Perspectives

Athough this site is currently no longer being supported, during the period it was up, it attracted an average of 35,000 topic views a month from more than 60 countries. The 1,300 pages of content on the wiki was contributed by more than 120 registered users.  Among the unique features on the site was a plugin that connected users profiles with their Linked In profiles, so that they could post pages to Linked In groups after creating or updating content on the wiki.

The open source site, which was initiated by the principal, provided useful content a broad range of visitors looking for information about industrial biotechnology, biomass crops, biofuels, bioproducts and bioplastics and related subject matter.  It also had a section for company listings.

The files associated with the wiki are for sale. Interested parties can purchase them from us dating from when the wiki was operational.

The principal was a founding member of the team tasked with launching an ambitious initiative to develop advanced biofuels in North Carolina. With all of the state's liquid transportation fuel being imported, a strong case was made for an agency to provide leadership on coordinating the technical, biomass-related, economic, legal and other issues needed to attract technologies that could manufacture advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol and analogues for diesel, jetfuel and gasoline. With big oil throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at anti-biofuels messaging to retain market share, it was determined that an assymetric approach was needed to counter misinformation put out by the petroleum industry. The Biofuels Wiki was launched and grew to more than 11 hundred articles over a two-year period from more than 250 authors across the globe. It became a premiere and authoritative site of scientific and explanatory content, attracting a monthly average of 35,000 topic views.

The Biofuels Center was shuttered by changing legislative fortunes and leadership out of step with legislators seeking the Center to pursue primarily business-focused solutions. The wiki was collateral damage. After hosting ended, the site closed down, but fortunately, the content was not lost. Although Norman Smit had left the Center due to disagreements with the direction in which it was headed, as the founder of the site and someone familiar with wikis, the domain and site files were offered to my company, which he purchased. The cost of maintaining the non-monetized wiki resulted in it being switched off after two years.

If you are interested in purchasing these files, please contact us.

 

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