Information Systems and the Environment (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Knowledge Networking for Global Sustainability: New Modes of Cyberpartnering
Knowledge Networking for Global Sustainability: New Modes of Cyberpartnering
Pages 195-210
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From page 195... ...
Broadly construed, the global dilemma is this: If the combined impacts of human activities and conditions, shaped by prevailing social norms and values, continue to place serious strains on life-supporting properties, threaten natural and social systems, and generate propensities for social conflict and violence, then the historical patterns of unrestricted growth that have been so successful in 195
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From page 196... ...
These obstacles are all independent in origin, dynamics, technological foundation, and policy priorities, but they appear to be converging in ways that may lead to a paradigm shift in our understanding of how knowledge-based uses of advanced information technologies can be effectively used on a global scale. If there is a serious commitment to sustainability as an alternative to the conventional economic growth model, then the search for or development of a sustainability model must draw upon relevant knowledge and evolving interpretations of collective experiences, best practices, new theories, innovative technologies, and new social modalities in all economic sectors, all geographic regions, and at all levels of development (Choucri, 1993~.
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From page 197... ...
The core concept of GSSD is sufficiently broad to include both the scientific tradition and the more policy-based, pragmatically oriented traditions of business and industry and governments. THE GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The GSSD is an adaptive, interactive system for knowledge networking, knowledge management, and knowledge sharing for use in conjunction with Internet resources.
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From page 198... ...
In other words, the value-added of the GSSD knowledge base is its content, quality, coherent framework, and its e-connections to the original Internet materials. The selection and inclusion of sites is subject to systematic procedures.
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From page 199... ...
KNOWLEDGE NETWORKING FOR GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY ~ International Responses _ ~ ~ _= ~ Social Solutions ~ if_ .Technical Solutions Problems ~ 199 C Activities ~ ,~ Problems _ _ Technical Solutions _ _ FIGURE 1 Dimensions of sustainability framework: rings or perspectives.
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From page 200... ...
Each slice outline consists of concepts and subconcepts that are used as "tags" to index individual items in the knowledge base. These tags enable characterization of current knowledge so that updates can be made easily; provide guidelines for populating the system, namely, the selection of prescreened, "spidered" web sites; and ensure a certain degree of internal consistency in the development of the GSSD knowledge system in terms of the selection of indicative web sites.
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From page 201... ...
of the following modes: an access user (to obtain knowledge types, or basic data, through search options and navigation tools) ; a knowledge provider or input user (to place contents of prescreened web sites in the system's knowledge base)
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From page 202... ...
survey research on a worldwide basis. For many social science and most policy-relevant uses, survey applications of this type would provide unparalleled opportunities for accessing and measuring select groups in targeted modes or the global community as a whole.
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From page 203... ...
As shown in Figure 6, only a few items of information are required as user inputs to automatically update the system. This feature will facilitate data entry and hence facilitate implementation of decentralized capabilities.
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From page 204... ...
of each site in the GSSD knowledge base is translated into all of GSSD's supported languages. The translated abstracts are then available for e-searches through the system's six search modes.
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From page 205... ...
A platform for non-English content enables non-English-speakers to make their own data widely available and increases the amount of local knowledge on the global network. Knowledge Networking and Strategic Partnering The GSSD knowledge network is defined as an organized system of discrete actors endowed with knowledge-producing capacity combined through common organizing principles.
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From page 206... ...
The GSSD strategy concentrates on two forms of distributed input (or knowledge provision) , knowledge nodes and mirror sites.
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From page 208... ...
CURRENT STATUS AND CYBERPARTNERSHIP During the early stages of development, GSSD was implemented on a server written in Mac Common Lisp designed for Macintosh machines (Keene, 1989~. The server was built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in conjunction with the White House initiative on "reinventing government." Subsequently, GSSD was adapted to a Lotus Domino Server system that could support a broader user base and enable multilingualism.
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From page 209... ...
I am especially grateful to John Mallery and Roger Hurwitz of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and to Gerard McHugh of the Department of Political Science and a researcher in the Department of Ocean Engineering. The first phase adaptation to Lotus requirements was done with Steven Millman and a number of MIT students and researchers, in collaboration with the MIT Intelligent Engineering Systems Laboratory.
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From page 210... ...
Pp. 133-171 in Global Accord: Environmental Challenges and International Responses, N
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