Hi Matthew,
Just as a starter, there was a lot of discussion of this issue in the
States recently - prompted by several of the Search Engines (led by Google) moving their
massive terabyte data farms to remote areas where they could take advantage of renewable
energy sources such as hdroelectric dams and geothermic generators.
(Wired says this: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/cloudware_pr.html)
On the principle of 'it from bit' - the information theory that data is as physcial as atoms -
there is a very real 'real estate' cost to the ever-spiralling amount of data that is out there and
as with any other kind of storage, this has an environmental as well as an economic cost.
In terms of what an individual organisation can do to reduce the carbon footprint of its online
publishing, I imagine this is very similar to the choices open to any consumer, although I
haven't had much luck in identifying ethical or environmental hosts or ISPs.
It would definitely be interesting if online provision were to be brought into the same ethical
principles which govern environmental awareness for business.
Nick
On 14 Feb 2007 at 9:13, Matthew Cock wrote:
> All,
>
>
>
> I was thinking about how a museum might make its activities more
> sustainable, in terms of reducing its carbon footprint, etc. And
> then I
> got to thinking about the museum's website (as is my job) and the
> internet in general. On a large scale, how much energy does the
> internet
> use up? Is anyone aware of any figures? On a local scale, we could
> evaluate the energy used up by the servers hosting our site, and
the
> PCs
> and infrastructure inside our Museum. But how far could we
> decrease
> these (I'm not going to even mention 'off-setting' as an option),
> even
> as we aim to increase our site visits, and ensure good bandwidth
> and
> zero downtime? We increasingly demand that our websites are
> accessible,
> and require of 3rd parties that they help us to achieve that - is
> there
> a place for requirements that our ISPs use renewable sources of
> energy?
> Just one thought. Anyway - if anyone else has any thoughts on
this,
> I'd
> be really interested, and perhaps we can start a discussion. I
have
> done
> a few searches on Google, but nothing has jumped out at me as a
> major
> movement to a greener internet.
>
>
>
> Oh, and a happy Valentine's Day to all MCG members.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Matthew
>
> Head of Web | Department of Learning and Information | The British
> Museum | www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
> <http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/>
>
> tel: 020 7323 8169 | work mobile: 07971 433841
>
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>
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Nick Poole
Director
MDA
The Spectrum Building
The Michael Young Centre
Purbeck Road
Cambridge
CB2 2PD
Telephone: 01223 415 760
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.mda.org.uk
------- End of forwarded message -------
Nick Poole
Director
MDA
The Spectrum Building
The Michael Young Centre
Purbeck Road
Cambridge
CB2 2PD
Telephone: 01223 415 760
Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.mda.org.uk
**************************************************
For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
**************************************************
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