Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center

Office of the Director

1680 Madison Avenue
OH 44691-4096
Wooster,
Phone 330-263-3701
Fax 330-263-3688
Admin. Bldg.
115 Ag.
2120 F1fe Road
January 4,21tt Columbus, OH 43210 - 1066
Phone 674-292-3897
Fax 614-292-3263
E-mail oardc@osu.edu

Ohio State Hostmaster

320 West 8th Ave
Colum bus, Ohio 43201 -2331,
6L4-292-9525fax

Dear Hostmaster:

We request that the domain "localfoodystems.org" be hosted by The Ohio State University
under the management and administration of the Agroecosystems Management Program of
the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

This domain references a social networking site that was originally designed to facilitate
University and stakeholder interact¡on on building local economies around food systems in
Ohio. lt was subsequently supported by major grants from the USDA Specialty Crops Research
lnitiative Regional Partnerships for lnnovation Program (the only award made so far in this
programl)and the Fund for Our Economic Future in NE Ohio. The site has over 1000
subscribersfromthroughouttheUnitedStatesaswell asotherpartsoftheworld. Thesiteis
administered by Casey Hoy, who leads the Agroecosystems Management Program. Network
administration has been handled by Sam Rose, of Socialsynergy, lnc., Lansing Mlthrough
purchased services on the USDA grant. The network administration will be handled by
Agroecosystems Management Program and OARDC staff once the site server and domain has
been transferred to OSU. The points requested for this letter follow.

1, Purpose/function/nature of the organization: Although initiated in Ohio, the organization

focuses on Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan through the USDA grant (project summary
attached). Subcontracts to OSU in the USDA grant include the Pennsylvania Association for
Sustainable Agriculture and the CS Mott Group for Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State
University. Subscribers represent a wide range of interested individuals, businesses, agencies,
and NGO's. The USDA RPI program requires a plan forsustainingthe partnerships built under
the grant after the period of the grant. Although the grant will continue at least through 2OLI,
moving the site to an OSU server is the first step in our plan for this. This networking site is
entirely consistent with the research and especially the outreach partnerships of the
Agroecosystems Management Program and we will continue to offer the networking tools and
capacities that we are building into the site, supporting its ongoing availability through a
combination of extramural and endowment funds.

6t Tåe OARDC shall be the premier institution committed to:

saþhealthy ønd afordablefood ønd agriculturølproducts; sustainøblefood and agricultural systems;
strong rurøl ønd urbøn communities; stewørdship of natural resources and the environment; keeping Ohio
positioned føvorøbly in a global economy. ZÐ
2. The site itself is not a private, business or commercial venture. Subscription is free and open
to anyone, the software that we are developing to provide social networking tools is open
source and has been released, and we do not plan to charge anyone anything for ongoing use
of the site. All of this is consistent with the federal Brant support that has been used to
improve the software behind the site. lt should be noted, however, that the networking
facilitated by the site is very purposeful in helping people develop locally owned businesses
that build local and regional economies around agriculturalvalue chains, also consistent with
the objectives or our USDA grant.

3. We agree to a periodic review and renewal process of the domain to insure that the content
matches this original signed agreement and that no commercial activity is taking place with
respect to the site itself.

4. We will take responsibility for additional costs in the registration process, including but not
limited to transferring or renewing the domain name with the appropriate domain registrar.

lf you have any questions you may contact Casey Hoy at hov.l-(Ðosu.edu , or 330-263-36LL.

Professor and Kellogg wed Chair in Agricultural Ecosystems Management

Associate Vice President for Agricultural

Administration and Director, OARDC