Posted by Ludwig, Wednesday, 12 November 2008 4:52:33 PM:

>Are you or any of your colleagues going to run another
>symposium to follow this one up, in which you explore
>my all-important fourth question?

The next symposium is being planned for February or March 2009. As to what questions will be addressed will need to be decided by the organisers. I suspect we will stick to business issues as that is what the audience is going to want to hear about. If we address topics they are not interested in, then they will not attend.

>Don’t you think that at this point in time we should be along
>way past the ‘start’ and getting well and truly stuck into
>the big components of overall sustainability?

Yes, but we can only start from where we are, not from where we wish we were. My fellow professionals already see me as some sort of crank for raising energy saving issues. It will do no good raising other issues as they will simply dismiss this as irrelevant to their business goals.

>Are you going to lobby for your university or your government
>to get an urgent move-on in addressing the big picture…

I have been lobbying my university and my government. You can check my efforts with a web search: http://www.google.com.au/search?q="tom+worthington"+"sustainability"+-fish+ict+

> ... to promote the interests of big business and free market
>ideology as opposed to limits to human expansion and better
> wealth distribution ...

My aim is not to try to change the economic or political system, but to make changes within the system.

>'Technocrats' can't just assume that their changes will be
>for the better. We've all got to work solidly to make sure they are.

Yes, as a technocrat I will always tend to see techncial solutions to problems. Others need to keep reminding us there is a larger world out there. Perhaps you would like to post details to the forum of how you have been addressing these issues.

Thanks for the well-considered response Tom.

“Perhaps you would like to post details to the forum of how you have been addressing these issues.”

I have done this before on OLO. But here is the essence of it again [it is just about impossible to find a particular post way back in the annals of one’s user index! /:> | ]

I’ve been lobbying on sustainability issues for 20 years through the following avenues:

Past president and long-time committee member of three non-government organisations; the North Queensland Conservation Council, Sustainable Population Australia (NQ branch) and the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland (Townsville Branch).

Former avid letter-writer and occasional article-writer to my local newspaper and rural, state and national papers. Many articles in the NGO newsletters and presentations delivered all over the place.

I’m a botanist, ecologist and geomorphologist, working for the same employer for 20 years, and a professional associate of James Cook University.

Producer and presenter of an environmental radio program for about three years.

Ran in the 1995 state election for the Qld Greens.

Three years on OLO.

I’ve had a fair old go at it, to the point of obsession…and at times, depression.

continued

“The next symposium is being planned for February or March 2009.”

Excellent.

“As to what questions will be addressed will need to be decided by the organisers. I suspect we will stick to business issues as that is what the audience is going to want to hear about. If we address topics they are not interested in, then they will not attend.”

But you need to address the things that really matter. You can’t just leave them out altogether because you feel that people might not want to hear them. Work them into the program. My fourth question was just the fourth part of what should be presented at the forum tomorrow. It doesn’t have to dominate the whole forum.

You’ve got to get the big picture into peoples’ heads. I don’t believe that you should just be leaving it up to someone else, in government or wherever, to tie your bit of the sustainability effort or that of your colleagues into the holistic view.

“I have been lobbying my university and my government.”

Great. But from what I can tell, it seems to be with much the same narrow focus as with the symposium.

“Others need to keep reminding us there is a larger world out there.”

Why should others have to remind you? Shouldn’t everyone who is in anyway concerned with the achievement of sustainability already well and truly know about the big picture and about the really big issues?

If they were sincere about their sustainability effort, wouldn’t they want to be involved with these big issues…the things that threaten to reduce the effectiveness of their work, or cancel it out or completely overwhelm it…or use it for purposes opposite to the intended use?

Thanks to the Online Opinion-ites for the comments and suggestions. Text, slides and a video of presentation from the Green ICT Symposium 2008 at ANU, are available online: http://tomw.net.au/moodle/course/view.php?id=10

* Welcome and Introduction By Senator Kate Lundy
* Setting up a data centre in regional Australia: Video of Mach Technology, Noosa
* Dr Peter Strazdins, ANU. How much energy can you save with a multicore computer for web applications?
* Catherine Middleton, Associate Professor, Ryerson University, Are Users Up to Speed? The Demand Side of Sustainable Broadband
* Dr. Idris F. Sulaiman, CEO, Computers Off Australia.

My "Teaching Sustainable ICT to Professionals Online" was cancelled and will be rescheduled in the ANU seminar series. Or you can hear me at the Symposium on Sustainability of the Internet and ICT, 26 November 2008, University of Melbourne: http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/ict_sustainability_education/

A second Green ICT Symposium is planned for early 2009. To be on the list for details, contact: Rachel.Allen@aph.gov.au

Thank you, tomw, for the follow-up post re the Green ICT Symposium.

Reading the Gershon Report, to which you provided a link, I came across this gem:

"1.7.10. The Treasury reported that it had invested in a new data centre with a conscious effort to reduce its carbon footprint by re-using the cold air in Canberra for the centre’s cooling requirements."

So little cold air in Canberra that they have to 're-use' it, apparently.

I note in your opening post your use of the words "energy reduction" in relation to the 'climate change' buzzwords. Is this meant to mean 'energy descent', an envisaged general situation of reducing availability of energy of the kind required to power computers and broadband access among other things, or simply 'demand management' in ICT, a planned reduction in power requirements?

A desirable characteristic of power supply in the ICT context is its reliability or, preferably, uninterruptibility. I see a motivational opportunity for providing focus for a move to sustainable electricity sourcing in this connection. For that part of ICT energy demand represented by the home, home office, or small commercial user, I suggest encouraging the development and marketing of stand-alone renewables-based generating and storage equipment. Stand-alone renewables-based generating capability can easily amount to much the same thing as an uninterrupted power supply.

Distributed renewables-based electricity generation adequate for all domestic power requirements may not be feasible, but smaller capacity capable of handling ICT requirements is in my opinion much more immediately attainable. Its introduction would be a valuable educational experience.

Once a renewables-based power supply is being used, the efficiency of the equipment using this power becomes very much a distant secondary consideration. Re-use of existing hardware, already possible through the tempobidirectional characteristics of open source software, will then become the principal avenue by which these users can continue to improve the sustainability of ICT.

If there is to be 'energy descent', ICT surely should be one of the highest priority areas to which we should be providing sustainibility of energy supply.

Forrest

Quick note to let you know that I have done my bit for recycling old PC's and made the move to Ubuntu.

ATM running both windows and ubuntu till I get around to transfering what I need and then its bye bye Mr Gates.

Everything running very well and much faster.

Cheers