The New Media

We see this as one of the most important potential contributions of this conference -- namely, whatever can be accomplished in terms of bringing the collective intelligence, good will and technical computer/communications skills of those who have them, to bear on 'easing' the troubled interface between those scientists and others who have deep concerns with the problems and challenges of sustainable development, and what one might reasonably think of as the 'outside world'.

To the informed observer, one of the most striking things of the environmental movement of the last decade must certainly be the extent to which an increasingly well documented base of knowledge and consensus at the leading edge of the scientific community has FAILED to impact on policy. Yes it is possible of course to point to accomplishments here and there, but if we are honest with ourselves, and if we look at the big indicators, we are obliged to acknowledge that there continues to be a huge gap between what we know, and what we do.

What we are facing, however, is not purely a "knowledge problem" in the sense that is normally understood by those who are participating in this conference, at least not as far as the critical path of policy and practice is concerned. Rather it is the quite different challenge of somehow finding the way to get all this good information and wise counsel into the places that count (out of the lab and into the streets, as it were). The communications target of the scientific community in this instance of course includes not only all the usual politicians and government administrators who appear (repeat, appear) to be driving policy, but also, and certainly more to the point, the informed citizenry who after all are the bedrock of democracy and our civilization as a whole. And of course just behind them the media and educational institutions and means by which they are informed.

And while this should not be taken to imply that there is no more work that needs to be done by the scientific and research community in improving our understanding of what is going on around us in this unnecessarily profligate and fragile world, it does mean that those involved at the heart of the issues are almost certainly going to have to develop a whole new line of skills. In part, that is what the present conference is all about. Think of it as a trial or test run of low cost and low perturbance, but, we hope, of high yield.

The truth is however that for reason of age, temperament, training, and other occupations and interests, many of those who come to meetings like this and are otherwise active in the sustainable development movement (including those in government and academic circles who should be but who for various reasons, and professions to the contrary aside, are not really committed to these concerns) do not as yet have the skills needed to take full advantage of these powerful (potentially) new technologies. Moreover, if you wander into their work spaces you will all too often spot that they simply do not have the technical gear, hardware or software, that would otherwise permit them to harness this, I think the word is not too strong, enormous potential. Worse yet, many of them continue to resist making the fair effort that is needed to bridge this non-trivial gap.

One of the principal objectives of this conference therefore is to see if we can help bring together these two otherwise disparate communities of interest, in an actual operational situation which will in many of its parts be entirely recognizable, i.e., the conference experience, and to see if we can somehow make it clear to at least some of those who participate that it is going to be worthwhile for them to consider gearing up to become reasonably skilled practitioners of this new technology.

Most of those who have not already made this leap will be mainly aware of all the barriers that are involved. "What’s wrong with my old computer, after all it works just fine? And where are we going to find the money?" "Why buy anything when all you have to do is replace it a few months or years later?" "My monitor looks perfectly all right to me, and the modem works just fine." "Where do you expect me to find the time to learn all this new software?" "Anytime someone tries to demonstrate to me how it works, as often as not they don’t appear to be able to make it work as well." "Anyway, email is good enough for me".

Which is, for better or worse, where things stand in many places today. This conference is going to spread out over a full month, a rather long time for a meeting on this subject by the usual standards. It is our hope that this will give at least some of those who are participating the time in order to begin to acquire some of these new tools and habits, and put them to work.

It is my hope that we are going to get some help in this from others. The technical competence and resources available to the project are too limited for us to be able to deal with all the challenges that are sure to crop up. Or, as important, to integrate in an easy-to-manage fashion the best of the technologies and routines which are now available.

It is for this reason that we have set up Geeks’ corner. I am hopeful that once the discussion forum is fully up and working to satisfaction, we will be hearing a lot from those with the technical capabilities with their ideas, criticism and suggestions. Here is the place to come.

This presentation is presented at this point in the meeting to set off discussions concerning our abilities to make better use of the new interfaces which technology is barreling ahead to provide. It will be substantially revised as the meeting moves ahead and as we see better how all concerned fare with the challenges of making good use of a virtual conference.

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