Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Wrap Up & Where To From Here, Kathleen Draper, Hugh Mclaughlin, Erich J. Knight Mr., Amanda Ravenhill

USBI Biochar Conferences

Symposium Track Chairs will provide high level summaries of the information covered in each of the tracks: Feedstock & Production; Benefits & Uses; Policy & Community and Sales, Scale & Marketing.

To conclude the symposium and leverage all of the great new ideas and information in everyone's minds, we will capture key take aways as a community and then invite suggestions and discussion about next steps in the biochar movement.

Manure Management & Biochar, Matthew W. Smith, John Miedema, Mike Mcgolden

USBI Biochar Conferences

Co-location synergies: Biomethane & Biochar Production: John Medeima, BioLogical Carbon

Biochar Filters Impact on Anaerobic Digestion: Matthew Smith, WSU

http://youtu.be/RILS6wS3qWk

The Benefits of a Manure-based Biochar: Mike McGolden

http://youtu.be/t1hVgolalRI

Biochar has been in existence for thousands of years. However, it has only been in the past decade that there has been a resurgence in the thirst for knowledge about biochar and research into how it is made and its impact on the environment.

This resurgence has brought about a tremendous amount of research and a rapid growth in education among the general population about biochar – especially in the past …

Wednesday Morning Plenary, Doris Hamill, Tom Miles

USBI Biochar Conferences

Tom Miles will kick off the "Where to From Here" conversation that is critical to understanding next steps for the biochar industry in North America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCIu8QEQUkk

Doris Hamill will describe the K-12 biochar educational package she and her team launched at NASA, where it has taken off and where it may land. She will also share details about her project for using biochar in the redevelopment project on the Hampton Roads campus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx_7w1-bJ8A

Biochar Community Development, Ronal G. Larson, Jim Long, Scott Graves

USBI Biochar Conferences

Growing a Biochar Learning Network in a Rural Community: Jim Long

The presentation will review what we are learning about the effectiveness of our several-year, voluntary journey to introduce biochar to residents using a variety of techniques including:

• Orientations with members of our Umpqua Bio-Alternatives Cooperative and its Biochar Study Group;
• Articles published in newsletters and on web pages produced by related groups;
• Exhibits at farmers' markets, county weed days, and Earth Day;
• Live demonstrations with farmers, community gardeners, Grange members, school students, and Job Corps youth;
• Exhibits, demonstrations, and discussions during our annual fall Biochar Exposition with members of …

Pre-Soil Techniques, Nigel Gale, Dale Hendricks, Doug Clayton

USBI Biochar Conferences

Rescuing biochar: Pre - application techniques to enhance plant responses to biochar additions: Nigel Gale, U of Toronto

A growing body of literature indicates variable responses of different plant species to biochar, including positive, neutral, and negative, suggesting that it is important to investigate the nature and mechanism of species-specific responses to biochar additions. Neutral or negative plant responses to additions of biochars have commonly been reported in prior studies, and are likely the result of a combination of changes in soil properties (e.g. pH, surface area, and nutrient and water retention) and the production of volatile organic compounds from …

Labeling Biochar Products, Kelpie Wilson, David Yarrow, Renel Anderson

USBI Biochar Conferences

Making Claims for Biochar: Kelpie Wilson

Cool Foods: David Yarrow, KAW Valley Biochar

OMRI Certification: Renel Anderson, Black Owl Biochar

Novel Uses Of Biochar, Hans-Peter Schmidt

USBI Biochar Conferences

Cascading Uses of Biochar - Hans-Peter Schmidt, Ithaka Institute

In addition to the use of biochar as a soil amendment, there are an increasing number of ways to incorporate biochar into different eco- and industrial systems. Thus feeding biochar to livestock has numerous benefits not only for the animals, but it also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improves nutrient retention in animal manure. The use of biochar in building materials is just beginning to be studied but shows promise in the ability to insulate, decontaminate air, provide odor and humidity control. Biochar as pillow filling to induce perfectly reposing …

Ethics & Sustainability, Gloria Flora, John Bonitz, Karen Ribeiro

USBI Biochar Conferences

Biochar and the Sustainability Imperative. Now marks a critical time: as biochar comes of age and markets begin to develop, this young industry is attracting naysayers, doubters and get-rich-quick-schemers. Ethical biochar production and use is of paramount importance as we continue to lay the groundwork for biochar as a model for carbon neutral/negative business, landscape restoration and truly green technology. Shortcuts, poor quality product and unsustainable use of biomass could bring biochar to its knees before it gains the traction necessary to fulfill its promises. This discussion will explore opportunities and pitfalls in feedstocks sustainability, production integrity and ethics in …

Remediation/Pollution Control, Makoto Ogawa, Seok-Young Oh, Josh Kearns

USBI Biochar Conferences

Sorptive Treatment of Metals and Nitro Explosives in Water Using Biochar -

Seok-Young Oh^1*,

Biochar, a solid byproduct of a pyrolysis process was investigated as a sorbent to remove toxic metals and nitro explosives from natural water and wastewater. It was hypothesized that biochar can sorb dissolved metals and nitro explosives due to its high surface area and strong sorption affinity of aromatic organic compounds. Using a tube furnace under N₂, various types biochar were synthesized by changing biomass (poultry litter, sludge, fallen leaves, corn stalk, rice straw, and coffee grounds) and temperature (250, 400, …

Farmer Workshop, Rachel Hestrin, David Yarrow, Christian Pulver, Thea Whitman

USBI Biochar Conferences

Sunday afternoon October 13, 2013 from 1:00 to 4pm, at the New England Small Farm Institute in Belchertown MA (275 Jackson Street)

Join fellow farmers and gardeners in an interactive, educational, and highly stimulating presentation/workshop about what biochar is (and is not) along with details about how and why biochar can help you achieve your growing goals. Learn about the many benefits of soil conditioning with biochar, application techniques and amounts, carbon stability, and other practical advice. Rachel Hestrin from Cornell University will deliver a hands on technical presentation and field expert David Yarrow will review his extensive SARE grant …

President Barack Obama's Commencement Addresses: Revising The Functions Of Ceremonial Rhetoric, Milene Ortega Ribeiro

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Commencement speakers are typically expected to praise students for their achievements and motivate them for the path that is to come. When the commencement speaker is a President, however, the expectation is different. In times of rhetorical presidency, no presidential address is apolitical, and this project investigated the functions of ceremonial rhetoric in light of the rhetorical presidency doctrine. Close textual analysis of the three most controversial commencement speeches delivered by President Obama, revealed that the challenge of fulfilling the expectations of a commencement address, while also responding to rhetorical problems, required the President to adopt complex rhetorical strategies. The …

Social Media As Technologies Of Accountability: Explaining Resistance To Implementation Within Organizations, Jeffrey Treem

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

No abstract provided.

The Organization (Re)Invented By Its Blogs, Alex Primo

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

This article discusses how interactions in organizational blogs participate in the

emergence of the organization itself. Based on the principles of The Montreal School of organizational communication, the paper reflects on how the recursive relationship between texts and conversations in blogs, according to their affordances, mobilizes the organization and contributes to its continuing creation. In order to conduct this argument, the concept of social media, uses of organizational blogs and the main contributions of The Montreal School are analyzed. Finally, this article demonstrates how blogs contribute to the definition of the organization. Beyond their promotional potential, the blog’ role as …

Framing Ict Usage In The Real Estate Industry, Steven Jones

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

The real estate industry, like many, is one based on a competitive consumer culture in which professionals vie for the business and, ultimately, the loyalty of customers. In this case, those customers are purchasing what, for most, is a significant investment, requiring them to navigate various legal and regulatory processes that might be impossible without the assistance of a knowledgeable, seasoned agent. It is the presence of agency that renders real estate unique from retail and other industries where goods and services trade hands. Furthermore, the rise of various information and communication technologies (ICT) over the course of the past …

Microblogging Practices Of Virtual Organizations: Commonalities And Contrasts, Jing Wang

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

Microblogging is becoming increasingly pervasive in computer-supported collaboration, attracting various types of users. Organizations, as one type, are willing to leverage this social media service for their operation, but lack guidance of how to effectively manage their organizational microblogs. However, research on microblogging practices at organizational level, especially in virtual organizations, is very limited. To enhance the understanding of how virtual organizations use microblogs in similar and different ways, we investigate microblogging practices of two virtual organizations by examining the content characteristics of their Twitter posts. We identify eleven categories of microblog themes of three dimensions, consisting of both common …

Virtual Communities Don’T Exist: Avoiding Digital Dualism In Studying Collaboration, Pj Rey, Nathan Jurgenson

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

Effective collaboration in communities requires information sharing. Though digital media may have certain affordances that encourage us to communicate differently than in the past, the communities these media facilitate are no less real than communities bound together by voice or text. In this paper, we argue that idea of “virtual communities” is misleading. Communities and collaboration occur not in some virtual world or a new, cyber, space, but instead they are part of one reality influenced simultaneously by materiality and the various flows of information—digital included. In light of this argument, we implore researchers to take serious the influence of …

The “New” Prosumer: Collaboration On The Digital And Material “New Means Of Prosumption”, George Ritzer

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

Many of “cyber-utopians” have lauded the Internet, especially social networking sites, for a variety of reasons, including making possible a dramatic and revolutionary increase in social collaboration (Benkler, 2007; Tapscott and Williams, 2006). The goal of this essay is to examine- and, at least in part, debunk- this claim from a new and unique sociological perspective- the relationship between collaboration and the “new means of prosumption”. Such an examination is suggested by the fact that collaboration is, by definition, a form of prosumption. That is, it involves one or more parties “producing” and other(s) “consuming” something of mutual interest and …

Measuring Creative Performance Of Teams Through Dynamic Semantic Social Network Analysis, Peter Gloor

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

In this project we compare communication structure and content exchanged by members of creative, interdisciplinary teams of medical researchers, physicians, patients and caretakers with their creative output. We find that longitudinal social networking patterns and word usage predict creative performance. We collected the e-mail archives of 60 members of a community of researchers working on 12 projects improving various aspects of the daily lives of patients of Crohn’s disease. Our results indicate that more creative projects show a decrease in group density, while more actors are involved, and more emails are exchanged, suggesting that a more successful project attracts more …

The Future Of Social Movement Organizations: The Waning Dominance Of Smos Online, Jennifer Earl

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

For scholars interested in the role of information communication technologies (ICTs) in protest and social movements, the importance of organizations doesn’t appear to be as axiomatic. Work over the past decade researching “Internet activism” has raised fundamental questions about SMOs and their continuing importance to protest: Do organizations play the same role in online protest as they have played in offline protest? Are SMOs as necessary for online movements and protest organizing? What role or functions do SMOs play in online protest? In this article, I address these questions by first surveying social movement research on pre-Internet protest to establish …

The Role Of Social Media For Knowledge Sharing And Collaboration In Distributed Teams, Nicole Ellison, Matthew Weber

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

Social media are providing a medium through which individuals are reshaping how they do many things – finding romantic partners, providing social support, grieving for loved ones, even buying mundane items like toothpaste. They are also reshaping organizations – the way they function, the relationships they contain, and the ways organizations interact with external stakeholders. In this paper, we consider the changes that social media have introduced to organizational knowledge-sharing practices. We believe the social and technical affordances of social media create new challenges for organizations and necessitate research examining the ways in which: (1) technological affordances impact knowledge sharing …

Framing Social Media And Organizations, Dhiraj Murthy

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

No abstract provided.

Organization Outreach To The Sfa Campus, Julissa Lopez, Wil Mcfarland, Amy Brennan, Trevor Sparks

Undergraduate Research Conference

Ineffective communication between organizations and students leads to misconceptions as well as low organizational awareness, in both their existence and causes. Organizations tend to be too passive in their recruiting techniques. Communication education and training can aid organizations in becoming more effective at marketing to students and bridging the gap between potential members. Organizations fight for the attention of students to increase enrollment but in order to create initial student curiosity and involvement organizations must spark interest. We hoped to reinforce effective ways to communicate to the student body and increase involvement. We aimed to provide research for organizational leaders …

The Role Of Social Media For Knowledge Sharing And Collaboration In Distributed Teams, Nicole Ellison, Matthew Weber

Collaborative Organizations & Social Media Conference

Abstract

A Research On Family-Owned Newspaper, Mengmeng Li, Xiaofei Song, Alix Carole Bilip

Annual Research Symposium of the College of Communication and Information

This paper conducts a research on the family-owned newspapers by interviewing the managers from the industry and doing a solid content analysis. It answers three research questions: What is the role of organizational ecology in the development or innovation of family-owned newspapers? How can organizational ecology be applied to newspapers? What elements on the newspapers’ websites are possibly profitable for the newspaper?