[SDI-Africa] FW: Announcement of launch of AGIRN portal

[Craig von Hagen]

Apologies for the cross-post
Regards
Craig


-----Original Message-----
From: Sonja Vorster [mailto:svorster at eis-africa.org] 
Sent: 30 October 2006 09:25
Subject: Announcement of launch of AGIRN portal

Dear Colleagues 

EIS-AFRICA has for the past decade, been inundated with requests from the
African Geo-information community for a service where high quality research
studies, key note presentations, policies and position papers could be
accessed and discussed.   We have found that very few people in our
community have the opportunity to attend and participate in GIS, EIS and
Remote sensing conferences and meetings.  Many professionals on our
continent therefore face barriers in accessing vital information for
research purposes and have no forum to present their own research studies.
With this in mind, EIS-AFRICA and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)
of South African have designed and developed the African Geo Information
Research Network (AGIRN) web portal.  (See www.agirn.org). 

 The rationale for the development of the African Geo Information Research
Network (AGIRN) is to address one of the key concerns of the geo-information
community of Africa i.e. to provide access to research studies and paper
presentations written by African Geo information experts as very few of
these studies and papers became accessible to the broader geo-information
community. 

 EIS-AFRICA and The Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) Centre have decided that it is imperative to
develop a geo-information research portal that will ensure the establishment
of a forum for a vigorous engagement by African researchers.  The
development of AGIRN will provide the geo-information research community a
mechanism to publish and access high quality work, to share in
geo-information knowledge and to engage in discussion through a widely
accessible web based medium. This portal aims not only to serve the
geo-information practitioners across the continent but also the many
decision makers and planners in Africa. 

The development and design of AGIRN will compliment the work of EIS-AFRICA
and reinforce our vision to see an African society where information is
readily available and easily accessible to support sustainable development.

 We want the African Geo Information Research Network to be your resource
and we encourage you to develop AGIRN further through interacting with the
site and more importantly publishing your research papers and studies. 


Sonja Vorster
Marketing/Admin Manager
EIS-AFRICA

Postnet Suite No:  156
Private Bag X 15
Menlo Park
0102
SOUTH AFRICA

TEL:+27-12-3491068
FAX:+27-12-3492080
EMAIL:  svorster at eis-africa.org
URL: http://www.eis-africa.org

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