Change and the Agricultural
Communicator: Electronic
Dissemination of Extension Information
Howard Beck
Mary L. Cilley
Agricultural communicators are accustomed to acting as change agents. Now communicators face the challenge of dealing with technological changes that are reshaping their own profession. A case history is presented of electronic delivery of Extension information at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS). This paper examines the role of the technical communicator within an evolving framework of institutional change. It is seen that tasks traditionally performed by editors and artists are in one sense unchanged, although they are now performed using modern tools provided by computers. However, there are new opportunities for communicators, especially in the areas of user interface design and knowledge management, that are made possible by the new computer medium.
Howard Beck is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Florida. He has been developing electronic information delivery systems for the Florida Cooperative Extension Service for the past 12 years. Mary L. Cilley, an ACE member, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, University of Florida. She is a cooperator in the the FAIRS (Florida Agricultural Information Retrieval System) project, helping to develop the IFAS electronic publishing system.
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