ADVET is a unique approach to continuing veterinary education that combines active, collaborative team-based learning with a convenient online format. The ADVET – Swine program is directed toward all types and levels of swine practitioners who would like to learn approaches and solutions to important issues facing the swine industry today. This program aims to provide knowledge and skills that can be immediately applied to the everyday practice of veterinary medicine.

Datastream was tasked with finding a very special type of learning management system that focused on simplicity, power, and mobility which is uncommon in today's typical solutions like Moodle or Blackboard.

We have deployed the new website and soon, the new Canvas LMS, for the U of MN College of Veterinary Medicine with their website located at http://www.advet.net.   More than just a simple website, as the course matures and and the curriculum expands, we actually deployed an entire website management system to highlight all the functions of the Swine Curriculum and help market these courses.   The site is built to be clean, modern, and look great on all devices from desktop to phone;  keep a watch on this project as it will certainly be exciting watching a new era in education unfold at the University for outreach programs.

Our long time partner, the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, has upgraded their website.  We were happy to develop version 3 of their site, reflecting today's requirements in a website including mobile capabilities.  We reorganized and streamlined the site to make it easier to navigate and find the information you need.  Whether you want to learn more about NCFPD-related research activities, information technologies tools created by NCFPD, food defense educational resources, or NCFPD collaborators, the information is at your fingertips by going to www.ncfpd.umn.edu.

NCFPD is socially active… meaning you can also find them via Linked In, Facebook and Twitter! 

The mission of the Open CFML Foundation is to increase the awareness and adoption of open source CFML solutions via advocacy and education, to provide support to select open source CFML projects, and to promote the growth and development of the CFML language and related technologies.

At the Oct 9th, 2012 meeting in Washington DC, Datastream Connexion's President Eric Hoffman presented covering several topics.  Hoffman presented how DSCXN was able to leverage open source Mura CMS to develop and deploy a sophisticated ecosystem of websites to improve information sharing and collaboration between 50 states and the FDA.  Highlights included the ability to work within a single install and leverage Mura's internal data sharing capabilities, while demonstrating significant user adoption of the sites because of its ease of use for busy administrators at each state.

Further discussed was the state of ColdFusion and the community in the context of Hoffman's role as CIO for Victree, a local healthcare company in Minneapolis/St. Paul. 

For more information on OpenCFML, please visit http://www.opencfmlfoundation.org.

The Food Protection Task Forces, supported by the Division of Federal/State Relations at FDA, convene stakeholders in food safety. These stakeholders form Taskforces that consist of government, industry, academia, and consumer groups that create an effective state-wide infrastructure for outreach, response, and information sharing. Currently, there are 28 state Taskforces.

Datastream created a website ecosystem allowing one web infrastructure to manage all 28 websites simply and effectively.  Each task force controls their individual website, with results of the efforts sharing across all other sites and aggregating into one unified view of task force activity.

We have also implemented private, branded CoreSHIELD mini-portals for each task force and created a simple, end-user manageable mobile app infrastructure allowing each task force to manage and deploy their own iOS and Android mobile apps.

Over the upcoming year, we will continue supporting the strategic growth of the web ecosystem, as well as social media and mobile platforms.   The partnership between DSCXN and DFSR has been great, and the results are impacting food safety in the country!

In coordination with the National Center for Food Protection and Defense at the University of Minnesota, Datastream Connexion is pleased to announce version 2 of the web infrastructure for University Programs at the Department of Homeland Security.

Built to allow many editors from multiple Homeland Security Center of Excellence update and contribute to their contact areas, the website offers the latest news and activities from these Centers from around the country.

Behind the scenes, the CoreSHIELD portal infrastructure and technology service was implemented to the recent 7.10 release to offer the latest in features to both University Programs and the Centers of Excellence.   Exceeding the standards already set nationally by CoreSHIELD in the areas of collaboration, the UP Portal now offers custom branding to insure each Center has a feature-rich collaboration environment that looks and feels like a natural extension of their existing technology.

More information about University Programs can be found here, and you can visit the public site by clicking here!

To further enhance communications between states to protect the food supply Datastream, in coordination with the National Center for Food Protection and Defense and the Division of Federal/State Relations at the FDA, are deploying a unique web ecosystem.   The Food Protection Task Force required a web system that would allow for a parent site, and up to 50 state-based sites: one per state.   The goal is to allow task forces to communicate with other task forces, the FDA, and constituents in their state whether in the public or industry.

Datastream has been built a unique ecosystem of sites that allows each state to simply manage their web sites, and created automated plumbing behind the scenes to coordinate data flows as appropriate.   The result is a fluid ecosystem of sites that each maintain their autonomy to satisfy local state needs, yet within a framework that solves the needs of the FDA.

Contact us for more information on how we took a challenge of this proportion and delivered it so users with little to no web experience could manage their state's site.   To further put this infrastructure ahead of the curve: mobile app extensions of these sites are coming soon! 

We are excited to announce another site launch. One Health Talk is a site that supports discussion about the One Health concept, and is directed by the United Nations and supported by the University of Minnesota and Datastream Connexion. A unique challenge to build a site for a global audience! http://www.onehealthtalk.org

We are working closely with the University of Minnesota and the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, in coordination with the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization along with the World Health Organization to create a new worldwide discussion platform to promote inclusive dialog to bring better health worldwide. This is an exciting effort, stay tuned for launch details!