[Disclosure - I am involved in organizing this beast] Knowing a number of you personally, and respecting the posters here for your perception, willingness to argue and - often - wit, I throw down a wee gauntlet:
Who amongst you wants to get together a free-form narrative for the next couple of weeks about key concerns, opportunities, prospects or left-field ideas that can, plausibly, gain a showcase at the forum or - better yet - pass through to the next great gabfest on environment and sustainability, Rio+20 next year? It's early days and the right time for some right-brain thinking about the desirable - nay, necessary - place geo-information in all its forms as a tool for enablement, empowerment or simply filling the gaps in the peoples' story of they wish or ought live on this planet. If there's enough response I'll take this off-stream to woo-space somewhere but, meanwhile, would love to get a thrash going here about the Big Picture aspects of why on earth (pun intended) we love to love this geo-stuff. How many babies' lives can our favourite technology save in the next 20 years? How exactly might that happen? How many peoples lives can be improved? How many lives can be enriched by species not going extinct Get it? ------------------------------------------------------------------- "As you may be aware, the Government of Abu Dhabi, UAE is preparing to deliver the Eye on Earth Summit (www.eyeonearthsummit.org) in Abu Dhabi on December 12-15, 2011. "The Summit is being facilitated by the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) and hosted by the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Summit will convene over 700 invited thought and action leaders in the world-wide environmental and societal information networking movement. Guests will include government, business, science, civil society and academia with the aim of encouraging and strengthening existing efforts, and inspiring unified solutions to this global challenge. "Ambitiously, the Summit’s goal is to achieve consensus on key areas of mutual importance and establish specific commitments to action. The Summit will recognise the tremendous amount of extraordinary work that is occurring in the field of environmental data and information. As a respected expert in the field, I would like to invite you to participate in shaping the content of the Summit. Specifically, we would like you to engage with Eye on Earth as a Member of the Technical Infrastructure Working Group, a consultative body that will contribute issues and ideas to the development of the Summit focus and content. "In practical terms, your participation as a UNEP Secretariat Representative on this Working Group will involve you in discussions with respected peers in an effort to identify the most pressing issues in your field and to bring them forward into the Summit Program; in highlighting best practices; and in developing a White Paper summarizing themes and proposing the means of engaging Summit participants in spirited and forward-thinking discussion aimed at advancing the issues." (and so on) _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
