National eXtension Initiative

Source of news releases–sorted in descending order

U of Illinois    27
North Dakota State    26
U of Arkansas    24
U of Minnesota    16
Iowa State    16
Ohio State    13
Alabama Cooperative Extension    13
U of Kentucky    12
Purdue    12
Oklahoma State and Langston University    12
Kansas State    11
South Dakota State    10
U of Nebraska    8
U of Georgia    8
Texas Cooperative Extension     8
Oregon State    7
Penn State    6
New Mexico State    6
Utah State     5
Montana State    5
U of Missouri    4
Mississippi State    4
Clemson    4
U of California    3
Louisiana State    3
Florida Cooperative Extension     3
Virginia Cooperative Extension     2
Michigan State    2
Washington State    1
U of Rhode Island    1
U of Nevada    1
Alaska Sea Grant    1
other sources    5
original releases    1
Total     280

Sorted by resource area (community of practice)
Horticulture    41
Personal Finance    39
Corn, soybeans    25
Disasters    21
Beef Cattle    20
Entrepreneurship    19
Parenting     19
Horses    16
Dairy Cattle    14
Family Caregiving     12
Fitness    12
Ag energy    9
Science    6
Cotton Industry    5
Animal Manure Management    4
Wildfires    4
Organic production    3
Wildlife Damage M    2
Diversity    2
Geospatial    2
Fire Ants    1
Goats    1
Drinking water    1
Land use planning    1
Financial crisis 1 (typically these are counted in another category but this one didn’t get tagged for any other CoP—just in case that helps explain the lonely number.)

If you’ve been working in the Ask an Expert application, you’ve probably had a question assigned to you by either the automated Ask-bot (our routing algorithm), a Question Wrangler, or one of your colleagues.

In a perfect world, the question assignment came at a convenient time and in a relevant subject area. But we know that’s not always the case. A question assignment may come in when you are swamped, or completely offline. Or it’s a content area beyond your expertise. Or perhaps, you have time available to work on a question and none are assigned to you. If any of these problems sound familiar, we hope you’ll like our latest addition to Ask an Expert.

Coming Monday, March 23rd is the ability to indicate when a question being worked on. We call it “I’m working on this.” Basically, you tell us when you are actively working on a question, and we’ll spread the word.

A new graphic banner at the top of every question page indicates whether anyone is working on a question. When you view an unanswered question, you’ll see that it’s either up for grabs:

or being worked on:

The “being working on” status will also be indicated in the Incoming Question queue:

So, how does this change affect your workflow?

When you have time to work on a question, you need to click the big, green “I’m working on this” button at the top of the page.

That will update the banner on the question page and “gray out” the question in the incoming queue. If you need more time to answer it, you can click the button again to get another 2 hours. There’s no limit to how many times you can request “2 more hours”, but once the time expires, the question is up for grabs by other responders.

The net effect is that once everyone indicates what they are working on, the remaining questions will stand-out. If you have time to answer questions and none are assigned to you, it’s easy to scan the incoming question list and see whether a question is up for grabs or if someone is currently working on it. Previously, you may have seen an “easy” question in the incoming question queue, but didn’t want to take it away from the assigned expert. This new feature makes it easier to everyone to work around their own schedule, without stepping on any toes.

We want to hear from you

Positive or negative, we’d really like to hear how the change affects your work. You are welcome to comment here, but we’ve also created a Get Satisfaction thread to specifically collect feedback on this new feature.

As Extension professionals, we know that conversation and relationship building within our communities of practice and our communities of interest is the key to all that we do. Sharing, storytelling, asking questions, and providing answers is our core mission.

But what are the best solutions for doing that?

That is a key question that Sue Hawkins, Project Coordinator for the Sustainable Ag Energy Community of Practice is asking of her colleagues on the Content Management Board and of the eXtension Staff. Where does she go to do that? Where’s the best place to share information and build community among the coordinators and leaders of our Communities of Practice. And it’s a question, that John McQueen, of the eOrganic Community of Practice and Karen Jeannette, of the Consumer Horticulture Community of Practice, have been asking too.

Help us crowd-source that answer. What do you think? What are the best tools, the best solutions, and the best strategies for sharing? What can the eXtension Initiative staff do to facilitate that sharing? What do our Communities of Practice need to do? What can we all do in Extension to make this better?

Would Get Satisfaction work as a forum? Is the CoP Network at Wet Paint the best place? What about Facebook? or Twitter? Would creating a community and a mailing list at people.extension.org work best?

Are there others? Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments. Or head over to Get Satisfaction or Wet Paint – or start a new discussion in another tool (and let everyone know in the comments where that is).

The Financial Security of All community of practice wanted a news release on early retirement decisions. When an employee is faced with that option, what does one need to consider?

This is probably really applicable in our universities and that’s how the request began…a Utah State request to publicize eXtension resources on that topic.

The release is posted under Financial Crisis. You may adapt it, edit it, use it for your extension news. The headline is How to Be Savvy about Early Retirement Offers.

http://www.extension.org/pages/How_to_Be_Savvy_about_Early_Retirement_Offers

–Lynette Spicer

Releases that received some ratings by readers on the site:

Back to Basics Horse Institute Planned at Auburn
Slim Down Your Recipes
Storing Water for an Emergency
A Little Money (Saved) Goes a Long Way

Septic Tank Additives Not Needed to Keep Systems Working Properly
Families Facing Reduced Income Can Take Charge of Financial Situation Immediately

Learn How to Make Grocery Shopping a Positive Experience
Purdue Expert Offers Advice to Reduce Credit Card Debt

Source of February releases posted
Alabama Cooperative Extension    18
Clemson    4
Florida Cooperative Extension     2
Iowa State    13
Kansas State    13
Louisiana State    4
Maryland Cooperative Extension     3
Michigan State    5
Mississippi State    10
Montana State    11
New Mexico State    1
North Carolina Cooperative Extension     3
North Dakota State    16
Ohio State    15
Oklahoma State    13
Oregon State    4
Penn State    3
Purdue    7
Rutgers    2
Texas Cooperative Extension     11
U of Arkansas    13
U of California    2
U of Illinois    28
U of Kentucky    9
U of Maine    1
U of Minnesota    11
U of Missouri    6
U of Nebraska    8
U of Nevada    4
U of New Hampshire    1
U of Wisconsin    5
Utah State     5
Virginia Cooperative Extension     5
other sources    7
original releases    1
TOTAL    264

Releases by communities of practice
Ag energy    7
Animal Manure Management    6
Beef Cattle    18
Child care    1
Corn, soybeans    24
Cotton Industry    3
Dairy Cattle    11
Disasters    12
Diversity    2
Drinking water    3
Entrepreneurship    19
Family Caregiving     18
Fire Ants    1
Fitness    10
Geospatial    3
Goats    3
Horses    15
Horticulture    29
Land use planning    2
Organic production    7
Parenting     16
Personal Finance    38
Science    8
Swine    1
Wildfires    2
Wildlife Damage Management    5
TOTAL    264

–Lynette Spicer,  news room manager