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Play
Acceptance Speech:
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Lou
Roberts
Christensen/Roberts Solutions
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Summary
of the Objectives of the Live
Session:
WxLIVE! Pac Cup Race webinar was designed to
prepare sailors entered in the San Francisco
to Hawaii ocean
yacht race for the weather conditions they were likely
to encounter en route in order to both reduce the risk
of injury and loss and increase the participants’ competitive
edge. WxLIVE! Pacific Cup brought together the country’s
leading experts in marine meteorology and ocean navigation
to identify, analyze, and interpret climatology and
oceanographic data available prior to the race.
More
on the Design of "WxLIVE!
Pacific Cup Race"
This webinar educated participants in the identification,
interpretation, and application of weather data and
resources, and provided recommendations for using
this information strategically in making navigation
decisions.
As the availability of web-based weather resources
has increased, so too has the opportunity for offshore
racers to make better routing decisions both to avoid
adverse weather and to sail toward the most advantageous
wind conditions. However, effective analysis and use
of weather data requires a highly specialized understanding
of these resources and how to use them, knowledge that
is generally not common among non-professional sailors
and racers. WxLIVE! was designed to bridge this knowledge gap
by (1) identifying the most appropriate weather sites
for sailors from among the several hundred sites currently
available; (2) analyzing meteorological and oceanographic
data; and (3) applying that knowledge gained from that
analysis to race strategy. The program accomplished
these objectives through a live learning environment
that offered extensive use of web sharing, web-pushing,
and application-sharing capabilities.
The
events were designed and facilitated by recognized
offshore navigator, Bill Biewenga,
and training specialist
Lou Roberts of Christensen/Roberts Solutions. The expert
panel included Lee Chesneau, a senior government meteorologist
on loan from NOAA’s Ocean Prediction Center;
Ken Campbell, a private meteorologist who consults
for the America’s Cup Races among
other grand prix yachting events; and Stan Honey, a
celebrated, professional navigator with several first
place finishes in past Pacific Cups. In this respect,
WxLIVE! represented a unique collaboration between
public and
private resources in support of public safety.
Overall
Design:
Because
the panel of experts included professional meteorologists
whose ability to devote time to this project was limited,
the program was designed to minimize the effort required
to learn the features and functionality of the virtual
classroom technology. The design had to support interactive
whiteboards, web-pushing and application-sharing technology
through a simple, intuitive user interface that would
not create technology barriers for either participants
or experts. In addition, the design had to accommodate
cellular phone technology as some of the participants
had onboard access to the Internet through cell phones
only.
Because
weather is a “live” (real-time)
phenomena, the opportunities for advance preparation
and practice prior to each presentation were limited.
Therefore, a template was designed to provide an overall
structure to these programs; moments before the live
event, the facilitators and experts would incorporate
the live weather conditions into the template.
The
program used a team of three moderators to facilitate
the
user experience and reduce technology barriers.
One individual was responsible for queuing up all web
pushes and shared applications; another individual
annotated the weather maps in real-time to illustrate
the points being made by the experts; and the third
individual maintained the “Tech Room” where
individuals experiencing problems could get their problems
resolved without interfering with the class discussion.
In addition, one individual kept track of all resources
(websites, articles, phone numbers, email address,
etc.) mentioned during the program and then posted
these on a post-course website specifically designed
for the program. This coordination was made possible
through the use of a detailed virtual classroom script
that all facilitators and moderators used.
Some
custom tools were also developed to increase the
visual
effectiveness of the webinar, leveraging
the interactive capabilities of web technology. For
example, a custom utility was created to “animate” a
sequence of weather maps produced for mariners every
six hours by the Ocean Prediction Center. The animations
were “pushed” to participants who could
then control the sequence and size of the images using
simple javascript controls.
Post Seminar Support
WxLIVE!
was designed to provide support and reinforcement
following the live classroom sessions. For this reason,
a supporting website was developed to store the archived
webinar sessions and weather resources discussed during
the class. In addition, step-by-step weather routing
tasks were made available to participants in a web-based
performance support tool called The Weather Routing
Wizard.
Results
While
actual race results are based on multiple factors,
eight WxLive participants
received race trophies and all participants arrived
safely with no personal injury or property damage.
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