With apologies for cross-posting
National Forum for Information Planning (NFIP) News Release
27 August 1999 For immediate release
Green and smart information and urban transport policy
Managing third world cities the information deficit
Several knowledge management events will be held in Glasgow as a contribution to Glasgow: City of Architecture and Design, 1999.
"Green and smart: urban transport and the Information Age" is a one-day conference at Glasgow School of Art on 4 November 1999. Taking as its premise the unsustainability of the car as the dominant mode of transport in the urban environment, the conference will examine the role of information in bringing about a green and smart transport system based ideally on fast electric rail, walking and cycling.
"Changing information through maps, visual indexes, signage and lines on roads is cheaper than re-engineering concrete and metal", says conference organiser John Lindsay. "Physical change might sometimes be necessary, but revealing interconnections obscured by the complexity of information in public transport maps, timetables and so on would be a significant step forward."
The potential of the Internet in cutting through the complexity is seen as the first significant development since Beck's diagram for the London Underground. To realise its potential requires a synthesis of information systems, urban planning and graphic design skills. "Green and smart" provides an opportunity to discuss such interlinked issues and brings together the most up-to-date thinking on the redesign of information products. Contributions are invited from anyone with work in progress to report.
The "Green and smart" conference will also be the first meeting of the new Transport Information Planning Forum. A "Green and smart" exhibition will be held at Glasgow School of Art to accompany an Institution of Civil Engineers conference (4 & 5 October 1999, supported by Glasgow City Council) and at the "Green and smart" conference itself (4 & 5 November 1999).
Following "Green and smart" (4 November), a conference on knowledge management and third world cities will be held on 5 November at Strathclyde University and Glasgow School of Art, organised by the Information for Development Co-ordinating Committee (IDCC).
"Urban systems: knowledge organisation. Third world cities: how do they manage? What do we know?" will bring together for the first time information specialists with an interest in the urban context to examine the current situation in developing countries.
More than half the world's population lives in cities, the engines of economic growth, yet the organisation of knowledge about them and how they are managed is minimal. In Britain, where a series of government policies might lead to a new relationship between the citizen and the city, there is little systematic approach to either the literature and scientific study of city management, or to the tools, techniques and methods of information management.
"In developing countries the situation is chaotic", says John Lindsay of the IDCC, "yet consultants, projects, aid and private speculation pour in. Even the component parts of urban management, such as employment, housing, transport, water and solid waste are weak in knowledge organisation". New methods of information systems design and knowledge organisation could make a real difference. New information and communication technologies could create new opportunities for jobs and e-commerce.
The "Urban systems" conference will address these issues. Contributions, which might be literature studies, case studies or demonstrators, are welcome. The conference also provides an early opportunity to consider issues in the light of the recommendations of the World Bank Development Report on Urbanisation, which is expected to be available shortly.
A visit has been arranged to the Department for International Development Library in East Kilbride (4 November) and a reception will be held in the Mackintosh Library, Glasgow School of Art, to link with the "Green and smart" conference.
Sponsors of the conferences and exhibition include the Transport Information Planning Forum, the Information Development Forum, the British Computer Society's Developing Countries Specialist Group and Transport Information Engineering Task Group, the UK Systems Society and Glasgow School of Art.
Fees for "Green and smart" and "Urban systems" conference participants who are not members of sponsoring bodies are £75 for both conferences or £50 for one. (For members of sponsoring bodies, fees are £50 and £35 respectively.) Entrance to the exhibition is free. Cheques should be made payable to Information for Development Co-ordinating Committee and sent to John Lindsay, School of Information Systems, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2EE.
To make a contribution to either conference, send an outline in e-mail, with or without a Web url, to [log in to unmask] Further information on all events for potential contributors and participants is available from John Lindsay. Tel: 0181 547 2000. [log in to unmask]
/ends
Notes to Editors
1. For further information on the Glasgow events, contact John Lindsay, Information for Development Co-ordinating Committee and Transport Information Planning Forum. Tel: 0181 547 2000. Fax: 0181 547 7887. [log in to unmask]
2. The National Forum for Information Planning (NFIP) was established as LIPLINC in 1989 at the request of the Office of Arts and Libraries to monitor the development of Library and Information Plans (LIPs) in the UK. It consists of LIP Directors and Managers together with representatives of other cross-sectoral UK library and information networks. The Library and Information Commission and the British Library have Observer status. NFIP is a Panel of LINC, the Library and Information Co-operation Council.
3. For further information on NFIP, contact: Carl Clayton, Director, SINTO, Learning Centre, Sheffield Hallam University, Pond Street, Sheffield S1 1WB.
Tel: 0114 225 4711. Fax: 0114 225 4755. E-mail: [log in to unmask]
4. News release issued for NFIP by Pat Wressell & Associates (PWA), Press Officer.
Tel: 0191 281 3502. Fax: 0191 212 0146. E-mail: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|