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.

RE: DIG-L: REPP/CREST Proposals for Improving the Lists and Web Functions