An interesting announcement from our friends at CGN.
In the field of PGR documentation, we have seen, over the last decades, dramatic improvements: from card box files only mentioning the name of the variety and the location in the seed-storage, to internet accessible databases, sometimes with possibilities to order PGR on-line including click-wrap SMTA. However, the access to PGR information was always ‘supply driven’ saying: this is what we have, choose!
Here at CGN we have also been thinking about this, and decided that we might try to turn the situation towards a ‘demand driven’ PGR information access. Based on our experience interacting with users of our genebank, we have identified their first priorities where it concerns PGR: access to material and access to information, and on that basis experimented with creating web sites that could accommodate questions such as ‘where can I find a blue potato’, ‘where can I get material without having to sign a SMTA’, or ‘what has been done regarding the search for Bremia resistance in lettuce’. Some of such sites already exist, we wanted to find out if a genebank or the PGR conservation community would also be able.
We are proud to release two ‘PGR Crop Portals’ one aimed at potential users of lettuce germplasm, the other aimed at potential users of potato germplasm. These sites are not the same as the target audiences are neither, but, as you can see if you visit the sites, both ask frequently for feedback from the users, to add information, to share experiences.
This approach fits in a philosophy, where the data sources (genebanks) do the data collection and curation, whereas anyone can create an interface to the data (and thus the material) in these combined sources serving a specific target group. This target can be ‘lettuce breeders’ but also ‘anyone interested in crop wild relatives in the Balkan’, ‘the malting barley industry’ or ‘Dutch hobby gardeners interested in old vegetable varieties’. This approach requires (1) proper access to the PGR data, possibly via EURISCO or GeneSys, and (2) creators of interfaces who know their target audience very well and are willing to establish a communication link with this audience.
Please have a look at the site, and let us know what you think!
Finally, I would like to thank Rob van Treuren (lettuce), Roel Hoekstra (potato) and Frank Menting (both), for all their efforts to get the initiative to this stage, and express my hope that the user community will help to take it further.
A most welcome initiative, I think, finally moving beyond databases. Hard to fault the theory, let’s all see how the practice pans out. Leave comments here, or send them to Theo van Hintum at CGN.
