_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference
_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference
Put into a deeper historical context, perhaps today with PCs, phone links of various qualities and a relentless swarm of new software and hardware gadgets, we are in a similar position to the book 'industry' back in the eleventh century when, more often than not, the ink just wouldn't stay on the page, or the page would wither away, or the binding would give up altogether. Must have been terribly frustrating. And yet... and yet.
Results and accomplishments of Week 1
- WWW test site goes on line.
- First invitations sent out (initial pilot group).
- Arrangements made with Teles for two multi-point videoconferences.
- Authors of first round of thinkpieces for 'Podium' contacted, topics discussed.
- First papers loaded into Electronic Library
- Web Hint: Working with the Web is a far richer and potentially more rewarding activity than nine tyros out of ten will realize. So, do yourself a big favor: lay aside your usual impatience and give it the time and patience it deserves. See our Tools for Tyros pages to get you going (and follow the daily tips that you will find in these What's New pages).
Today's Web Detour: World Wide Web Virtual Library: Sustainable Development This fine index includes links to resources, organizations, events, projects, discussion groups, libraries, journals, databases, and documents.
- Conference opens its virtual doors.
- Website operational in stripped down version.
- Initial reactions and feedback on technical matters dominate.
- All contacts are urged to inform their networks and mailing lists to get the word out
- First "thinkpiece" logged into the Podium is the The Virtual Conference in Brief: Scope, Objectives and Method by Robert Ayres and Eric Britton.
- Conference URL communicated to Yahoo!, Excite and Alta Vista!
- Initial reactions: questions and feedback (complaints) on technical matters dominate.
- Second Podium "thinkpiece" is the Conference Invitation and Background Note: Zero Emissions, Phase II by R. Ayres or INSEAD
- Initial round of contacts asked to network to inform colleagues.
- Links made to facilitate entry from The Commons home page.
- Initial round of contacts made to distribute and test free Beta version of ICQ 'net meeting' utility in support of conference.
- Web Hint: If you are not using the 3.0 or better versions of your Web browsers, you are missing out on a lot (and running slower than you need to). Check out the Websites for both Netscape and Internet Explorer , and download as your taste and pocketbook permit.
- Website going on 90% complete. (Ha! WebMaster remark of one week later.)
- Internal navigation and user guidelines are improved and put up front.
- Third Podium piece is Zero Emissions: A Real World Perspective by Allen Hammond of the World Resource Institute.
- Web Hint: Your modem holds one of the main keys to your enjoyment and efficiency at the conference. If you are operating at less than 28.8, then it's really time for a major upgrade. (And do have a close look at ISDN availability and prices in your neighborhood. It's getting cheaper and easier to get every day, and once you have tried it, you will not want to go back.)
- Development work continues on site. It is turning out to be considerably more difficult than planned, mainly due the great variation in computer and Web skills of the participants. This is, in fact, turning out to be one of the major themes and challenges of the conference.
- Today's Podium piece is Biodiversity as the Basis for Upsizing the World Economy, Gunter Pauli, ZERI/UNU.
- Geeks' Corner
makes its first appearance (and hopefully not its last).- Web Hint: Your monitor is another critical link. You will want to see these pages fast and clear, and if that is not the case, then you are unlikely to get much enjoyment for this or any other Web site. See our Technology Shelf for more on this.
- Link and search section added.
- Today's Podium piece (called by its author, a "provocation") is The New Media: New Skills for the Research and Policy Communities, by Eric Britton of EcoPlan (Paris).
- Next Friday’s multipoint videoconference will be limited to a maximum of seven participants, so reservations are requested.
- Key navigation aids almost ready and will be uploaded over the week-end. No conference sessions scheduled over week-end, but comments, etc. welcomed as those of you who have time to access and read begin to gear up for active participation in week 2.
- Question of the Day: Do we need to provide an easily downloadable, nicely formatted paper version of the highlights of this site both for reference, and to ease first use for tyros? (This question was answered in the affirmative, and by the end of Week 2 the first of these summaries was loaded into the Library site.)
- Web Hint: There is more to the Web than words and images. If you do not have a sound card and a microphone, an if you intend to use the Web, we recommend that you obtain both. The reasons for doing so gain more force every day.
- More has been accomplished within the project via its continuing upgrading and extension as a working conference site, than in the substantive terms. The results are rewarding.
- Those participants new to the Web who have taken advantage of the fine linked tutorials that we have set out here are probably going to have little trouble in getting full value out of this meeting. Those who are too proud or too hurried to learn those basic skills, well... (and that, as you know, is a large part of what this conference is about.)
- On the other hand it is clear that we need to find ways to increase the number of participants. More vigorous early work in preparing this aspect of the project would have been timely. But one learns.
- Hope you're rested after your weekend. We're not, we're exhausted.
- In addition to lining up and working with the author to prepare the next Podium piece which today is Zero Emissions Realities in a Diverse and Conflicted World: The Very Ordinary Problem of Motorcycles in Cities , by Madhav Badami, a doctoral candidate at University of British Columbia, we have been slaving away at making our user interface a bit more friendly to the less handy computer users in our midst.
- This is the week that we are hoping that the feedback and discussion will begin in earnest. We believe that we how have most of the basic Web infrastructure in place to support it. For now perhaps the best place to start will be By sending us your comments and observations on the first series of Podium thinkpieces, which we can subsequently post and of course transmit directly to the author for her or his reactions.
- Your suggestions for more Podium pieces and candidates for such presentations. You may even have one in the form of a longer commentary on one of the pieces that have been thus far posted (see below for the latest on this). Thanks.
- Note discussion and comments on the Letter of Invitation, and in particular the matter of the call for '3rd generation eco-efficiency case studies'
- Web Hint: May we recommend that you spend some time with and linking from the various Web sites indicated the conference's home page to inspect the results. They represent a rich world of information and opinion and are, in our view, one of the main contributions of this meeting.
- Today's Podium piece is in three parts, under the title The Zero Emissions/Virtuality Link: A Perspective from the Program for the Human Environment, Rockefeller University , by Jesse H. Ausubel, who is Director of the program.
- Arrangements have now been made for the first group videoconference to be held at 17:00 Paris time. The call-in number for the session is 00.49.30.399.28.2622 (the Teles host conferencing site in Berlin). Please note there is room for a maximum of seven participants; so do let us know if you will be joining us. Our expectations for participation are modest, given the limited response that we have had on this to date. nonetheless the session will be run as a pilot/testing phase and all are invited. A report on this event will be placed on the site, and we are hopeful that the planned second such conference on 25 August will be well attended.
- (PrimeHost site goes down for 12 hours blocking updating of materials but not user access. This is however only the second such breakdown that we have suffered in the last three years of site operation.)
- Our Podium speaker today missed their virtual boat, but has promised, quite promised, to have a sparkling presentation for us next week.
- < A copy of a briefing by James Robertson, a href="ftp://ftp.the-commons.org/pub/zero-ems">The New Economics:, recently commissioned by the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission in order to provide, in their words, "a value-added review of recent alternative-economic-paradigms work as it pertains to sustainability, with a particular emphasis on the practical/policy implications", has been added to the Library shelves. The author has indicated that he may also provide a brief presentation of the main findings and recommendations of the project for the Podium in the coming days.
- Robert Ayres has indicated that he may be preparing shortly a Podium piece in which he gets down to details as far as his "call for case studies' is concerned. We all await what he has to say with interest.
- Web Hint:A number of handy utilities have been placed in the Tools section of the Electronic Library. These can be useful for document compression (zipping), encoding and decoding,and accessing Word 6/7 files if you cannot do it directly through your word processor. All this is explained in the Conference's Library HomePage.
- Today's Podium piece is really a tool, but it is one that we can not only use immediately and well as is, but also possibly something that we can get together to add to, focus and strengthen for the purposes of continuing work in the area of concern of our meeting. We have entitled the presentation Toward a Zero Emissions Bibliography It has been contributed by the Program for the Human Environment at the Rockefeller University, with the Vishnu Group. In its latter depths (fortunately the entire rather lengthy document has ben indexed and hot linked for easy reference), it contains some very useful links to leading Web sites which we would draw your attention to in particular, given our virtual preoccupations.
- Mayday! alert for tomorrow's videoconference. Until now, we have as yet heard from none of you about participation. This is understandable not only because for many of us this in unfamiliar stuff, but also a number of our European colleagues who might otherwise beam in happen to be on vacation. Nonetheless we shall be holding the session, even if only as a trial run, and will report to you on it next week. But if you do have the capability, get in touch even at the last minute and you will be welcome. Once again, the number for the conference is 00.49.30.399.28.2622 (that's in Germany).
- The organizers have prepared and uploaded to the Library a print-out of the main Web pages for the site as of this date. This is handy for viewing offline, but of course has none of the power or learning potential of the site itself. Looks a bit scrappy at this point, but perhaps worth downloading for those who are feeling not quite so sure of their Web skills (for now).
- The Podium: Don't' be shy! We want to hear from you about topics, authors and presentations that will stimulate and be of value to the others in our virtual group.
- Today's Podium piece, Zero Emissions and the New Economics , has been contributed by James Robertson of TP2000 (UK). A complete copy of the briefing that he recently made to the Forward Studies Unit of the European Commission, on which this presentation is based, will be found in the conference's Electronic Library
- We have been asked about whether or not the content of the library are directly searchable from the browsers. In point of fact the library contents (i.e., the ftp site) are OFF LINE, and thus not directly searchable (as are the various pages of the site itself). Nine times out of ten, people simply download whatever it is they are looking for and print directly. While there is also a "view" option in the better browsers, this can be a pretty slow process and really doest't make much sense for the longer documents. One option of course is to download and then call up the piece in your word processor, from which you can then search to your heart's content.
- The page on the site which sets out the basic argument of the conference, The Zero Emissions Theme Considered, has been expanded (and we believe considerably improved). May we draw your attention to it and the comments that it is stimulating.
- The first group videoconference is scheduled for the end of the day. Since we have not heard from any of you about your participation, this will be limited to a testing and debugging exercise (after three years of point-to-point videoconferences on a daily basis for work, this is our first attempt at bringing together up to seven participants in the same group. We shall report the results on Monday.
The week-end was given over to the following tasks:
- First cut of Discussion Forum brought on line (more work required though)
- Ditto for Case Study Showcase
- This "What's New" page has been substantially reorganized and extended.
- A first round of critical comments and observations have come in on the Conference Invitation and filed into that site for further comment and discussion.
- Continuing work on the several Navigation sites, and in particular to improve the help provided for new Web users
- A major contact effort was made via email to see if we could encourage approximately 80 concerned groups ad institutions around the world to contact their members and networks, and inform them of the conference
- The conference Web site and it supporting materials are coming along very nicely.
- The quality of the Podium presentations (and the presenters) is high.
- But we are not yet getting the quantity of participation that is needed.
- It is now clear that this is going to be one of the major challenges of this month (and indeed that perhaps one month is just not enough time to get the news out on such an innovative, hence unfamiliar, undertaking such as this).
- More on all this in due course.
- You will see that discussions are heating up on the 'policy path' front. (See latest comments and exchanges under the Conference Introduction)
- Today's Podium piece should come as a bit of a surprise, at least to some of you: a virtual debate between Robert Ayres and his former boss at the Hudson Institute many years ago, Herman Kahn. Have a look at it HERE and let us know what you think. Feel free.
- Friday's attempt at a multi-party videoconference ended up being a party to which nobody came. The time was spent with a small number of technical collaborators in testing and seeing what needs to be done to turn this into a user-friendly technique. Our short answer to that based on Friday's experience: quite a lot!
- We are seeing that the level of user-friendliness of our various guidelines and tutorials needs to be yet further rethought and improved. This task is one that will take several days, but we would ask you to check in again by the latter part of the week. Your best starting place here will be the lower half of the conference home page. You should be able to take it from there.
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- A major effort is being made to contact additional groups maintaining mailing lists and networks in the two areas of the conference in an attempt to bring in more participants. We need help here. Thanks.
- The Case Studies Showcase has now been prepared to clarify any ambiguity that may have existed to now concerning what exactly we are looking for by way of case studies (and, as Bob Ayres has put it so well, "ideas" for case studies and perhaps proposals for joint work in developing them in a next stage). May we suggest a visit?
- We are not getting enough people stepping forward with strong Podium proposals. You may wish to give some thought to how we might do something about this.
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- Today's Podium piece Hydropower Technology Without Dams: A Third Generation Eco-Efficient Technology Deployment, by Dan Price, a mechanical engineer from Denver, USA, presents a plan, in the author's words " for an innovative hydropower technology that does not use dams, thereby avoiding the environmental pitfalls and high costs of dams."
- Work on the Discussion Forum which was aiming to automate the whole process with the best available Web authoring technology known to us ran into a brick wall today when we discovered that neither our nor most other of the large servers are letting WebBot driven reciprocating pages onto their sites (for security reasons). We are looking to find a way around this, since we feel strongly that a fully open, free flowing forum is vital to the kinds of exchanges we are trying to encourage.
- See the latest version of the conference's Discussion Forum for our temporary work-around on this.
- Likewise, our attempt to build in an automated Search Utility has run into some difficulties, though possibly much easier to deal with; however we are hoping that with help including by the Geeks' Corner, we shall work this out shortly. (Should you wish to have a look at how far we have gotten on these, turn to the conference home page and under the Conference Tools section, you will see two sumptuous looking icons that will reveal the present state of play on both.)
- Good progress has been made on turning the Web Links and Search Results page of the conference into something that has the potential of becoming a useful addition to your research toolbox. We suggest that you have a look and share your comments and suggestions with us. Even a kind word would be appreciated, if appropriate.
- A number of new documents are being loaded into the conference library. Have a look.
- The Discussion Forum has now been filled out and been brought up to date (still using the old technology however). While it does not attempt to include all mail and remarks that have dome in, it nonetheless presents those which we felt were most interesting, both in terms of content and for what they have to say about the workings of the virtual conference itself. Have a look. Let us here from you.
- QUESTION: Are these pages getting too long (some are 30k or over). If it is taking too long for you to access them on the Web, let us know and we can split the longer ones. Already, we are trying to reduce the image take on memory through compressed and otherwise slimmed down images.
May we suggest that you check out the conference library again? Among other interesting things, you will find that a complete zipped copy of the entire site (html pages and graphics) has now been uploaded, providing you with an opportunity to run and experiment with the site at higher speeds than most usually have access to on the Net. Of course, to link to anything else, you will need to activate your modem; but as a learning and fast review device it is quite handy.
- We are pleased to be able to note a slow groundswell of interest and participation, perhaps in part not only as the news (slowly) gets around but also people get back from their summer vacations. At any rate, this remains the main challenge of the organizers.
- With this challenge directly in our sites, it had been intended that a 'zero emissions joke competition' be opened up here, in an attempt to bring some imagination and perspective into an area of intellectual and policy gridlock. However, once the first cut of it was posted on Friday, the WebMaster was asked to suppress it on the grounds that: (a) 'serious creative people do not joke about zero emissions', and (b) some officials might find it objectionable and therefore withdraw their support of the project. Enough said? Public access to the competition is hereby immediately and obediently closed down for the duration, (with an award eventually to go to the source of these objections). Your comments?
- HINT: Working the Web is quite different from many of the other uses to which many of us put our computers. It takes more time and a lot more attention to what is happening on your monitor. As a result the ergonomics of your work space and your work habits are considerably more important, if you are to be fully comfortable and get full value from the experience. We have elsewhere here talked about the kind of equipment that is best suited for the job, but here are two quick thoughts for you on this. First, make sure that your monitor is at a height and viewing angle which permit you to keep your head and neck quite straight (and of course that poor back too). Second, do not stare at the screen. Rather keep sweeping your eyes over it, pausing when needed to pick up your point of detail. Stare at it long enough, and you will not feel sharp... at all.
As indicated last week, what we are seeing is continuing development of what is turning into a first class conferencing facility, but we are not yet getting the level of interaction that is needed. For various reasons (which are well known to those who are familiar to the Web and newsgroups more generally) most visitors prefer just to lurk and see, without actively joining in. It is our challenge to find ways to break this impasse.
- Make sure you have a look at today's Podium piece in which Bob Ayres sets out his views in More on Eco-Efficiency Stage III Deployments & Case Studies, commenting on a recent book "Zero Pollution Industry" by Nelson B. Nemerow
- Let us seize this latest Podium piece as a reminder to you that Ayres is looking hard to develop a series of case study candidates, including to the extent possible from cooperating incitations in both the public sector and industry. (The conference thus far has not seen much of the latter.) Your suggestions?
- NEWS GROUPS: More than 50 news groups active in related areas were contacted over the weekend. Any suggestions for groups to whom we should be linking?
- VIRTUAL CONFERENCE - REAL FUTURE: As we move into the last week of the month, at least one of the organizers of the conference (Britton) is asking himself whether or not we should be giving some thoughts to extending the conference for another full month. There are several possible justifications for such a move and we would appreciate hearing your views on this. The first is that August is a slow month at best, and we were told by a number of those who contacted us that they simply were not going to have access to the Web for all or much of that time. Second, for various reasons the invitations to the conference were only sent out at the beginning of the month, which of course is impossible since we all do need advance notice so that we can plan our time. Third, we did not get much help from the various mailing lists and news groups whom we approached in an attempt to get the word out to their members and networks. But finally, and more positively, as a result of all we have learned as the month has progressed, the site is (in our view) a lot stronger and more interesting now that it was at the outset. So, perhaps if you have views or ideas on this you can send them to us right here. Kind thanks.
- Today's Podium piece is an introduction to a valuable information resource which we have consulted on a regular basis over the last year, Introduction to the Sustran Discussion Forum. While the coverage of this virtual resource (Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia & the Pacific) may appear to you to be perhaps too narrow in both topic and geographic terms, we are not so sure that it can be ignored. No doubt, as we all know, that the path to sustainable development has to be one with sustainable transportation and energy use, and anyone with a world view who wishes to overlook Asia and the Pacific, well...
- News has come in that a short "mission report" has been prepared upon completion of the Third World Congress on ZERI (Jakarta, 31 July - 2 Aug.) We have not as yet obtained a copy, but as soon as we do we shall either post it here, or link directly to it if it is on the ZERI or some other Web site. We look forward with interest to seeing how these two approaches on the topic, including our virtual as opposed to a physical get together contrast and perhaps support each other. Given the enormity of the challenges, it is clear that many, and many different, approaches are going to be needed if we are ever to break the impasse.
- The first registration has just come in from a firm in the private sector (Dow)expressing interest in participating. Not only are they very welcome, but we must hope for more interest from the industrial and business worlds. It will not be enough if the only people we have on board are researchers and other academics and bureaucrats. So, help us get out the word!
- Videoconference deadline: As some of you may recall, a second multipoint videoconference is slated for Friday at 17:00 Paris time. Please let us know if you wish to join it. The call-in number for the session is 00.49.30.399.28.2622 (the Teles host conferencing site in Berlin). Please note there is room for a maximum of seven participants; so do let us know if you will be joining us. Our expectations for participation are modest, given the limited response that we have had on this to date. Nonetheless the session will be run as a pilot/testing phase and all are invited.
- Today's Podium piece is a provocation by E. Britton entitled, ZERI II and the "End of Research". Is he actually suggesting that the UNU/IAS should give up doing any further research in this area?
- We have in the last two days heard from a number of people with the view that we should indeed see if we can find ways to extend the conference over the next month. (One wit said that "since your conference is already virtual, why not also make it eternal". No comment!) Please let us have your views on this, since this is a decision which we must take in the days immediately ahead. (And of course if you have any thoughts on how this might be financed, well that too would be sure to get our full attention.)
- Today's Podium piece (which just sailed in this morning over the transom) is a fascinating Mensch and Mesh: Perspectives on Industrial Ecology, by Matthias Ruth, Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and the Department of Geography, Boston University. He opens by reminding us that: 'Most attention to date has been given to product and production process related issues. Albeit by definition an integral part of industrial ecology, few analyses exist of the relationships between technologies, industries and socioeconomic institutions'.
- Technical Note: Are you finding that it is taking too long to access some of the pages on this site (for examples longer ones such as this)? Two 'remedies' for you. First of all, it may be because you are working at the peak load period on the net (basically 9:00 to 17:00 EST). These days we are finding it unacceptably sluggish, even with our usually fast ISDN lines. But it may be too that some of our pages are beginning to be too big and should be split up. Please let us know if this is a problem (since that, at least, we can do something about).
- There are times when we would like to think that we are the only virtual conference in town (slim consolation), but truth is that we are only one of a fast growing lot. Today's Podium, for example, has been handed over to the World Bank, Announcing a Virtual Consultation on Draft World Bank Energy and Environment Strategy Paper. (With kind thanks to our good friends at Sustran (contact Paul Barter at tkpb@barter.pc.my for more on their fine work)for their note this morning with this announcement. We recommend it both on substantive grounds, and for what it may have to suggest about the second half of our mandate here, the idea of virtual conferencing et al.
- And have a look at the Discussion Forum. Things appear to be heating up a bit (global warming?)
- Technical Note:Incidentally, on the subject of yesterday's technical note about file sizes. Well, this What's New file suddenly mushroomed into unmanageable proportions, and has now been broken up in to sub-files. Hopefully, you will notice nothing (other than a perceptible speed difference
- You also may note that we have given up our dramatic dark background, which not only looked terrific with the Vermeer but also somehow suggested to us the 'coming out of nowhere' theme which in our view is not without value. The problem, however, was that we were hearing that the older and less capable monitors rendered this an extremely uncomfortable mess. So goes it for esthetics.
- Our main task over this last August weekend is to make a considered decision about whether or not the conference is to be extended over the coming month.
- We continue to receive numerous requests and suggestions on this, but since funding is not (yet?) available, it is not an easy decision to make. A formal announcement on this will be made on Monday the 1st.
- We are at the same time continuing to labor to fine-tune and extend the site (at the very least for archival and reference purposes, thinking that others may be able to profit from our efforts and experiences. If you have a chance, you may wish to go all the way back to the beginning and enter as if it were the first time. We think that you will notice a lot of changes, some of them hopefully useful in making things much more useful and easier to deal with. Let us know.
- The decision has now been made! EcoPlan and The Commons will continue to maintain the conference over the coming month, in the hope that both content and, equally agreeably, financial and other forms of support will be forthcoming. No complicated application is needed of course because the 'product' is unrolling in front of your eyes. (We can imagine that some bureaucracies are going to find that difficult to deal with, but we can only hope that others will come in and fill the breach.) If you think this is a useful service to the science and technology communities, the environmental movement, and the public and planet more generally, maybe you can share some thoughts with us on this.
- A major statement on the next stage of the conference will follow tomorrow.
- A new Podium piece is also being added, this time a note by Ralph Lukan of UNIDO on their program: Cleaner Production & the National Cleaner Production Centres
- In the hope that it will help you get around in the site, a site map has now been drawn up and added to the Forum. Have a look and let us know if it's of use. It very much holds the key to the entire site.
- A major and massive overhaul of the Web site has gotten underway to prepare for the new month and extended conference format. We anticipate that it will take the rest of the week to get all the various details on order.
- The theme of this overhaul is: greater simplification, better transparency, and even better linking to sites and programs in other places in order to maximize the possibilities of synergy and reduce to a minimum unnecessary redundancy (bearing in mind that any system without at least some redundancy is going to be so fragile that it risks collapse).
- We hope that you will let us know about your reactions to these changes, and that you will continue to share with us your ideas for improvements and yet further extensions.
- We are also initiating our search for funding for the continued project (and once again your ideas and lead here will be both timely and appreciated).
- A major new mailing with an announcement of the extended conference was initiated and more than 200 individuals and institutions were selected for these purposes
- A new section entitled Menology has been added. Have a look and maybe you will have some suggestions in terms of events to add. This is intended to be a self-generating site.
- As a part of the site overhaul, we are giving great attention to making the Discussion Forum a more lively and useful element of the conference. At the outset, we had great hopes for it, but have subsequently run into a number of problems, technical and other. We intend to resolve these as quickly as possible.
- An extensive discussion of some of the technical and organizational issues that we are attempting to grapple with here will be found under our Technology Checkout Page under the section entitled, (Virtual) Conferencing Tools. We might also add that we are getting useful criticism and quite a flow of idea and offers of help on this thorny matter which we most appreciate. (A track on that will be found in the section entitled Geeks' Help.)
- As a first step (and for the time being), the content of the Discussion Forum has been organized in four main categories: (i) comments on the zero emissions themes and related matters; (ii) reactions and suggestions concerning the Virtual Conference's organization and the other Conference Tools which make up key parts of this total communications package; (iii) the various comments, hopes and suggestions of incoming participants, and (iv) other. In the meantime, have a look at Hamline University's page What is Online Conferencing? for a good first overview on the subject.
- A new section, Role and Contributions of the Participant has been added. Have a look and tell us what you think. This is after all intended as a wholly collaborative undertaking.
- Today's Podium: Poisoning the Planet, Experts, and The World Game: A Feminist Perspective, by Carol Brouillet. Several participants have criticized the work of the expert scientific and research communities in the areas that bring us here for an unhelpful and unnecessary narrowing of their perspectives. Handy for them maybe, but not so good for a world in need of solutions (and not publications per se)! Today's Podium presentation (a 'publication', by the way) reminds us of some of the broader issues that might be kept in view.
- Reflecting the importance of and the first rate sources that we are encountering as we try to move ahead with the Discussion Forum in a more effective way, we have now broken off the conferencing materials from the Technology Checkout where they were originally placed, and relocated them into a page of their own, Virtual Conferencing Overview.. Once again, tell us what you think.
- From yesterday's suggested WebDetour, have a look at "Sustainable Development: From Concept to Practice" (23rd June - 8th July), a discussion forum which was recently run by a group at the UNU/IAS, which you may wish to check out (we are doing that ourselves as well). In their own words: "We would like to invite you to join us in a discussion of the following questions. An outcome of this forum will be a set of recommendations for implementation of sustainable development from concept to action. This may take the form of a document or publication. We also hope this discussion will enable UNU/IAS to refine its research priorities for achieving effective approaches to sustainable development:
If it is to continue on a more permanent basis at IAS (why not?) we most clearly should be developing some kind of relationship with it. Are indeed they planning to maintain their site? If so, are TWO such closely related fora needed? Does our do a separate job, or should we fold ours into their's, or vice versa? What might be the justification for continuing to push with an independent discussion group under this forum? These are matters which we are asking ourselves, so if you have an opportunity to check out both sites, perhaps you can share your views with us on this as well. Like just about everything on this site, in the final analysis it will be a decision of the group.
- 1) How do participants in the sustainable development process use Agenda 21 to move from concept to implementation?
- 2) What can be the role of research institutions in achieving sustainable development through the implementation of Agenda 21 ?
- 3) What do the practitioners in the field see as the most important steps/factors required for the effective implementation of SD and how do they see the relationship of these steps/factors to the implementation of Agenda 21 ?
- 4) What issues are actually constraining the practical implementation of SD and can these constraints be overcome by the implementation of Agenda 21 ?
- 5) With regards to the above, what are the key research areas that have not been adequately covered ?
- Today, the weekend and whatever else is going to be requied to make it work is being devoted to research and contact of groups with whom we may be able to cooperate in developing a fully interactive Discussion Forum. Thus far, we are in contact with groups and experts in the States, France, New Zealand, and Sweden on this. We hope to have something solid to announce (and begin to put into practice) by the beginning of next week.
- Thought we were never going to get around to it? Today's Podium presentation, The New Discussion Panels and Procedures for Our Conference: Background and Use Guidelines by Eric Britton, EcoPlan International, Paris, is perhaps 'only' methodological, but it nonetheless announces and provides the basic information that you will need in order to access and use the new interactive discussion fora that have just been established with the kind collaboration of The Center@Hamline at Hamline University.
- Still interested in the concept of 'virtual universities'? If so, stay tuned.
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- We have now begun the process of gradually moving all active communications and discussions within the conference over to the joint site announced yesterday with Hamline University. If you have a moment, would you mind going over to the New Z/E Discussion Forum, having a quick look around, and leaving a message there with your ideas and critical comments. Details on how to do this quickly and easily will be found in yesterday's Podium piece, The New Discussion Panels and Procedures for Our Conference: Background and Use Guidelines . Thanks for the hand.
- While we intend to move ALL the communications component over to the new forum as soon as it is fully ready, in the meantime we thought it might be useful if we consolidate all the very latest communications received into a page here entitled Communications Received During Last Week, which is now open and available to you.
- Today we begin our shift over to the new and greatly expanded discussion forum that you have been hearing so much about. You will find simple step by step instructions on our revised Registration Desk, which will permit you then to access the new reaches of our conference. Nothing to it! You'll see.
- Even if you have already registered, please take a minute here so that you can fully participate. And when you sign in, in addition to telling us a bit about yourself and your work and interests in this area, think to put in a snapshot so that we can put that part of you in our mind's eye. It makes things just that much more human and agreeable.
- News concerning this latest development was sent out to approximately 200 colleagues around the world working in or near the topics of the conference. If you yourselves have mailing lists, large or small, of people and groups who might want to have a look and possibly join in the discussions, that would be a big help.
__ Tools of the Conference