ZT Sponsors
Thermoelectric Links: A WWW Information Service.
ZT Services (ZTS) is seeking financial support for two,
complementary WWW sites dedicated to the thermoelectric
community. The sites are, and will remain, free of user fees and
the funding will be used to enhance the functionality and utility
of the sites. Financial support is being sought from
organizations with an interest in expanding the breadth and depth
of the thermoelectric community. Background, status, future plans
and budget considerations are briefly discussed.
BACKGROUND
ZT Services (ZTS) has established two World Wide Web
sites serving the thermoelectric energy conversion community. The
first site has URL http://www.its.org
and is maintained for the International Thermoelectric Society
(ITS). The second site has URL http://www.zts.com and is the ZTS
corporate presence on the internet. The ITS provides partial financial
support to maintain the ZT Services web site.
Both sites provide information and services of value to the
thermoelectric community. The ITS site focuses on
Society-specific news and announcements, including a membership
directory, and an online version of the ITS Newsletter. The ZTS
site provides complementary services including an exclusive
compilation of thermoelectric-related WWW sites (ZT Links), an
interactive News Group (ZT News) and topical announcements
of interest to the community.
Since initiating these Web site(s) in September, 1995 utility
and functionality have continuously improved and 'traffic' at the
site has continuously increased. As of September, 1997 about 35 people visit the
site(s) each day and the rate is steadily increasing. Details are available on the statistics pages for
ITS and ZTS, respectively. Announcements of
funding opportunities have been particularly popular, as has ZT
Links, the ITS Newsletter, and the ITS Directory. Hundreds of
people have used the ITS online form, for example, to update
their own information in the ITS Directory.
ZTS also sends out occasional
announcements via e-mail to bring news of interest to the
attention of the community. E-mail announcements are fast,
inexpensive, unobtrusive and (unlike the WWW) requires no action
on the part of the user: timely information arrives even when the
user does not know to actively seek it out. Thus e-mail provides
an excellent complement to the WWW and the mailing list now
consists of about 500 people.
FUTURE PLANS
Telephone, mail and FAX are useful communication tools, but
they primarily provide one-to-one communication between the two
participants. Traditional mass media such as television, radio,
newspapers, newsletters etc., provide one-to-many communication
useful when the same information needs to be communicated to many
individuals.
The internet is unique in that it is a many-to-many medium,
meaning many people can simultaneously communicate with each
other. Further, it is global in scope and vastly less expensive
than previous media. For relatively small and geographically diverse communities, such as the thermoelectric community, the
internet offers unprecedented communications possibilities.
ZT Services is committed to developing this potential
for the thermoelectric community and has been encouraged by the
success of initial efforts. But much more can be done.
COMPANY INFORMATION
ZT Services has been organized by Dr. Cronin B. Vining
to provide information, communication and consulting services to
the thermoelectric community. As such, ZTS has a vested interest
in the continued vitality and growth of the thermoelectric
community, while at the same time strictly respecting the
confidentiality of its clients. In order to avoid the appearance
of conflict of interest, Dr. Vining has recently stepped down as
President of the International Thermoelectric Society. However,
ZTS will continue to support the ITS in every way possible and
Dr. Vining's contacts and experience with the ITS is considered a
valuable asset of the corporation. The founding of ZTS is in
complete accord with Dr. Vining's history of working to increase
the visibility of thermoelectricity in the wider technical
community.
BUDGET
ZTS will maintain and expand these services within available
resources and is seeking to raise funds to cover hardware,
software, internet and labor costs. Supporters will be
prominently highlighted and acknowledged on the Web sites. Any
amount of support is, of course, appreciated and all supporters
will be acknowledged (unless anonymity is preferred) according to
the following categories:
Supporter Categories:
