This presentation and discussion delivered by Richard Vines and Dan Cotton was one of the many presentations made at the National eXtension conference in 2014 in Sacramento California. It draws on the collaborations that have been emerging between Victoria's Department of Environment and Primary Industries, the Australian Grains Research and Development Corporation and the US eXtension Foundation. These collaborations involve the piloting of two learning networks in the Australian Grains Industry drawing upon the lessons learned from the eight years of operation of eXtension across the US Land Grant network of Universities. The discussion that followed brought to to the surface some of the underlying challenges that Australia might face as it investigates the relevance of the US eXtension model and how it might apply in an Australian context. It also raises an emergent hypothesis about whether there really is an appetite to investigate possibilities, principles and policies for multi-national science based collaborations.

1. Integrating principles of social innovation
and knowledge management
The eXtensionAus pilot project as an emergent case study
Richard Vines, Department of Environment
and Primary Industries, Victoria Australia
Dan Cotton, University of Nebraska
- Lincoln, United States,
Together better than separate?
Photo: courtesy of the Gale family, South Australia

2. The US period of 1960, 61

3. • DEPI Visiting Fellow’s initiative (Dan Cotton, Craig Wood, Jill Heemstra)
• GRDC / DEPI / eXtension Foundation agreement
• International collaboration around themes of interest
/ challenges (field crop diseases, crop nutrition, and
related knowledge systems)
• Visit to the US to explore the depth of mutual interest
Framing the discussions:

4. Where have
eXtension Visiting
Fellows been to?
Melbourne

5. Comparison of science-based collaboration systems
Relevant to the eXtensionAus project
• National Research, Development and
Extension (R, D and E) Framework
• Multi-institution types as signatories
• Agreed state government leads for
different R, D and E strategies
• University funding through Australian
Research Council and others
• National Funding Entities - Research
and Development Corporations (e.g.
GRDC)
• Keen focus on integrating the private
sector in D and E activities
• State centric institutions – Land
Grant Universities (R and D)
• County level extension (E) programs
• National priorities - USDA / NIFA
through program funding initiatives
• Transformative education across
different levels
• Strong Lincoln legacy and values
• Extension Committee on
Organization & Policy
• eXtension Foundation
Australia United States
(relevant to eXtension)

6. National R, D and E priorities
Fragmented audience centric
collaboration systems
No equivalent of the
eXtension Foundation yet
State system priorities
Eight years experience in
pioneering audience centric
collaboration systems
with the eXtension Foundation
Disruption by
digital media
convergence?
Are traditional models of science-based collaboration
systems being disrupted in different ways?
– should we share this journey?

7. Shared problems?
Social innovation and knowledge sub-systems are fragmented and disconnected
Science based
knowledge
creation
(“R”)
Knowledge
curation and
packaging
(“bridging “R”
and “D”)
Knowledge
integration
– industry sector
stakeholders
(“D” and “E”)
Knowledge
Capability and
Education
(“R”, “D” and
“E”)
Commitment to audience centric
collaboration systems and e-platforms to
support collaborative problem solving

8. Comparison of approaches to theme based collaborations
Australia United States
(Land Grant Networks)
Dairy community of practice
with industry tagging
• Archived dairy cattle webinars
• Upcoming diary cattle webinars
Cattle facts and beef tips
• Business Management
• Calf and heifer management
• Facilities
• Food safety
• Genetics
• Health and diseases
• Learning lessons
• Mastitis and milking management
• Materials in espanol
• Milk marketing
• Nutrient management
Other resources
• State newsletters
• State extension websites
• Consumer links
Dairy moving forward – national R, D and E
strategy (published as a PDF document)
Themes:
• Feedbase and nutrition
• Animal performance
• Natural resource management
and climate change
• People
• Farm Business management
• Cross linkages between priorities

9. Strategic thoughts around content curation: two types of
knowledge space – Anecdotal and evidential
Acknowledgement to the eScholarship Research Centre: University of Melbourne

10. Principles of content curation for evidential
knowledge
Acknowledgement to the eScholarship Research Centre: University of Melbourne
Like
eXtension’s
“people”
application

11. Towards a collaboration system framework
To support science-based collaborations
Learning Network
(Shared context)
Operational
Strategic
Learning network charters and action
planning, impact monitoring
Strategic framework and umbrella shell
agreement
Service design
and co-
investment
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………
Technology, including mobility
Content
Informatics / metadata / tagging
Inter agency policies to support institutional
teams
Commitments Platform

12. Can we work together on good practice
collaboration systems and platforms?
….or is it better to be separate than together?

13. Is there an appetite to investigate
possibilities, principles and policies
for multi-national science-based
collaborations?
Emergent hypothesis?

14. Audience engagement:
Can we do better together than separate?
Why might we collaborate – constraints and possibilities?
Are innovation and knowledge systems of interest?
Are there stakeholders willing to engage and invest?
Is there an audience or do we need to create a future?
Are there some next steps? How can this be done?

15. Innovation and knowledge systems
A Learning Network to support a systematic approach to science-based collaborations
What sort of themes might be of interest at different
levels?
• Joint scoping exercise about national knowledge infrastructure?
• Platform research and development
• Content curation practices and capabilities
Any lessons / suggestions for Australia as
we move in this direction?

16. Systems , platforms,
agreements and strategic
capabilities
Appropriate IP management and harmonisation?
Govt Open IP
licenses (e.g. CC
4.0)
Partially protected IP
Licenses? Fully protected IP
licenses /
agreements
Appropriate Intellectual Property management continuum
Institutional
repositories
Closed collaboration
systems to support
commercialisation
Collaboration Platforms
Discussion point:

17. Discussion point:
Constraints and opportunities for multi-national science based collaborations
CooperationCompetition
National interest Global science
National wealth creation Feeding 9 billion people
Self interest behaviour Values based behaviour

18. Together better than separate?
"The greatest crisis facing us is not Russia, not the Atom Bomb, not corruption in
government, not encroaching hunger, nor the morals of the young. It is a crisis in the
organization and accessibility of human knowledge. We own an enormous 'encyclopaedia'
- which isn't even arranged alphabetically. Our 'file cards' are spilled on the floor, nor were
they ever in order. The answers we want may be buried somewhere in the heap, but it
might take a lifetime to locate two already known facts, place them side by side and derive
a third fact, the one we urgently need.“
Photo: courtesy of Gale family, South Australia
Robert Heinlein (1950)
Thanks to Michael Jones for drawing my attention to this quote)

19. Thank you!
Richard Vines, Department of
Environment and Primary
Industries, Victoria Australia
Hon Fellow, eScholarship
Research Centre, University of
Melbourne
Tel: +61-467717431
richard.vines@depi.vic.gov.au
Linkedin profile
Dan Cotton, University of
Nebraska - Lincoln, United
States,
Tel: 402.472.8841
dcotton1@unl.edu
Photo: courtesy of Gale family, South Australia

20. Appendices

21. “times are a changing”: Content curation challenges for e-science
Australia United States
Policy framework
• Shift towards creative commons for Govt
• Federated institutional repositories
• Commitments to metadata harvesting
frameworks associated with the Australian
National Library (one important standard is
the emerging Encoded Archival Context –
EAC – CPF Standard)
• Commitments to Australian national data
service model: RIF-CS (Registry
Interchange Format – Collections and
Services)
Policy framework
• Open Government
• Open data rules through the Obama
administration
• Not sure that this means for the Land
Grant Network of Universities?
Need for practical short term fixes. Need for
international collaborations around strategic capabilities

22. Of course …. this implies there is a need
to manage complex-systems dynamics
Learning Network level
(Shared context)
Operational level
Strategic level
Support systems level
………………………………………………………
…………..…………………………………….……
…………….……………………………….………
Monitoring
for
conditions
of success
Effective
govern-
ance and
comms
External
knowledge
inputs /
support
services

23. An aim is to
support a whole
system approach
to wicked
problems across
multiple sectors

24. Related resources / possibilities
• eXtension Australia four – tiered collaboration model
• eXtension – AUS knowledge systems learning network
– still to be shaped and tasked
Related publications of relevance
• Support systems for cross institutional and cross jurisdictional learning networks: A report
prepared for the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DPI) as part of the visit
to Australia by Dr Craig Wood: Associate Director of eXtension to Australia in March 2013 by
the eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne
• Collaborating across institutional and jurisdictional boundaries:
enabling the emergence of a national innovation system through
public knowledge management: Knowledge Management Research &
Practice advance online publication 19 August 2013; doi:
10.1057/kmrp.2013.41