Organic Information for the 21st Century Jim Riddle Organic Outreach Coordinator University of Minnesota

funded by CSREES Integrated Organic Program and eXtension the web community for organic agriculture funded by CSREES Integrated Organic Program and eXtension eOrganic, your community workspace for organic and sustainable agriculture. eOrganic is funded by CSREES Integrated Organic Program and eXtension, with management provided by Oregon State University’s Department of Horticulture.

How we got here… Ecofarm, 2006 – Michelle Wander, U of IL, said “We should do an organic eXtension site!” Conference calls with LGU faculty, ATTRA and OAI eXtension Full proposal, June 2006 Notified, summer 2006 CSREES Integrated Organic Program proposal, November 2006 (4 universities,125 pages incl. supporting docs) eOrganic Visioning Meeting, February 2007 (45 diverse participants) eOrganic IOP funding initiated: September 2007 New workspace initiated: August, 2007 Demo of content and workspace at National SARE: March 2008 Public launch – EcoFarm Conference, January 2009

eOrganic.info A web community where organic agriculture practitioners, researchers, and educators network; exchange objective, research- and experience-based information; learn together; and communicate nationally. As a member, you can create a personal workpage, join workgroups, work on projects, and learn from other members.

.org .info One of eOrganic’s missions is to develop organic agriculture content for eXtension, the new national Extension web initiative (eXtension.org). eOrganic will publicly launch outreach material on eXtension.org in January 2009. eXtension is a searchable collection of articles, videos, presentation, interactive materials, news, and ask-the-expert.

is about… You… Create your personal page let others know who you are and what you do become nationally recognized for your expertise Get trained on and use free tools collaborative authorship and review communication (streaming audio and video, narrated powerpoint, webconferencing) project management eOrganic is about you. As a member of eOrganic you maintain a page dedicated to you and your interests. You can be found through the user search. Other members can search for your name and/or expertise and learn more about you and your experience and projects.

The pages in eOrganic can go through many revisions, and all these revisions are saved in the database. One benefit of using this type of system for work is that your documents are stored in one location always displaying the latest version. This can eliminate the need to email around files that are being collectively authored. All authors will have access to the document at all times.

is about… Community and collaboration …join and form Interest-based Groups Find and network with people with similar interests Discuss research, outreach and participatory experiences Find the images you need Work on personal and group projects, including eXtension content, proposals, articles, presentations, problem-solving eOrganic is a web community. The eOrganic community consists of Groups. You,as a member, can form a group on any topic, or join existing groups. Groups can be interest-focused (e.g. cover cropping, vegetable farmers, veterinarians, organic student farm coordinators), or project focused (our systems trial, our outreach project). A primary function of Groups is networking and community building. Join this group to meet and discuss ideas with other systems trial researchers, Join this group to meet and discuss ideas with other dairy farmers in the North East.

is about… Community and collaboration …join and form Project-based Groups Manage, document and report on your project in one location. Discuss research results, outreach ideas, and experiences Store all images, reports, and presentations for 24-7 access Discuss pressing questions. Stay on top of what your group members are thinking. Make decisions. Work on group projects, including eXtension content, proposals, articles, presentations, problem-solving eOrganic is a web community. The eOrganic community consists of Groups. You,as a member, can form a group on any topic, or join existing groups. Groups can be interest-focused (e.g. cover cropping, vegetable farmers, veterinarians, organic student farm coordinators), or project focused (our systems trial, our outreach project). A primary function of Groups is networking and community building. Join this group to meet and discuss ideas with other systems trial researchers, Join this group to meet and discuss ideas with other dairy farmers in the North East.

What is ? eOrganic also provides Forums. You can start a new forum topic, leave comments, discuss topics relevant to content development, project decisions, or whatever you like.

Useful Links http://organicecology.umn.edu/ http://eorganic.info/ http://www.extension.org/ www.ams.usda.gov/nop

More Links http://www.tritrainingcenter.org/course/ http://www.howtogoorganic.com/ http://www.attra.org/organic.html http://www.organic-center.org/ http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?tax_level=1&info_center=2 http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/nw_gr113.txt http://www.rafiusa.org/noap.html