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The 7-8 May, 2012 brought together the heads of Forest Research Institutes & University Forest Faculties from around the World in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovnia, to discuss important cross sectoral topics. The Director's Forum, which is organized by IUFRO Research Group 9.02.00 - Management of Forest Research, is a unique and advantageous event for stakeholders of Forest Research. The event hall in the Hotel Hollywood, located on the outskirts of Sarajavo, was full of Deans and Directors discussing a variety of topics which have great importance on the future of forest research in educational facilities as well as research institutions.

 On the first day, discussions under the theme Participation in research and research management were held which invited the Dr. Ann M. Bartuska, Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics of the USDA to share and present her experiences. The day continued with a World Cafe Workshop, which saw participants going to five different stations and informally discussing topics under the themes; Setting the research agenda, Organizing participatory research, Interest group and stakeholder involvement, Documentation and communication of participation processes and measures, & Ethical aspects of participatory research. This session was very stimulating and a number of conclusions were summarized by FOPER students who were on hand throughout the Forum.

In the afternoon, presentations continued under the theme Governance of cooperation and competition.  Overall, the first day of the Forum was very successful. To view the whole Program Click Here.

The next day continued with presentations under the theme Frame conditions for forest research and education. The presentation covered a range of topics from responding to reduced research budgets, to engaging policy makers within Europe.In the afternoon, Eero Mikkola, Coordinator of the Global Forest Information Service, presented to those in attendance on Aggregation & Dissemination of Global Forest Information. The presentation started by identifying the problem of the expanding WWW and stating the importance of collaboration amongst Forest Institutions to form an online open-access community to freely bring together and disseminate their information. Attendees were shown depictions of increasing web traffic on the GFIS platform, while identifying continued areas of growth in specific areas of the globe, as GFIS currently has its largest amount of information providers and visitors from Europe. Mikkola, showed examples of how GFIS can be utilized to create custom content on information providers webpages, and also spoke about the prospect of improved filtering options in the future - which would see content grouped geographically and by theme. The presentation stirred a successful response from a number of organizations who are in the process of becoming GFIS Partners.

The afternoon and Forum closed with a focus on Forest Education and presentation under the theme Societal and organizational aspects of high forest education. Planning will commence soon for the next Director's Forum which will coincide with the IUFRO 2014 World Congress in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

The week continued with the first IUFRO All Division 9 Conference. Division 9 Forest Policy and Economics is the newest research network in IUFRO. The Conference served to strengthen the relationships within and across the Research Groups and Working Parties. 170 participants were registered for the Conference representing a wide range of organizations and interests. A variety of interesting presentations occurred throughout. The Programme can be viewed by Clicking Here.

On 10 May, GFIS was represented by Communications Officer, Michael Huck who presented under the Concurrent Session B3 :IUFRO and Information Direction 2012. Huck's presentation entitled Partnerships & Possibilities introduced the crowd in attendance to the concept of GFIS as a means to collectively build a knowledge based community on the internet for forest organizations. He went on to speak about the  limitations which currently exist on the platform, and the possibilities for enhancing information access, through the use of thematic tags. All-in-all, a large interest was raised by those whom had not heard of GFIS, and a number of partnerships are in the process of being secured.

The two events were successful for the Global Forest Information Service, and enhanced the visibility of the CPF initiative, led by IUFRO within the the particpants and organizations of IUFRO:

On November 4th & 5th, 2011, in Beijing China, the Global Forest Information Service Chinese Workshop was held in conjunction with an IUFRO SPDC Workshop. (Participants of both workshops pictured below)

The workshop's goal was to introduce those in attendance to the Global Forest Information Service and how to use the website to access a wide range of forest information as well as to attract a greater amount of forest-related information from Chinese institutions.

During the two-day workshop attendees witnessed several presentations which provided information on online information management, information sharing and syndication and what it meant to be an information provider in Asia. User's participated in many different exercises aimed to enhance their understanding of the workshop concepts, these included an exercise where users set up their own RSS feed readers and found and subscribed to different RSS feeds around the internet, and having users use RSS generating software to create their own RSS feeds from their own organizations information which was then added to the GFIS system.

At the conclusion of the workshop, attendees were presented with a certificate of completion.

Ma Wenjun  from the Chinese Academy of Forestry receives a completion certificate from instructors Michael Huck (GFIS Communication's Officer) and Ho Sang Kang (GFIS Russia - Asia Regional Coordinator)

 Group Photo of the GFIS Chinese Workshop 

Following the conclusion of the workshop, a  number of the attendees were successfully able to incorporate RSS Feeds into their organizations while a number are still actively pursuing to contribute a greater amount of information to GFIS.

GFIS was also present at the Asia Pacific Forestry Week and met with a large number of organizations introducing them to the GFIS system - growing the presence of the Global Forest Information Service to the Asia region. Following the conclusion of the workshop and the APFW, GFIS saw a spike in statistics and a growing number of hits from China!

Pictured above is the shared IUFRO / GFIS booth, bustling with activity.

On the upcoming 4 & 5 November, GFIS team members will be leading a workshop in Beijing, China. in coordination with the Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF) and other institutions from within China.

The workshop will concentrate on educating those in attendance on the difficulties and barriers to effective information management, the demand and opportunities for forest information and the technical means to contribute to the growing global information web in a way that conforms with other organizations from around the globe.

In  order to try to reach as large as audience within China as possible GFIS has decided for the first time, to stream the workshop in real time over the internet. Using the streaming technology of mogulus, the workshop will be viewable November 4 & 5 from approximately 9:00 -18:00 CST (China Standard Time) on this webpage - http://www.livestream.com/gfis

By accessing the GFIS channel organizations and people who are not able to attend the workshop will be able to view the instructions which are being held in Beijing. On the site there is the ability to interact with instructors and other viewers via a chatbox. Those who are viewing the workshop will be able to see all of the presentations given by instructors and follow along during workshop exercises.

GFIS Communications Officer, Michael Huck, will be able to interact with viewers and answer any questions post workshop that viewers might have. Questions and/or comments can be sent to Michael at gfis-AT-iufro-DOT-org with the subject GFIS Chinese Workshop.

Note: During the workshop there will be a number of breaks, if you tune into the stream during one of these times please leave the channel open on your computer and check again after  a short period of time.