#ufarmiit

So, for one assignment, we were tasked with creating an infographic to relay some sort of topical information.  

I chose the "Green Revolution" which was a movement towards industrialized farming, genetic modification of high-yield varieties of food, all in an attempt to generate the exportation of more food to developing countries.  Nowadays, the "Green Revolution" connotates things like wind energy and electric vehicles.  

Here is the edited version of my rough draft.  As a journalist, and as one where layout is my forte, I tend to focus on several things when creating an accessible piece of information.  

First, the sizing.  Most standard printers are able to handle a tabloid-sized piece of paper (11.5x17) and if not, this can be printed using two 11.5x7 pieces of paper.  

Second, the color scheme.  To make this accessible information, especially if it's going to be used to spread it quickly and easily, the color scheme is black and white to accommodate most standard printers, and the is cheapest.  

Third, the flow of the information. Instead of a cluttered timeline or map, an even flow of information using headline/body text juxtaposition immediately draws the eye down, and creates a familiar style of reading, similar to newspapers or websites.  It draws the reader down, without using distracting photos and colors.  

Here is UFarmIIT's Social Media Plan; it has been sent to Alex Uribe, and he has "yet to take a look" after a week.

Purpose:

The purpose of UFarmIIT’s continued and consistent use of social media endeavors will serve two purposes: to market the farm and its progress to various on-campus and off-campus organization and creating a consistent and transparent public presence; and to catalogue and record significant events of UFarmIIT’s past and future.  

Timing: 

The first rule of social media is the implementation of timely updates, and pertinent information distributed to our audience. With this plan, UFarmIIT will post to their main channel, a Facebook fan page on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays, during the IIT lunch hour (12:50PM to 1:40PM.) UFarmIIT’s Instagram account will be updated with any original content (photos, videos) posted to the Facebook account, when available and appropriate. The use of tagging pertinent peoples and organizations, along with the use of #hashtags, and branding said #hashtags will allow for consistent, and entertaining content.  

Implementation: 

In order to maintain this consistent presence and assure that all information is the same across the board, we will implement the use of a third party social media platform, like Hootsuite, which allows the user to post to multiple social media accounts from one consolidated account. This application also allows the user to queue up material and schedule when to release said material.  

List of possible UFarmIIT-centric #hashtags:

#YOUfarmit #UFarmIIT #YOURfarmIIT 

List of pertinent #hashtags for Instagram:

#chicago #urban #agriculture #urbanagriculture #urbag #ag #chicagoag #IIT #illinoistech #IPRO #urbanagcluster #bronzeville #bridgeport #southside #planting #plants #education et cetera 

Conclusion: 

Random personal updates sent to Andy Yang for the class blog

1. Social Media Plan: 

I have created a simple plan for UFarmIIT's online presence.  We will be posting to our Facebook page MWF during the lunch hour.  Instagram will be used on an as-needed and available basis.  Hootsuite will be implemented in order to make our content consistent, and easy.  

2. (Vermi)Compost Plan:

After researching the compost and vermicompost process, I have begun to identify several partners with which we can team up with on campus to make our compost a better cycle: OCES (Office of Campus Energy & Sustainability), Sodexo (and its various locations) and the near-by Greek houses. For this task, we also need to order worms, and look into getting the construction building to create a new compost or vermicompost bin, and order gasketed buckets, and stickers to mark said buckets.  A schedule for compost pick-up will need to be created as well, based on the partners' needs.  

3. Watering Schedule

By next week (tentatively Friday) everyone in the urban ag cluster will have received an email asking them to participate in the watering schedule for the foreseeable future.  We will need to plan watering demonstrations/farm tours to acquaint students with the farm & chores.     

4. Community Outreach

Week 2: Breakin' Down the Cluster

The first activity of Week 2 was another ice-breaker activity (lined up by birthdays, without talking, getting a partner, listening/talking with partner for several minutes in order to practice our listening and comprehension skills.) I enjoyed the activity, as it wasn't as crazy as the last two we attempted this room, and I got to know my partner (Andy P.) a little better, even though we had already been working in the structure team.  

The next step of class was presenting our initial team homework project for the AIA Pop-Up Project (photos above), voting on the best design (second to last photo) and learning that the best design (or rather, a conglomeration of all the ideas presented) would become further developed by the Construction Team.  The presentations encompassed an array of models, posters, powerpoint/prezi presentations, and ideas to solve the given problem. It was very impressive to see what other teams did with just a few hours of work.  

While I enjoyed this project, I felt as though because it was architecture-focused, that the burden of work fell upon the only archie in our group.  While we all contributed and talked out ideas, building up ones, shooting others down, I felt it was unfair to dump the drawings on our archie, and I didn't feel as though I put enough personal work into the project (lack of drawing skills) but I was satisfied with our concept and our outcome, as a group, and the individual contribution.  And we all did a great job holding up the posters! I was also able to additionally contribute to our group by offering a place for us to work on a Sunday morning (TechNews office, library is closed until noon) and supplies laying around the office.  But other than that, I don't feel sated in the amount of work I did for the project.  

Speaking of teams, we then tried to separate into our main groups: Construction Team, UFarmIIT Team, & the Ag Expansion Group.  

Naturally, the UFarmIIT group is enormous.  We created our team list through GoogleDocs.  We then discussed our lack of information (as Alex Uribe leaves the class at 3:05) and what we will do to remedy that (me emailing Alex, accessing iGroups) as well as what other sub-groups have been created in the UFarmIIT group (embedded systems, everyone else.) 

So far, we've created a sub-group for the embedded systems project and the other aspects of UFarmIIT.  I will note that Tamara volunteered to act as a liaison between the embedded systems group and the rest of the UFarmIIT group.   

The other aspects of our responsibilities include: farm management, business plan, and the existing farm.  

Within these responsibilities, there are numerous jobs that need to be filled (not a comprehensive list): beekeeping, composting, farm operations, CSA program, community outreach (possibly including nutrition and education components), and mycology.  

I imagine this list will grow as we are given new tasks and jobs.  

Coming away from this meeting, there are several things we need to accomplish.  

First, the method of communication.  Right now, we all have each other's email addresses, and the Team List has been shared between us.  Someone mentioned using Trello or Asana which are group project programs that explicitly state things we have to accomplish, and assigns different tasks to different people.  Alex has already made a Trello for UFarmIIT, so we are looking into using that; Trello can import Facebook information and create an account through that, so it seems optimal to use that.  But as for blanket communication, nothing as been set in stone, email is the de facto method.  

Second, we are to create our initial plan. Given our lack of information, we are waiting for Alex to let us know about that so we can plan our semester.  Andy P. and I have plans to meet this coming Monday at noon in the TechNews office to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards, rather) and hammer out the details.  

Aside from creating the Team Plan, we must also post it to our blog (ufarmiit.wordpress.com) including weekly updates, and I will need to request access from Roger in order to post it on there.