English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Our group decided to do our white paper on the topic of conserving energy and going green. We want to focus on simple and cheap/ free solutions that college students can use in their dorms or apartments. The three topics that we will focus on are using electricity, heating/ cooling, and laundry solutions. For electricity we will focus on the use of compact fluorescent bulbs to not only save energy, but also money. For heating and cooling we will explain the use of door sweeps, window seals, and other small improvements that can help reduce the need for heaters and air conditioning.

GROUP ACTIVITY REPORT
Date: 04/03/09
To: Nathaniel Rivers, Instructor
From: Chris Kirkwood, Andy Jones, Isaac Townsend, and Nigel Hess
Subject: Group #3 Activity Report 1

Group 8 has chosen to cover the topic of oil dependence and renewable energy solutions. Our plan right now is to have the white paper address how these renewable energy solutions can reduce our dependence on oil. The topic of renewable energy is a broad spectrum which ranges from some of the most simple solutions to the rather complex. The subtopics we will cover in the report, including pros and cons, will encompass wind power, water power, solar power, nuclear power and smart-grid technologies. In these sub-topics, pros, cons, and currently implemented system examples will be discussed.

When it came down to coming up with ideas for the proposal of the White Paper project, many came to mind. We wanted to come up with an idea that if properly written could actually be used. We also wanted it to be an idea that could benefit our schools or communities. What we came up with was having schools switch from using Microsoft programs to using cheaper, if not free, open source programs. there are many institutions across the United States, primarily over seas, that are currently using open source programs as a way of saving money and expand knowledge.

For our first week of creating our white paper we started with the basics. First we created a Google Group. This is an important step, especially for an online class since we do not have an actual class time to meet. Through our Google group and email, we exchanged information which included our email addresses, screen names, and phone numbers. We plan to use our Google group to its fullest capacity by adding blog posts on it so that any one of us can edit and add to it when we see fit or just posting announcements that will be sent out to all group members.

For our groups proposal we have decided to look at the use of heat pumps for use in a residential setting. There has been a lot of talk recently about energy usage concerns and this would be a chance to educate ourselves and others on the potential solutions, and maybe save a few dollars in energy bills along the way. Some options to be considered would be direct exchange, ground closed loop, pond loop, and standing column well system. Such options, while having a larger initial investment, could greatly reduce an individual’s heating and possibly cooling costs.

We have decided to do our white paper project on some of the more popular PDA/smart phone’s that are on the market today, including the IPhone, Blackberry Storm, and the G1. Our plan is to successfully inform the reader about each one of the phones characteristics, features, some pros and cons, and give them some general information about their operating systems. We will try to successfully inform the reader without sounding biased about any of the phones or manufacturers.

     According to Microsoft Corp., “collaboration is a key driver of business performance around the world.” A 2006 study conducted by Microsoft showed that collaboration has a significant impact on each of the gold standards of performance – profitability, profit growth, and sales growth, and that business performance is directly related to collaborative efforts. In response to the results of this study, we are proposing to outline the impact of collaboration on organizations of all sizes.

Up to this point, our activities have been mostly collaboratory.

We were all a part of the initial back-and-forth e-mail exchange. We introduced ourselves, started a brainstorm, started thinking about project roles and set up a meeting for Thursday night. During the meeting we chose our topic, discussed and chose project roles, assigned activities for the end of the week and the weekend, and set up our next meeting. Everyone was active in the meeting, too.

The tasks to accomplish in week 12 included contacting team members and opening lines of communication, choosing a topic, splitting up the work, writing a proposal, and providing support documents detailing the progress of the group and the individuals within it.