Authors
Authors
Introduction
The World Wide Horticulture Information SystemI. Creation, Revision, Update of Network Information Files
Review/Revision
II. Process Flow Chart - Organization
Summary
Literature CitedJames L. Green (E-mail greenjl@bcc.orst.edu), Prof. of Horticulture, Hort. Dept., Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-7304. FAX 503-737-3479, TP 503-737-5452.
John Matylonek (matylonj@ccmail.orst.edu), Engineering and Information Science Librarian, Bonnie Avery (averyb@ccmail.orst.edu), Extension Librarian, May Chau (chaum@ccmail.orst.edu), Kerr Library, Oregon State University.
Andy Duncan (duncana@ccmail.orst.edu), Associate Professor of Communications, Eveyln Liss (lisse@ccmail.orst.edu), Associate Professor of Communications, Agricultural Communications Department, Oregon State University.
David Hannaway (david.hannaway@oregonstate.edu), Professor of Crop Science, Oregon State University.
Abstract: There are three innovative concepts in HortBase:
The capabilities of electronic information systems facilitate, indeed require, this new approach to information development and delivery.
HortBase is an innovative, peer reviewed electronic information system for storage-distribution of horticultural information used in the classroom, in distance education, in life-long learning and in commercial horticulture production. HortBase will retain the current professional roles of
Responsibility for creating 'chunks' or files of specific, concise information on discipline subjects, such as agricultural production, can be distributed nation-wide among production teams comprised of agricultural subject, communication, and library faculty at Land Grant Universities. By centering the author, review and information distribution network at the national/international academic societies and their members rather than at the individual universities, university and geographical boundaries can be transcended in forming virtual production and review teams - dream teams' - the best teams for each specific information project. Production team members may be at diverse geographical locations, but work as a virtual team through electronic communication.
Nation-wide distribution of the array of information topics to respective teams for their creation-maintenance for international access reduces the current redundancy of faculty in each county-state independently creating these extensive, wide-ranging information files for use solely within their respective states. National distribution of the workload could result in a 50:1 redundancy reduction. With national reductions in university funding, and consequent reduction in number of Extension and education faculty, the visual picture of 50 half-full glasses in the individual states being poured together in cooperative effort is much more inspiring than the though of 50 half-empty glasses desperately trying to provide current information programs in each state in isolation.
By reducing the time individually expended in information functions, the individual faculty will have more net time for assisting clientele in identifying the "questions" and retrieving information from the HortBase that is specific to their needs. Rather than spending all their time scurrying around finding and transferring information, faculty will have more time to interact with the information users (students, Extension clientele, etc). Faculty can become EDUCATORS, not just information purveyors. "Teachers are coming out from behind their lecturnes to interact more with their students . . . deploying new high-tech tools to reach their students, ranging from using computers to help them visualize the abstract laws of physics to performing chemistry experiments on their computer screens. But as much fun as these new tools are to use, they're no substitute for a faculty member's presence . . ." (Gibbons, 1994). The GISDS will not decrease the need for educators,' but will decrease the total current faculty hours expended on information functions.
The lines among information used in life-long learning, extension education, extended or distance education, and on-campus education are rapidly blurring as we become information synthesizers. According to Cetron and Owens (1994), " . . . individuals will learn more on their own, the 'places' of learning will be more dispersed, and the age at which things are learned will depend on individual ability, not tradition. Education is becoming more individualized as interactive computer/videodisc systems and other new media permit students to learn according to their needs and abilities. Corporations now invest some $85 billion per year in employee education and retraining. That will double by 2001."
Primary authors/reviewers will be both extension and teaching faculty. Faculty will be both file creators and file users of nationally peer-reviewed, validated files, e.g., tissue culture propagation of specific plants, etc. Information content will be current in the maintained up-to-date files.
Students and other users will have round-the-clock access to the electronic information system to explore special interests, to research assignments or for review. With "chunked and linked" electronic information in the HortBase, information retrieval and education is "inquiry-driven" by the interested learner. Files will be designed with general, introductory information in the entry "chunk" which will have hotlinks to definitions, illustrations, indepth information, and related topics. The inquirer can progress through or skip from the simple to the more complex and can tailor the information to their individual interests and knowledge levels by following the diverse links or information branches. A "chunk" is concise information related to the learner's specific question; it is the information to support the inquirer's decision regarding the specific question and to provide links to related information. With quality horticultural instructional information readily available, the total quality of K-16, extended education, and life-long learning will be enhanced.
Creation: Subject matter faculty are members of the file creation team. Each individual subject matter faculty will assume primary responsibility to author and maintain a discrete, reasonable number of files on the national electronic information system. The author's national peers, say in New England and Georgia, would peer review the production information for completeness, accuracy, and geographical adaptations. However, because of the new and expanded characteristics of electronic information systems, the files will not be created by the subject matter faculty alone. The file creation team will be a tri-member team: subject matter, communications, information management.
Communication faculty are co-creators. "The hardest topics for me to get across are the things that I can see in my head that the students don't have a clue about," says chemist Nathan Lewis of the California Institute of Technology. "We want to put those things on screen for them." Lewis's efforts involve a team of communicators led by a Hollywood special effects producer. The 10-minute videos show complex processes in 3-D; at the end of the project, "You'll be able to watch atomic orbitals dance with Jurassic Park-style" (Culotta, 1994). Communication faculty member of the team will assist in communicating the information to the target audience by selecting appropriate media, information sequence, electronic document design, . . . The information file will be reviewed and ready for storage, search, retrieval and linkage prior to placement on the WWW for public access.
Library information science faculty specializing in electronic storage, search, retrieval and distribution of electronic information are members of the file creation teams. The files will be designed from the beginning to facilitate indexing, archiving, and distribution of the electronic information. Design is integrated from the beginning and throughout the information file creation as compared to cataloging, and possibly required redesign, after the subject document has been published. Daniel E. Atkins, Dean of the School of Information and Library Studies at the University of Michigan envisages the new librarian ". . . will combine the skills of the computer scientist, the business graduate and even a little of the old-school librarian. . . to help make sense of the labyrinth of different information sources available on the Internet. You can waste 24 hours a day browsing," (Stix, 1994).
Rather than waiting until the labyrinth is out there, in HortBase the library faculty will be co-creating the files and making sense of the information files BEFORE they are on the World Wide Web. Concurrent, rather than sequential input into file development by the subject, library and communication faculty will create a unified electronic publication. Subject authors will develop concise, easily indexed-retrieved 'chunks' of specific information, rather than books, chapters, or paragraphs. Communication faculty will develop the illustrations and document design to ensure information transfer. Library faculty will develop the text-communication design to ensure rapid retrieval, searching and distribution of the information file.
Because the information is in electronic form and readily transmitted on the World Wide Web, national-international distribution and specialization can occur: The members of a file creation team do not need to be at the same geographical location. 'Virtual teams' can be formed with subject, communications and information management team members at diverse geographical sites concurrently developing and editing the information file on the Internet.
". . . educators and publishers have started to worry about a time when the Internet might become clogged with programs that are mediocre or even worse, filled with inaccuracies" (Service, 1994). Stix (1994) stated, "Some academics fear that the sheer volume of literature and a growing inability to distinguish the good from the bad in what gets published (on the Internet) may lead to an overall decline in standards."
After team creation of the file by the subject matter, communication and library faculty, the file will be transmitted electronically to the team members' respective national societies for peer review of the subject matter (e.g American Society for Horticultural Science), review of the communications aspects (e.g. Agricultural Communicators in Education), and for review of the information management facets (e.g. American Society for Information Sciences). National peer review will not only validate and maintain the credibility of the files, it will also serve as continued education, development and peer recognition for the creators in their respective professional fields.
Revision: Revised files will be added to the HortBase network for public access. To maintain creator, validator identification and support, specific information retrieved by client will include a Tagline':
Subj. Author (E-mail address), Comm. Author___________, Info. Syst. Author ___________ Reviewed/Approved by (Academic Societies, e.g. ASHS, ACE, ASIS) on (date).
Local and national user-advisory groups, query-driven development of new files, continual revision-update of existing files and deletion of unused files will ensure a user-responsive system.
'Old' Linear Creation Process for Printed Materials (Figure 1). Even though the subject matter author, communication faculty and library information storage, search, retrieval faculty have all worked with the printed documents, they have done so sequentially and relatively independently of each other (Figure 1). The new capabilities of the electronic media compared with the printed media necessitate that the three work together as a team in co-creating information for electronic dissemination.
'New' 3-Diminsional Creation /National Peer Review /Revision of Extension-Education Information for Electronic Dissemination (Figure 2). The proposed process' includes three major innovations:
Nation-wide distribution of workload for creation of the specific electronic information files is in contrast to current redundant creation-printing of each specific information document (fact sheet, bulletin, class handout, . . .) county-by-county and state-by-state in each of the 50 states. A national creation team would be responsible for each specific file; each Extension-education faculty member and other information users (e.g. students, industry, public) would have access to all the national information system files.
Information created in linked-chunks for quick retrieval of specific, concise information and to facilitate inquiry-driven information retrieval tailored by the user to meet individual needs.
National peer-review through academic societies, e.g. American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS), American Society for Information Sciences (ASIS), and Agricultural Communicators in Education (ACE). National academic societies will provide peer-review of the input of their respective colleagues into the electronic information files. National, scholarly peer review of information produced by Extension and Education faculty (including subject matter faculty, library science faculty and communications faculty) will enhance product quality, serve as ongoing professional development for the authors, and enhance nation-wide use and acceptance of the electronic information files.
The USDA CSREES Global Information System for Decision Support (GISDS) will be a continually evolving product of the USDA CSREES with nation-wide collaboration and distribution of workload and responsibility for specific information files among the Extension and education faculty.
National focus of the individual subject/commodity/program information systems comprising GISDS will be at the respective USDA CSREES Program Leaders' (Figure 3) in the Plant and Animal Production, Protection and Processing (PAPPP), Natural Resources and Environment (NRE), Rural Economic and Social Development (RESD), and the Family, 4-H and Nutrition (F4HN) Programs.
Within the PAPPP (Figure 4) there will be several information systems within animals' (eg National Dairy Database, National Swine Database, National Sheep Database . . .) and within plants' (eg Forage Information System and HortBase which might be further divided into the Vegetable Information System, Tree Fruit Information System, Flower Crop Production, Home Horticulture Information System, . . .).
Clientele will provide guidance and feedback to the respective information system creators (Figure 5). For example, the National Dairy Association identifies and prioritizes new topics for development and inclusion in the National Dairy Database. National advisory clientele groups for the HortBase Information Systems for Extension and classroom education are identified in Figure 3C along with the respective national professional societies that would provide peer review of the work of each member of the file creation team.
The overall Global Information System for Decision Support is delineated in Figure 6. The information system for each of the USDA CSREES subject/ program/ commodity areas will have a homepage on the WWW with links to the GISDS and to related topics such as discussion groups', organizations', meetings and events', research projects' . . . (Figure 7). The homepage will be a one-stop information shopping center for that specific subject/program or commodity. The Forage Information System is an example of the one-stop information shop (http://www.forages.css.orst.edu) with the peer reviewed Extension and education information at the FGISDS (Forage Global Information System for Decision Support) link and related topics accessed through other links, such as the organizations' link.
HortBase will initially build and link text' chunks of information for delivery via the Internet world wide web (WWW). The basic, essential information on a specific topic would be in the text chunks. The Internet is not yet the superhighway-size broad-band network needed to handle media-rich products such as Microsoft's Encarta 95 (CD-ROM). But, we can start with the basic layer of chunked text' information with the goal of later adding the media-rich layers of graphics, animation, sound, interactivity . . . to eventually achieve a full multimedia information system as network technology evolves.
With the new technology, by forming alliances with the private sector and with the national societies and by nation-wide distribution of the workload and costs of developing and maintaining a national electronic information service, we can do more with less!
Cetron, Marvin and Owen Davies. 1994. The American renaissance in the year 2000 - 74 trends that will affect America's future -and yours. Seminar handout adapted from Crystal Globe: The Haves and Have-Nots of the New World Order, M.J. Cetron and O. Davies, St. Martin's Press, 1991.
Culotta, E. 1994. New modes of making scientists. In: Science innovations on campus, edited by E. Rubenstein. Science 266:843-893, November 1994.
Gibbons, A. 1994. Turning students on by simulating the arcane. In: Science innovations on campus, edited by E. Rubenstein. Science 266:843-893, November 1994.
Service, R.F. 1994. Assault on the lesson plan. In: Science innovations on campus, edited by E. Rubenstein. Science 266:843-893, November 1994.
Stix, Gary. 1994. The speed of write. Scientific American 271(6):106-111, December 1994.
Last updated March 1, 1996.
