Proposal for Technology Improvements for
the Biomass Renewable Energy Community
By Damian Kostiuk & George Sterzinger, Renewable Energy Policy
Project
REPP, in guidance from Tom Miles, has developed a list of functions and
products to offer the biomass community.
The genesis for this proposal is a simple case of listening to one's
customers - these are things the biomass community has said they need and are
growing impatient for.
Every facet has one central relationship of
being an online service needed for the continued vibrant and comprehensive
dialogue currently taking place on the biomass discussion lists hosted by
REPP.
At present none of the functions or services are held in one place or do
not exist at all. The result is a
fractured service structure where important pieces of single ideas are not
efficiently discussed because of technical barriers to the free flow of
information. For example, if
members of the biomass community wanted to share a document for peer review,
attachments to automated e-mail list systems can very easily corrupt files, and
it places a burden on users who have slow e-mail connections throughout the
world (particularly American researchers abroad in Africa). A unified library would allow users to
access the information when they want or when they can.
REPP will develop, implement, and manage the following functions and
products:
FUNCTIONS
ONLINE
LIBRARY
Goal: Searchable archive of files, such as MS
Word and Adobe Acrobat documents, that discussion members can upload and
download.
Quite often in the discussion groups,
members seek peer review of materials, and need a place to make them
available. Additionally, many
American researchers write from obscure African locations asking for technical
information or want to post findings for other members.
Present Status: If members want to
share files they must attach files to e-mails. The problems are many: file sizes get to
big for those members with slow internet connections, some files are
automatically deleted because the management software views them as viruses, and
finding files in the discussion list archive becomes laborious if not impossible
for recurring use.
ONLINE COMMENT & REPLY
MECHANISM
Goal: An interface for discussion list
archive users to reply to or initiate messages via their web
browser.
While searching the list archive users have written us asking to be able
to reply or start a new discussion.
The path of least resistance would be a browser based utility, allowing a
user to instantly engage with the content without a five-minute, ten-minute, or
day long process.
Present Status: REPP discussion archive
users view an average 350,000 pages per month. Sometimes people want to reply to a
message that was sent in 1996, but cannot.
As well, people who don’t want to become full-time discussion list
members cannot comment on specific, one-time, questions or
statements.
LIVE DISCUSSION ROOMS WITH
MODERATOR
Goal: Live, online public forum for
low-cost meetings with a moderator providing organization to the
discussion.
A discussion list conversation on any
biomass issue would be cumbersome and slow. Having a live venue would allow groups
to have formal dialogues on specific and pertinent issues.
Participants could join from international locations to a meeting space
where they could type in comments or speak via their phone. The moderator would allow for people to
be given appropriate amounts of time per question, and provide equal access for
Q&A with impartial judgment.
Without a moderator, the conversation looses coherence with people trying
to respond to single ideas at the same time with no unity.
Present Status: There is no website
that offers the one-stop-shop service.
PRODUCTS
DEVELOPMENT OF RULES &
REGULATIONS
REPP is positioned to facilitate regulators
needs to hear the opinions, analysis, and data from the archives and live online
forum.
In particular, the live online forum benefits regulators by creating an
extremely low cost method of holding public meetings with top biomass experts
from across the country.
TECHNICAL DOCUMENT
DISSEMINATION
With the library in place, REPP could efficiently disseminate links to
the content via the discussion lists and registered users. Given the volume of discussion articles
read by REPP on a monthly basis, REPP could achieve a high degree of
saturation.
DISCUSSION TOPIC
CONSOLIDATION REPORT – QUARTERLY
With the wealth of information already in REPP’s archives, and with
future activities, REPP is in a prime position to edit the Biomass discussion
lists into a quarterly summary of topics, updates, and recent dialogues in the
biomass community.
BIOMASS
NEWS
In keeping with the needs of the biomass
community to know about new policies and data, REPP could provide a daily or
weekly news summary to the biomass community via e-mail or on REPP’s discussion
list homepage.
ONGOING
OPERATIONS
All of these services require a technical coordinator and online content
manager.
