Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Having decided to take the plunge into blogging - with the thought of maintaining a blog for some of the key domains and concepts relating to information ecology, I am taking this blog to another level - at least for the time being - by forwarding the information-ecology.net domain to this blog.
The study & science of information ecosystems - and of information habitats and information species - based on an appreciation of the nature of information systems as ecosystems, of the fundamental nature and properties of information as evolving life forms, and of the one light in all of creation.
Although it wasn't until the Spring of 1996 - in the context of the last stages of preparation for Habitat II: the Second UN COnference on Human Settlements - that I began to use the phrase information ecology, the roots of my development of the concept go back to May 1990, when Information Habitat: Where Information Lives was conceived - at the Caring for Creation interfaith conference that was held in Washington, DC, to mobilize faith communities in preparation for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
I had become invovled with the preparations for Rio through my participation in the Friends Committee on Unity with Nature and the process of compiling a set of Quaker Queries on Unity with Nature that had been included in an Environmental Sabbath Programme organized by te UN Environment Programme.
One of those queries in particular: "Do I extend the Quaker practice of answering that of God in every person to answering that of God in all creation?" had particular resonance for me, and I took "all creation" to mean not just the "natural world" but everything in creation. I had already been immersed in the world of microcomputing for ten years, and had taken to the medium like a duck to water, and had realized the vital importance of microcomputers and computer communications in preparation for the Earth Summit.
I had been working for the Caring for Creation secretariat, mostly organizing the registration databawe, but when it came to the conference itself, I had no particular role, but was able to get a space in the exhibit area and set up my laptop computer with a dial-up connection to IGC/EcoNet to provide access to the electronic conferences for Rio and to demonstrate the possibilities of computer communication and electronic mail, using Informaton Habitat: Where Information Lives as the name of the exhibit.
What is Information Ecology
The study & science of information ecosystems - and of information habitats and information species - based on an appreciation of the nature of information systems as ecosystems, of the fundamental nature and properties of information as evolving life forms, and of the one light in all of creation.
A brief history
Although it wasn't until the Spring of 1996 - in the context of the last stages of preparation for Habitat II: the Second UN COnference on Human Settlements - that I began to use the phrase information ecology, the roots of my development of the concept go back to May 1990, when Information Habitat: Where Information Lives was conceived - at the Caring for Creation interfaith conference that was held in Washington, DC, to mobilize faith communities in preparation for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
I had become invovled with the preparations for Rio through my participation in the Friends Committee on Unity with Nature and the process of compiling a set of Quaker Queries on Unity with Nature that had been included in an Environmental Sabbath Programme organized by te UN Environment Programme.
One of those queries in particular: "Do I extend the Quaker practice of answering that of God in every person to answering that of God in all creation?" had particular resonance for me, and I took "all creation" to mean not just the "natural world" but everything in creation. I had already been immersed in the world of microcomputing for ten years, and had taken to the medium like a duck to water, and had realized the vital importance of microcomputers and computer communications in preparation for the Earth Summit.
I had been working for the Caring for Creation secretariat, mostly organizing the registration databawe, but when it came to the conference itself, I had no particular role, but was able to get a space in the exhibit area and set up my laptop computer with a dial-up connection to IGC/EcoNet to provide access to the electronic conferences for Rio and to demonstrate the possibilities of computer communication and electronic mail, using Informaton Habitat: Where Information Lives as the name of the exhibit.
