Jared Dunn, Will Kent, and Martin Wolske

1. Jared Dunn, Will Kent, and Martin Wolske Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA An online interactive tool for communication, collaboration, documentation and project management. • We have begun exploring how blogging software hosted on Prairienet.org can be used to capture the dynamic communications and knowledge-sharing among University and community partners that are part of the process of the project work occurring at various partner sites within community. Blog space for each partner organization; parent page with sub-pages for specific courses and grant-funded short term projects partnering with the organization The goal of the project pages are to: • capture and preserve project plans; • identify key decision points that impact project outcome; • document the reasoning behind certain decisions that impact the shape of the project. By raising awareness of past and current projects, we hope to encourage greater collaboration between various engagement courses and projects on campus to enhance the outcomes for both the university and grassroots communities. University of Illinois has a long and rich tradition of community engagement locally, regionally, and internationally. An ongoing challenge for engagement projects has been effective communications between University and community partners. These efforts often span several years, and the academic calendar can fragment long-term partnerships. Leave a comment and your email address! Visit: http://www.prairienet.org Contact: Martin Wolske mwolske@illinois.edu 217-244-8094 Many sites also partner with multiple university departments and entities, that are not aware of one another’s work. These issues can make fostering sustainable and growing relationships over time difficult, and point to a need for tools to facilitate better collaboration with community partners and documentation. Supported in part by: