🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi, everyone--

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. 
Unfortunately, our project work has been extraordinarily demanding lately,
so our posts here have been a bit sporadic.  This will change, however. 
Expect a synopsis of our recent Steering Committee meeting within the next
week, and then we plan to post material we send out over our listserver to
this group also (this includes Steering Committee Agendas and Minutes, 
and possibly e-mail/listserver/gopher/homepage addresses of agencies as 
they come on-line).  So, more about Water On-Line... 

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 will be uploading their Bay/Delta rules 
and regs to their gopher server in mid-December.  Water Resources plans 
to establish a bulletin board, and post Publications as they become 
available.

Secondly, we are currently providing Internet training specifically
tailored to the needs of water program staff.  Our next Northern
California training will be Jan. 30, 1995.  We will also be holding
training sessions in Southern California Jan. 5th & 6th, 1995.  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.  As an example, we are considering using GIS
overlays to target a specific geographical region, then incorporating
different types of information by subject category, possibly within a WWW
Homepage style format.  So, one could access the Homepage, point to a
specific area, then call up available data under subject headings such as
biological surveys, flow statistics, water quality, etc. 

I'm hoping that ca.water will become as popular a newsgroup as
ca.earthquakes, as there are certainly enough items of interest that will
be available for discussion this coming year.  Also, as more and more
water agencies go on-line, this newsgroup will become an asset to the
net-community, as it will be a place where people will be able to
'network' (forgive the horrible pun, but I can't think of a better
term...:)--that is, this will be yet another place for sharing ideas,
data, and possible solutions to the state's pressing supply and
distribution problems... 

Please respond to this thread--I'd like to get some feedback regarding 
what we're doing, and if you have any suggestions as to how we can 
accomplish our goal, _please_ let me know!!  I'm also interested in your 
interests, and what you would like to see made available on the Net.  If 
you wish to respond via private e-mail or phone, please do so.

Helen
-----------------------------v^^^^^^^^^v--------------------------------
Helen Hanson					Kevin Wolf
Outreach Coordinator				Project Director
hehanson@ucdavis.edu				kjwolf@wheel.ucdavis.edu

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