Agriculture and Environment: The Nitrogen Wiki
In the spring of 2007, the Packard Foundation created an online forum to invite input from the public for a potential new grantmaking program in reducing nitrogen pollution and improving agricultural practices. The centerpiece of the forum was a wiki seeded with a draft program strategy. The collaboration lasted six weeks at the end of which the ideas generated in the threaded discussions and captured on the wiki were used to shape an initial program strategy.
The site is archived at http://nitrogen.packard.org. Walt Reid, director of the Conservation and Science Program, offered a thoughtful explanation of the Foundation's interest in taking this approach.
A final report that describes the Nitrogen Wiki project and lessons learned is also available here:
Analysis of a Nitrogen Wiki: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation's Experiment with Online Collaboration
(PDF: 150 KB)
Agriculture and Environment: Farm Bill Reform Networks
As a result of the nitrogen wiki and ongoing strategy development work, the Packard Foundation is taking a close look at how it might invest in supporting farm bill reform as part of the proposed grantmaking program in agriculture and environment. The landscape of farm bill reform is extremely complex and how a foundation might most effectively support reform networks is similarly complex. So, we have been doing research and outreach to better understand the landscape of U.S. farm bill stakeholders. Our initial goal is to better understand the system and networks in which the Foundation is considering investing.
Local Youth Development Networks: Mapping Youth Development Networks in Salinas
The Foundation's Local Area funds is partnering with the Community Foundation of Monterey County to map the youth development network in the city of Salinas. We hope that by making visible the nature of relationships among the youth development community, the community will be able to identify opportunities to access new resources, make beneficial connections, and ultimately increase its impact.
A social network map shows the connections that exist between people and organizations (nodes). By making these connections visible, they can stimulate discussion and reveal opportunities for creating change. For instance, social network maps can visualize important connections and community resources that may otherwise remain hidden; they also can help identify weak connections, isolated nodes, or bottlenecks.
We developed the following overview of social network mapping and analysis in order to introduce the concepts to Salinas community members:
Introduction to Social Networks (PDF: 220 KB)
West Coast Ecosystem-Based Management Networks
As part of an effort to build a stronger network of individuals along the American West Coast that are implementing ecosystem-based management (EBM) principles in their decision making processes about land use, fish, conservation, water, and other coastal issues, the Packard Foundation is working with Monitor Institute and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center to use social network mapping tools to gather and share information about the existing network of relationships between these local decision makers. The maps will be used as a centerpiece of discussion for, and as a baseline of information about, the network of West Coast EBM implementers, which will be convened by NOAA in late February.
