Australian land use | eksa.targeton.com

Australian land use | eksa.targeton.com.

Collaboration tricks using Skype

Many of you will be familiar with the benefits that Skype provides in terms of communication and video conferencing. Here are a few examples of how I use Skype for online collaboration:

Screen sharing

Last week I was providing a demonstration of our TargetOn web-based information management system. I am based in Perth (the most remote city in the world) and was providing the demonstration to a group of people in a regional natural resource management organisation 500kms away. Now I had intended to use the phone to run the person in front of the screen through the demonstration. But she asked can we use Skype to do it. Well of course – silly me – I had forgot about Skype. Anyway she had installed one of the screen sharing apps available to Skype and I was able to see her screen and then direct her on what to do and where to go. It was great. So immediately afterwards I went and downloaded an app – there are a few of them and well – I am excited. If you select the Tools option in the top menu bar you can access apps there.

Document editing

A few times I have used Google docs in concert with Skype and involving multiple users. In most cases it involves allowing multiple users to edit a Google doc and then having a Skype group call to discuss. This is really cool because you can see people editing the document. As they edit the cursor shows on the screen who is editing what. It will be even better now that I am aware of the Skype screen sharing tools.

Photography for communication of best management practices (BMP)

Photos are an essential tool for communicating best management practices (BMPs) especially associated with sustainable agriculture practice change and natural resource management (NRM) initiatives. This article talks about some of the value propositions and some implications of photography for project planning and management.

Best management practices (BMPs)

In a previous article I wrote about the value of providing benchmarking information for achieving behaviour and practice change. Photographs are an important communication tool for benchmarking. The example below clearly shows the differences between unacceptable and  acceptable management practices associated with protection of a waterway from cattle. I can imagine any land manager who has cattle will be able to use this to easily benchmark their own practices.

Placing the photos side by side like this enables easy comparison of unacceptable and acceptable practice (Image source: Dairying for Tomorrow - DairySAT) (click to enlarge)

This example clearly demonstrates the value of:

1.Being able to visually compare unacceptable practices with acceptable practices.

2. Having a good set of relevant and quality photos to draw on when preparing your best management practice guidelines.

3. Having a good accessible photo database to manage your photos.

4. The need to be able to geo-reference photos. 

See my previous article on photo and image management and on conducting a photo muster.  

 

Planning and implementing a photo muster

A photo muster is a collaborative effort by a group of people to develop a database of photos. Photos are an essential communication tool. Often it is necessary to get a group of people engaged in taking photos, such as for the development of best management practice manual or  just to develop a photo database for use by projects etc. This article provides some tips for planning and implementing a photo muster.

Planning your photo muster

1. Ensure that you have put the appropriate capacity building initiatives in place e.g. training, database etc.  (See my previous article on photo and image management. ) This is not essential but important to ensure that people are not wasting their endeavour and that the input and resultant output is coordinated. .

2. Develop a checklist of photos which need to be taken. In the case of a sustainable agriculture BMP database I am developing, this is in the form of schema of BMPs and other lists e.g. of perennial pasture species, weed species. The list will be long but there will be a lot of satisfaction when you cross off each photo required. You can develop the list in a spreadsheet. Make sure you provide it somewhere visible in the office so that staff are reminder about progress being made with the muster.

3. Allocate responsibilities for taking photos among your workgroup. Make them relevant to the things that they are already doing or going to be doing. For example, if they plan to go to a field walk make sure they are reminded to take photos.

4. Check existing photo databases maintained by organisations such as industry groups and govt departments already have some of the photos that you need. Some of these have professional photographic staff or libraries. Be aware that some may not want you to use them, even if for the public good.Discuss use under the Creative Commons copyright.

5. Put a call out to members of your community of interest/ practice. Maybe stage a competition. make sure they can release use of the photos under the CC copyright mentioned above.

6. Make sure that workgroup members have the basic skills to take photos. This is part of capacity building. No photo is better than a bad photo. If someone is going to invest time and effort getting a photo then it should be of a reasonable quality (no they don’t have to be wedding photo standard).

7. Plan a travel route for taking photos. Take into consideration time of day and other issues.

8. Check weather conditions ahead of when you want to take photos.

• Overcast or rainy days are generally not good although…..
• Rainy days can be good for getting photos of water erosion, nutrient export, sedimentation etc.
• Similarly if you are taking photos of vegetation (especially close-ups) avoid windy days (or times of day). Windy days may be good if you are taking photos of wind erosion, however.

On the muster

9. Plan the time of day that you take your photos. Early morning is when there is usually the best light and conditions are usually still. As Robert Frost said “Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold, her early leaf a flower but only so an hour…”

10. Take photos with the sun behind you. This means your subject is best exposed. It also avoids shadows and taking photos into the sun which can also put your subject in shadow.

11. Make sure that your camera is fully charged and that there is enough space on your memory card (or enough dry plates or rolls of film

12. Make sure that the picture size is set to maximum. You can resize the photos later. MS Office Picture Manager I find to be OK. There are also plenty of free programs.

13. Include people or animals in the photos. Consider using an ex fashion store mannequin or even one of those life size cut outs (just a thought).

14. Get permission if taking photos of people and explain where it may be used. People are generally pretty good but get some permission forms made up just in case.

15. Dress appropriately. If you are traipsing through long grass or bush in summer wear long pants and boots (snakes). Wear a hat.

16. Be safe. Its better than being sorry.

Back at muster HQ

17. When you get back to your office index the photos as soon as possible. This includes giving them a description. A picture may speak a thousand words but some interpretation may be necessary. Say where the picture was taken.

18. Share your photos with your workgroup. They may have some uses for them as well.

19. Attach the Creative Commons copyright so that other people and organisations can use your content.

Good luck with your muster. Giddyup.

The importance of providing benchmarking information to support behaviour change by communities of practice

Benchmarking data or information is an important tool for achieving behaviour and practice change, be it at an individual or organisational scale. I was reminded of its importance when I attended a conference of the Australian Association of Environmental Educators (AAEE) WA division. Prof. Carmen Lawrence from the Centre for Social Change at UWA stressed its importance.

At the time I remember thinking of my own experience when looking at my household water bill and associated consumption. I wanted to know how well I was faring against other people in my area but had no data on which to benchmark my efforts. I looked on the Water Corporation website but had no luck there. So I looked back on past water bills and found that the previous owners of my property had used almost twice as much water as I was using. That certainly made me feel good. However, I was in a good position in that I had the benefit of being able to compare my performance to that of the previous owners.

Visual comparison of water consumption for my property for the September to April period (summer).

I took over the property in May 2008. The graph enables a quick visual comparison to be made between my water consumption and that of the previous owners (I have since reduced water consumption to 101kl for the same period – a pool cover probably helped).

The exercise stressed to me the importance of benchmarking information and has made me think about some of the types of information which may be useful for benchmarking, especially in the context of adoption of sustainable agriculture practices. It also stressed the importance of being able to present data/information in a visual form.

Some uses of benchmarking information:

1. Measuring uptake of behaviour/practice change.

An example is shown below. This uses a scorecard to show the uptake of best management practices (BMPs) by a community of practice*. An individual can then benchmark their own progress as shown by the second chart.

Scorecard showing progress in implementing best management practices across a community of practice (click to enlarge)

Scorecard for individual member of the community of practice showing adoption/non adoption of sustainable agriculture practices (click to enlarge)

2. Measuring the impact of behaviour/practice change.

The scorecard below shows the cumulative impact being made as a result of the adoption of more sustainable practices by a community of practice. Another column should be added to show the average (i.e. benchmark) across all community of practice members. Again an individual can then use their own scorecard to benchmark their own practice.

Scorecard showing cumulative impact of the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices by a community of practice (click to enlarge)

* NB. While I refer here to an individual as being part of a community of practice, an organisation can also be part of one. For example a local government authority may be part of a regional or statewide community of practice.

3. Measuring efficiency improvements arising from the adoption of practices

This may include dollars or time spent (for example). I think that if I saw someone doing something cheaper and more efficiently than me I would want to know about it.

Note: The above groupings for measurements were derived from: (Professor) Stephen Dover (2005) ‘Environment and Sustainability Policy – Creation, Implementation and Evaluation‘, Federation Press. This is an excellent publication which I use all the time.

Sustainable agriculture communities of practice

The concepts of communities of practice, workgroups, communities of interest and clients provides a useful framework for knowledge management and communication planning and engagement. This article uses a case study to provide some practical explanation of some of the concepts as I see them. The case study is a sustainable agriculture project which is aiming to achieve practice change and on-ground action associated with fertiliser/nutrient management, irrigation use efficiency and riparian management. An understanding of the requirements and relationships is also important for driving the design, content and functionality of a new collaborative web-based knowledge management and communication system being developed to support project planning and implementation.

Basic framework for communities of practice, workgroups, communities of interest and clients

Definitions

 What is a community of practice?

A community of practice can be defined as a group of people who have common interests, common objectives and who are undertaking similar activities to achieve these objectives. Consequently they have need for similar information, knowledge, skills and resources. Generally they are supported by a delivery team and associated work groups.

Community engagement is undertaken with the community of practice with the aim of facilitating and supporting them in modifying their practices and land use to help achieve certain outcomes, in this case associated with sustainable agriculture. The aim is to achieve a ‘win-win’ for community of practice members and the delivery organisation.

 What is a workgroup?

I define a workgroup as a group of people who are working together to deliver a range of business services and products to a community of practice. Generally each member of a workgroup has a different skill-set to another which are brought together to enable integrated service and product development and delivery. The term delivery team is often also used to refer to the workgroup. However, I don’t like this terms as it is actually the community of practice delivering the outcomes.

What is a client / funder?

The client / funder is the organisation providing direct investment in terms of dollars and time into a project.

 What is a community of interest?

A community of interest is a group of people with a common interest in the outputs and outcomes arising from a particular project. These may be a strategic interest, a technical/scientific interest or a local interest.

 Case study – Sustainable Agriculture and Practice Change

We are currently working with an organisation to configure our existing online knowledge management and communication solution to their requirements. The primary outcome of the project is to support farmers and land managers within a particular catchment in the region to change practices and deliver on-ground actions. The outcomes include:

• Reduction in nutrients flowing into groundwater and surface water catchments
• Improved water use efficiency

 Communities of practice

The farmers and land holders are essentially the people who will be (hopefully) undertaking practice change and implementing the on-ground actions required to achieve the outcomes being targeted. Some would call these customers but for the purpose of this exercise I will call them the community of practice. Now there are actually communities of practice within the overall community of practice (in marketing terms these are referred to as market segments). The table below breaks them down further:

Communities of practice(general breakdown)	Targets	Best management practices (BMPs)
Grape growersTable grapesWine grapes	50 Table and wine grape growers in the region covering 30ha will be selected to receive assistance with reduction of nutrient leaching through fertilizer application rates, timing of application and watering rates over 2 years.	Nutrient / fertiliser managementIrrigation management
Small landholdersHorse property ownersCattle grazing Cropping (hay)	Hobby and horse and broad acre farmers in catchment X will be targeted for fertiliser reduction, establishment of perennial pasture and fencing and restoration of creeklines over 2 years.  In addition land managers will be assisted to prepare Property Action Plans using the information they have learned for evaluation purposes.	Nutrient / fertiliser managementPerennial pasturesRiparian management
Fruitgrowers – stone, pome, citrus, avocadoes, mangoes	50 fruitgrowers (stone and pome fruit, citrus, avocadoes & mangoes) in the hills and catchment X covering 400ha will be selected to receive assistance with reduction of nutrient leaching through fertilizer type and application rates, timing of application, watering rates and use of contour banks.	Nutrient managementIrrigation managementContour banks (surface drainage)

The community of practice are the people delivering the outcomes. Their requirements in relation to BMPs will vary depending on the enterprise type and their location. For example, the irrigation practices will vary between enterprise types while within enterprise types, irrigation practices will vary with soil type and micro-climatic conditions. Targeted information and service delivery is therefore very important.

 Workgroups

The workgroup or workteam is the group of people who are delivering services and products to the community of practice members. In effect there are workgroups within the overall workgroup. For example there are researchers who are providing information (directly and indirectly) to support the effective delivery of services by the extension and delivery team.

Workgroup	Business activities – processes and outputs	Inputs
Extension & Delivery – sustainable agriculture project officers	Synthesis of data and information, communication and engagement, property and farm planning, facilitation and monitoring, evaluation and reporting.	Needs analysisBase lining and benchmarkingData and information
Industry association development officers	As above.	Needs analysisBase lining and benchmarkingData and information
R&D – Generally government agencies, CRCs, industry associations	Research and development.	Data and information

Because of the variations between the requirements of the communities of practice there is need for a knowledge management and communication system which provides ready access to relevant and reliable best practice information. At the same time the information system needs to support business processes associated with information and knowledge development and transfer between workgroup members.

 Communities of interest

These are the people and organisations who may not be necessarily doing anything i.e. are not members of the community of practice or workgroup but have an interest in the outputs and outcomes for their own business purposes.

Community of interest(examples)	Sphere of interest	Role
Consultants and service / product providers	Interested in the outputs and outcomes and use with their own customers.	Deliverers of information / services to specific land managers
Other delivery organisations	Generally there will be synergies between projects in different areas. At the strategic level it may be a matter of what worked / didn’t work here. At the technical/scientific level it is likely that there will be synergies between the approach to managing nutrients in one area for cattle grazing which will (with some localisation) work somewhere else.	Information exchange – strategic, technical/ scientific
General public	Interested in the outcomes esp. in terms of environmental improvement.	Support, communication
Media	Interest from a community of perspective in what is happening / what is working / what is not working and what else is required. Effectively defacto workgroup members.	Communication

The community of interest plays an important role in communication and ensuring ongoing support for the project. It is important that they have ready access to timely and relevant information as well as the opportunity to provide feedback.

 Clients

These are the people and organisations funding the project. It is important to think as funders as not just the organisations providing dollars. They may also be providing investment in time or other support for a project.

Clients	Sphere of interest	Contribution
Federal and State government	Want to know that what they are funding is making a difference. What’s working / not working /what else needs to be done.  This is who the delivery organisation usually reports to.	Funding – direct $$
Local government	Part of an overall community of place (overall place managers)	Funding, in-kind support
Private sector sponsors	They may provide things such as cash contributions, discounts of services/products to community of practice members, information and knowledge.	Funding – $$DiscountsInformation & knowledge

Typically reporting of project outputs and outcomes is made to clients through mandatory reporting cycles i.e. because you have to and they provide the dollars. Having the possibility of private businesses sponsor the project or certain activities ups the ante a bit in terms of reporting.

 Integrating knowledge management, communication and engagement

The above framework is a useful one for determining the different information and knowledge and communication requirements of the different stakeholders in the sustainable agriculture project. This will drive the design, content and functionality of a web-based knowledge management and communications centre being developed to enable efficient and effective service delivery and knowledge exchange and improved project performance.

Typically knowledge management, communication and engagement activities are fragmented which is inefficient and at risk of discontinuousness if a member of the workgroup leaves or community of practice member sells their property. Database and collaboration technologies now enable the real-time development and communication of information and knowledge and the optimisation of business processes.

TargetOn – Collaborative knowledge management & communication in the Cloud

Data, information and knowledge are critical organisational and project assets. However, knowledge management and communication is a critical area of pain for most organisations with which we work. Data, Information and knowledge assets are fragmented, hard to access and easily lost causing poor performance and service delivery.

For a couple of years now we have been developing  TargetOn - a collaborative, Cloud-based knowledge management and communication solution designed to support the activities of SMEs and medium scale projects and associated communities of practice and workgroups. TargetOn is:

• Simple. TargetOn is easy to learn and intuitive. Any one from a CEO to a primary school child can start using it in minutes to share information.
• Accessible. All information is in the one spot and accessible to permitted users, wherever they are 24/7.
• Interactive and engaging. Permitted users can discuss and share their knowledge and do things such as prepare their own action plan.

Check out this short 4 minute video overview

Outcome

The overall outcome TargetOn aims to achieve is that of connecting people – your community of practice – with the information and knowledge they need so that they are empowered to perform actions contributing to the achievement of the outcomes you are targeting.

Key features

Key features of TargetOn are:

• Cloud/web-based. You get your own TargetOn site with its own unique url e.g. http://my-site-name.targeton.com
• Each TaagetOn site has its own  MySQL database.
• TargetOn uses the Drupal open source content management system.
• Modular design enables your site to grow with your needs.
• Quick deployment. a basic site can be created in minutes.

The TargetOn library module enables you to organise and connect relevant information resources and make them accessible to permitted users

The key modules that are available for TargetOn include:

• Resources database for indexing a range of information resources and associated metadata.
• Libraries module for organising, structuring and connecting content and associated data, information and knowledge.
• News and calendar modules for ensuring your community of practice is kept up
• Group email to enable easy communication with your community of practice
• Webpage for each user which includes a location mapping tool, space to upload photos and other information e.g. property plan.
• Action planning module which enables each user to prepare their own action plan with email alerts sent to the user when actions are due.

There are literally thousands of other Drupal modules which can be configured to each site. We have developed the Monitoring, evaluation, reporting and improvement (MERI) module provides scorecards which show how community of practice members are performing.

Other related features include:

• Simple Google Map plugin which enables the location of users and other items to be mapped.
• RSS which enables feeds from your TargetOn site to be embedded into existing websites.
• User accounts can be easily created. You can also import an existing mailing list.
• Email alerts are sent to users when their actions are due.
• Public or private. Content can be kept hidden i.e. accessible only to permitted users or made accessible at the check of a box to everyone.
• Discuss. Permitted users can discuss content and share information. When someone comments on their post they are sent an email.
• Print. Each page can be printed.
• Revisions. Multiple permitted users can edit documents. Changes made by each user are shown and you can revert to previous versions.

A number of other enhancements are also being developed. Daily backups are made to each site along with full offline weekly backups. Your data is also readily accessible and provided to you when you want.

Additional benefits:

• Improved community of practice performance
• Superior service delivery

EKSA provide a full range of support services to go with each TargetOn instance. We will work with you collaboratively to index and organise content, provide training and over the phone support, as well as online communication and group facilitation services.

Contact us to organise a trial.