For most of my adult life I have loved a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “What If?”. It’s a poem that jolts you to consider an unexpected possibility, what if?
I was speaking to a friend of mine on Monday, he works for a government department. It’s not important who or where, but like many government departments, his if very unsure about eExtension. His superiors worry about security, about hackers, about stolen intellectual property, and so it goes on.
Many Extension Workers also feel the same way, what if it requires technical skills, what if it’s expensive, what if landholders don’t use the internet?
Well what if in the next 2 – 3 years the majority of your target audience are all using Social Media? What if after every shed meeting your audience expect to be able to download a recording of the event and download the fact sheets and provide feedback by video? What if the Selection Criteria on your next job application includes a question about eExtension?
Will you be prepared?
However perhaps the most pertinent question is, what if you had knowledge and passion that could improve Agriculture and/or save the Environment, what if eExtension was a really powerful way to share that knowledge and passion?
And what if you did nothing about it?
