“Zoom is the easiest to use high-quality video, phone and web conferencing service on the market,” said Youtsey. “After an extensive analysis, the UC has established a systemwide Zoom contract for a very low cost, which UC ANR IT is covering. Our goal is for Zoom to become the common tool for communication within the division, and for collaboration with campus and external teams worldwide.”
Zoom can replace Skype, Adobe Connect, GoToMeeting and ReadyTalk. Some of Zoom's features include:
- Super easy video conferencing on your computer, mobile device, or room system for up to 50 connections
- Unlimited phone conferencing for up to 50
- Ability to support large meetings with up to 100 and webinars up to 500 participants (see instructions below)
- Enabled for PC, Mac, Android and iOS devices
- Compatible with any existing teleconference phones from Polycom, Tandberg, LifeSize etc.
Everything you need to log in and get started using Zoom is at http://ucanr.edu/sites/zoom. If you have a UC ANR portal account and @ucanr.edu email address, log in at https://ucanr.zoom.us.
Additional Zoom features are available to ANR employees:
- ANR has a license for a 100-participant meeting (two-way communication), which can be reserved for occasional use at no cost.
- ANR has a license for 500-participant webinars (one-way communication, which can be reserved for occasional use at no cost.
- There are a range of large meeting and webinar licenses you can purchase as “add-ons” for your exclusive use if needed. Contact the IT Service Desk for more information.
- Zoom Rooms is a great way to connect conference rooms to the Zoom service for high-quality video, phone and web conferencing. Contact the IT Service Desk for more information for equipment and pricing information.
For help to get Zoom up and running, contact the ANR IT Service Desk at help@ucanr.edu or call (530) 750-1212.
The Apps for Ag hackathon, which was spearheaded by Gabe Youtsey, chief information officer, brought software developers, designers, entrepreneurs, farmers and others who work in agriculture to the ANR building for a weekend to create apps to address agricultural issues.
The first place team, GivingGarden, took home $7,500 in prize money, custom rodeo belt buckles and a six-month, top-tier membership to the AgStart Incubator in Woodland.
The hyper-local, produce-sharing app provides gardening advice from the UC Master Gardener Program and enables backyard gardeners to connect with others who want to share their produce. The GivingGarden team members are Scott Kirkland, Josh Livni, Deema Tamimi and John Knoll.
UC IPM's Mark Takata and Chinh Lam split $2,500 for third place for their ACP STAR System, a geo and temporal database and platform for tracking Asian citrus psyllid and other invasive pests.
The top three teams will also receive complimentary startup incorporation services valued at $2,200 from Royse Law.
All of the participating teams had about 48 hours to develop their apps. Teams that were interested were offered $500 in “cloud credits” to build their solutions and host them on Amazon Web Services' platform. Teams also had access to an IoT kit to incorporate connected devices into their solution.
The top four teams pitched their apps to judges in front of a live audience at the California State Fair.
The event was sponsored by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, the California State Fair and the City of Sacramento.
“It's really important for UC ANR to be involved in app development because as farmers and natural resource managers face ever-increasing challenges – climate change, invasive pests, the need to conserve water – technology is one of the ways to find solutions,” said VP Glenda Humiston.
“Using technology we can find better ways to reduce pesticide use, increase irrigation efficiency, reduce travel into the fields, manage people better, and deal with the fact that we have a huge labor shortage in this state,” said Humiston, who served as one of the Apps for Ag judges.
The other judges included University of California Chief Information Officer Tom Andriola, USDA Chief Data Officer Bobby Jones, and Better Food Ventures and Mixing Bowl Hub founder Rob Trice.
The 4th California Apps for Ag will be held July 15-17. The competitive hackathon to solve real problems in agriculture and food is being hosted by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and the California State Fair.
Software developers, designers, entrepreneurs, farmers, farm consultants and others in the agricultural industry are encouraged to participate in the hackathon, which will be held at the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources building at 2801 Second Street in Davis, from 8 a.m. Friday, July 15 to 11 a.m. Sunday, July 17.
“We would really like to see participants come from all corners of the state,” said Gabe Youtsey, UC ANR's chief information officer, “Let's see what happens when we mix developers from Silicon Valley and Southern California with agricultural experts from the Central Valley, coast and desert regions.”
People who work in agriculture should bring ideas for problems that technology may help solve.
“Apps for Ag Hackathons have already resulted in multiple startups and we want to see this momentum continue to grow,” said Robert Tse, USDA California Rural Development chief strategy officer for agriculture technology and innovation. “There is no better place than the State Fair in the Capitol to showcase the ingenuity of Caifornia's ag tech community.”
One startup that has resulted from a previous ag hackathon is Ag for Hire, which connects farm workers who need jobs with farmers who need workers.
“Hackathons are a great way to spur innovation in industry verticals where technology has not been fully adopted,” said Rob Trice, one of the judges and the founder of the Mixing Bowl and Better Food Ventures.
“All roads already point to the State Fair's competitions for other agricultural commodities,” said Jay Carlson, ag programs manager at the State Fair, “This makes the fair a showcase for agricultural innovations as well.”
For more information and to register, visit http://www.apps-for-ag.com. If you have questions or suggestions, contact Gabe Youtsey at gdyoutsey@ucanr.edu.
ANR's Network Project has officially kicked off, according to Gabe Youtsey, chief information officer. The multimillion-dollar investment will bring to county offices and research and extension centers Internet speeds that are hundreds of times faster than what they currently have, as well as better wireless coverage and modern cabling to many locations.
This will provide a host of new possibilities for ANR including ag tech and big data research, modern cloud-based technology tools and new phone/web/video conferencing capabilities.
“We have a lot of work to do to prepare for and complete this project including equipment upgrades, construction and electrical work and finding new service providers to partner with,” said Youtsey.
In order to complete this complex, important project, ANR IT has partnered with ANR Facilities Planning and Management, the Corporation for Education Initiatives in California (CENIC) and Dimension Data.
“We are currently developing our comprehensive project plan, and my hope is that we can have every UC ANR location upgraded by the end of FY 2017, if not sooner,” Youtsey said.
The REC and UCCE locations planned for upgraded in the first phase are:
◦ Desert REC
◦ Intermountain REC
◦ Kearney Ag REC
◦ Sierra Foothill REC
◦ West Side REC
◦ UCCE Colusa
◦ UCCE Central Sierra MCP (El Dorado office)
◦ UCCE Humboldt
◦ UCCE Imperial
◦ UCCE Inyo-Mono
◦ UCCE Los Angeles
◦ UCCE Madera
◦ UCCE Monterey
◦ UCCE Nevada
◦ UCCE Riverside (Moreno Valley Office)
◦ UCCE San Bernardino
◦ UCCE San Joaquin
◦ UCCE Stanislaus
◦ UCCE Sutter-Yuba
◦ UCCE Yolo
“While these locations are planned for our first phase, we will be creating upgrade plans very soon for the remaining UC ANR locations planned for phase 2, which we hope to begin work in late summer or early fall 2016,” Youtsey said. “Our project team will reach out to offices directly to begin the process, and we will send out regular communications on the progress of the project. You can reach our project team anytime with questions at networkproject@ucanr.edu.”
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Janes came on board in early February, joining Senuta and Youtsey as the three directors charged by ANR Vice President Barbara Allen-Diaz with developing a comprehensive plan to lead CSIT into the future. Janes's strategic communications will more effectively take advantage of ANR's strong research base by placing a greater emphasis on proactive media relations, ANR branding and a more dynamic and compelling Web presence.
“It's clear that UCANR is highly engaged in programs and activities that are highly relevant to Californians, but many state leaders and the general public often don't seem to understand the vital role that ANR plays,” says Janes. “We're determined to raise UCANR's public profile, and fortunately there's plenty of great material from which we can work.”
Among other projects, Janes and his team, which includes staff providing news and information outreach in English and Spanish, will work closely with Youtsey and his Web development staff on a redesign of the main ANR website. The joint team is currently identifying an external vendor to assess needs and set a strategy for the ANR website redesign. As part of this assessment, a number of ANR senior leaders, academics and staff members will be interviewed for their insight into programmatic and audience needs.
“A website redesign will not just make it easier for our constituents to find information, but will also help them to better understand ANR on a single page, to better highlight our mission and initiatives and to foster deeper engagement with the public in a visually appealing format,” says Youtsey.
To create a strategic plan for information technology, Youtsey has traveled and met extensively with the ANR community to understand how technology is used in support of ANR's mission. The resulting IT plan includes several key projects designed to extend the Division's reach into rural areas with improved networking, to use new and existing data to enhance ANR research, and to connect communities using technology.
“Innovative approaches to research, education and outreach by ANR increasingly rely on a strong foundation of technology,” says Youtsey. “Faster and more reliable networks, modern computers, software tools, social networking and conferencing technologies will all play a part in helping ANR deliver an astounding range of service to California.”
Youtsey will offer an hour-long webinar via UCOP Information Technology Services on May 5 at 1 p.m. about technology at ANR. Details can be found at http://ucop.edu/information-technology-services/initiatives/webinars.html
Many in ANR are well familiar with the CSIT's publishing group, which produces and markets peer-reviewed ANR publications and California Agriculture journal, videos and Division promotional materials and manages the online peer-review systems and the Media Repository. Senuta's publishing operations plan focuses on a new business model and expansion of the Division's publishing options to include e-books, single-copy print-on-demand and repurposed content. She is working to connect with recently hired ANR academics to make them aware of available publishing opportunities and, with executive editor Jim Downing, strengthen California Agriculture's news section as a venue for highlighting Division research for new audiences.
“Like the greater publishing industry, we are expanding our formats to ensure sustainability and increase market reach. Part of this effort is to ensure a variety of publishing opportunities for Division authors to extend ANR research,” Senuta says. “We can't produce it all, so we must target wisely. But what ANR has that many publishers envy is our content — objective, based in science and simply interesting.”
Future endeavors, with support from the Communications Advisory Board, include revitalizing publishing for underserved audiences and investigating the possibility of peer-review credit for academic writing published on ANR webpages.