Part of the activities for phase one of AGCommons includes development of what we are calling a Target Architecture. In the case of AGCommons the target architecture is more of a road map than a standard information technology architecture. It is intended to provide a framework for evaluating how needs between stakeholder groups relate to one another, how those needs relate to existing or planned applications, tools, or standards and how all that relates to prioritization of actual implementation of information technology for agricultural development. In the case of AGCommons program development the target architecture is meant to address:
- Organizations – The organizational focus area emphasizes the need to understand users, the functions they perform, and the policy, political, and strategic environments in which they work.
- Information – emphasizes the ownership, sharing, and value of location based information and geodata.
- Applications – The applications are key to translating the user and organizational needs into real-world tools that satisfy those requirements. The applications focus area defines an architecture for a loosely coupled system of tools, applications and their interactions as well as generic architecture and standards for future.
- Technology -The technology focus area provides for the infrastructure and technical standards to support the deployment of the applications and information architectures
Over the next few days and weeks the team will be synthesizing the findings into an actionable architecture for serving geo-information to the agricultural sector in Africa. We will be touching on some key areas including content management systems, geo-data discoverability and retrievability, disconnected and off-line systems, shared hosting, and crowdsouced data. Please keep in mind that this work is undergoing active development so feel free to comment or e-mail the team directly through the contact page on the AGCommons.org web site.
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