Under the FAO Programme of Cooperation with Academic and Research Institutions an Agreement between FAO UN and ISTIA Nitra /Institute of Scientific and Technical Information for Agriculture/ was signed in February 1997. The main purpose of the Agreement was to establish a cooperative mechanism whereby each party may benefit from the experience and expertise of the other. As I was assigned to the Library and Documentation Systems Division in quality of World Wide Web Specialist I was the pioneer to fulfill the Agreement intentions. I would like to share my experience and impressions from the stay.
At FAO, I worked in the development of the World Agricultural Informatics Centre (WAICENT). This work is on the basis of team-work, where everyone is one cell of the team. All members have a particular task and the group produces the result - a document which is presented on the Internet or the intranet. All persons have a strictly recommended type of work but of course it is a possible to apply one's personal skills and experiences. All results can be commented on by anyone from the team, and after corrections sent to the intranet. This way, errors and problems are ironed out before the document is sent finally to the Internet.
My stay at the FAO has brought me a wider overview to work in the field of agricultural informatics - from the base cell to a final result. That means anyone can be active in management, can give a personal point of view and introduce novel ideas, and in this way be active in work development. All persons - whether as programmers, graphics developers, or managers - are the basic cells in the departmental system, and in the system of the big international organisation.
Another most interesting thing within the study stay is the possibility to attend seminars, conferences, presentations of new projects, and in this way acquire very important skills and information about agricultural informatics and agriculture - from all around the world. For visiting experts it is possible to visit a library and have access to agricultural databases and other information sources.
All visiting experts come in contact with the most modern technical equipment and newest technology in informatics. They also have the possibility to take language and technical courses. All experts can subscribe to internal bulletins containing interesting news and schedules of conferences and seminars at FAO.
There are also many possibilities for cultural life.
In conclusion I can say that my stay in FAO has made it possible to
be very active in management, in team work and make many good welfare in
work???. It also improved my knowledge of foreign languages, and gave me
the opportunity to make good personal and professional contacts.