Empowering the Hawaii ocean science community to promote itself with a cost effective digital solution

The image of ocean science in Hawaii is familiar to many of the scientists and entrepreneurs in the industry, but not necessarily familiar to those funding sources, potential customers, press and prospective employees vital to the maintenance of funding, sales and recruitment in Hawaii's ocean science and technology industry. There exists a strong need to let the world know what is happening in Hawaii, and innovations in information technology now makes it possible at a reasonable cost. The traditional method of information distribution (designing, printing and mailing elegant messages) would have been far too expensive for the Hawaii budget to adequately reach its significant audience. Considering the budgetary constraints of the traditional method, the Internet enables a better medium for reaching the target audiences. One of the primary assets of most scientists and engineers is the ability to write. A relatively low-cost Internet publishing vehicle was designed to allow Hawaii's ocean scientists to easily promote themselves and their industry by submitting stories, images and exhibits, in their area of expertise, using ordinary browser software. The vehicle is "Hawaii Ocean Science Magazine" (http://HawaiiOceanScience.org), a dynamically driven, multimedia Internet magazine developed by the State of Hawaii Ocean Resources Branch (ORB), as part of its industry promotion program. It consists of technical articles written by scientists, for scientists to read. In addition to other scientists, the primary audience consists of grant and investor funding sources, potential customers, technology and science press, and prospective employment recruits. It also serves as a window into the world of ocean science in Hawaii for students, teachers and the general public. Technical articles are converted into a press release style to benefit non-technical readers. Attachments to the technical articles may even include previous technical journal reprints from the author related to the magazine article. This approach can support a complete technical drilldown into the subject area assisting due diligence investigations by potential investors and grant agencies. The magazine was initially launched in November 2001, with further development and testing through March 2002. Submitted articles ranged throughout eleven fields including: aquaculture, marine biotechnology, marine ecology, ocean energy, ocean engineering, fisheries, marine geophysics, marine minerals, oceanography, ocean safety, and ocean surveying. Since the Internet requires readers to find the site, and not all readers have sufficient bandwidth to appreciate video elements of the magazine, another method of delivery was designed. The software was designed to accomplish a download of the magazine and the accompanying multimedia industry directory to CD or DVD on request, allowing distribution of the most recent articles by mail and at events such as tradeshows and conferences. An editor in the ORB manages the contents of the magazine. The editor distributes access codes allowing the authors into the submission section and the software requires the editor to approve a story before it goes online. Readership is promoted by the ORB through press releases, trade show distribution, magazine advertising, direct mail and permission email. A feature of the software is the automated ability to inform readers whenever a new article appears. The magazine is published in a continuous style with newsletter style email announcements sent out when new stories are published.