[cc-community] [Icommons] Green at the iSummit

Alek Tarkowski alek at creativecommons.pl
Tue Apr 1 18:43:45 EDT 2008


Hello,

I agree with the voices that have stated that a "green track" will 
stretch very much the spectrum of the commons that is addressed at 
iSummit. I think that with limited amount of time at our disposal, if we 
mutiply the number of distinct topics, especially if they also require 
specific and differing expertise, we might end up having thematic 
"silos", which is not good.

Having said that, I believe the tie between information/cultural commons 
and the environment as a commons is very important. Maybe it would be 
best to have it addressed as a keynote? A person that comes to my mind 
is Vandana Shiva, who actually gave a talk on this issue in London, I 
think it was called "imagining the cultural commons". We are not 
environmental scientists or activists and thus lack the knowledge - but 
we have an attitude that let's us understand these issues, and this 
could well be used in a keynote format, which - in my opinion - should 
address broad, crucial issues.

Regarding the practical greening of the conferences, personal carbon 
offsets seem to be getting hip, though in my part of the world *no one* 
is talking about them... And they seem a partial solution - a way to 
excuse the strain, rather than lessen it. I think that a good way to 
make this summit green is simply for all participants be aware of the 
environmental strain of global travel - and therefore make sure to make 
the best of the fact that they dragged themselves across half of the 
world or more on average, just so that they can do some work and talking 
face to face. In this way, the cost is not just offset, but also 
accounted for.

cheers,

Alek


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