporting requirements and in collecting and analyzing program impact information. Component objectives are to:

• Identify target audiences for publications;
• Disseminate technical and programmatic information generated by the CRSP by providing appropriate materials and avenues;
• Track outputs of CRSP investigations; and
• Promote networking of CRSP participants with aquaculturists around the world.

In the reporting period IMNC activities have encompassed publication production and distribution, Internet activities, impact monitoring, and program promotion and networking.

CRSP Publications

Data and Resource Management

An ongoing IMNC activity is managing the program's mailing database, which increases by about 10% per year. The database currently numbers 1,095 entries from 85 countries. IMNC staff also maintain a detailed inventory of PD/A CRSP publications and track publication circulation.

Production

IMNC has produced and distributed a variety of publications and informational materials during the reporting period, listed below.

Seventeenth Annual Administrative Report
Clair, D., K. McElwee, D. Burke, M. Niles, and H. Egna (Editors), 2000. PD/A CRSP, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, 124 pp.

Seventeenth Annual Technical Report
McElwee, K., D. Burke, M. Niles, X. Cummings, and H. Egna (Editors), 2000. PD/A CRSP, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, 178 pp.

Ninth Work Plan Project Profiles
Published in conjunction with the PMO, May 2000, 68 pp.

Bookmark to promote the new look of the PD/A CRSP website; April 2000.

Aquanews, quarterly newsletter (distributed by hard copy and available on the CRSP website): Vol. 13, No. 4 and Vol. 14, Nos. 1, 2, and 3.

EdOp Net, monthly newsletter of aquaculture-related education and employment opportunities (distributed by hard copy and electronic mail and available on the CRSP website): Vol. 4, Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12; Vol. 5, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

CRSP Research Reports, an in-house publication series which includes Notices of Publication:

99-133 Masculinization of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) by immersion in androgens (10/99)
99-134 Risks associated with the use of chemicals in pond aquaculture (10/99)
99-135 Generation of daily and hourly solar radiation values for modeling water quality in aquaculture ponds (10/99)
99-136 Good management practices (GMPs) to reduce environmental impacts and improve efficiency of shrimp aquaculture in Latin America (1/00)
99-137 Estimation of carrying capacity for shrimp aquaculture in the eastern estuaries of the Gulf of Fonseca (1/00)
99-138 Non-parametric estimation of returns to investment in Honduras shrimp research (1/00)
99-139 Risk analysis of shrimp farming in Honduras (1/00)
99-140 Masculinization of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) by immersion in synthetic androgens: Timing and efficacy (1/00)
99-141 Fate of the masculinization agent methyltestosterone in the pond environment (1/00)
99-142 Sistemas de produccíon de tilapia en Honduras (Tilapia production systems in Honduras) (1/00)
99-143 Evaluation of integrated tilapia culture by resource limited farmers in Panama and Guatemala (1/00)
99-144 Efecto del recambio de agua en la producción semi-intensiva de Penaeus vannamei (Effect of water exchange on semi-intensive production of Penaeus vannamei) (1/00)
99-145 Modeling growth of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in a cage-cum-pond integrated culture system (1/00)
00-146 Effects of feeding pelleted versus non-pelleted defatted rice bran on Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus production and water quality in ponds (4/00)
00-147 Sound policies for food security: The role of culture and social organization (4/00)
00-148 Integrated cage culture in ponds: Concepts, practice and perspectives (4/00)
00-149 An overview of freshwater cage culture in Thailand (4/00)

PD/A CRSP Publications Catalog
Published June 2000, 24 pp.

CRSP Participant Directory
Published October 1999 and March 2000, 21 pp.

The following publications were submitted electronically to and are available to download as PDF files from the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse:

• Fourteenth Annual Technical Report
• Fifteenth Annual Administrative Report
• Fifteenth Annual Technical Report
• Seventeenth Annual Administrative Report
• Seventeenth Annual Technical Report
• Ninth Work Plan
• Pond Fertilization: Ecological Approach and Practical Applications

World Wide Web

PD/A CRSP Website Developments

IMNC is responsible for the development and maintenance of the PD/A CRSP website <pdacrsp.orst.edu>, which was brought online in 1995. The IMNC tracks usage of the website. The site averaged over 456 external hits each week (Figure 1). The EdOp Net page, a database of educational and employment opportunities in aquaculture and related fields was the most visited, averaging 288 hits per week (Figure 2). The Publications page was also popular, with an average of 136 hits per week (Figure 3). Other pages feature programmatic information, links to aquaculture-related websites, and links to the PD/A CRSP Database and other data tools. Web-related activities in the current reporting period have included:

• Adopting a virtual domain name <pdacrsp.orst.edu> to replace the unwieldy <www.orst.edu/dept/crsp/homepage.html>;
• Redesigning the site and posting the new home, Data Tools, and EdOp Net pages;
• Modifying images and page design to allow better access to people with limited vision;
• Upgrading the EdOp Net database program to allow Web access to an unlimited number of users and to facilitate the addition of a search feature;
• Adding new documents to the publications section;
• Developing an online HTML version of Aquanews;
• Joining the Sustainable Development Networks database of the European Foundation, available at <susdev.eurofound.ie/>; and
• Adding the PD/A CRSP to the International Higher Education Linkages Project (IHELP) Database, available at <www.aascu.org/alo/ihelp>.

Publications and Their Formats

The Publications page of the PD/A CRSP website is an important source of programmatic and research material. Documents are placed on the site in one of two formats: PDF and HTML. Documents containing many complex graphics and a detailed layout are generally placed on the site in PDF format. These documents can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Documents added in this format to the Publications page in the last year include:

• Site Descriptions—as a single document and as separate country files
• Aquanews—PD/A CRSP quarterly newsletter (4 issues)
• Seventeenth Annual Technical Report
• Seventeenth Annual Administrative Report
• Full-text version of the PD/A CRSP Research Report 99-129

Documents that contain few graphics and can be divided into relatively short sections are placed on the web in HTML format. Publications added in the last year in this format include:

• Second Addendum to the Eighth Work Plan
• Ninth Work Plan
• Aquanews—beginning with Winter 2000 issue (3 issues)
• PD/A CRSP Notices of Publication
• Complete list of PD/A CRSP publications

Tables of contents of most publications are placed on the web in HTML format to allow rapid browsing of publication contents.

Employment and Educational Opportunities Online

EdOp Net is a perennially popular source of aquaculture-related employment and education opportunities made available from the PD/A CRSP website, via monthly email, and in a mailed, printed format. EdOp Net is delivered from the CRSP website via a searchable relational database and its web-enabling plug-in. The email version is sent out monthly to 323 subscribers. The printed version is mailed to 41 international and 23 domestic subscribers.

Impact Monitoring

The CRSP uses impact indicators to monitor the effects of its research on stakeholders, beneficiaries, extension services, the research community, and the field of aquaculture. The IMNC is responsible for annually soliciting and collecting researchers' quantifications of their impacts.

In addition to these formal impact indicators, IMNC staff collect project-specific impact information designed to capture CRSP participants' activities that were sponsored by the CRSP or came about as a result of CRSP work. These forms are requested on a quarterly basis and allow the IMNC to monitor, track, and report progress in the areas of outreach, public service, and professional development. The types of information collected include:

• Research progress
• Institution building (contacts with host country scientists, government officials, extension agents, farmer organizations, farmers, nongovernmental organizations)
• New host country involvement
• Physical support for host country institutions (e.g., pond renovation)
• Linkage development (technical or professional communications with USAID missions, host country institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and regional institutions)
• Conferences attended
• Students advised
• Lectures, seminars, presentations, and workshops given
• Outreach activities (community or school extension activities) undertaken
• Electronic linkages made
• Publications, including technical papers and book chapters, authored
• Theses published
• Awards or commissions received
• Informational material developed

Following the discontinuation of the Education Development Component, IMNC now collects information related to student activities supported by CRSP researchers. Support typically includes providing graduate research assistantships, hiring undergraduate student workers, providing research materials, and advising student workers' research papers. During this reporting period, five formal programs (two Masters and three Ph.D. degrees) were completed by CRSP-sponsored students. The following theses were completed this year with assistance from CRSP researchers:

Ernst, D., 2000. AquaFarm^©: Simulation and decision-support software for aquaculture facility design and management planning. Ph.D. dissertation, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon.
Gichuri, W.M., 1999. Relative contribution of rice bran and inorganic fertilisers in semi-intensive tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and catfish (Clarias gariepinus) polyculture in Kenya. M.Sc. thesis, University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Lockhart, M., 1999. Farmer perceptions of constraints on aquaculture development in Central Kenya: Market, household, and resource considerations. M.S. thesis, Auburn University, Alabama.
Mon, A.A., 2000. Use of lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) for nutrient retrieval from pond mud. M.S. Thesis, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand.
Valderrama, D., 2000. Economic analysis of shrimp farming in Honduras. M.S. thesis, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Warrington, R.L., 1999. Sex ratio variation and sex determining mechanisms in Oreochromis niloticus. M.S. thesis, Auburn University, Alabama.

In addition to maintaining records of students trained under CRSP support and direction, the IMNC prepared a CRSP Training Inventory for use by the External Evaluation Panel (EEP) during its visits to CRSP sites. The report included a list of students, their national and university affiliation, degree granted or sought, degree topic, funding status, and advisor. The IMNC also prepared statistics on student gender, type of degree, funding status, current occupation, and non-CRSP training.

Program Promotion and Networking

IMNC sought to increase the visibility of the PD/A CRSP both in Oregon and throughout the world. The PD/A CRSP co-sponsored two conferences, the Fifth Central American Symposium on Aquaculture (V CASA), held in August 1999 in Honduras, and the Tenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET 2000). The IMNC assisted the PMO by promoting the events through the PD/A CRSP website and through publication in Aquanews. The IMNC also participated in University Day, a campus-wide event at Oregon State University designed to familiarize faculty and staff with programs on campus. The CRSP booth received over 100 visitors. IMNC staff answered questions about the program and distributed informational materials such as program brochures, annual reports, EdOp Net, and Aquanews. In addition to the distribution of informational materials, IMNC increased program visibility through the creation of a jovial atmosphere with games and food.

IMNC also established new connections both domestically and internationally and provided information worldwide via CRSPMail, an electronic mail address for website visitors. During this reporting period, CRSPMail received over 50 queries from individuals representing 24 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, the US, Vietnam, and Zambia. Many of the queries originated in countries with no previous or formal linkage with the CRSP. Answering queries provided a valuable forum to introduce aquaculture enthusiasts to CRSP researchers and to encourage the use of CRSP-developed sustainable practices. Many individuals interested in establishing fish farms wrote asking for advice on materials, species, funding, and practices. The IMNC endeavored to answer each query using country-specific details. Querying individuals were also directed to publications and researchers whose topics and interests matched their own. Many queries were about topics beyond the scope of regular CRSP research. For instance, a Nigerian fish farmer wrote to ask about leech infestation, an Illinois high school student inquired about the effects of acid rain on pond organisms, and a Peruvian wrote about establishing a high altitude trout aquaculture operation. The IMNC responded to these requests by searching library databases and Internet pages to find publications, agency names, and researchers that could provide information. A second type of query concerned employment. People from all around the world wrote the IMNC to offer their services or to inquire about graduate opportunities and scholarships. The IMNC responded by offering them a free subscription to EdOp Net, and in many cases, by suggesting the names of local organizations or agencies that might offer positions. The IMNC was rewarded in many circumstances when it heard back from people who found that the publications, technical information, contacts, conference dates, or job notices offered were valuable.

PD/A CRSP researchers were also responsive to CRSPMail inquiries and offered assistance and resources.

• An individual in Zambia hoping to set up a tilapia production facility to satisfy local demand wrote requesting information on reproduction control, supplementary feeding, oxygen enrichment, and sourcing materials. The questions were sent out to CRSP researchers; responses were pooled then forwarded to the correspondent. The man in Zambia wrote back to say that he was grateful for the assistance and would utilize the information.
• An individual in Malaysia wrote for advice on designing an experiment growing tilapia. Remedios Bolivar, CRSP Philippines Project Host Country Principal Investigator, responded with details of experiments conducted at the Freshwater Aquaculture Center at Central Luzon State University, Philippines. She offered guidance on stocking rates, culture period, water circulation rates, and anticipated yields.
• Bolivar also assisted a man from San Diego who had contacted the IMNC for help in starting a shrimp farm in the Philippines. He had been given Bolivar's name, as well as information on sustainable shrimp farming practices, researchers, consulting companies, and publications. When the IMNC wrote to Bolivar to notify her that she would be receiving a request, she wrote to say that the man had contacted her immediately, and that they were already looking into his options.
• An aquaculturist in Mexico hoping to import tilapia to the US was pointed to the Dirección General de Acuicultura in Mexico City for a list of tilapia exporters. This information was provided by CRSP researcher Wilfrido Contreras-Sánchez.

An electronic mailing list, PDA-CRSP-L, continues to complement other means of communication within the PD/A CRSP community. The mailing list, which includes approximately 65 members, allows any subscriber to distribute a message to the entire group quickly and at no cost. Typical postings include administrative information of general interest, availability of new publications, requests for training materials, announcements of opportunities in the field of aquaculture, and relevant travel advisories.

In addition to these activities, IMNC worked closely with the PMO in creating materials for the following events:

• A poster entitled "Global Partnerships and Research: Highlights from the Pond Dynamics/Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program" was presented at the World Aquaculture Society Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.
• "CRSPs—A Vital Link between US Universities and Developing Countries" highlighted domestic benefits of the CRSPs at the Third Annual Food and Agricultural Science Exhibition and Reception on Capitol Hill. The event was held 7 March 2000 in Washington, DC, and was sponsored by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC).
• A plaque that was presented to outgoing Bean/Cowpea CRSP Director Pat Barnes-McConnell during a meeting of the CRSP Council Steering Committee. The Steering Committee meeting coincided with a NASULGC meeting, which was attended by both Barnes-McConnell and PD/A CRSP Director Hillary Egna. Both meetings were held in Otter Rock, Oregon.