But one must compare those costs with the opportunity cost which occurs when an excellent web site goes unused because the person needing the information could not find it or takes much more time to find it than would have been spent using an up to date webliography. One of the distinct advantages of a highly credible webliography is that the creators of new web pages will let those responsible for maintaining the webliography know about their new site or about significant modifications. If small islands are willing to put their experiences both good and bad on the net and other islands are willing to make use of this information, a lot of mistakes and waste of time and money can be avoided. But such virtual infrastructures will only be useful if the information on experiences can be found quickly and easily. A busy decision maker, bureaucrat or politician under pressure to come up with an answer will soon give up on frustrating searches and make a decision on the information at hand.
Critical mass refers most often to the number of people required to plan and implement a project.
Projects on small islands often fail because the critical mass is not available. The web has the potential to reduce this critical mass by making it possible for the smaller number of people on the island to find relevant information and find and interact with people who have experience in such projects. But such benefits can only be achieved if the resources can be found quickly and easily and the precious time of the people involved is not wasted in fruitless searches. Electronic gateways such as those proposed by Island Web Creations and described in this paper are essential. In closing I urge you to make all of the fascinating information which we have been so fortunate to hear at this Solar Summit available on the internet as quickly as possible and let me know so your site can be included in the island energy webliography.