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Follow Up Message
To our presenters, staff, video
and webcast crews, workexchange volunteers and all of the participants,
thank you all for making the first PLANETWORK Conference a rousing success.
Link
to the Opt-In Database Server
PLANETWORK
Online Discussion Forum
hosted by Utne Cafe
click here first time to establish an account
Conference
Audio Tapes
May
2000 Conference Schedule
As we enter the new millennium two global phenomena stand out as the most
dramatic aspects of our time: the dizzying rate of technological change,
especially in the realm of digital information, and the staggering scale
and speed of environmental degradation. We are fully cognizant of the negative
impacts of technological proliferation. However, as a planet-wide system
of communication and interrelationship, the Internet could play a pivotal
role in the search for solutions to our current ecological problems. Many
of our most pressing difficulties stem from the failure of our existing
system to foresee, recognize, and respond to the global ecological situation
- all tasks that information technology may be ideally positioned to address.
PLANETWORK explores ways that information technology can contribute
to creating a sustainable future.
From the highly practical:
- How can the environmental movement make best use of the Internet?
- How can information technologies help advance more holistic perspectives
in science and culture?
- How can the Internet and information technologies activate greater
awareness of both ecological problems and their solutions?
- What is the state of the art of computational modeling and visualization
in global climate change, land-use, Gaia theory, complexity studies,
ecosystem analysis, teaching eco-literacy, etc?
To broader cultural, scientific and philosophical concerns:
- How might the Net play a greater role in adaptively transforming
human culture?
- Are there innovative changes in the design of the Net which might
allow it to serve as an effective feedback loop in modifying our environmental
behavior?
- How can we better articulate and make use of the intimate connections
between cybernetic and ecological systems?
- Is there meaning to the emergence of the Internet at this critical
moment in history?
- Might the Internet demonstrate that humanity is greater than the
sum of its parts - great enough to rise to the most dire challenge we
have ever faced?
PLANETWORK will bring together leading innovators from a wide spectrum of
fields - from information technology to ecology and biology, from the arts
and education to environmental activism - to share their visions, and initiate
a new network phenomenon together. This groundbreaking event will demonstrate,
hands on, uses of the Web for those working on the ecological crisis, and
illustrate the pivotal role those in the information technology industry
may play in the creation of a sustainable future.
Come participate in this most challenging adventure.
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