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As President-elect, I have a view on this. I share Conrad's concerns about
the nature of the meeting but perhaps from a different perspective.
I do not doubt the sincerity of those actively doing all they can to save
the planet. Personally I believe that the jury is still out on the direct
cause:effect relationships though I passionately believe that we can and
should do all we can to minimise the human effect of our occupation of the
world. In that context, there is so much that computing has to offer and I
would be proud for the BCS to be associated with work to that end.
What I am less comfortable about is the use of the BCS platform for a wider
debate about climate change (if that is the intention). It is not clear
from the information I have seen so far that there is clarity about the
boundary between the role of computer-held (or computer holdable) geographic
information as a highly worthwhile topic for research and a wider agenda to
discuss climate change and carbon management.
Roy is to be congratulated on his initiative and I do not want to detract
from this. However, I would like to be assured that the boundary is very
clear to the organisers. What we cannot have is the BCS involving itself in
political issues that have a much wider context than just computing. As a
hypothetical example of what I mean, consider a special event to examine the
ethics of retention of data held on convicted criminals. Perfectly
acceptable; but if the event also strayed into crime and punishment and
arguments about our judicial system or sentencing policy, this would be
wrong.
My intervention is not to discourage initiatives like Roy's but to alert
people to the risks of bringing the BCS into disrepute.
Regards
Alan Pollard FBCS CITP
Deputy President & President-elect
British Computer Society
-----Original Message-----
From: BCS Knowledge, Information and Metadata Management
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Conrad Taylor
Sent: 05 July 2008 11:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: BCS Geospatial SG workshop on climate change & carbon management
On Thursday 10th July, between 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm,
the BCS Geospatial Specialist Group is hosting a workshop
on Climate Change and Carbon Management at the BCS meeting rooms at
Southampton Street. I understand this to be an initiative of Roy Newell, to
whom I have just been speaking.
It is my intention not only to take part in the workshop,
but I have additionally offered to help in whatever way
I can. I also think this may be a topic of interest to
some KIDMM members, notably (apart from Dan of course)
Sabine McNeill, Genevieve Hibbs and John Lindsay.
Skeletal information about the workshop is available on Geospatial SG's
website, and I would suggest that to find out more detail, you should
download the page "attachment", a one-page PDF containing the workshop
agenda:
http://geospatial.bcs.org/web/?q=climatechange
Roy is one of the founders of the Geospatial SG, and has long been concerned
about what the British Computer Society should be doing in relation to these
hugely important issues of anthropogenic climate change. What I have argued
with Roy is that climate change and carbon management are indeed huge
issues, but
(a) our concern could even be wider, for there are other
environmental and sustainability issues that should
attract our concern (e.g. food security, biodiversity,
pollution); and
(b) paradoxically it would also be more effective to shrink
the call for action to those aspects where computing,
data/information management and associated topics such
as remote sensing, modelling and visualisation make a
difference.
The introduction to the workshop will be by Dan Rickman, and then Roy will
set out some concerns about the involvement of the Geospatial SG in
particular on climate change & carbon management issues; purpose of the
workshop; and possible future directions for involvement and action.
Dr Alun Jones of the Geoinformation Proup will then speak
on "Local Planning for a Global Crisis" and on the role of geographic
information in tackling climate change issues in planning, energy
consumption, preparing for flooding, transportation and housing. This will
be followed by an outlining of available resources on geographic
information.
The following hour and three quarters is set aside for discussion in
workshops. The present agenda provides for two parallel sesssions, one on
business and the environment and climate change strategic concerns, and the
other on issues in carbon management.
I have to say I am a little concerned about how this part
of the workshop agenda is framed and what the logistics will
be for break-out sessions. For one thing, I think it is artificial to
separate climate change issues from issues of carbon management: the
relation seems to be not one of parallel topics, but of a broader term to a
narrower one, and to risk neglecting even wider terms too.
If I might steal and twist the title of the talk that Andy Hopper is going
to give on Tuesday 14th at the IET on "Computing for the Future of the
Planet", perhaps it would be better to frame the workshop discussions to
address the agenda of "Computing and Information Management for the Future
of the Planet", and see where that takes us? But that's something I'll be
taking up with the organisers.
Note that workshop participants will not perish for lack
of nourishment since a "running buffet" will be available.
The phrase conjures up images of Neolithic hunting scenes;
I shall wear trainers to be able to keep up with the buffet.
Oh, and attendance is free.
Conrad
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