9.5) WEG Media: Digital Education Team

The Webber Energy Group’s Media arm is referred to as the Digital Entertainment Team or DET. This group is responsible for the production of all Dr. Webber and Webber Energy Group related videos, photos, graphics and templates used in media projects involving Dr. Webber and/or members of the Webber Energy Group. The team consists of the following members along with a brief job description

Jeﬀrey Phillips: Art Director
jeﬀrey.phillips@austin.utexas.edu

Jeﬀ is responsible for directing the visual look-and-feel for the Webber Energy Group. He designs the graphics and animations for the Energy 101 course application and the Thermo 101 course application. He also creates visual materials for Dr. Webber’s traditional classroom courses, motion graphics for the group’s various video projects and will often consult with WEG members on visual elements for their presentations and video abstracts.

Ashley Lindstrom: Communications Coordinator
ashley.lindstrom@utexas.edu

Ashley is also the communications coordinator for the department of Mechanical Engineering and will be handling WEG social media, websites, and other communications responsibilities. She is the point of contact for all marketing and communications eﬀorts by the group.

9.5.1 External Communications

The Webber Energy Group maintains a robust external communications strategy as part of the group’s mission to change the way the world thinks about energy. Frequently, Dr. Webber will recall his position that the best research has something meaningful to say and says it well. Part of sharing your research, awards, and accolades eﬀectively is by communicating with the general public.

Energy Literacy

One very important mission of the Webber Energy Group is broad-reaching energy literacy campaigns. These are important not only as important sources of funding for media and other projects but also as part of a broader mission to change the way the world thinks about energy through eﬀective communications geared toward the general public. The projects listed below are in various stages of development and dissemination. If collaborating with Dr. Webber and the media team on any of these projects sounds appealing to you and it would not hamper your research productivity, you should feel free to reach out.

Energy at the Movies

Through his aﬃliation with the Plan II Honors Program in the College of Liberal Arts, Dr. Webber created an interdisciplinary course titled Energy at the Movies. This course evolved into an hour-long special for PBS, presented by KLRU-TV Austin in March of 2011. Since 2012, the special has been in national syndication through the National Educational Telecommunications Association. As of May 2015, the special has been broadcast to more than 44 million people in 27 states around the country. Energy at the Movies uses representations of energy in Hollywood ﬁlms to illustrate the history of changing perspectives of energy technology and policy in the United States. Portrayals of energy resources change over time, the relationship between cinema and reality reveals the unique relationship between energy and the American public.

Energy 101

The University of Texas at Austin entered into an agreement with edX, the educational consortium composed of Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, and the UT System. Dr. Webber was selected as one of four faculty members to create and teach a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), and Energy 101 debuted in fall of 2013. The MOOC is based on his signature interdisciplinary traditional on-campus course titled, Energy Technology and Policy. As of May 2015, Energy 101 is the most successful 11-week, non-credit MOOC, with a rate of completion for those students engaged with the course nearing 68. After the course closed, the team iterated on the idea of Energy 101 to create the world’s ﬁrst course application. The course app is an interactive, adaptive learning experience combining all of the content from the MOOC with knowledge checks and examinations into a platform-agnostic learning experience. Energy 101 is distributed through UT Press.

Thermo 101

Thermo 101: An Introduction to Engineering Thermodynamics is the second course app produced by the Webber Energy Group. It is a similar learning experience to Energy 101 but based on Engineering Thermodynamics: An Integrated Learning System, authored by UT Austin faculty. Thermo 101 is distributed through UT Press.

POWERTRIP: The Story of Energy

The newest PBS project from the Webber Energy Group features Dr. Web ber exploring the nuances and surprises in energy through history and the present . With production partner Alpheus Media, the Webber En ergy Group plans to debut the series on PBS nationwide in 2017.

Thirst For Power

Yale University Press has contracted Dr. Webber for an academic mono- graph on the energy-water nexus titled, Thirst for Power. The manuscript was published in 2016.

Video Abstracts

Many peer-reviewed journals are requesting or requiring video abstracts to accompany published articles to build reach and interest in the research. These videos are also featured on the Webber Energy Group YouTube channel where they help build an audience for our robust research.

The Math of Energy

Dr. Webber and Dr. Colin Beal worked with the media team on a series of instructional videos for PBS Learning Media teaching math concepts through energy topics in the world around us. The audience is 8-12th grade students. PBS Learning Media boasts more than 3 million instructor subscribers.

Ask Dr. Webber

Dr. Webber received a handwritten note from a third grade child asking a question about energy, and this series of animated videos was born. The for-mat takes questions asked by grade school students and answers them with science and policy that can be understood by all ages. Not just for children, the series is currently featured on the Webber Energy Group YouTube channel.

Website

The oﬃcial destination for the Webber Energy Group online is http://www.webberenergygroup.com . This site is the product of many years of fundraising, design, development, and coding, and it now serves as an introduction for sponsors, employers, and the general public. As such, the site should be maintained regularly with the assistance of the media staﬀ.

Home

The home page auto-populates with information gleaned from other sections of the website, including recent publications, upcoming events, and press releases. Therefore, it is paramount to keep these other areas up to date.

Publications

The publications tab includes a custom-built database of all Webber Energy Group publications. They can be sorted by publication, research area, type of publication, date, author, and other metadata. The webmaster maintains the publications database upon which the front-end experience is built. Please forward all notices of publication to him or her when received by the publisher. Your publications automatically populate on your individual page.

Individual Pages

Each researcher and staﬀ member is responsible for maintaining his or her own proﬁle on the Webber Energy Group site. This can be done in tandem with your personal website, or you can paste a link to forward all traﬃc to your individual site. Upon on-boarding, you should have received log-in information from the webmaster. This can be used to access your page at www.webberenergygroup.com/wp-admin/. Once logged in, you can upload a photograph, r esum e, CV, position (including any fellowships), research topics, current and past projects, education history, awards, and anything else relevant including your contact information. Please keep in mind that publications auto-populate from the database, so if you notice a publication missing, send the publication information to the webmaster.

Events

The webmaster maintains a public calendar of speaking engagements, awards ceremonies, and conferences. Please send him or her links or information about each of your engagements. This will appear as RSS on the home page and in either list or calendar view under Events.

Awards

Personal and professional awards have dedicated space on the website. Please send award information to the webmaster so he or she can keep those sec tions updated. They can be found under About. Occasionally, after several students graduate in a row or several students join the group at one time, a story might emerge based on the group’s shared successes that are dis- tributed to diﬀerent media outlets. Individual accomplishments might also be recognized through a story on the homepage.

Social Media

The Webber Energy Group maintains a multi-tiered social media presence in alignment with the communications goals of the group and guidelines set by the university’s central communications oﬃce. Please keep in mind that in accepting your position with the Webber Energy Group, you represent not only yourself, your colleagues, and your research supervisor, but also The University of Texas at Austin. Each and every group member takes responsibility for maintaining high levels of both academic and personal integrity. Although personal blogs and social media proﬁles do not oﬃcially represent The University of Texas at Austin or the Webber Energy Group, your aﬃl-iation should highlight your research and personal accomplishments in the best possible light.

Posting Guidelines from The University of Texas at Austin

“At The University of Texas at Austin, we encourage diﬀerent viewpoints and opinions, and as a participant in diﬀerent online media, including social media and the discussion forum, you should, too. Be respectful of others’ viewpoints. If you disagree and would like to engage in a conversation, do so cordially, logically and ethically. As always, the university’s code of ethics applies, even in the realm of social media and online networks. Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a ’private’ Web site. What you write from your home computer may follow you to school or work."

More information on oﬃcial social media guidelines can be found at Univer sity Communications:
http://www.utexas.edu/university-communications/resources/social-media

Appropriate assets for ’hooking’ your personal social media proﬁles can be found in the Brand Guidelines:
http://www.utexas.edu/brand-guidelines/digital-publishing/social-media

Directory
If you feel a particular affinity for another social media channel, suggest it to the communications coordinator. Feel free to like these pages to keep up to date, share content, or contribute your own content by posting to these pages.

Webber Energy Group
www.facebook.com/webberenergygroup http://twitter.com/webberenergy https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4666022 https://plus.google.com/101996242653914817383/about https://www.youtube.com/user/webberenergygroup

Energy at the Movies
http://www.facebook.com/energymovies http://twitter.com/energymovies
To watch full episode:
http://www.klru.org/episode/energy-at-the-movies/episode-details-2/

Energy 101
http://www.facebook.com/utenergy101 http://twitter.com/utenergy101 https://www.youtube.com/user/UTEnergy101

Other social media channels managed by departments and colleges across the University of Texas at Austin can be accessed through the KNOW Directory http://www.utexas.edu/know/directory/.

Posting Guidelines for the WEG Channels

All posts made to any Webber Energy Group social media channel should represent the group’s mission of changing the way the world thinks about energy. That being said, every post on our social media channels should be one of several things:

1. Link to an article authored by a current or former member of the Web-ber Energy Group.

2. Link to an article in which a current Webber Energy Group member is quoted.

3. Link to a video or audio piece featuring Webber Energy Group research. 4. Link to an external source featuring Webber Energy Group research.

Examples include journal articles published on the web, popular press op-eds or commentary authored by group members, popular press pieces featuring quotes from members, news articles or segments that mention or feature Webber Energy Group research, and reviewed blog posts authored by group members for other channels, such as Scientiﬁc American. Material authored by third-parties but connected to energy is common, but generally not appropriate for our social media channels. The web and social media presence serves as a living archive for documenting the reach and inﬂuence of the Webber Energy Group.

9.5.2 WEG Head Shots, Group Photo and the Bio Board

WEG Head Shots

At the beginning of each Fall semester, the DET will schedule a day long photo session on campus to get a professional, uniform head shot of each WEG member. We will also be requesting member’s resumes and shortened bios to be used for WEG publicity, the ETC 6th ﬂoor ’bio board’ and in presentation materials such as the symposium program, our website, video abstracts, etc.
Dress for the photo is business or business casual. You might use these photos for job applications, so you should look sharp and professional. Please do not wear either solid black or solid white, as neither photograph very well. Because these are headshots, you only have to dress up from the waist up. Males should wear a suit jacket and tie. Women can wear a dress or nice blouse alone or with a suit jacket. Subtle jewelry works best. Hair should be well coiﬀed and out of your eyes. Take a look at the current photos on the website or on the bio board to get ideas of what might work best for you.

Webber Energy Group Photo

The oﬃcial Webber Energy Group team photo that appears on our website, the bio board, etc. will be taken during the group's symposium, which is typically held in early January. The same advice as above applies except that this is a full body shot so you will have to dress up from top to bottom. Chances are you will already be dressed in business attire if you are presenting or attending since the symposium is an optimum opportunity for professional networking.

Bio Board

We will need your updated short bio ASAP for the WEG bulletin board on the 6th ﬂoor of ETC. This same bio format will be used in the symposium program. Please send your bio in the following format as either an attached Word document or within an email using the following example:

Jill B. Kjellsson

MS Environmental and Water Resource Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
MPAﬀ Public Aﬀairs, The University of Texas at Austin
B.S. Environmental Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Hometown: Davis, California

Jill is pursuing Master’s degrees in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering and Public Aﬀairs. Her research examines the energy used for water and wastewater treatment, distribution and collection. The energy intensity of the water and wastewater utility sector is aﬀected by many factors including water source, water quality, and the distance and elevation that water must be transported. Better knowledge of where and when energy is used could support strategic energy interventions and reveal opportunities for efﬁciency. This research explores the time-varying nature of electric energy consumption for potable water distribution and the potential for the water sector to participate in the power market using the Austin Water Utility (AWU) in Austin, Texas as a case study.

Jill has been involved in research surrounding brackish groundwater desalination powered by renewable energy. Desalination of brackish groundwater is energy-intensive, however, treated water could act as a proxy for storage of intermittent renewable energy, like wind and solar, which suﬀer from the lack of storage capability. This research focuses on the integration of renewable energy with water treatment to manage the stresses on water supply without jeopardizing the environment by reliance on fossil fuels.

9.5.3 Graphics and Animation Assistance

As the art director and technical illustrator for the Webber Energy Group, Jeﬀ Phillips is responsible for enhancing the visual look-and-feel for any graphics, templates and animations that will be used for publication, fundraising, or a high-proﬁle and newsworthy topic. In his position, Jeﬀ is available to consult with WEG members on any graphics, charts, or animations that meet these criteria. If you need assistance with one or more of your charts or graphics, feel free to contact Jeﬀ to arrange a time to discuss your project with him. In order for Jeﬀ to help you in the most eﬀective and eﬃcient manner, please note the following points regarding your research data and any visual representation of your data:

Data should ideally be in Excel (or Numbers), or a CSV ﬁle at minimum.
Include a rough chart and/or sketch of the visual asset desired.
Jeﬀ can create Sankey charts in Adobe Illustrator.

9.5.4 Presentation Templates

This link is to a folder on UT Box where ﬁles and information on WEG templates, logos, and style guides are kept here:
https://utexas.box.com/s/p0m3wjmaqrxg9yqfqrpgawxym69gnv7v

9.5.5 Media Documentation of Research by Students

One of the most eﬀective ways to communicate your research is through photos and video. The Webber Energy Group uses media extensively to broaden our reach beyond the educational community. If you have taken Dr. Webber’s Energy, Technology and Policy course, then you were required to create a short research video as one of your assignments. In today’s media- intensive environment, you may be required to provide photos and/or video documentation of your research to accompany any papers you submit for publication. Therefore, endeavor to visually document all of your research projects (at least take photos) and keep the ﬁles for later use. You don’t need to take a course or invest in expensive equipment. In most cases, your smart phone will suﬃce. Here is a helpful link to some tutorials on digital media:
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/shooting_tips/ http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/

9.5.6 Legal Issues (release forms, rights issues with visuals, etc.)

There are legal issues you must be aware of when documenting your research. If you include photos or video footage of any other people it is best to get their approval to use these materials in any future presentation at the time of ﬁlming. Here is a link to a release form you can use:
https://utexas.box.com/s/nuuz3lj5fzkf91ebbza6ano8lwb9vhw9

Additionally, you must be sure that anyone else’s graphics and/or photos you provide for your video abstract are free and clear of any copyright issues. You will need to provide the proper attribution information if the photos are taken by you or an associate. If you found the graphics and/or photos online then be sure to include the link to where the image was found so it can be cleared for use as well as any required attribution.

In addition to attribution information in the handbook (refer to WEG Hand- book 11.11, Brand Figures and 11.12 Citations and Acknowledgements), here is a link to information about Creative Commons assets and how to use them:
https://utexas.box.com/s/ut3hd2hcjqvbofae8gxe03fr8j0zkp9n

9.5.7 Media Resources for Stock Photos and/or Footage

Creative Commons

Familiarize yourself with Creative Commons sources and policies at:

http://creativecommons.org/

Then search at:
https://search.creativecommons.org/

Wikimedia
A database of freely usable media ﬁles to which anyone can contribute
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

There are creative commons pages within many other media sites such as:

Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons

Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/creativecommons

Department of Energy:
http://energy.gov/eere/about-us/photographs

9.5.8 Video Abstracts

So it looks like your research paper is going to be published and Dr. Webber has asked you to make a video abstract. Now what?
First, what is a video abstract? A video abstract is a brief description of a technical paper in which the author(s) explain their work either on camera or by recording a voice-over narration and using ﬁgures, charts, photos and/or animations to illustrate concepts, and/or discuss the implications of their ﬁndings. By using video and other multimedia, authors can explain their work in a way that the print article cannot, an approach that provides a richer, more diverse experience for their audience.

Why should I make a video abstract? Research journals are beginning to publish video abstracts along with technical papers in an ongoing eﬀort to increase the visibility of authors and their work. Additionally, search engines rank video high in relation to text-based descriptions so a video abstract can make an author’s work more visible and accessible to people searching for papers on that topic. Another beneﬁt of video abstracts is that they are freely accessible on media-sharing platforms and are not locked behind pay walls as many journal articles are. Also, we have our own WEG YouTube channel where we post all of our video abstracts so the general public can more readily access our work. Video abstracts are a great way to fulﬁll the WEG’s mission of changing the way the world thinks about energy.

What is the process in producing a video abstract? If Dr. Webber has re- quested you to make a video abstract you ﬁrst need to know that it will require some time and eﬀort on your part. You will need to spend a few hours on writing the script, recording a voice-over, and making suggestions for supplementary images. It is similar to the eﬀort that goes into preparing a 3–5 minute live presenta tion of your research for the symposium. You might also need to make some minor tweaks to your ﬁgures and charts to make them more compatible for video format but Griﬃn will do the bulk of the production work for you.

Here’s the basic process:

Student gives heads-up to Dr. Webber when a paper is nearing publication,
Student gives ﬁnished paper and any existing ﬁgures, charts and photos used in the paper to TK,
Student drafts a script using a provided template that includes a column where student includes descriptions of recommended supplementary videos/images that correspond to the text.
Student submits script draft to Dr. Webber and TK that is reviewed and revised several times by all until Dr. Webber has approved a ﬁnal version.
Student records the narration with TK or, if not in town, on their own using a computer or smartphone and then shares the ﬁles with TK.
TK makes draft video abstract, which is reviewed and revised several times by all until Dr. Webber approves a ﬁnal version.
Publish video

Here are details for each step in the process:

Use the video abstract script template and write a draft:
https://utexas.box.com/s/8rvwlremh10qznyahv7m3ibizlu4vzdr

Your script should follow this basic structure:

A problem statement What question was unanswered before you began your research, and how did your research aﬀect the advancement of knowledge in your ﬁeld?
A brief explanation of how your research solves that problem Using simple language, describe the results of your study and how it contributed toward a solution to the problem statement. Both this explanation and the problem statement should ﬁt into the ﬁrst 30 seconds of your video.
A brief discussion of background information, your research, and methods used Here you can dive into more detail of how you conducted your study including background information, data you collected and analyzed (include the key ﬁgures and charts used in your paper) and the signiﬁcance of the work. Remember to refrain from using very technical terms or acronyms unless absolutely necessary, and explain or spell out any you do use.
Summary and conclusions Cite the speciﬁcs of the results you found and the key 'take-away' from your research. If applicable, you can mention future research planned.
Acknowledgements The very end of your video needs to acknowledge any co-authors, organizations that may have funded your research, and any consultants. It will also need an ‘end card' with the link to your journal paper so viewers can ﬁnd the original paper if desired. Write out the narration, word for word. Keep in mind that the video can only be 3–5 minutes long (preferably 4 minutes since some journals only accept 4 minute or under abstracts). While writing, know that 120–150 words roughly translate into a minute of video so write a script that has a maximum of 600 to 700 words. Read the script out-loud to time the length. Remember to pause between thoughts, and leave ﬁve seconds at the beginning for titles, and 10 seconds at the end for the credits.

Video Abstract Guidelines by Publication

More journal publishers are seeking to include video abstracts along with published papers but only a handful of them will post the videos as edited. A few publishers will only accept audio slides. In these cases, the video editor will provide a series of still slides pulled from your abstract that you will use to edit your own audio slide version using the publishers program. Please note their programs are archaic, and as of now, they cannot accept an already edited audio ﬁle so you will need to rerecord your narration again and time it to your 'slide show' using their program. Here is a folder with the abstract guidelines for two publishers:

Elsevier Audio Slide Guidelines:
https://utexas.box.com/s/0xxqmskvfouu99o0ggpbxq2ue1f55bzq

IOP Science Video Abstract Guidelines:
https://utexas.box.com/s/tqvsvem7r26l1tkpyk36j9f2w7b4sadv

The video editor will take care of all the technical speciﬁcations such as frame rate, ﬁle size, etc. but it is up to you, as the author, to post the abstract to the journal site using the codes provided to you by the publisher.