Web-Based Communities as a Tool for Extension and Outreach

The Internet has become a common tool for facilitating business transactions, fostering communication, and aiding for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations to better compete. An additional benefit of the Internet is the ability to create sector-specific Web-based communities that can facilitate outreach and Extension efforts. Communities in general can be any group with a common interest or goal and can include a number of actions such as information sharing, real-time dialog, and transaction facilitation. In this article, we discuss a background of Web-based communities and forest-sector Web-based communities developed by Cooperative Extension faculty members at two U.S. universities.