The purpose of this paper is to show how world wide web technology can be used to help achieve the  objectives of the Island Solar Summit. The web has enormous potential but also has pitfalls which  can be avoided by careful design. This paper is a web page with links to various parts of the web site Energy, Environment and the Economy (http://www.upei.ca/~physics/p261) which is being developed to support a course at UPEI. There is much work to be done but even at this stage, it is instructive to examine the overall structure and design, the student projects, and the webliography of island energy web sites. Once the web site has been accessed, the reader can explore it at will. Since many of the pages do not yet have much content and deeper level pages are being developed, it is recommended that the reader use the links to the specific pages mentioned in this paper and use the back button on the browser  to return to the paper.

Over a quarter century ago, at a multidisciplinary NATO  conference on Information Science in Wales, Licklider warned that the greatest challenge of the emerging computer communications revolution was going to be the organization of information. The Island Web Consortium which I chair was formed in 1997 to promote the use of the web to support the sustainable development of small islands. The IWC  has been trying to find funding to build a gateway to organize and facilitate access to web based information relevant to small islands but there doesn't seem to be any funding for the very considerable task of building and maintaining such gateways. Island Web Creations was formed as a non-profit partnership on Prince Edward Island and uses the income generated from the creation of web pages for purchasing equipment, software, contract programming, supplies, communications, travel etc. to promote the use of the web to support the sustainable development of small islands.

The website has grown from two roots. One  is the course on Energy Environment and the Economy which I have taught at UPEI for more than a decade while the other root lies in  the work of  Island Web Creations on the Small Island Developing States network (SIDSnet).  Like any plant, the site has evolved through many stages and continues to grow and evolve as new technologies such as Net Objects Fusion become available.

It is planned to integrate the appropriate parts of  the site with the Island Web Consortium gateway if adequate support can be found to keep that organization alive. Hopefully, this solar summit will lead to some cooperative agreements and I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate.

First, take a quick look at the home page which outlines the overall purpose and structure of the site and describes each of the pages on the second level, Information Resources, Assignments etc., Student projects, FAQ's, and the Webliography of recent energy developments in small islands .

Next, move down a level to the page called Information Resources which describes the  organization of the third level pages  into Sources and Conversion, Storage and Transmission, End Use and Conservation, Environment and Economy. This classification is the result of many trials and revisions. Even now there remain some potential ambiguities which may be further resolved in future classification schemes. The reader can explore the current classification by selecting Information Resources .

The organization of the fourth level pages under Sources and Conversion has also been given a lot of thought in terms of a balance between strict logic and facilitating access to the information the user wants. Note how the navigation bars supplied by Net Objects help keep the user aware of where he/she is in this complex site. Those on the side provide links to pages on the same level as the current page while those at the bottom of the page provide links to the pages on the level above. There is always a link to the main home page.

The page on photosynthesis  which is still  under development (as are all the pages) shows how the web can be used to provide information at different levels starting with a general overview on the main page for that topic with links to more detailed information and analysis as required. Another example is the page on  fuel cells  which makes extensive use of diagrams including a very informative animation of a proton membrane fuel cell.

The main page for that topic under information resources can be used in a lecture or assigned to the students in preparation for a discussion seminar. The lecturer or the student can stay at the overview or introductory level of the main page for that topic or can go into the subject as deeply as the web site will allow. Thus the site should be useful for any level of education from high school to graduate and for informing the general public. It should also be useful for those public policy makers and decision makers who wish to access quickly the appropriate level of information they require. That may be asking a lot of a single web site but proper design should be able to take advantage of the inherent strengths and capabilities of the web which are still being discovered.

One of the early assignments given the students in this course asks them to examine a few sites on the topic and report on their assessments of those sites in class. This exercise introduces them to the use of the web and what to look for in a site. Later they have to do searches for new web sites on a topic to be discussed in class and report on what they found. These exercises  introduce them to searching the web for specific information and improving their skills in using search engines. It also produces  new sites to include in the site for the course. A later assignment will require the students to find sites on energy developments on one or more islands and fill in a webliography form on those sites.

The students then create a web page on a topic of their choice which allows them to examine a topic that is of particular interest to them to a depth that is appropriate to their background. A  list of student projects that are available on the web can be seen by selecting student projects . It is amazing how well they do these sites given that this is the first time some of them have created a site. But content, site organization and their webliographies weigh more heavily than than fancy web effects in the marking. It is fascinating to explore some of these sites and appreciate the amount of work the students have put into them. The Transportation site by Don Jagoe is one of the most comprehensive but requires Netscape 4 or better.

A demonstration of the Islands energy Webliography and its potential for keeping abreast of energy developments on Islands can be seen by selecting Webliography . One of the most powerful features of Net Objects Fusion presents the information stored in a database in a summary form as an alphabetical  list of all the islands with a separate entry for each  energy project's web site, the rating and a link to one of a set of stacked pages containing the full assessment information for each island energy project  in the list. An example of a stacked page for one of the island projects can be accessed directly from this paper by selecting example.

Although it takes some time to set it up, adding data and changing the presentation is very easy. Net Objects Fusion also has a provision for checking whether the sites to which the links connect  are still available.

Finally, let us review how such a site could  help some of the key objectives that have been discussed at this Island Solar Summit.
 

• Education and Training: If it is true that the use of a main page for a topic with links to information at other levels can be used for education and training at various levels, then the extra work of creating and maintaining a resource for many purposes can be shared among those interested in providing the various levels.
• Public Awareness: As more and more people gain access to the web, they are using it to access the information they need to make informed decisions. If enough care is taken to be as objective as possible and make the main page as general and as attractive as possible, they should be useful resources for increasing public awareness. Even if the public does not have ready access to the internet, the pages can be used by governments, NGO;s and the local media  to inform the public.
• Promotion of Renewable Energies:  In spite of the need for this site to be as objective as possible, the case for renewable energies should be obvious. The more objective the site, the greater its credibility and the more convincing the argument in favour of renewable energy technologies.
• Keeping up with the latest developments: In any rapidly developing field, it is essential to have up to date information about the latest developments. For example, decision makers contemplating the installation of wind or photo voltaic systems should be aware of the current state of development of the reversible fuel cell which could replace batteries or pumped storage to cover those times when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining.
• Facilitating access to high quality information:  As anyone who uses the web knows, there is an increasing amount of biased and incorrect information being stored in web pages all over the world. Search engines are yielding more and more sites that are not relevant. There are more and more out of date and even dead sites that keep coming up in the searches. Even if the site is accurate and up to date, it may not provide the information that is being sought. The user should be able to find out enough information about the site to have a reasonable idea if it is worth the time to download. That is what the webliography can provide provided there are adequate  resources to maintain it. The skills and resources required to develop and maintain such webliographies are at least as great as those required for cataloguing books and creating annotated bibliographies for print materials. But one must compare those costs with the opportunity cost which occurs when an excellent web site goes unused because the person needing the information could not find it or takes much more time to find it than would have been spent using an up to date webliography. One of the distinct advantages of a highly credible webliography is that the creators of new web pages will let those responsible for maintaining the webliography know about their new site or about significant modifications. This saves a lot of time searching for those new sites!
• Building Virtual Infrastructure: As mentioned many times in this and other conferences on small islands, one of their most significant problems is lack of adequate infrastructure. I explored how networks could  build virtual infrastructures and help to overcome this fundamental problem in a paper delivered to the Colloquium on "The Commonwealth in the 3rd Millennium" in Ottawa. If small islands are willing to put their experiences both good and bad on the net and other islands are willing to make use of this information, a lot of mistakes and waste of time and money can be avoided. But such virtual infrastructures will only be useful if the information on experiences can be found quickly and easily. A busy decision maker, bureaucrat or politician under pressure to come up with an answer will soon give up on frustrating searches and make a decision on the information at hand.
• Reduction of critical mass:  Critical mass refers most often to the number of people required to plan and implement a project. Projects on small islands often fail because the critical mass is not available. The web has the potential to reduce this critical mass by making it possible for the smaller number of people on the island  to find relevant information and find and interact with people who have experience in such projects. The "enhanced virtual critical mass" allows the planning and implementation of the project in spite of the fact that the number of people actually on site is smaller than the normal critical mass.

But such benefits can only be achieved if the resources can be found quickly and easily and the precious time of the people involved is not wasted in fruitless searches. Electronic gateways such as those proposed by Island Web Creations and described in this paper are essential.