🚀 go-pugleaf

Welcome to ca.water's FAQ.  If you have any suggestions as to content, etc.,
please respond to this thread or e-mail me at the address below. 

Ca.water was started by Kevin Wolf, Project Director of Water On-Line,
which grew out of P.O.W.E.R. (Public Officials for Water and Environmental
Reform).  It is unmoderated in order to foster free communication and
debate, and there are no 'rules', except standard Nettiquette.  We plan 
to post listserver items, announcements, news items, etc., to this 
group, and hope that it will become a major forum for discussion and 
information sharing within the water community.

Water On-Line is a Not-for-Profit project sponsored by various agencies,
both public and private.  Among these sponsors are Calif. Dept. of Water
Resources, Metropolitan Water District of So.  Ca., Bureau of Reclamation
(Mid-Pacific Region), and Montgomery Watson Consultants.  Our goal is to
foster cooperation among _all_ water agencies and interested parties
concerned with California water issues, through the medium of the
Internet.  We believe that the sharing of information and communication
this medium fosters will only help solve the state's water difficulties. 

Our project is focusing on several aspects at the moment.  Firstly, we are
doing extensive outreach, to make the various organizations aware of the
capabilities of the Internet and the information that will soon be
available.  For example, the Bureau of Reclamation opened their WWW
homepage in October, and the EPA posted their Bay/Delta rules and regs to
their gopher server in mid-December (gopher.epa.gov).  Several departments
within Water Resources are setting up WWW homepages or BBS systems. 

Secondly, we are currently providing Internet training specifically
tailored to the needs of water program staff.  Our next Northern 
California training will be April 10th.  As far as we 
know, this is the only program of this type extant at this time.  We
train new users on the various tools that are available, then point them
toward sources of information which will satisfy their particular
interest.  Our training is not limited to instruction, however, as we are
also able to provide in-house consultation and assistance for
organizations wishing to gain access to the Internet and World Wide Web. 
These services range from setting up in-house servers, gophers, and FTP
sites to design and installation of a WWW Homepage, for those wishing to
make information available to the public and other agencies. 

Thirdly, we have a steering committee that meets regularly, and everyone
who attends these meetings provides input regarding directions the project
will take, regardless of whether or not they hold a formal post on the
committee.  We also will be holding periodic workshops throughout 1995 on
subjects that will facilitate the effectiveness of this effort.  For
example, our first two workshops will focus on establishing METADATA
standards agreement amongst the various participatory agencies, and a
method for incorporating Bay/Delta Modeling Forum information within the
agreed-upon METADATA format.  If you are interested in attending, please 
e-mail Kevin at the address below.


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Kevin Wolf
Project Director
kjwolf@wheel.dcn.davis.ca.us

Water On-Line Project
voice: (916)758-4211
fax:   (916)758-4338
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