Have you ever read a something that suddenly hit you with a meaning completely out of the context of what you were reading?
Jonathan Weber wrote yesterday about:
… helping to underwrite a new, Web-centric, participatory form of journalism, one that breaks away from the aging, print-based formulas of old-line newspapers.
There is an opportunity here to grab – to build a web-centric, participatory form of consulting, one that breaks away from the aging formulas of consulting; one that is particularly applicable and appropriate to the Philippine environment.
There are a number of ex-government energy agency and ex-utility employees around the Philippines (or those that would like to become ex- if they had a sustainable alternative), a number of professors at universities – throughout the provinces as well as throughout the national capitol region. There are people currently in government agency and utility posts, and very happy to be there, that can contribute to the open source aspect of energy consulting.
Till now, if you were residing in the province and trying to consult to a local utility, you’re capabilities were limited – mostly by travel costs to stay in touch with happenings and technical resources in Manila.
Till now, if you were in Manila, there was not an effective way to deliver personalized services to a broad spectrum of employees at outlying utilities.
Till now, there was no good framework for government and utility employees – not directly involved in the consulting industry – to exchange and promulgate useful information and experience that will create opportunities for all players.
Till now, utilities’ consultative input was limited to whatever happened to be in the heads of one maybe two consultants, if they could even afford that.
We have an opportunity to fix all of that.
Maybe one aspect of Asian Energy Advisors is a collaboration of Asian energy advisors. Maybe one aspect of Asian Energy Advisors is to provide a web-based, enabling structure for individuals to generate their own businesses. Maybe only one aspect of Asian Energy Advisors is to bring together a select group of individuals to provide confidential policy advisory. Maybe teams form and disband as a utility’s needs evolve. Maybe there really is an open source equivalent to energy advisory.