Daniel J. Alberts
While pursing a Master of Science in Technical and Professional Communication from Lawrence Technological University, I conducted research into several wind turbine siting issues to help Michigan's Energy Office develop wind turbine siting guidelines. I also developed papers on multidiscipline teams and environmental rhetoric, and published a couple of op-ed articles that continue to be of interest.
Note: The email address listed in some of these papers is no longer valid, but I can be reached here.
Delphi Inquiry into Wind Turbine Siting Issues
In 2004-2005, I represented Lawrence Tech's Alternative Energy Student Group in Michigan's Wind Working Group. The group was composed of a diverse group of stakeholders including wind energy developers, utility companies, environmentalists, and local municipal decision makers. Faced with a difficult task of quantifying the diverse positions and trying to establish some sort of consensus, the group asked me to facilitate a series of Delphi Inquiries into wind turbine siting issues. We studied three issues: wind turbine noise, impacts to raptors and bats, and shadow flicker.
This paper describes our process as well as the results. The presentations are still available as streaming video from LTU's web site.
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Addressing Wind Turbine Noise
Wind turbine noise turned out to be a more complex issue than could be researched in the Delphi Inquiry's time frame. Shortly after the project ended, I located a subject matter expert on community noise assessment and worked with him to develop A Primer on Addressing Wind Turbine Noise for local decision makers. This paper introduces the basic concepts of noise measurement and assessment, health impact of noise, noise ordinances, and the related standards documents.
This paper has become very widely referenced by local decision makers developing noise ordinances throughout the US (Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota), Canada, Europe and New Zealand.
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Stakeholders or Subject Matter Experts, Who Should Be Consulted?
Our Delphi Inquiry for wildlife impacts was considerably more successful than the inquiry on how to address wind turbine noise. But conducting two separate (yet related) Delphi Inquiries provided a unique opportunity to evaluate how different factors influence the success of the participation process. This paper, published in the Journal of Energy Policy, discusses the the two inquires, their similarities and differences, and how to ensure more successful participation in the future.
The paper has been cited about a dozen times, so I think I've made a contribution.
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Science Policy Development: Acknowledging the Public's Reluctance to Participate
Finally, I wrote an op-ed article which discussed educating the public for better participation in developing technology policy. This was published in Ogmius, Newsletter of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado.
A Model for Multidiscipline Teams in Knowledge-Creating Organizations
As a contract technical writer, I worked with multidiscipline teams in over a dozen industries, including automotive, financial, consumer software, chemical, process control software, test and measurement, and even the candy industry. I pulled together my experience with a few studies on group dynamics and the literature on knowledge management, and developed a new conceptual model for multidiscipline teams. This model describes four primary functions for a team, and eight factors for success. The paper was published in the Journal of Team Performance Management. I had notes for two follow up articles, and possibly a book. But to my surprise, this article generated almost no interest.
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WHO Calls for Cigarette Ingredient Labels
Cigarette smoke contains at least eight toxic industrial chemicals in excess of the permissible exposure limits. As the U.S. Surgeon General has stated, any exposure is sufficient to inflict injury. Although this has been well documented for more than 40 years, the general public seems to be totally oblivious to the harm it causes. In 2003-2004, the World Health Organization was pushing countries to require cigarette to be packaged with ingredient labels. I wrote this op-ed article in support of WHO's effort, but of course, the US was too busy plotting to invade Iraq to do anything that could actually benefit its own people.
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I am taking a break from technical writing, pursuing one of my creative interests. But you may still download my resume. I can also be reached by email to discuss any of the above papers.