Documenting the macadamia knowledge base (MC95011)

This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

This project was initiated to document the knowledgebase of the Australian macadamia industry and make it available via a computer, modem and a Bulletin Board (BBS).

In order for available documents to be accessed in this way, it was necessary to convert 'hard copy' to electronic format. This work of preparing documents and uploading them via the telephone system to the master computer, located in the Australian Macadamia Society (AMS) office in Lismore, was done in Valla, NSW. When this had been completed, it was envisaged that a new project would be initiated to allow for the knowledgebase on the BBS to be printed onto compact disk(s) in the form of a Macadamia Encyclopaedia.

Training sessions were also facilitated that showed prospective and current users how to access the information and how this infomation could be used to enhance their production efficiency. By continuing to make more knowledge available electronically, in addition to traditional methods, access to and adoption of research results were enhanced. The industry knowledgebase progressively became available to all of the industry via home/office computers, allowing a much more time and cost efficient method of infomation dissemination.