Dear Oregonians,

Please support the development of this critical, state-wide information service.

Calendula flower.
Calendula and other sunflower relatives help attract pollinators to the landscape.

 

Together, we can make this important pest management and pesticide communications content relevant and accessible for Oregon and beyond!

  1. Show your support for this essential educational resource by completing the quick web form at solvepestproblems.org Your name, position title and organization will be listed on the project website as a “Project supporter.”
  2. Contribute your time and expertise by serving on our bi-annual advisory group or by participating in a focus group to help craft the content.
  3. Join the consortium of OSU units, partner agencies and foundations that are helping to finance the development of this high-priority project and community-based information service. Or, make a tax-deductible donation for businesses, individuals, and community groups to OSUs Agricultural Research Foundation (8399G).
  4. Encourage other interested organizations and individuals to support this investment in Oregon’s information services to help protect human and environmental health.

We want to get it right to ensure this important information service is clearly and effectively written and understandable for both English and Spanish speaking audiences.  As a community-based and design-research-informed process, OSU will conduct an equitable and inclusive stakeholder engagement process to solicit feedback from diverse constituents, agency partners, industry, and the general public to inform the development of this state-wide information resource.  We will contract with 6-10 culturally specific community organizations to help us develop original pesticide risk reduction content.  Stakeholders will include members of communities facing greater risks from pesticide exposure.

Draft stakeholder engagement contract language:

We want to get it right to ensure that this important information service is clearly and effectively written and understandable for both English and Spanish speaking audiences.  As a community-based and design-research-informed process, OSU will conduct an equitable and inclusive stakeholder engagement process to solicit feedback from diverse constituents, agency partners, industry, and the general public to inform the development of this state wide information resource.  We will contract with at least 6-10 culturally specific community organizations to help us develop original pesticide risk reduction content in Spanish and English.  Stakeholders will include members of communities facing greater risks from pesticide exposure.  Here are the initial assumptions about this process:

  • Goal to engage a diversity of voices including ones who have been underrepresented in integrated pest management education at OSU in the past.
  • A contractor will be hired for refining the plan for inclusive engagement. Their deliverables will include a primary role in recruitment, selection and coordination of community groups’ involvement as well as participation in the two main focus groups and facilitation of two focus groups focused on the Spanish language content.
  • We anticipate building relationships with a diversity of culturally specific community organizations that will last through the multi-year web resources development process.
  • We also plan to engage Latinx organizations in particular to help shape the design and development of SolvePestProblems.org in Spanish, parallel with the English language platform.
  • The assumption is for the core content to be the same on both platforms, with some additional content and possible differences in delivery for the Spanish platform, reflective of the findings from the engagement process.

When the facilitation contract is hired, a specific plan for this inclusive engagement process will be provided to Metro and funders for approval before enacting the plan.

Main focus groups

Two main focus groups will be conducted, one in Portland and one in Deschutes County, each including the full range of stakeholders including representatives of culturally specific community organizations.

Representatives of the following audiences will be included:

  • Landscape professionals
  • Public land managers
  • Master Gardeners
  • Retail nursery representatives
  • Agency partners
  • Environmental health advocacy representatives
  • 2-3 culturally specific community organizations including facilitator for the Spanish content groups described below.

Here are additional details about these focus groups:

  • To be held in September 2017.
  • 25 people maximum.
  • Possible pre-survey with a short overview of the project.
  • “Full day” 4 hours of work with lunch and breaks
  • The OSU team includes:
    • Overall scale and scope of content: Weston Miller
    • Diversity, Equity and inclusion: Ana lu Fonseca or contactor.
    • Pesticide risk reduction: Paul Jepson, Andony Melathopoulos, and others.
    • Pollinator health: Andony Melathopolous and Paul Jepson.
    • Evaluation planning: Mary Halbleib.
    • Note taking and communications: Linda Brewer.
  • Follow up engagements (e.g.: surveys, interviews, document reviews, interactive mockups, etc. incentivized as needed).

Community groups representing diverse stakeholders

Assume $3,000 contract for each organization.  We will also be able to provide several contracts for $5,000 for groups to participate in two focus groups (one in Portland and one in either Redmond or Hermiston).  Here are the expectations for contracted participants:

  • Review initial project information.
  • Attend full-day focus group meeting.
  • Share information presented at the focus group meeting with participants that you represent. Collect their feedback about the proposed plan.
  • Participate in follow-up interview and survey.

Spanish language portal focus groups

We will also conduct two additional focus groups, one in Portland and one in Hermiston with 5-8 participants from community organizations to provide input about the Spanish language content included in the plan.  These meetings will be largely held in Spanish. This process will include a contract for facilitation and contracts for community groups representing diverse stakeholders as described above.  Here are the expectations for contracted participants:

  • Review initial project information.
  • Attend full-day focus group meeting.
  • Share information presented at the focus group meeting with participants that you represent. Collect their feedback about the proposed plan.
  • Participate in follow-up interview and survey.

Facilitation contract-$18,000

  • Meet with OSU to determine overall scope and objectives of focus group meetings.
  • Determine process for selecting community organizations for participation.
  • Recruit community organizations.
  • Provide initial documentation to community groups to provide background on project.
  • Attend main focus group meetings (Portland and Deschutes County) and facilitate conversation about equity and inclusion.
  • Conduct two full-day focus group meetings for community groups focused on Spanish Language content (One in Portland, one in Hermiston).
  • Take detailed notes of focus group meetings.
  • Provide follow up documentation to focus groups.
  • Conduct follow-up interviews with community organizations.
  • Provide detailed report to OS

Application for community group participation:

Check one of these options:

$3,000 to participate in one focus group.

$5,000 to participate in two focus groups (one in Portland and one in either Redmond or Hermiston).

First name

Last name

Organization

Website URL

Phone
Email address

Why does your group want to participate in the development of SolvePestProblems.org?

How do you think your group can contribute to the development of online pest management and pesticide risk reduction content?

How will you share information about this planned information resource with your clients to collect their input that you can then share with OSU?

The overarching goal for this major content development effort is to provide scientifically accurate information that is written for an eighth grade reading level and easily understandable and to provide substantial visual content to help users diagnose the problem, determine possible management strategies, and take informed action.

OSU content team: Determine specific topics to be covered per content area for a total of at least 660 content pages, roughly allocated as follows:

Content areas Number pages
Pesticide information and pollinator pages 40
Household pests 35
Animal pests 15
Weeds 140
How-to horticulture guides 40
Plant problems 390
Lawns and turf 35
Berries, fruits, and nuts 125
Vegetables and melons 90
Ornamental plants 120
Houseplants 10
Indoor gardening 10
Total 660

See the Content outline  from the 2016 project plan, which fulfilled the original contract for this project.

At this time, there are 620 content pages for which we need to assign roles based on the projected cost  of $3,214 per content page in both English- and Spanish-languages.

Roles and Responsibilities

Here are the roles associated with content development for SolvePestProblems.org:

Role Content development responsibilities Staff role
Manage project Develop funding streams through grants, contracts and gifts and administer project. Supervise staff. Project manager
Coordinate project Assign content, review content, oversee revision or additional research, enforce deadlines, and answer questions from writers. Coordinate review process. Project coordinator
Content owner Provide list of existing educational resources to use for researching individual content pages including text, photos, and references. Determine what is most important to convey to retain scientific accuracy. Content owner
Write content Interpret provided source content at an 8th grade reading level. Follow tone, voice, and other writers’ guidelines. Identify representative images from public sources for licensure. Document sources of all content. Professional writer

 

Illustrate visual content Ensure consistency among all illustrations by creating a plan for the desired look. Create simple and complex illustrations from provided reference images. Follow instructions about desired emphasis of illustrations. Elicit feedback from project team to ensure problem is accurately portrayed. Illustrator
Seek permissions Track permissions for use of content in a spreadsheet including file name, content owner contact information, and date. Briefly summarize each communication. Document link to online content. Determine and document whether the site is the original posting or a site established by another user. Save written consent document and track its location. Project coordinator
Contribute photographs Provide photographs with title, description and credit attribution to support website content. OSU faculty, volunteers and partners
Edit content Content owner or supervised staff will review for factual accuracy of content for initial site building and annual review. Content owner
High-level editor

 

Ensure that the content is aligned with overall project communication goals, messages and strategies. Provide higher level content review. Project coordinator
Copy edit content Review materials for typos, grammar, and consistency of tone, voice, tense, writing style and AP style (terminology, acronyms, etc.) Copy editor
Post and review content on website Post content to website. Verify that content titles, chunks of content, taxonomy, tags, metadata, breadcrumbs and other backend tasks are correct. Website technology manager
Oversee future content editing Ensure factual and scientific accuracy of content. Track changes of information with scientific knowledge, emerging pests and changes with pesticide registrations. Suggest changes for yearly updates. Content owner

 

Content review plan

Project development will be guided by a formal plan and mechanisms for content review so that both OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Extension scholarship expectations and Experiment Stations Communications protocols for review are met.  Content review will proceed based on the roles and responsibilities of project staff:

  1. Content writers and illustrators will be given appropriate, research-based sources of information to study and understand before creating content.
  2. Content owners will oversee reviews of drafts and final content for factual accuracy.
  3. Project coordinator or manager will perform high-level editing to ensure that content meets overall communications goals and messages.
  4. Copy editor will review materials for typos, grammar, and consistency of tone, voice, tense, writing style and AP style (terminology, acronyms, etc.).
  5. Website technology manager will post content on the website and verify that content is correct in terms of titles, chunks of content, taxonomy, tags, metadata, breadcrumbs and other backend tasks.

Cost per page

There are two models for individual content development for this comprehensive resource depending on interest of OSU faculty and Staff taking on the task of doing the content writing.

For novel content that OSU faculty and Staff want to write, here are projected costs per page:

Cost calculator per page Hours Hourly Cost / pg. Notes
Content owner
Find content information sources 1 75  $      75.00 Provide references, priorities, text, visual content
Write text 5 75  $    375.00 600-800 words in template
Retainer for future 2 75  $    150.00 Keep tabs on this content and provide changes in future
Content reviewers Assigned to OSU faculty and staff
Factual content review 2 75  $    150.00 Needs to meet scholarship criteria per CAS and EESC.
Coordinator
Coordination per page 3 75  $    225.00 Coordinate team communications and assemble content
Permissions 2 75  $    150.00 Find and attribute credit to content contributors
Post content and review 3 75  $    225.00 Nodes, bread crumbs, tags, etc.
Contracted services
Editing to achieve unified voice across site 2.257 60  $    135.42
Create visual content 4 60  $    240.00 2-4 line drawings or diagrams per content page
Copy editing 1 60  $      60.00 APA style
Total Cost English languages page 25.257  $1,785.42
Spanish language pages  $1,339.07 Estimated at 75% cost of English pages
Cost per content page  $3,124.49 In both English- and Spanish- language

For more routine pest cases for which there is already well-developed content to draw from to develop 600-800 word pages, we can hire a contracted writer to write the text, leaving the OSU content owner with 5 hours of time per content page.

Variable cost calculator for content development.

Content owners details

Income per page for content owners with writing

Cost calculator per page Hours Hourly wage Cost / pg. Notes
Find content sources 1 $75 $75 Provide references, priorities, text, visual content
Write text 5 75 $375 600-800 words in template
Retainer for future 2 $75 $150 Keep tabs on this pest and content and provide suggested changes for specific pages as needed
Total 8 $600 Per content page

Income per page for content owners without writing

Funding per page for content experts.
Funding per page for content experts.

The fundraising plan for this project includes funds for content owners as specified above.  Content owners, if the wish, can waive the income allocated for this service to make an in-kind contribution toward this project.

Timeline for content development

Year 1

During the first year of this project, we will primarily be focused on the initial build-out of the technology platform and making final plans for the content, particularly pesticide risk reduction information.  Develop 15 examples representing Drupal content types and areas of focus.

Years 2 and 3

Develop content in earnest.