_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference
_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference
- 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).
- 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!
Today's Web Detour: Learn the Net This is our first Web Site Detour, and this first week, just to be on the safe side, we are going to stress sites that teach valuable Net and Web skills. We are already getting a lot of questions about navigating on the Net, and while these will be responded to in the appropriate pages of the site, let us already bring a few of the most useful of these to your attention. In this first tutorial you can get some BIG! help to learn your way around the net and the World Wide Web. Tyros, we plead with you to start here. (It offers first rate help and guidance in five languages.)
- 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.
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