My response to: How does Ask an Expert Stack Up against Stack Exchange - #netlit

2 min read

How does Ask an Expert Stack Up against Stack Exchange—A Crowdsourcing Approach to Answering Questions and Solving Problems – eXtension

Unfortunately, Wordpress wouldn't accept my comment in response to Heidi Rader's excellent post contrasting the Ask an Expert system with Stack Exchange. Therefore, I'm going to post it here:

"Heidi, I think you are on target in asking this question. As a web developer, I frequently use Stack Exchange / OverFlow, mostly to ask or see answered questions, but also to contribute answers when I can. I do think there is an issue with Extension professionals seeing these kinds of open platforms as a threat to their expertise, or inviting the possibility of non research-based answers being given. In my opinion, this damages our relevance, since we are not participating in discussions where they are occurring, rather expecting people to come to us when they want an answer.

As an aside, I was at one of the eXtension meetings before it was fully-formed, and most of the IT folks present mentioned or supported a site similar to Slashdot (which was then in its heyday) as a way for our constituents to vote up or down content and provide feedback. There was some resistance along intellectual property lines, as well as the trepidation about inaccurate information appearing alongside Extension information.

The change that made some Ask an Expert questions public is helpful, but I don't think it has resulted in a vibrant platform where users and experts (whether from Extension or not) can freely interact, build reputation, and exchange ideas.

A similar pitch could be made for why Extension professionals should be Wikipedians."

It is my belief that Extension can't afford to wait for people to seek us out - we must be present in the communities (online or real-world) where the discussions and questions are occurring.

Information is a commodity! #netlit #coopext

1 min read

The Case for a Paradigm Shift in Extension from Information-Centric to Community-Centric Programming

Clients are more interested in the development of communities than passive dissemination of information from traditional Extension programs. Numerous studies support this idea that producers learn from other producers or users of a technology (Brashear, Hollis, & Wheeler, 2000; Gaul, Hochmuth, Israel, & Treadwell, 2009; Miller & Cox, 2006; Vergot III, Israel, & Mayo E., 2005). Additionally, as evidenced by the producer who used her smartphone to access technical information, the way people access information has changed, and Extension personnel are not the first choice if at all. An important question arises from these observations: How can the current information-centric paradigm of Extension programming shift to better meet the needs and desires of its constituents?

In this day and age, information is a commodity, not a scarce resource that Extension can build it's value upon. We need to be connectors, conveners, facilitators, and network weavers. While we do have this in our tradition (think of farm kitchen table meetings), many of us still emphasize our role in disseminating reasearch-based information. We need to shift our emphasis.