About this project

Farmer Power is the name for the future online presence of the Ministry of Alternative Energy of the European Union. The ministry itself does not exist right now. The ministry will serve all of the member states of the European Union, their governing bodies, and the citizens of the EU.
As the primary source (as opposed to secondary sources,) the Ministry’s website will disseminate information dealing with policy, news, and other relevant information to anyone and everyone with access to the internet. I am tasked with developing this project from the ground up.

Left to its own devices, the ministry’s presence could well be another casualty of inexperience and bureaucracy: amateurish, opaque, cosmetic.
If we seize this opportunity, Farmer Power can actually serve its purpose: becoming a true link between policy and people.

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The US and Europe are pressed to reform energy infrastructure. The EU intends to respond to its needs by forming the Ministry of Alternative Energy. The ministry will deal with:

* research and development
* building infrastructure on a large scale
* distribution
* transition from existing energy models

Set to be located in Turin, Italy, the ministry has been in development for years. I have been involved for just over a year. At this moment, all activity has come to a halt. Further actions by the EU await the passage of the Lisbon Treaty. Here is this week’s The Week Ahead Podcast from The Economist for some perspective. (Listen at 7:45-10:20.)

As the EU enters puberty, now is the time to push for pragmatic innovations.

This is not a nonprofit project. I am not an official. I am currently unpaid and need an income to keep working.

My income will not come from the EU at this point. The project has not received its funding from the EU. My first task is to make a presentation which will pitch to the European Council in order to generate the funding to make the website. The presentation will occur after the president of the European Council goes into office on 1st January, 2010. Energy will probably be high on the agenda once the permanent president is installed. So I anticipate the first task to culminate later this year or early next year.

The publisher that I am working with plans to go to large funders (based mainly in Turin) such as Fiat and Camper to generate the necessary funding. He expects to show them “what the website will look like”.
The only reason for an administrative body within a democracy to publish is so people can tell it what they need. Unlike single directional white papers and press releases, the web is, by its very nature, an excellent venue for multi-directional transparency.

We cannot afford ineffective communication on important issues. Existing examples prove that it is easy to lose sight of the purpose. We cannot let this happen with energy policy.

I don't want to mention the dirty phrase (abbreviated s.n.,) but current technology in online multidirectional communication needs to be built upon in order form an effective solution. My main objective is to find out how to build such a web presence, articulate the findings, then to push for its creation.
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On this project, online fundraising is both a survival mechanism and part of the research.

As part of the project's research, it will answer the following questions:
How does crowd sourcing (funding) work?
Can people be motivated to join in building a solution to issues that seem too large for individuals to make a real difference? How?

I think the answer to the latter question is yes, as long as people feel like they can make a difference in the right direction. I am motivated by this to continue finding out if I am motivating you. Am I?