Dissemination of Good
Practice
Information ExchangeOne of the main objectives of the Good Practices is to facilitate the exchange of information on RTD&D projects. This will enable local/regional/national administrations to monitor the quality and the evolution of their environment. The results presented in the demonstration projects are not only technical with potential applications by others, but also the underlying ideas, methodologies and experiences in the management of environmental problems by applied telematics. An incremental system of dissemination is proposed that will enable new users access to telematic applications at an appropriate level:
The orientation level, where information is given on the principles and methodologies of how to approach, control or manage different environmental problems. The projects then illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the up-to-date telematics applications. This information can orient and influence the development of new strategies/projects in the environmental clean-up activities, or can provide ideas to improve or upgrade existing programmes.
- The promotion level,where overall information of different telematics applications is provided, through demonstrating different applications of the various projects. This information can promote, or assist the potential users to take into consideration the possible transferable outputs in their own application.
- The knowledge - transfer level, where the technical and operational characteristics of project outputs provide a concrete starting point for the transfer of applied telematics applications or processes to the potential users.
- Contact information of the project and sites managers, should also be provided to allow access to further information on project implementation. An example of this information level is given by the description of the projects in the Virtual Project Gallery, which focuses on more technical characteristics.
The issue of how to effectively transfer the information acquired in the Good Practice forms completed during the ENWAP activity, involves a series of communication media. Discussions at ENWAP meetings have shown that media such as conferences, seminars, video demonstrations, web pages and printed materials should be used for dissemination as appropriate. Awareness raising requires that people understand the full potential of it from the project managers to users. Information should address both technical and non-technical audiences. Information presentation needs professional updating. Many projects only may lean service to obligations to provide a web page, which often is not giving an efficient service.
Publications
A very brief and comprehensive report should be
prepared on the general results of the projects, well
illustrated and adapted to catch the interests of
people acting in strategic policy development and
decision-making. The use of other European
languages in addition to English is recommended in
order to reach a broader public.
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Recommendations Appropriate means and levels of information exchange should be built into the design of environment telematics applications according to information packages on:
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Electronic Material
Information should be available on the internet in
active web sites, easy accessible, in a structure of
packages. The format of the information should be
easy to up-date, in order to include more projects
and up-coming results, as well as being flexible in
order to include these in other web-sites/
information databases. Special sites should be
created where demonstrations of the results are
available. Linkages between web sites should be
promoted to enhance synergy of comparable
information. CDs and video-tapes should be
available showing the achievements of the projects.
Although the language to be used is English, short
summaries in other languages are recommended.
Seminars and Conferences
Large conferences may be a good means for
information exchange and networking, but their
overall scope is relatively limited. If they are held
often,they tend to draw a similar audience and they
do not attract much of the so-called 'silent-majority'
to participate in discussion and information
exchange. In this case, linguistic and cultural
differences between the participants can hamper
the transfer of information.
Language is the most consistent barrier to effective communication. Additionally much of the audience at a technical conference (administrators, politicians, decision makers) may not be familiar with the topics being discussed. Conferences should be organised in national languages where jargon is avoided and more friendly accessible non-technical language is used. By these means the impact on the audience will be more effective. In this type of conference, a successful ingredient is the comparison of national environment telematics examples with those applied in other sites. This helps to remove psychological barriers of the audience against the uptake of "new, remote, or non-native" applications.
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Recommendations The correct media for the dissemination and transfer of information is fundamental to the success of environmental telematic applications.
Information Providers i.e. Project managers, etc. should give information tailored to the appropriate information package. They should activate web sites, easily accessible, preferably supporting a multi-language information base and demonstrations. The European Commission should pursue the promotion of more initiatives for transferring know-how and technology results such as: publications for a broader public, user fora, web sites, conferences, seminars. The EC should reinforce activities of common information databases on RTD&D results for env i ronmental issues between directorates (i.e. DG III, XI, XII, XIII, XVI). The EC should reinforce, in the life cycle of a project, the importance of deliverables on Good Practices. Government and regional authorities should promote initiatives on information sharing and dissemination of results to local authorities and citizen.
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The Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe
