Computer Applications in Horticulture Working Group
Minutes of October 7, 1996

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I. Minutes from the 1995 COMPWG business meeting were approved as submitted.

II. Nomination of Officers and Review of Governing Board
Carole Bassett will continue to serve as Chair for 1996-1997. G. Kling, Vice-Chair, will assume Chair duties (1997-1998) following the 1997 ASHS meeting. Daniel Lineberger was nominated for the Vice-Chair position by L. Sistrunk and G. Kling moved that nominations be closed. Daniel Lineberger was elected by acclamation to serve as Vice-Chair and recording secretary for the 1997 meeting, followed by rotation into the Chair position (1998-1999) for the following year.

III. Workshops and Colloquia for the 1997 ASHS meeting in Salt Lake City
A. Colloquium: "Implementing HortBase: Horticulture Global Information System for Decision Support
The COMPWG will co-sponsor this colloquium. The following speakers and topics were proposed:

• Dr. Jim Green, What is HortBase? What will it do? How can we use it? How can you participate as an author and/or editor?
• Dr. Mary Albrecht, ASHS Strategic Planning and HortBase
• Dr. Basil Eastwood, National Electronic Information Systems, Agricultural Databases for Decision Support
• Dr. Ricardo Gomez, A Horticulturist's Perspective of Agricultural Databases for Decision Support
• Charles Emely, The Role of ASHS in Implementing HortBase
• Mike Neff, ASHS Publication Role in Implementing HortBase
• Dr. Dan Lineberger, Integrating the Web into Existing Extension and Educational Technology
• Dr. Ed Gilman, The CD-ROM-World Wide Web Hybrid
• Dr. Mary Peet, Developing, Converting and Maintaining Information Rich Resources on the Web
• Dr. Roger Kjelgren, HortBase: Providing a Foundation for Distance Education.

B. Workshop: Integrating Resources on the Web - the Next Stage of Information Management.
T. Rhodus suggested that this not be a typical session with a list of speakers to fill the time but rather a facilitated meeting in which the following questions/topics would be addressed by the participants:

• Can there or should there be integration?
• What is the appropriateness of integration?
• What hardware, attitude and policies would be needed?

These topics would be discussed in a Group Decision Process which will prioritize the topics, break into appropriate subgroups and then come back together to form conclusions. T. Rhodus volunteered to write up a more specific proposal and C. Bassett will circulate it to members for their comments.

C. Workshop: Integration of graphics, digital images and video images
The COMPWG agreed to cosponsor this workshop with the Commercial Horticulture Extension WG. The Commercial Horticulture Extension WG will take the lead on developing this workshop. Chuck Marr of Kansas State U. is our contact.

IV. Workshops and Colloquia for 1998 meetings
A. Workshop: Computer Technology and Gene Expressions.
The COMPWG will cosponsor this proposed workshop/colloquium with the Plant Biotechnology WG. Specific topics include:

• Predicting tertiary gene structure by analysis of primary structure,
• Making mutagenesis predictions,
• Using search engines for gene analysis.

B. Colloquium: Virtual Horticulture Curricula
G. Kling on behalf of the COMPWG will take the lead in planning for this colloquium. This colloquium would be cosponsored by the Floriculture Education WG, the Teaching Methods WG and the Nursery Crops WG. Topics to be considered include:

• Virtual Universities and Virtual Curricula
• How to use the Web to deliver instruction remotely
• What do students want to learn
• How do we provide new learning environments
• How do we provide laboratory experiences
• Web assisted versus supplanting existing programs
• Management side of institutions of higher learning
• Credit for putting information on Web

A demonstration of the technologies used to deliver virtual courses should be a part of the colloquium if possible. W. Summers, D. Lineberger and G. Kling volunteered to approach other working groups to solicit their support. (Post-business meeting note: The above three working groups agreed to cosponsor this colloquium.)

V. The COMPWG Home Page
D. Lineberger volunteered to put our working group homepage on the Web and ask ASHS for a link. In the subsequent discussion, it was mentioned that this system was preferable to having ASHS put our Web page up, in terms of our being able to modify it as needed. Minutes and agenda from our meetings should be put on our home page.

VI. Other Business
A. ASHS as a Source of Horticultural Information
D. Lineberger indicated that there are approximately 2,700 journals on-line. The question was raised as to why ASHS publications were not among those, since security is not the problem that it once was. T. Rhodes commented that ASHS should become a sour ce of horticultural information and not just facilitate display of information for public relations purposes. T. Rhodes will approach C. Emely to begin discussions on this topic.

B. Mechanical Harvesting Bibliographies
Dale Marshall indicated that he had 3 very complete bibliographies on mechanical harvesting of horticultural crops. He offered to supply access to individuals or institutions needing them.

Submitted by G. Kling