Enjoyed the chance to talk to the interesting folks at MobiUK on mobile computing and sustainability. I attempted to reconsider the role of ‘resource efficiency’ not as a driver of growth of ICT’s impacts on the planet, but rather to work within planetary limits. Digital technology unquestionably transforms our understanding of the world and helps society reconfigure itself to do new things from better healthcare, climate science, self-driving cars and smart cities, and more. Yet, I argued, ICT has significant direct impacts on energy material systems, and an exponentially growing footprint. As researchers, innovators and practitioners, what should the MobiUK community be doing to help bring about a more environmentally sustainable future? The slides are available.
Talks
Talk with ecologists without borders in Slovenia, well, online :)
Enjoyed doing talk to inspiring group (Ekologi brez meja – ecologists without borders) in Slovenia on Building digital solutions for the Anthropocene: avoiding digital wastefulness (talk on YouTube). Key points: how the infrastructure we build into the tools we use everyday, e.g. building AI into search, is leading to growth in energy demand, data centres and materials. Plus the need to look systematically at energy systems, IT, water and material resources and how they do and will impact the environment and society in the future.
Talk: Metabolising the Planet, UCLIC talk @ UCL, 9th October
Thoroughly enjoyed talking with the excellent folks at UCLIC at UCL on 9th October on the growing and multidimensional impacts of adopting ‘environmentally and energy expensive’ ICT in research and beyond. They asked great questions 🙂 The slides are online and you can find the actual talk on YouTube.
Talk: Where’s the value in energy data science?
Thoroughly enjoyed talking about the missing context to energy data time-series with the good folks at Keele in software & systems and Digital Society. Check out the slides.
Logistics Chaire Intl Seminar on 9th November on fairer and more sustainable last mile parcel logistics
Delighted to have the opportunity to talk about our fairer and more sustainable gig economy work.
This was part of a 1/2 day event coordinated by Dr. Laetitia Dablanc, Logistics City Chair at University Gustave Eiffel, Paris. Note that they publish a range of fascinating surveys and data relating to logistics, gig workers and e.g. warehouse distribution, see:
http://lvmt.fr/en/chaires/logistics-city/
Agenda:
- Introduction by Jonathan Sebbane (Sogaris) and Laetitia Dablanc (Logistics City Chair)
- Anne Goodchild (University of Washington) – Bringing curbs to light; estimating the value of digital curb availability data
- Adrian Friday (Lancaster University) – FlipGig: Digitally transforming deliveries and collections in the gig-economy
- Matthieu Schorung (Université Gustave Eiffel) – Geography of warehouses in the United States and spatial patterns of Amazon warehouses
- Giacomo Lozzi (Università degli studi Roma TRE) – Improving stakeholder engagement for urban logistics: the L-3D project
- Travis Fried (University of Washington) – New spatial patterns for e-commerce warehousing and implications for equity
- Heleen Buldeo Rai (Université Gustave Eiffel) – Proximity logistics and how warehouses can become good neighbors
Digital Futures Distinguished Lecture on ICT Impacts
Was delighted to be hosted by Digital Futures @ KTH in Sweden, especially the fantastic folks at Sustainable Futures Lab in Media Technology and Interaction Design (funded by Digital Futures’ excellent Scholar in Residence Programme). As part of this, I got to do a talk on estimates of ICT’s impact and my thoughts on the narratives embedded in this (will efficiency and green energy save ICT from its impacts, is it exceptional and does it enable carbon savings in other domains?). Check it out on YouTube. My sincere thanks to my hosts for being exceptionally supportive, passionate and kind – and of course for all the Fika and sustainability discussions!
Advance ICT Keynote on IoT and Sustainability
Delighted to be able to participate with my keynote talk in the SFI Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT) annual event. Where I talked about the role of ICT and IoT in achieving a more sustainable future, and why many existing ‘efficiency’ narratives are simply too limited and just contribute to a discourse of delay. Slides are now available on slideshare.
FlipGig Knowledge Exchange Event
Enjoyed the final knowledge exchange event at Friends House Euston for the http://flipgig.org project on 29th April. If you want to find out how to improve conditions for gig delivery workers and sustainability of last mile logistics, then check out the slides and posters on our website. You may also find our briefing note (white paper) of interest.
Talk on impacts of ICT to ISMB special session on ‘Computational Biology going Green’
Really enjoyed my talk and panel discussion at ISMB on considering impacts of both AI on energy footprint, but also the wider impacts of academic practice including conferences. [Talk slides]. I followed excellent and thought provoking talks by Roy Schwartz stressing increased need for reporting of computational budgets, and making efficiency an evaluation criterion for research alongside accuracy and related measures (toward ‘Green AI’); and Loïc Lannelongue on their ‘green algorithms’ project (link) – which estimates the energy/carbon intensity of AI on GPU clusters given a set of parameters.
Kathy’s paper on thermal comfort and older women
Looking forward to Kathy’s talk at CHI next week on thermal comfort and older women. Get a sneak preview here!