We report below the initial three months work on online identification of oil shale parameters for the purpose of improved control of in situ gasification of oil shale. Two approaches are described which may be complementary or alternative. The first approach employs special interrogation inputs for identification whereas the second approach uses the normal operation input to the gasification process. Both approaches yield sets of parameters which are subsequently employed in an oil shale properties classification algorithm to provide information for gasification control regarding the state of the gasification systems, such as rubble size distribution, grade distribution, burn front location and several electromagnetic properties of the zone considered.