| "In a two-week period we had over 200 replies, all saying, ‘yes, yes, yes.’" | |
| Fred Snyder, Ohio Sea Grant |
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Ohio Sea Grant saw the writing on the Web sites. More and more people are first turning to the Internet for their news and information and to chat about topics important to them. The program’s extension agents decided it was time to join the conversation.
The Lake Erie Information: Discussion Board ( www.sg.ohio-state.edu/discus/) provides an on-line venue for fishermen, boaters, and others with technical questions about the lake and its resources to get answers directly from program staff members.
“This differs from e-mail in that instead of responding to one person, it shares the answer with everyone,” says Fred Snyder, extension specialist and program co-leader for Ohio Sea Grant. “It becomes a valuable teaching tool. One person asks the question, but hundreds might learn from it.”
Usage of the discussion board has steadily increased since its launch in July 2002. It has become Ohio Sea Grant’s most frequently accessed page, following the entry home page. The board received at least 3,100 hits in 2004, and while 2005 numbers weren’t available at the time of this interview, Snyder says usage jumped significantly this past summer.
Five Sea Grant staff members take turns answering discussion board questions each week, providing information on fisheries, water quality, lake levels, regulations and policies, and many other topics.
“We’re not trying to provide fishing tips or to evaluate fishing gear,” Snyder explains. “Other sites have fishing pros who can answer those types of questions. We’re more in the Sea Grant mode of Lake Erie education.”
It was, in fact, technical questions about Lake Erie that were receiving incorrect answers on other discussion boards that illustrated the need for Ohio Sea Grant to create its own site.
“People would pop up [on other Web sites] with off-the-wall answers,” Snyder says. When he would see incorrect information on a discussion board, Snyder would log on and provide the correct answer, always posting his name and Sea Grant affiliation.
It wasn’t long before questions started being directed to Snyder specifically and other sites were requesting he host real-time question and answer sessions. To see if his hunch that Sea Grant needed its own discussion board was right, Snyder posted a question on a popular Web site asking anglers if they would support and use a Sea Grant information board.
“In a two-week period we had over 200 replies, all saying, ‘yes, yes, yes,’” Snyder says. The program’s communications staff and computer specialist developed the easy-to-use site.
To get the word out, a press release was distributed to local media, and
notices were posted on Great Lakes fishing Web sites. Snyder notes that the
board’s discussion threads also appear in topic-related Google searches,
which adds to the diversity of the board’s users.
“I just love it,” Snyder says of the discussion board. “I’m just interested in what people think. I can’t wait to see what kind of reply I’m going to get when I answer a question.”
He adds, “Media like this will be used a lot in the future. I think it’s useful in a lot of areas.”
To view the Lake Erie Information: Discussion Board, point your browser to
www.sg.ohio-state.edu/discus/.
For more information, contact Fred Snyder at (419) 635-1022, or snyder.8@osu.edu.
