Changing Behaviors: Market Transformation Web Sites as Online Narrative
This research paper explores the communicative practice of designing web sites to accelerate the market adoption of energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies within the U.S. home building industry. In today's world, the Internet is increasingly used as a communication tool in market transformation efforts. By studying the practice of web site design through the lens of grounded practical theory this paper develops a normative ideal that can be used to guide and contribute to the conduct, criticism, and increased effectiveness of this practice. Research results are derived from an ethnographic study of the evaluation and judging of web sites developed by the twenty teams competing in the 2007 Solar Decathlon and a rhetorical analysis of the top scoring web sites. The Solar Decathlon is a national competition for universities and colleges to design, build, and operate the most efficient, affordable, and livable solar-powered home. This paper identifies the primary characteristics that the jurors found essential to an effective market transformation web site, and proposes that a narrative paradigm can be best used to construct a normative model of this practice within this context.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1022315
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Scaling Up: Building Tomorrow's Solutions. Proceedings from the 2008 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, [17-22 August 2008, Pacific Grove, California](CD-ROM)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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