Message-ID: <199603011046.AA01535@utciva.civ.utwente.nl> Date: Fri, 1 Mar 1996 11:46:53 MET From: mailto:WOT@TDG.UTWENTE.NL> Subject: WG on Development Techniques on WWW To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Workinggroup on Development Techniques (WOT) goes online.
Dear reader of DEVEL-L
The WOT is active in the field of sustainable energy and international development. We give free advice in this field to people and organizations in the South.
We are glad to introduce our WWW pages. As every selfrespecting organization we are also online yet, though we try not to neglect our clients who reach us by paper-mail. The most basic information about the WOT is present in this message, below the funny "http://" strings. If you want more information you can, apart from contacting us via our (e-)addresses at the end of this message, also connect to the following WWW pages which are still under construction. In this message we show how to connect to (these) WWW pages by email.
http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/index.html (English starting page of the WOT WWW structure)
http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/wot_nl.htm (startingpage of the WOT WWW structure in Dutch.)
http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/wot_eng.htm (gives answer to the question: what is WOT)
http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/info_nl.htm (information about the WOT in Dutch/Nederlands)
http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/linkel.htm (shows links to interesting sites from the point of view of the WOT)
http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/teledevl.htm (with some links in range of telematics and international development)
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W O T i n f o r m a t i o n (feb. 96)
"WOT" is the Dutch abbreviation of Workinggroup on Development Techniques. We are a non-profit organization based at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. WOT members are volunteers, supported by a small professional staff. The University provides housing facilities and is the main financial source.
The objective of the WOT is to support the development of social and economic living conditions in developing countries. We try to achieve this goal by:
- promoting the use of renewable energy in developing countries - transferring knowledge on renewable energy technologies. - supporting non-governmental organizations with their advisory centres.
In the Netherlands we aim to raise consciousness within the Netherlands on development issues.
A recent new activity of the WOT is maintaining expertise on internet related issues, such as: - how to find information on sustainable energy at the internet. - how to find information on electronic communication and addresses of connectivity providers in "developing" countries.
The WOT cooperates with the TOOL foundation and her sister foundations. TOOL is active in the field of technology transfer and development cooperation.
Transfer of Technology
The WOT tries to transfer technology in various ways: - answering questions both by letters and electronic mail - writing and distributing publications on renewable energy - conducting research to support our technical advice - maintaining a documentation centre, containing approximately 2200 titles
Technical Advice
Specialized advisory groups within the WOT give advice on small scale applications in the fields of: - Wind Energy - Solar Energy - Hydro Power
Subjects of an advice are for example: - theory of renewable energy technologies - determining the potential by means of measurements or estimations - sizing, feasibility and economics - construction, installation and maintenance - lists of WOT publications and other relevant literature - addresses of suppliers - addresses of relevant (local) information sources
The WOT does NOT provide the following assistance: - project implementation and funds - distribution of books - information concerning product quality - advice on energy planning
To provide the best possible advice, adapted to your situation we need detailed information on aspects like: environment, meteorological data, available materials and technical know-how, economical, social and cultural situation, and background information on your organization.
SOLAR ENERGY
The Solar Energy Group of the WOT can give you advice on thermal solar ener gy and photo-voltaics. On most applications detailed information, including manuals, reviews, and evaluations of projects in the field are available. 1. Thermal solar energy water heating drying cooking distillation
Limited advice is possible on several other applications, such as solar cooling and passive solar energy. For most solar-thermal applications do-it-yourself construction manual exist. Some skills, tools and materials are required but fortunately the necessary techniques like soldering, welding and woodworking are available in most places.
2. The advice on photo-voltaics is limited to information on dimensions, prices and names and addresses of suppliers. Photo-voltaic panels have to be bought; it is impossible to build your own panels but assembling a complete photo-voltaic system is possible. For this electric interfaces between solar panels, appliances and batteries are necessary. We can supply information on diagrams of these interfaces but please be aware that we may not have the most recent diagrams.
WIND ENERGY
In the past 25 years the WOT has been a leading organization in the Nether- lands on the subject of waterpumping windmills in developing countries. The Wind Energy Group of the WOT can give you information on water pumping and electricity generation by wind energy. If wind energy seems to be a feasible option, reliable windmills can be bought or proven models can be build under license. It has to be discouraged to design and manufacture windmills. Many projects which tried to failed because a windmill is a too complex machine to construct with limited materials, skills and experience. Many designs that are available for the public are not good enough to be used in practice. Manufacture under license is possible if a substantial market in your country exists.
HYDRO POWER
In the field of micro-hydro power we can give advice on electricity gene- rating, hydraulic rams and direct use of the hydro power by sawing, grinding, and other machines. Possible subjects are: hydrology and site survey governing commissioning and testing civil works penstocks turbines drive systems
The potential of hydropower in a river depends on the head and the flow available. This potential and the power desired, determine the kind of turbine and the dimensions of the cicil works. We can provide information considering these subjects.
The generating unit is to be bought, especially where electricity genera- tion is concerned. It is usually too difficult to build it by yourself, although some simple designs are obtainable.
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For people who don't have interactive internet-access, the following can be interesting.
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WORLD-WIDE WEB BY E-MAIL
The World-Wide Web is touted as the future of Internet navigational tools. It's a hypertext and multimedia system that lets you hop around the Net, read documents, and access images & sounds linked to a source.
All you need to know is the Uniform Resource Locator (or URL, that long ugly string starting with "http:", "gopher:", or "ftp:") which defines the address of the document, and you can retrieve it by sending e-mail to:
mailto:agora@www.undp.org (RESTRICTED TO "DEVELOPING" COUNTRIES)
In the body of your note include one of these lines, replacing "{URL}" with the actual URL specification.
send {URL} or: rsend {return-address} {URL} (override your return address)
e.g.: send http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/index.html
This will send you back the document you requested, with a list of all the documents referenced within, so that you may make further requests.
THERE IS ANOTHER WWW-mail server whose address is: mailto:webmail@www.ucc.ie
This server requires commands in the form:
go {URL}
Note: The WWW-mail servers are sometimes unavailable for days (or weeks) at a time without explanation. If you get an error or no reply, please retry in a day or so.
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The text between &&& is cited from "Doctor Bob's Guide to Offline Inter- net Access". You can get the complete "Doctor Bob's Guide to Offline Internet Access" in the following way:
To get the latest edition, send e-mail to one of the addresses below. But look first if it is not locally available at your local BBS (etc)
To: mailto:mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu (for US, Canada & South America) Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
To: mailto:mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk (for Europe, Asia, etc.) Enter only this line in the BODY of the note:
send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt
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We hope we have given you an idea of what the WOT can do for you on the subjects of renewable energy and the internet. If you have any further questions or if you would like to have some detailed information on one of the described subjects, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Workinggroup on Development Techniques Vrijhof 206 P.O.box 217 7500 AE Enschede The Netherlands
tel. +31 53 489 2845 fax. +31 53 489 2671
internet: mailto:wot@tdg.utwente.nl fidonet: 2:280/810.58 http://snt.student.utwente.nl/~wot/index.html