2016 Emissions Modeling Platform Wiki

Contents [hide]

1. Overview
- 1.1 What is the Inventory Collaborative
2. Workgroup Wikis
3. Quarterly National Webinars
~~3. Background~~4. Background on WIKIs
~~4. Resources/Links~~5. Resources/Links
~~5. Workgroup~~6. Workgroup Calendar of Events

Overview

This Wiki is for use by the members of the Inventory Collaborative to facilitate communication and documentation of their activities on the development of emissions data for use in air quality planning.

What is the Inventory Collaborative

The Inventory Collaborative is a partnership between state emissions inventory staff, multi-jurisdictional organizations (MJOs), federal land managers (FLMs), EPA, and others to develop an emissions modeling platform for use in air quality planning. The Collaborative is structured around workgroups organized by emissions inventory sectors (see Workgroups list below). The workgroups will work independently and in parallel on the inventory sectors in pursuit of the creation of 2016 base year and future year emissions inventories for air quality modeling. A coordination workgroup will provide logistical support and facilitation to the sector workgroups as they move toward the goal of well-documented model-ready emissions for use in air quality planning. Additional details of the Collaborative are available in the Inventory Collaborative Development Plan.

Workgroup Wikis

Quarterly National Webinars

Interested in checking in on the progress of the Collaborative? Attend one of the quarterly webinars, or view the archive of notes, slides, and Q&A here.

March 15, 2018 Webinar

June 20, 2018 Webinar

Background on WIKIs

What is a Wiki?

A wiki is basically a website that can be edited by users through a web browser. Wikis allow users of the site to easily add content using simple text editing tools. Where traditional websites require more sophisticated coding and content interfaces, a wiki has a low barrier for users to get in and create content.

Why a Wiki for the Inventory Collaborative?

Anyone with access to the Web via a browser can see and edit wiki content. As some of the states involved in the Collaborative have expressed concerns about access to G-Suite (Google Drive, Google Docs, etc.), this wiki is a way to facilitate access to content by anyone.

A Note on Permissions

There will inevitably be permissions issues (i.e., the ability to access/edit content) at the beginning of this process. Bear with us as these are very solvable issues that can be fixed pretty quickly and easily. If you run into permissions issues with the Collaborative wiki and/or G-Suite, let the Coordination co-leads know and we will get you set up.

How to use this Wiki

Access

The co-leads of the Collaborative workgroups will be given write access to the wiki so that they can add content. Everyone will have read access. Additional write access can be granted by request to the Collaborative coordination committee co-leads.

Purpose/Scope

Each workgroup has a base wiki page (see Workgroups section below). These pages should be used by the workgroup co-leads to record/document:

minutes from workgroup meetings
milestones in the inventory development process
key issues and action items that arise during the workgroup meetings
summary plots or figures that display important information about the products from the workgroup

Along with giving the workgroups an easy-to-access content management system for documenting their work, this wiki is intended to allow people outside of each workgroup to track progress across the Inventory Collaborative.

Quick Tutorial

A wiki is a markup language, meaning that you use special characters in-line with the content to format the text. Here's one example for creating italicized text:

I want to use //italics//.

Will look like this:

I want to use italics.

This wiki uses a syntax called Creole. Once you're logged into the wiki (top right of page), there is an icon to the left above the content part of the page that looks like a pencil. When you click on this icon, you'll enter the edit content interface.

Once in the edit interface, you'll see a box on the left for adding content (i.e., typing stuff), along with some buttons for syntax formatting. When adding content you'll get a real-time preview in the box on the right of the edit interface page, so you can see how your content will render in a web browser. Once you're done editing, click the blue Save button.

Use the Creole Sytax Cheat Sheet to help format the content on your wiki page.

Creating New Pages

To create a new wiki page, use the markup syntax for a link in an existing page to point to the name of the new page, like this:

[[New Wiki Page]]

Click on this link to get to the new wiki and begin adding content. Here's an example of what a link to a new, blank wiki would look like:

New Wiki Page

Only users with write permissions will be able to add content to the new page.

Adding Images

To add images to a wiki page, you can either use a URL link to an image that already exists somewhere on the Web, or you can upload a new image to the wiki server and then point to this image on your page.

To upload an image:

use the Manage files menu at the top of the IWDW wiki page
navigate to the Inventory Collaborative folder in the ensuing file explorer window and either drag files from your local machine into browser window, or use the Upload files button to add files to the server
use the Add image icon in the edit interface (third from the left, looks like a mountain with a sun) to navigate to the Inventory Collaborative folder on the server, double click the file you want to add to the page, and the syntax to include the image will be added to your wiki.
check the preview box to see how the embedded image will display on the wiki

Adding Tables

Table formatting in a wiki is tedious. If you really want to do this, check the Wiki Cheat Sheet to see the syntax. Otherwise, either link to a Google Sheet or use a screen shot of a table developed elsewhere to include tabulated information in your wiki.

How to use the Collaborative Google Drive

G-Suite (Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, Groups, etc.) has been set up by LADCO for facilitating document creation and file sharing among the Collaborative workgroups. The Inventory Collaborative Google Drive is the central location for this effort. Each workgroup has a subfolder in this main directory to use for developing shared content. We recommend using Google Docs instead of MS Word because of the version control and group editing capabilities of the Google products.

The co-leads of the Collaborative workgroups will be given full access, including the ability to add new users, to the workgroup folders so that they can tailor the access to the needs of their workgroup.