_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference
_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference
- 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.
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.
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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.
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