Energy informatics: designing a discipline (and possible lessons for the IS community)

If we were to design a new scientific field with a clean slate perspective, what might be the outcome? The panelists have been working in various ways for the last few years on establishing a new domain of inquiry, Energy Informatics. The panel will address key questions that they think should be considered by those designing a new discipline. Specifically, they will address the following critical questions: (1) How do you enhance research community effectiveness? (2) How do you enhance research community efficiency? (3) What are the central activities and key resources? (4) How do you assess an effective contribution? These questions follow directly from the panel's contention that a new field should make every endeavor to avoid accepting legacy systems as an appropriate infrastructure for conducting research in today's world.