Bruce T. Bowman Chair, CARC Expert Committee on Manure Management

1. Welcome toManureNet: A Case Study in Information Sharing Bruce T. BowmanChair, CARC Expert Committee on Manure Management http://www.agr.gc.ca/science/initiatives/manurenet/

2. Background • “Information” – one of most valuable assets of both government and private organizations • Serious losses of “corporate memory” since 1990 - retiring personnel take with them irreplaceable information • Historically - insufficient integrated effort to organize and preserve organizational information –> Repeat history! • Research – wealth of technical information… BUT..often more focused on publishing scientific papers than re-packaging information for other end users

3. What Do Web Clients Expect? • HOME PAGE – Contact Information– Who you are– What you do – Where you are located – How to contact you Client should “take away image” of your business • Impatient - Web pages should start to display useful information quickly (15-20 sec) .. or likely to lose the visitor • Rich in content • Well organized • Intuitive to navigate • Accessible for queries

4. Expectations (cont’d) • Self-Help - browse / download technical information without having to request it and wait for it to be sent • Don’t orphan files – provide re-directs when re-organizing the site (not just to home page) • Site Organization & URLs • Simple directory structure – minimize levels • Short Path/Directory Names – “short memory”!

5. Challenges for Information Delivery • In early web, no universal means to provide access to technical documents • Limited to word processing formats (large file size) • No single format suited a majority of users • Difficult to accurately portray equations, graphics • Slow transmission rates (<14.4 lines) – PKZIP files • Visitors tend to Browse On-line but Read Off-line • Must have good off-line content – preserve look & feel

6. 200 million copies globally Challenges for Information Delivery • Adobe Acrobat PDF – single greatest contribution to universal access to technical on-line information • PDFs = measure of real content of web site Most effective as supplementary means of providing in-depth information, linked to summaries in HTML format Should be able to browse without having to load a pdf file Keywords in PDF files indexed by GOOGLE

7. Comparison of File Formats for Saving Technical Documents

8. Rationale for ManureNet • Provide national coordination and information sharing on key manure / nutrient issues • Efficient way to link to research & extension activities across many jurisdictions and organizations • Inventories – expertise, groups / organizations • Preserve archive of valuable technical information - program structure (process & rationale) and reports

9. What is ManureNet? • Canadian Issue-based web site focussing on manure / nutrient management issues (includesenvironmental, health & safety, ghg emissions and sustainable development issues) • Started April 1998 - Over 4,000 external links, 17,000 internal links & Oracle Data base with 5,000 records • Inventories of expertise, technical reports, codes of practice, current issues • Page views/month increased 5-fold in past year91,329 in Aug. 2002 (Aug + Sept = 172,000)

10. Evolution of ManureNet • April 2000 - Added Oracle data base • Search by Keyword, Issue, Personnel, Organization • Fall 2000 - Started virtual on-line file library and farm press archive (socio-environmental record)(2002 - almost 500 pdf documents) • Dec. 2001 - Integrated large existing environmental archive – many reports related to manure/nutrients

11. Environmental Archive In Ontario (1986 – 1997) Soil/Water Env. Enhancement Land Stewardship Great Lakes Water Quality National Soil Conservation Land Management Assistance Environ. Stewardship Initiative Green Plan (Ontario) Summary of $100M Env. Programming over 13 yr in Ontario http://res2.agr.ca/initiatives/manurenet/env_prog/ag_env.html Aug. 2001 – 10,000 page viewsAug. 2002 – 57,227

12. PDF Use Statistics more interest in downloading archive information 70% of files viewed on-line

13. Up to 5 keywords (Boolean search) Select from hierarchal list Over 600 people – contact info Over 600 organizations - contact Oracle Database Search http://res1.agr.ca/manurenet/mnet_search

14. Selecting an Organization

15. List of all documents of Organization Details of the Organization

16. Resource Details Same resource details for “personnel”

17. Possible Future Activities • Expand content on ghg emissions-manure issue • Expand content on sustainable development issues • Nutrient flows in production agriculture • Manure treatment (co-generation, green power) • Nutrient recovery & recycling; value-added products • Numerous requests to host a forum - biogas – co-generation issue .. or similar issue • Generate static web pages from data base

18. IN SUMMARY • Preserve organizational & technical information • Why, how, who, outcomes • Provide rich content, well organized, and linked • HTML = best for on-line browsingPDF = optimal for off-line use; measure of real content best way to preserve archival information • Client services – Timely response to queries • Find & Add new information • Provide new services – host forum