National eXtension Initiative

Noticed anything new today about signing into some of your favorite extension.org sites? Actually – we are hoping you didn’t.

Last November, we transitioned our internal sites to using a new protocol for signing in to sites on the web, called “OpenID”. Every person that has an eXtensionID also has an OpenID (you can find information about your OpenID in your people.extension.org Profile. Don’t have an eXtensionID? If you’re eligible for one – please signup!)

An OpenID lets you use the same “ID” at sites across the web, without having to signup for yet another account for each website. It’s a great way for Extension personnel to establish identity at various sites, without having to use the same username (and potentially the same password) at different sites.

OpenID is an important emerging standard that Extension will be hearing more and more about (every Google account, every Yahoo! account, every AOL account and more have an OpenID) – and it’s important to have that educational opportunity to know that Extension staff with eXtensionID’s have an OpenID, and can use it across the web.

But you know, sometimes in the moment – you just need to get work done. I mean – I now have to remember a crazy string like ‘https://people.extension.org/[extensionid]‘ when logging in? I just want to author some articles! Answer questions! Create events!

I hear you. It’s at worst confusing, maybe at best bemusing.

But now, for many of our sites, you don’t even have to know you’re using – your OpenID.

Our November transition gave us a stepping stone to make our login process even easier. For our About Wiki, our Collaborate Wiki, and our Ask Extension Widget site – which have “open read” access, but are limited to eXtensionID’s for editing and commenting – choosing “Log in” or “Sign in” will no longer prompt you for your OpenID – you’ll only be presented with a eXtensionID (or email) and password login at people.extension.org

If you have already logged into People previously – you’ll just automatically sign in!

For our content tools that are closed for both “read” and “write” to those with an eXtensionID – just accessing Events, Faq / Ask an Expert or the Community of Practice Wiki will prompt you to log in with your eXtensionID (or email address) and password (or automatically log you in if you have already signed into People recently).

The best part about this? We don’t think you’ll notice. Hopefully this continued transition – made possible by our use of OpenID – will help a portion of the technology “get out of the way” to let you focus on collaboration with your Extension colleagues!

If you are interested in forming a community of practice for eXtension the process is really straight forward and easy to do. The eXtension Community of Practice Handbook contains a reference sheet on forming a community of practice. This reference sheet walks you through a step by step process of forming a community.

The community of practice application and process can be completed and submitted at anytime a community has the documentation completed. Each application is reviewed by a review panel within 30 days of receiving the application. For more information about forming communities of practice or the application process contact Dr. Craig H. Wood, craig.wood@extension.org or call 859.323.8472.

On January 20, 2009, our Public Site ( www.extension.org ) will have an extended downtime. starting at 11:30pm Eastern Standard Time – and lasting until 6:30am Eastern Standard Time on January 21, 2009.   Our partner that provides hosting for the physical server is moving our server to a new datacenter.

During the outage, we’ll be utilizing other servers to display an outage notice to visitors to the site for the duration of the outage period.

Other extension.org sites and services should not be affected by the downtime for www.extension.org

You can track up to the minute status updates during the outage by visiting status.extension.org, or by searching twitter for #extensionorgsys to see the latest tweets from our eXtension staff related to the operation of extension.org systems and services.   And learn more about all of our systems, servers, and hosts by browsing our systems documentation.