Fusion Concept Monitor beta

Posted by Rezwan on Apr 21, 2010 at 03:38 PM
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What you can do

1. Print out copies of the “Aneutronic Fusion Concept Monitor - beta”  (“AFCM-beta”) (pdf file).
2. Head out to some Earth Day festivities (it doesn’t have to be tomorrow.  For example, in lieu of doing anything tomorrow, I’m heading down to DC to piggy-back on the Earth Day festivities there.  I’ve never done the Washington Mall thing before.  It will be an experience!  And it will also be an ideal environment in which to test these AFCM-betas!
3. Engage fellow Earth Day revelers by asking them to go through the AFCM-beta’s with you.  They can do most of it by themselves, but there are a few parts you need to say stuff.
4. Reflect on your experiences/the results in the forums (or blog, twitter, etc.) and feel free to film your survey exchanges and post them on you tube and send us the link. 

What’s the point?

The concept monitor is a couple of sheets of paper, and you with a pen, approaching friends, family and strangers to talk about fusion. 

It’s a prop that you use as a point of departure to talk about fusion, and more importantly, to listen. 

I expect that the feedback we get from people will help shape a truly useful concept monitor down the line.  This is part of an exploration and discovery of how best to approach the topic of fusion. 

This exercise helps spread the word about fusion to the people we talk to, as well as improve our talking & listening skills.  Er, communication skills.  Fusion is a tough idea to communicate.  Experience is useful.

And, most importantly, this is a way to discover how to increase the social currency value of fusion.

What led to the idea of a “Concept Monitor”

It started with the “confidence monitor”.  Structurally, a Confidence Monitor is just a survey that measures and analyzes 4 parameters: concern, commitment, optimism and confidence. 

If you want to see how concerned people are about fusion - a confidence monitor is a great way to go.  Eventually, you hire a professional poll-taking firm to conduct the surveys, and go to your policy makers to show them how much people care about these ideas. 

This seems like a useful thing for fusion advocacy.  Minor problem:  In attempting to develop a confidence monitor, and testing it on unsuspecting people, I discovered a “concept barrier”.  Never mind concern, optimism or confidence, most people don’t even know what aneutronic fusion is.  Worse, most people are pretty fuzzy about regular fusion as well.

And that leads to the concept monitor, beta.

Before we can even get to the confidence monitor, we’ll need a “Concept Monitor”. 

We’ve therefore designed this handy Aneutronic Fusion Concept Monitor - beta, as an initial step toward a really useful survey tool.