Sharing soil knowledge and evaluating progress in the New South Wales Soil Knowledge Network

Abstract

AbstractThe New South Wales (NSW) Soil Knowledge Network (SKN) is a group of retired soil specialist volunteers, who strive to promote the importance of soils through knowledge and expertise. The Soil Knowledge Network is unique and represents a new direction in knowledge sharing using the passion of recently retired soil scientists to support new and early career soil scientists. The terms ‘legacy science’ and ‘sharing legacy knowledge’ are used here to describe SKN activities. This paper reflects on the progress of the SKN and assesses its positive impact on raising the awareness and understanding of soils using qualitative examples from workshops, a survey of soil team coaches at the 2018 National soil judging competition, and metrics from social media and online resources. SKN successes and learning experiences are discussed along with notions of trust, credibility and the importance of people in delivering positive outcomes.