Trends and Issues in Extension

Genius Now has a great link to a posting in What’s Next that highlights top trends by various categories. All of them seem pretty interesting to me, and I’m incorporating them into some current presentations.

I’ve noted the Carnival of Tomorrow in an earlier post. Here is the most recent version. For an interesting dialogue on what blog carnivals are, check out this recent post by if:book. An interesting concept for Extension Professionals as blogs become more common. An interesting way to bring multi-discipline views together around specific topics or issues. A way to share "best of" posts in a unified way. A forum to bring together educators, researchers, and clientele around specific themes.

CSREES has release their bi-weekly national update. Information on fuding, etc. Of particiular interest should be the link to the National Research Initiatives.

eXtension has started the process of collecting FAQ’s to post. The FAQ’s should help to reduce duplication and serve as national clearing house of sorts for common questions and answers. More information may be found here.

To cheer up those worried about flu viruses, here is a link about how viruses for cell phones might work. A trend to be aware of. Via How Stuff Works.

With the increased interest in the flu and flu shots, many maybe wondering where they can get flu shots. Here is a post about flu shot locations found via this Research Buzz post. Implications: get the high risk populations to get a shot!

The Virtual Handshake (a good book too, but more on that later) has a quick read post and table on the differences between blogs and wikis.

The state of qualitative research in Europe. Found via Political Theory Daily Review.

Wired News has a neat article on the profession of future studies becoming more formalized. The article makes me think more about how futurists can move from simply being associated with bold statements to leading a process of thinking through future possibilities and developing options and strategies. Futurists have a lot to offer, but continue to struggle to gain academic respectability.

Futurepundit has a post on biofuels in Brazil. They are using sugar to create ethanol based fuel. See here for an earlier post that contains a Slate critique of ethanol subsidies in the US.