Here’s where we went

Posted on September 9, 2008 by Bruce

Two good places to visit in Alaska.
— —
35 Years of Environmental Service to Small Tropical Islands
—
Island Resources Foundation
Fone
202/265-9712
1718 “P” St NW, # T-4
fax
202/232-0748
Washington, DC 20036
Potter cell: 1-443-454-9044
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — –
Subscribe to environmental e-mail groups at
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Blogs at http://pottersweal.wordpress.com/; twitter: brucepotter
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

P1010313

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Approved Footware for Alaska

Posted on September 6, 2008 by Bruce

Since our vacation to SE Alaska, many people have asked if you really need knee-high rubber boots to get around — this is the authoritative answer.

Alaska_footware

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Major Opinion Piece in Washington Post Outlook

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Bruce

The lead article in the Washington Post OUTLOOK section for Sunday, August 31 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/29/AR2008082902337.html

Elizabeth Becker will be on-line on Tuesday, September 2nd to answer questions about this article — see the URL above for details.

——

Don’t Go There
The whole world has the travel bug. And it’s ravaging the planet.

By Elizabeth Becker
Sunday, August 31, 2008; B01

Did you manage to find someplace for your vacation this summer where you could get away from it all and immerse yourself in nature, or whatever it is that you like to do with a free week or two?

I didn’t think so.

It’s getting harder and harder. The world has shrunk — and the tourist legions have exploded. The streets of Paris and Venice are so crowded that you can barely move. Cruise ships are filling harbors and disgorging hordes of day trippers the world over. Towering hotels rise in ever-greater numbers along once pristine and empty beaches.

Thanks to globalization and cheap transportation, there aren’t many places where you can travel today to avoid the masses of adventure- or relaxation-seekers who seem to alight at every conceivable site. I used to love going back to my old haunt in a Himalayan hill station where, as a student in India in 1970, I climbed those steep, silent paths and watched langur monkeys swinging in the trees outside my window. No longer. Now, Moussurie is chock-a-block with tourist lodges, garbage and noise; the monkeys are fleeing.

This problem goes far beyond a veteran traveler’s complaint that things aren’t the way they used to be, or annoyance at sharing the Eiffel Tower or the Taj Mahal with thousands of other photo-snapping tourists loudly asking questions in languages the locals don’t understand. What’s happening today is of another magnitude.

The places we love are rapidly disappearing. Global tourism today is not only a major industry — it’s nothing short of a planet-threatening plague. It’s polluting land and sea, destroying wildlife and natural habitat and depleting energy and natural resources. From Asia to Africa, look-alike resorts and spas are replacing and undermining local culture, and the international quest for vacation houses is forcing local residents out of their homes. It’s giving rise to official corruption, wealth inequities and heedless competition. It’s even contributing to human rights violations, especially through the scourge of sex tourism.

Look at Cambodia. The monumental temples at Angkor and the beaches on the Gulf of Thailand have made that country a choice destination, especially for Asians, who spent $1 billion there last year. But the foundations of those celebrated temples are in danger of sinking as the 856,000 tourists who every year crowd into Siem Reap, the nearby town of 85,000, drain the surrounding water table.

Meanwhile, Cambodia’s well-connected elite has moved to cash in on the bonanza, conspiring with police and the courts to evict peasants from their rural landscape, which is being transformed by high-end resorts catering to wealthy visitors. Cambodia’s League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights is compiling files that bulge with photographs of thatched-roof houses being burned down while police restrain their traumatized owners. And at night along the riverfront in the capitol of Phnom Penh, the sight of aging Western men holding hands with Cambodian girls young enough to be their granddaughters is ugly evidence of the rampant sex-tourism trade.

All this came as a shock to me. I’ve been writing about Cambodia for more than 35 years, but I never considered tourism there a serious subject. But when I went back last November, I couldn’t avoid the issue. In three short years, tourism had transformed the country. In every interview, the conversation wandered toward tourism, its potential and its abuses. When I went up to Siem Reap, I found the great hall temple of Angkor as crowded, as a colleague said, as Filene’s Basement during a sale. Forget tapping into any sense of the divine.

I began researching the global tourism industry and why journalists have allowed it to fly under the radar. Newspapers, the Web and the airwaves are filled with stories celebrating travel; few examine the effects of mass tourism. As Nancy Newhouse, the former New York Times travel editor, told me: “We never did the ten worst [places to visit], only the ten best.”

Most people can’t imagine that tourism could be a global menace. Even the word “tourism” sounds lightweight. And travel has always been surrounded by an aura of romance. For centuries, beginning with the first tourists on holy pilgrimages, travel has been about adventure and discovery and escape from the pressures of daily life.

It wasn’t until the end of the 20th century that tourism was added to the list of industries measured in the U.S. gross domestic product. And the results were a revelation: About $1.2 trillion of the $13 trillion U.S. economy is derived from tourism.

Tourism has become the stealth industry of the global era. According to the United Nations, the international tourist count in 1960, at the dawn of the modern era of air travel, was 25 million. By 1970, the figure was up to 165 million. Last year, about 898 million people traveled the globe, and the international tourism industry earned $7 trillion. (And those figures don’t include people who vacation in their own countries.)

The U.N. World Tourism Organization was established as a special agency five years ago with the twin goals of keeping track of the tourism industry and figuring out how poor countries, in particular, can take advantage of the tourist boom without causing their own ruin. Geoffrey Lipman, the assistant secretary general of the new organization, has spent his life studying the industry. “Tourism,” he told me, “is arguably the largest cluster of industrial sectors in the world” and needs to be included in any international discussions about eliminating poverty or protecting the environment. If properly conducted — maintaining respect for a country’s environment and culture, providing local jobs and a market for local goods — tourism, the United Nations believes, is easily the best way for a poor nation to earn foreign currency.

There are several promising examples of this philosophy at work. The nonprofit British National Trust offers tourist rentals in restored cottages and historic mansions and then uses the money to buy more land and properties to preserve and protect. The African nation of Namibia, meanwhile, has created what it calls “community-based tourism,” which manages more than 25 million acres of wildlife preserves, opening much of the land to tourism — hunting or photo safaris, birding and white-water rafting — that employs local residents and has dramatically reduced poaching.

Most of the tourism industry, however, is heading in the opposite direction. TOURISM IS NOW RESPONSIBLE FOR 5 PERCENT OF THE WORLD’S POLLUTION, ACCORDING TO A RECENT STUDY. Cruise ships are one of the biggest culprits. These floating hotels create three times more pollution per passenger mile than airplanes. YEARS OF CRUISES HAVE HELPED SPOIL THE WATER OF THE CARIBBEAN, WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE UNITED NATIONS, ABSORBS HALF THE WASTE DUMPED IN THE WORLD’S OCEANS. Now these ships are venturing into already fragile polar waters. Last year, Norway banned all cruise ships from visiting its region of the Arctic Circle.

Beach erosion has been swift. After the South Asian tsunami in 2004, fishermen were told to move their homes away from the beaches, but luxury hotel chains with clout were allowed to rebuild near the water’s edge. In the United States, the upswing in violent hurricanes hasn’t put a dent in the number of vacation homes being built by the sea. “ESSENTIALLY EVERY TROPICAL ISLAND IS IN DANGER,” THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY’S JONATHAN TOURTELLOT TOLD ME.

In poorer nations, unregulated tourist developments have put unbearable strains on scant resources, especially water. High-end tourists often waste more water in a day with multiple daily showers and toilet flushes than some local families use in a month.

Then there’s the fear that over time, major tourist destinations will become virtual ghost towns. Residents of Venice went on strike last spring to block licenses for more hotels; the city of canals is now so expensive that many locals have been pushed out, helping cut the permanent population nearly in half. This summer, the British government issued a report on rural living that included a serious warning that the rich were buying so many vacation or second homes in the countryside that many local residents couldn’t afford to live in their villages anymore.

But of all the ills brought on by mass travel, none is as odious as sex tourism. The once-hidden trade is now open and global, with ever-younger girls and boys being forced into prostitution. The Department of Justice estimates that sex tourism provides from 2 to 14 percent of the gross national incomes of countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The United States has taken a lead in attempts to eliminate sex tourism, but otherwise, it has stayed out of the tourism debate, mostly viewing tourism as a private matter. Now, however, says Isabel Hill, director of the Commerce Department’s Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, the questions raised by mass tourism have become too large to ignore. She hopes that the United States, like so many European countries, will “recognize our limitations and how we have to regulate our resources.”

Still, there probably won’t be a U.S. secretary for tourism and the environment anytime soon. But don’t be surprised if the next international agreement on climate change mentions the role of tourism, or if some countries start regulating tourism along with the environment, because the two go hand-in-hand.

In fact, you’d better hope that they do — if you ever again want to find that cool vacation spot where you can get away from it all.

Elizabeth Becker, the author of “When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution,” studied media coverage of tourism at Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
— —
35 Years of Environmental Service to Small Tropical Islands
—
Island Resources Foundation
Fone
202/265-9712
1718 “P” St NW, # T-4
fax
202/232-0748
Washington, DC 20036
Potter cell: 1-443-454-9044
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — –
Subscribe to environmental e-mail groups at
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Blogs at http://pottersweal.wordpress.com/; twitter: brucepotter
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Potemkin Climate Change Adaptation

Posted on May 18, 2008 by Bruce

So Shankar Vedantam has it right in this article from the Washington Post, 17 May 2008. — read the excerpt below, or the whole story with illustrations at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051603612.html?hpid=moreheadlinesGo to that site to see comments posted about this issue.So if we make up the problem, in order to solve it with false actions like turning off the lights for an hour a year, we play directly into the fear mongers game.I admit that Kincey and I turned off our lights for the Earth Hour, and then looked around the neighborhood to see who else was virtuous, but I was afraid that I was only doing a census of the smart, not the virtuous.Now, if only they would make compact flourescent bulbs — or anything else — that worked, like dimming or coming on quickly or costing less than a car payment (yes, but it will still be burning 23 years after your life insurance is fully paid up!)from Grumpy Bruce

In Climate, Symbols Can Overshadow Substance

Lights-Out Event More Showy Than Practical

By Shankar VedantamWashington Post Staff WriterSaturday, May 17, 2008; A01In March of last year, the World Wildlife Fund in Australia teamed up with Leo Burnett, the multinational advertising agency that created the Marlboro Man, to come up with a new environmental campaign called Earth Hour. The idea was to get 2 million residents in Sydney to turn off all the lights in their homes for one hour. The campaign generated wide publicity, but the energy saved was small — the equivalent of taking about five cars off the city’s roads for a year.This year, Earth Hour expanded to dozens of cities around the world. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Empire State Building in New York were among the U.S. landmarks that went dark. Many corporations signed on to burnish their green credentials. A bar in Phoenix served a drink called an ecotini — organic vodka, green tea and an edible orchid.But if everyone who participated in Earth Hour had left their lights on and instead switched to mundane, high-efficiency compact fluorescent bulbs, simple calculations show, it might have saved 1,368 times as much energy, because the bulbs would have saved energy all year.Such tension between substance and symbolism runs through the modern environmental movement. After years of conflict with climate-change deniers and a White House that has resisted mandatory efforts to address global warming, the movement has become a crusade that is partly moral statement and partly fashion statement. Earth Hour, Earth Day and the Miss Earth beauty pageant — “saving the planet, one pageant at a time” — generate lots of publicity, but they also tend to prompt people and companies to choose what looks good over what works.”There is a real problem in teaching people not to do something that appears to work, but that actually works,” said Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California’s Energy Institute, which studies ways to save energy and address climate change. Borenstein said it is hard to persuade people to do things that yield the biggest energy savings, and not necessarily the biggest returns in self-satisfaction.”It is very difficult to get people to invest in home insulation and energy efficiency, which are much more effective than putting solar panels on your roof,” he said. “Solar panels are popular because you can see you are doing something — and your neighbors can see it, too.”Leslie Aun, vice president for public relations at the World Wildlife Fund and the person with overall responsibility for running Earth Hour in the United States, agreed that getting people to turn off their lights for an hour has no discernible effect on the climate. What the event does, she said, is give neighbors an opportunity to share candlelit dinners, encourage churches to hold services about the environment and spur schoolchildren to start family conversations about what they have learned about climate change.Photos of darkened cities raise the visibility of environmental issues and make people feel empowered, Aun said. Campaigns that raise awareness through symbolic acts of personal sacrifice, she added, are not at odds with programs that produce tangible savings.”You are not going to get people to change what people do by engaging their heads; you have to engage their hearts,” she said. “You need symbols to spur action. You are not going to get people to take action unless you get them to care about the issue. You are not going to do that by pulling out the U.N. report on blah, blah, blah.”Aun stressed that the World Wildlife Fund wants to use the momentum generated by Earth Hour to advance its scientific and policy goals. And the organization handed out 1 million high-efficiency light bulbs during the event.Some 36 million Americans turned off their lights, according to the group’s publicity materials, which said that “Earth Hour inspires people all around the world to show their commitment and concern” and that the campaign is “about simple changes that will collectively make a difference.”While the idea that people who are emotionally committed can change their behavior in ways that help the planet seems appealing, a growing body of research suggests that this is not the way large-scale changes in behavior occur. The behavior of individuals, companies and nations is largely determined by structural factors, not personal choices.Once a person buys a house in the exurbs, for example (or once officials approve such a subdivision), asking people to think about the environmental costs of commuting isn’t very effective, because they are already locked into lengthy commutes. In the same way, installing motion sensors that automatically turn lights off at night produces far larger energy savings than depending on people to switch them off.”Depending on people to make a hard choice every day — don’t turn on the lights so much — is a less-promising solution than getting people to make a hard choice once,” by paying more for a high-efficiency bulb, “and thereafter having the ‘save energy’ decision be automatic,” said Travis Reynolds, a graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle who studies how societies save energy.Reynolds’s argument is supported by the numbers: Let’s say people participating in Earth Hour have 10 100-watt light bulbs in their houses, on average. If you also assume that high-efficiency compact fluorescent bulbs last three years and use only 25 percent of the energy of conventional bulbs, you would have to persuade more than 400 people to turn off their lights for an hour to get the same energy savings as persuading one person to switch one conventional bulb to a high-efficiency bulb.Gary Flomenhoft, an economist at the University of Vermont, said his state’s decision to set up a public utility whose sole job is to reduce energy consumption produced huge savings in energy use, most of which had little to do with individual acts of virtue. The utility goes into businesses and homes and helps people figure out practical ways to save energy. As a result, Burlington today uses the same amount of energy it did in 1989.”Some people react to ethical and environmental concerns, but a vast majority of people react to price,” Flomenhoft said. “The biggest effect on people’s behavior is price. When gas reaches $4 a gallon, everyone talks about hybrids.”As gasoline prices have soared in recent months, the number of people using public transportation has risen sharply, as has interest in fuel-efficient cars. While the U.S. trends are a result of market-driven prices, many European countries have obtained the same results by raising the price of gas through taxes.The powerful role of structural factors also explains why some personal sacrifices count more than others. When it comes to turning off lights, for example, Earth Hour would have produced far more energy savings — although no cool photos of darkened cities — if it had asked people to save energy during the late afternoon, rather than at 8 p.m.That is because energy use fluctuates during the day. There are times when power companies bring more plants online, and times when plants are taken offline. In general, said Denny Ellerman, an energy and environmental economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, large energy savings are produced when energy is generated and used in a steady manner.”The more a power plant operates steadily, the more efficient it will be,” he said. “To the extent you can shift the peaks toward the valleys, you are going to improve the efficiency.”Richard Kafka, manager of transmission policy at Pepco, said usage in the Washington area is highest between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., and lowest between midnight and 4 a.m.”Which is smarter — running on level ground or running up and down a hill?” Kafka asked. “There is a characteristic of heat engines that they are most efficient at some point, and anytime I move off that I am less efficient.”Borenstein, at the University of California, said he recently decided to take his own advice about focusing on measurable outcomes. He bought a device called a Kill-o-watt, which can measure how much energy is used by appliances and electronics, and took it around his house to look for savings.“It turned out the TV and VCR in our guest room, which is almost never used unless I am exercising, uses 17 watts all the time when it is plugged in, and it does this 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said. By unplugging the devices when they are not used, Borenstein found he could save nearly 150 times the amount of energy that a household with 10 100-watt light bulbs would save by turning them off for an hour.”We are not going to solve this problem with voluntary measures — it is a problem of externalities,” he said. “It is true of pollution and the way we use oil. We address tailpipe emission problems by asking people to make sure they meet emission requirements — we actually check. We have found voluntary approaches don’t work when it comes to pollution.”

View all comments that have been posted about this article.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Costs of Medical Practice

Posted on May 16, 2008 by Bruce

— but Should they “Practice” More?[from my friend Daniel, who is a lawyer, not a Doctor, or, gracias a Dios, a statistician]INTERESTING STATISTICS! Doctors(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.Statistics courtesy of U.S.Dept of Health & Human Services. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Now think about this: Guns(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S is 80,000,000.(Yes, that’s 80 million)(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups,is 1,500.(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.Statistics courtesy of FBI >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Remember, ‘Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.’>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>;>>>>>Please alert your friends to this alarming threat.We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Out of concern for the public at large, I withheld the statistics on lawyersfor fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Rundy Hamblen, age 80+, in her Jet ski on the Chesapeake . .

Posted on March 3, 2008 by Bruce

Media_httpfarm4static_gavlm

Rundy Hamblen, age 80+, in her Jet ski on the Chesapeake . . , originally uploaded by bpotter1942.

This is definitely the kind of photo I want to have in my obituary — assuming it’s publishable in a family newspaper (assuming, I guess that there still are newspapers, too).

From the Post’s obituary at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/01/AR2008030101706_2.html

With her oxygen tubes coiled around the handlebars, she skimmed over choppy waters, throttle wide open.

Bless Rundy Hamblen. . . .

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

NOW What???

Posted on January 19, 2008 by Bruce
Media_httpfarm3static_cyhjf

Know How He Feels, originally uploaded by bpotter1942.


So there I was, walking over the veldt, minding my own business when they shot me in the fanny with this dart, threw me in a box, shipped me halfway around the world, and then locked me in a cell about half the size it should be . . .

Now what?? 

Now THIS!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

New Spam: Carbon Credits

Posted on January 15, 2008 by Bruce

[Guess it would be just tooo pollyannish to say it’s proof that key environmental messages are now being “mainstreamed.”]To: <info@irf.org>Subject: Carbon Credit (CDM&JI)Sender: “Carbon Credits” <kind405@gmail.com>Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:16:39 +0530Carbon credit ˜ thrust for cleaner technologiesLearn about Carbon credit-CDM & JIWhat is Carbon Credit?How can I benefit from Carbon Credit?Double-edged benefit in carbon campaign … How?Learn in our E-Book”Carbon Credits for Landowners” highlights the fact that the United States forests sequester … how it works and if they might benefit from carbon credits. …Learn in our E-BookThe CDM allows the creation of new Carbon Credits by developing emission …..How?Learn in our E-BookHOW CAN AN INDIVIDUAL (NOT AN INDUSTRIALIST) BENEFIT FROM CARBON CREDITS??A buyer can bid for as low as 1000 carbon credits while a seller can submit a minimum of 5000 credits for sale…..Learn more in our E-Book

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

When is SPAM a New Year’s Card?

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Bruce

Check this out — I was about to delete this SPAM, and then I discovered it’s a message from a major program manager at CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL — guess the old categories don’t hold up any more. . . . I’m getting a headache thinking about it . . . . I don’t think my management manual [DILBERT] has anything about “How to use your spouse’s corporate Xmas card list to market your new on-line distance learning course.”I can hardly wait for next year’s edition, when I’m sure I will have the opportunity to sign up for ice-skating lessons from the darling Ariana.——————Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 11:02:50 -0500 (EST)From: Neel Inamdar <inamdar1@gmail.com> To: bshrodinger@irf.org Subject: Have a Great 2008 !You’re receiving this email because of your relationship with Neel Inamdar. lease confirm your continued interest in receiving email from us.You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our emails.Neel Inamdar and Anne LoehrDear Bruce,Who would have thought 2007 would have passed so quickly? It was great to hear from all of you and/or see you in 2007. We’re hoping to be better about staying in touch in 2008, so please send us your news whenever you get a chance. We promise we’ll do the same!Something to Think About for 2008For a little perspective about the choices you want to make for 2008, we invite you to visit the Story of Stuff. It’s a powerful piece on the challenges we face in this new age. The video is very thought-provoking!An Update from NeelI’m still enjoying mywork as the Senior Advisor for Ecotourism with Conservation International (CI) in Washington, DC. My main role is identifying and working with hospitality companies interested in supporting conservation initiatives for a win-win solution. Madagascar is our current focus, but CI has active programs around the world.As many of you know, I like doing many things at once, so I recently became involved with a small startup company that advises hotels and resorts on how to improve their sustainability, save money and be more green. Feel free to visit www.sustainability-dna.com for more information.I’m still involved in various investment projects, most recently in New Hampshire, where we are building unique ski-on/ski-off condo’s next to the Mt. Sunappee Resort at Mountain Reach Who knows? Maybe I’ll even learn to ski someday and enjoy this resort!An Update from AnneMy first business book, “A Manager’s Guide to Coaching: Simple and Effective Ways to Get the Best Out of Your Employees” will be published in March 2008, which is also very exciting. Co-authored with Brian Emerson, this book will help managers and entrepreneurs successfully coach themselves and others to success. We’ve already received some great endorsements and I’m lining up book signing events for the spring, so feel free to contact me if you’d like a book signing in your area.Since so many people have asked me how we managed to get a book from idea to publisher in just six months, I decided to start a 10-week book publishing course, helping new and aspiring authors save time and money in their own publishing quest. If you know anyone who wants to be published, feel free to send them this newsletter. I’d be happy to help them in any way I can!An Update from ArianaAriana will be celebrating her 3rd birthday in January! Hard to believe! She loves ice skating, is learning to scooter on her new Christmas present, has a steel trap mind and does not hesitate to voice her opinion! She keeps us on our toes!If you no longer want to receive our news, please just select the appropriate “unsubscribe” mechanism below.We will be sorry to see you go, but totally understand your decision!All the best for 2008!Neel Inamdar & Anne LoehrThis email was sent to bpotter@irf.org, by inamdar1@gmail.comNeel Inamdar & Anne Loehr | 11654 Plaza America Drive | Suite 354 | Reston | VA | 20190

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Web Semantics 3.0 for Web Users 0.9

Posted on December 30, 2007 by Bruce

This message started as an e-mail to Twine.com, a (still-in-restricted-beta Web 3.0 application) about a personal wish list for improved management of web information resources.

  1. Why am I writing this as an e-mail? That certainly seems awfully Web 1.0 in a discussion of Web 3.0 issues.  Guess I’ll eventually put it into a blog where many of my non-existent “followers” can look it up. [But fewer than  5% use RSS feeds for ANY purpose, and none have any kind of feed from this specific blog so how would they ever see it?? …]
  2. I run a half dozen different networks, trying to improve the use of environmental (scientific and technical) sustainability information in development activities on small islands, around the world. In that process, I maintain regular contact with maybe 250 people, about evenly split: half are residents of the USA and the European Community; the rest are in developing countries — mostly in islands where connectivity is less than optimal — around the world. Among the internet based tools I am using or have tried to use to support communications among these users since 1995 are e-mail discussion groups (30+ right now), forums, wikis, intensive e-mail messaging, web sites, blogs, and a couple of web 2.0 tools, such as TWITTER, FLICKR, and Leadln (but not MYSPACE or FACEBOOK).
  3. Progressing in time and complexity from plain text internet through the Web 2.0 applications listed above, I think there is an inverse relationship between the complexity of the applications and the willingness of potential users to actually sign-on to the technology.By way of examples:

a)    When I set up a simple e-mail group, between 10% and 20% of those who promise to participate will actually accept an invitation to subscribe. This is too low a rate for groups which need to reach most of the key opinion leaders in a subject matter area, so the lists are usually populated by “forcibly” subscribing  people into Yahoogroups (a pain, since they limit such a process to 10 additions per day).

b)    For three months I have been trying to get colleagues to sign up on Twitter because I see it as a neat tool to facilitate team efforts (see Adam Engst’s article on Twitter in Tidbits, “Confessions of a Twitter Convert“) on a major publication that we will be collaborating on for the UN Environment Programme by the end of 2008. There are about a dozen “core” members and another 100 or so less critical members, all of whom I have solicited to join Twitter two or more times. So far only my sister and brother have signed on (and they don’t work on the UNEP project!).

So, in light of these experiences I think the kinds of “Web 3.0” (or whatever) tools that would be most useful to me would be those that would provide a lot of the mapping and cross-indexing information described in  the video interview by Robert Scobel of Radar Networks’s CEO Nova Spivack, including some sort of version control for multiple editors and reviewers of written or graphic materials, without requiring the active engagement or positive participation by the bulk of the users.I don’t know if this makes sense to the designers and architects of the new types of web tools, but I thought it might be interesting for some to think about.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment