AgGateway has created two new committees to formalize the ongoing work of its member companies: the Data Privacy and Security Committee and the Architecture Committee.

Both committees tackle essential issues that support AgGateway's mission to promote, expand and enable eBusiness in agriculture. Both will be meeting in open sessions at the upcoming Mid-Year Meeting, June 9-12, in Altoona, Iowa.

The Data Privacy and Security Committee, chaired by Deb Casurella, president of Independent Data Management LLC, continues work that began a year ago under AgGateway's Precision Ag Council.

"Data privacy, use and security are key issues for farmers today, especially as they create and use an increasing amount of data to better manage their operations," Casurella said. "AgGateway is looking to adopt data security and producer privacy standards to enable eBusiness while protecting the value of a farmer's information."

The committee will soon publish a white paper that examines the historical, legal and regulatory perspectives on data privacy and security, provides key terminology and principles, and in general gives a roadmap of how to proceed in establishing security, protection and privacy standards and procedures.

"We've had tremendous interest and participation in this effort from a broad cross-section of industry companies," Casurella added. "As with all AgGateway activities, that collaboration is critical, because it will result in recommendations that the industry will be more likely to embrace and adopt."

In its working meeting at AgGateway's Mid-Year Meeting, the committee will review key concepts of the white paper, discuss AgGateway's role in data privacy, and begin to define data classifications that will drive the work of the committee over the next six months. The session is open to all interested parties.

The Architecture Committee, chaired by Brent Kemp, manager of process development-eBusiness at Southern States Cooperative Inc., will examine the big picture of how AgGateway and its members are executing the mission to enable and expand the use of eBusiness.

"In the past, decisions about technologies and best practices for implementing AgGateway Open Standards have been made by individual AgGateway project teams," said Kemp.

"With rapidly changing technology options, more types of standards and guidelines, and cross-industry and standards group collaboration requirements, it's important for AgGateway to proceed in a more formal and consistent manner on these issues."

The new committee will identify best practices and the best technologies to support the business imperative of eBusiness. This, in turn, will create greater alignment between the technical aspects of AgGateway's standards and guidelines and the business concerns that they're designed to address. 

The main work of the committee will be to identify and document architectural patterns and best practices to support eBusiness implementation efforts now and in the future. 

More information on these committees can be found under "Working Groups" on the AgGateway website, as well as at the AgGateway Mid-Year Meeting at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, June 9-12. For more information, go to www.AgGateway.org.