February 17th, 2009
My ever expanding and never to be completed reading list finds the following titles in my bag or bedside:
The ultimate sales machine – Half way through and impressed with the focus on selling to meet customer needs versus hawking the programs you offer. A little like Drucker’s “outside-in” thinking and much needed by Extension professionals. Amazon link here. I’m listening to the Audible.com version on the iPod.
What would Google do?- Ok, I’m a sucker for the title, but I liked the Business Week article focusing on the auto industry (listen to the podcast here). I have the book & the Audible.com version on the iPod. Amazon link here.
Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. I’m supposed to be reading this for an online book club in Booksprouts, but have fallen behind. Neat read on how transaction costs have changed the structures we use to organize. Wikipedia link here.
There are others lurking in the shadows, but these are at the top. One thing I have noticed is that I seem to be listening to books more lately at the expense of podcasts. I need to figure a bit of balance out about that, but it is so, so nice to hear books played 25% faster on the iPod. Gaining 15 minutes for each hour is a big difference in books that are several hours in length.
Posted in What I'm reading | No Comments »
October 14th, 2008
Tomorrow I fly to South Dakota to speak at the South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service’s annual conference on Thursday. I’m mostly presenting on technology tools and their applications to Extension work, along with some connections to generational differences.
I’m excited about the trip. I’ve never been to South Dakota and am looking forward to visiting Sioux Falls and then Brookings and South Dakota State University. I’m even more excited about talking to Extension peers about the tools that can help to create a 21st Century Extension professional.
Posted in Extension 2.0, General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture, Technology, Tools | 4 Comments »
October 13th, 2008
Consumers have started to drive less and appear to be keeping the driving down even as gas prices head down. Or so says a recent Wall Street Journal Online article. Less driving will likely reinforce three trends in Extension. One is the continued difficulty in getting clientele to drive to meetings and events. The second is a move toward more changes in work structure and social entrepreneurship. A third trend is subject matter specific: An increased market for energy programming related to conservation.
Our ability to attract audiences still appears to remain high, but converging societal trends make it difficult for all non-formal and volunteer based organizations to draw audiences. Gas prices have some impact, although there seems to be scarce research to demonstrate direct impacts. Regardless, Extension and outreach professionals will need to find alternative ways to connect with clientele and volunteers.
A bigger impact of fuel prices occurs internally. Many Extension and third sector organizations continue to face the double squeeze decreasing travel funds and rising fuel/reimbursement costs. Extension professionals essentially see their travel budges reduced while the per mile reimbursement increases. One impact from this dilemma is an increased focus on adopting (or more accurately, adapting) tools that allow for distributed collaboration.
Finally, consumers can and do change their behavior based on incentives. What new (or old) programming can we offer related to energy conservation?
Posted in General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture, Teaching/Programming | 1 Comment »
October 12th, 2008
It does not seem like that long ago that I stopped blogging. But ugghhhh, it has been a while. My original plan was to spend some time redesigning and updating the blog. The new modified plan is to just start posting and make design and structural changes whenever possible. Otherwise I won’t get started. So expect to see some more posts over time, including some of my new duties with Ohio State University Extension.
Posted in General Extension | No Comments »
April 9th, 2008
Immediately following my presentation at the USAIN conference I truck down to Columbus and fly to Raleigh, NC for the National Extension Technology Conference (NETC). Steve Lichtensteiger (OSU Extension Regional System’s Tech) and I present an overview of a blended e-learning program conducted at Ohio State last year. I’ve also scheduled several other meetings throughout the conference, including one on developing a proposed virtual book club.
More posts as the conference nears. I also hope to post a bit more during the conference like I did in 2006 (see here, here, here, here, and here).
Posted in Extension 2.0, Technology, Tools | No Comments »
April 9th, 2008
I’m putting the final touches on an upcoming pre-conference about Web 2.0’s impact on agriculture information specialists from USAIN (United States Agricultural Information Network). Extension professionals should be aware of USAIN. They focus on policy and other issues around agriculture information. Take a few minutes and poke around their website. The librarians at your ag library probably are involved with USAIN.
I’m looking forward to a fun teaching and conversation session!
Posted in Extension 2.0, Technology, Tools | No Comments »
March 8th, 2008
Not so good news from today’s NY Times article by David Leonhardt. It’s never encouraging when an article starts with these four lead sentences:
If history is a reliable guide, the recession of 2008 is now unavoidable.
The dismal jobs report released Friday showed overall employment to be lower than it was three months ago. Every time such a slump has occurred since the early 1970s, a recession has followed — or already been under way.
And if the good times have really ended, they were never that good to begin with. Most American households are still not earning as much annually as they did in 1999, once inflation is taken into account. Since theCensus Bureau began keeping records in the 1960s, a prolonged expansion has never ended without household income having set a new record.
Implications for Extension include more programming to meet increased economic stresses, community economic development strategies. And once again we need consider the impacts on Extension funding and budgets. It also forces us to consider more uses of technology and new organizational systems like Extension 2.0.
Posted in Extension 2.0, General Extension | No Comments »
March 8th, 2008
It feels like a matter of weeks since I last posted and it’s really been months. Kind of the way life feels like these days. I’m forever committing to multiple projects. A great (and quick read) on the need to focus and on getting more done by doing less busywork is Graham Alexander’s Tales from the top. Some more good advice comes from a post from Dwayne Melacon’s Genuine Curiosity blog. Dwayne recommends a simple system. Taking the top few items that are critical to get done each day and putting them on an index card. Dwayne calls it his “Daily Watch” list and creates it from the multiple project lists he maintains (this follow’s David Allen’s Getting Things Done).
Good advice for Extension professionals caught in daily white water. If you can’t at least focus on your key commitments for at least some of each day they will slip away.
Posted in General Extension, Leadership, What I'm reading | No Comments »
October 1st, 2007
Andrew McAfee has been a leading academic voice for Enterprise 2.0. For about four more weeks you can get his article “Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration” from the MIT Sloan Management Review for free. Here is the link.
This is a great summary of Enterprise 2.0 and includes McAfee’s idea of SLATE (Search, Links, Authoring, Tags, Extensions, Signals), some ground rules for organizations (make the offerings easy to use and do not impose structures on how the work is done or categorized), the roles managers will play (standard platform, having a receptive culture) and challenges and opportunities. Great, quick read. Highly recommended.
Posted in Extension 2.0, Futurism, Technology | 1 Comment »
October 1st, 2007
I’ve had a busy month that’s kept me away from posting. My family is continuing to deal with flood damage and lot’s of administrative stuff to deal with at OSU Extension. Time to get some stuff posted!
Posted in Fun | No Comments »