Archive for December, 2007
How Can Information Science Contribute to a Solution to the Climate Crisis?
I can’t answer that question definitively, but I have a few ideas. Not only will it be important to gather data and information from a variety of sources using a variety of systems, platforms and protocols, but it will be important that we address the communication of knowledge between the many cultures that exist on the planet. Developing information systems that allow us to translate cognitive and cultural schemas that are embedded in the information and knowledge of different cultures is one essential step. Enabling streams of continuous flow of information related to climate, geography, culture, humanitarian relief, food sourcing and distribution, infrastructure support, population displacement and relocation, epidemiological surveillance, and conflict emergence is another essential step. Creating a visualization mechanism that allows for understanding the continuous information flow by the collective bodies of decision makers responsible for managing the impacts of climate change is an essential third step. These steps are a bare outline of the boundaries of a potential solution. Any solution will be vastly more complicated and involve a great many information scientists and knowledge workers.
If you haven’t watched An Inconvenient Truth
(and you should as it will shake you to your core), you may want to watch Al Gore’s acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize given in Oslo, Norway just a couple days ago:
The full text of the speech can be read at Al Gore’s site.
, culture, information, spatial visualization
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