Action Group (AG):

Collaborative teams formed by professionals in specific disciplines who bring expertise and creativity to add value to eXtension and its Communities of Practice and the products and services developed and provided; e.g. news writers, evaluators, copy editors, staff development experts.

APLU:

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universites: the nation's oldest higher education association whose membership comprises 212 institutions, including state universities, all of the nation's land-grant colleges and universities, and several public university systems. It is a voluntary non-profit association of major public research universities with campuses located in all fifty states, the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.
 

Call for Engagement (CFE):

Is a written document detailing the process by which Communities of Practice are selected, created, funded, and organized to engage and interact with Communities of Interest (CoIs) in the development of educational materials.
 

Community of Interest (CoI):

An identified group of individuals sharing similar interests, concerns, and educational needs around a subject area.
 

Community of Practice (CoP):

For eXtension, a Community of Practice (CoP) is defined as virtual network of subject matter content providers consisting of faculty, professional and para-professional staff, county educators, industry experts, clientele and government agency representation who share knowledge or competence in a specific content area and are willing to work and learn together over a period of time to further develop and share that knowledge in forms of educational products and programs.
 

Content Management System:

A type of software that facilitates the collaborative development of a Web site. Their goal is to simplify the creation of content (articles) on a Web site by providing templates for authors to complete. They hide much of the complexity from the content contributors by creating various roles and displaying only those functions that a user in a role might need to complete. For example, a site designer would see a different view and have access to different functionality than an author or a site administrator.
 

NIFA:

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (formerly the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service): unites the research, higher education, and extension education and outreach resources of USDA. Its mission is to advance knowledge for agriculture, the environment, human health and well being, and communities. NIFA contributions are strengthened by a broad spectrum of public and private partnerships, including other USDA agencies, Federal and State government departments, nonprofit organizations, and private sector entities. NIFA is also the Federal partner of the Cooperative Extension System.
 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM):

A technique used by organizations to provide better attention to the needs of their customers. CRMs come with a variety of capabilities, but most provide some databasing and reporting capabilities to track customer contacts, interests, and satisfaction.
 

ECOP:

Extension Committee on Organization and Policy: the representative governing body of the Extension Section of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities - APLU.
 

eXtension:

An Internet-based educational partnership of the Land-Grant university system designed to help people improve their lives by providing access to objective research-based information and learning opportunities.
 

eXtension ID:

A user ID, which along with its associated password, allows Cooperative Extension System personnel to access, and possibly edit content on, the various eXtension websites. eXtension IDs are acquired and managed at http://people.extension.org. Cooperative Extension partners are also welcome to obtain such IDs.
 

eXtension OpenID:

A special form of the eXtension ID which allows the user to log in at third party websites without needing to create another ID and password. The form of an OpenID makes it appear like a website URL. In the case of the eXtension OpenID, it looks like: http://people.extension.org/eXtensionID.
 

eXtension Metadata Element Set (EXTMES):

A working metadata standard used to describe a content resource.
 

Intranet:

A Web site that is used for internal communication and collaboration within an organization.
 

Metadata:

Data about data. Increasingly used to describe a resource on the Web so that it can be discovered by searching or automatically organized for browsing.

Resource Description Framework:

A standard file format for describing a networked resource; e.g. a document on a Web site.
 

RDF Site Summary:

A technology for syndicating and sharing content between Web servers. Most often used for sharing news articles, but is also used for calendaring and other types of data.
 

Streaming Media:

A technique for delivery of content across the Internet where the media is read, listened to, or viewed as it is being delivered. Generally used for the transfer of large data sources such as video.
 

Vcal:

A standard format for the exchange of calendaring information between networked computers.
 

Web Service:

A standard method or protocol for the interchange of data and other forms of information between computer applications connected by networks. Most typically they are used to share resources between Web servers.
 

Widget:

A widget in the context of a website is something that can be included or embedded into a webpage that can carry dynamic content and be an interactive set of separate functionality from the page in which it was embedded. This functionality can come from the website in which the page exists or it can come from a remote third-party site (the latter is the most commonly used form).

Wiki:

A Web-based collaborative writing environment that allows anyone to edit or contribute content to a Web site. It is one form of a Content Management System.