role of information technology in environment essay

The Effect of Technology on the Environment Essay

Introduction, the impact of new technologies on the development of the society.

The twentieth century has witnessed rapid development of new technologies; it stands to reason, that their impact on the environment cannot be underestimated. At the present moment, humankind has to resolve one of the most complicated dilemmas in its history, in particular how to achieve equilibrium between the needs of people or (probably it would be better to say public good ) and the risks to the Earth. One has to admit that in the vast majority of cases, human activities have only detrimental effects on nature, and under some circumstances, scientific achievements may easily aggravate these effects. In this essay, I would like to focus on energy technologies, because they often pose the major threat to the environment.

Overall, there are many means of generating and harnessing energy, but none of them can be regarded as safe. At this point, it is hardly possible to imagine our life without power stations, electricity, and so forth. One can hardly deny that these are constituent and almost inseparable parts of our life. Yet, the risk they present to people and nature are almost unpredictable. In order to substantiate this statement, we may refer to specific examples, such as nuclear power plants. Its explosion can leave a great number a people dead, as it actually happened in the USSR in 1986. The so-called Chernobyl catastrophe has always been a warning to us. Even now, there are many victims to this disaster, and it is impossible to predict when the consequences will be alleviated.

At first glance, it may seem that the only possible solution to problem is to substitute these technologies by safer ones. In fact, many countries prefer not to have nuclear power stations. Certainly, such policy is rather prudent, because it ensures that the environment is not imperiled. Nonetheless, we should say that such approach is not always applicable, because there are some states, which simply cannot afford such transition. The thing is that nuclear power is by far the cheapest way of generating energy, and occasionally it is the most optimal solution, especially, if we are speaking about the developing world. Thus, it is necessary to take into consideration socio-economic factors. Another issue, which should not be overlooked, is the availability of natural resources.

In some regions, nuclear power is the only way of solving energy problem. It goes without saying that we must attach primary importance to long-term policies but the transition to ecologically safe technologies may sometimes lead to severe recession and economic crisis, especially in third-world countries. Perhaps, it is of crucial importance to exercise constant supervision over power plants and bring at least gradual improvements, which may eventually make this technology more reliable. Apart from that, there are many cases, which also illustrate this dilemma, for instance, the extraction of oil in the Pacific Ocean. A great number of people protest against such practice. Nevertheless, even they have to admit that in the near future, it will be the only alternative.

It is possible to come up with several suggestions regarding this issue. First and foremost, we need to emphasize the fact that people will exploit the resources of the nature for a certain period of time, after that they will become entirely depleted. Therefore, it is necessary to devise lest expensive and safe means of generating energy. In the meantime, we need to consider socio-economic situation in a particular region, in some cases, financial assistance should rendered to those countries, who cannot, independently, cope with this problem.

There is a widely held opinion among many philosophers and scholars that new technologies affect the development of human society. Overall, it seems that these are two variables that are so closely interwoven, and it is hardly permissible to separate them from one another. Occasionally, it is the society, which gives rise to new technologies, because there is popular demand for them. Sometimes, this process may be reversed. There are several cases, which can illustrate this process. For example, the supporters of the Marxist society may argue that scientific discoveries or inventions may contribute to further stratification of the community. The thesis comes down to the following: a person, who is able to purchase and utilize the achievements of engineers or constructors, will be able to dictate terms to other people. In order to support their argument, they refer to the so-called Industrial Revolution, which began in the United Kingdom in the eighteenth century. The invention of steam engine or spinning machine resulted in the stratification of the then society, because only very few could buy these devices, and subsequently use them for their purposes.

However, it may happen vice versa as well. The development of science and technology may be motivated by the demand of the community. For instance, at the end of the nineteenth century, there was a necessity to develop more effective means of communication. It stands to reason; there was an immediate response to this demand, namely the advent of telephone and radio.

It is extremely difficult to predict how these relations between the society and technology will develop in the near future. In this respect, we need to discuss the concept of technocracy. Traditionally, it is defined as a political system according to which engineers or scientists take control of the state. It seems that there is a slightly different scenario. Perhaps, the helm will be taken not by scientists, engineers or the inventors of new technologies, but by those ones who hire them. There is sufficient evidence, indicating that this prognosis is not something unrealistic. Big corporations have always attracted the attention of the public, but this issue still requires thorough examination, because for a considerable amount of time the government took somewhat laisser-faire approach to new technologies and economy. Consequently, leading companies (there is no need to name them in this essay) have transformed into de facto or real rulers of many countries. It may seem that new technologies only aggravate the situation, but one should take into consideration that science, itself, is always impartial, it is supposed to work for the sake of all members of the community. Thus, the government must ensure that new technology does not turn into a means of control. Perhaps, some changes in the legislation are needed, especially, concerning, the anti-monopolistic laws, which still allow corporations to control the market and subsequently the world.

Therefore, it is quite possible for us to arrive at the conclusion that new technologies and society can be considered as two interdependent variables, their development is a two-sided process. It is not quite appropriate to presume that only new scientific achievements influence the community. Yet, it has to be admitted that the situation, which has recently emerged, suggests that very soon people, possessing new technologies will come to power, which means that the rest of the world will become completely dependant on them. In order to avoid this disaster, it is necessary to review already-existing legislation, which enables this organization to achieve dominant positions.

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Information Systems and the Environment (2001)

Chapter: information systems and the environment: overview and perspectives, information systems and the environment overview and perspectives.

BRADEN R.ALLENBY, W.DALE COMPTON, and DEANNA J.RICHARDS

Today, solutions to environmental challenges are aided by an arsenal of information and knowledge systems that were unavailable for most of the last 30 years when environmental management was predicated on “command and control” mechanisms such as remediation of specific sites or compliance with, and enforcement of, end-of-pipe emissions requirements and standards. As knowledge about the causes of environmental ills has grown, so too has the number of options on how to handle them and the development of collaborations and partnerships aimed at harnessing the growing incentive-based approaches to environmental protection. As additional information technologies and knowledge management techniques evolve, environmental considerations will join other areas of strategic importance to industry.

Information technologies are unique not just because of their growing use in decision-making and knowledge management systems, important as that is. Their use has also yielded significant improvements in the efficiency of energy and materials use. This has contributed to economic expansion without the increases in environmental impacts that would have resulted had the efficiency improvements not occurred. Advances in information technology are likely to continue to provide opportunities for the development of improved and new products and services.

This will not occur, however, without continuing attention to both the individual units (e.g., factories or cars) that contribute to environmental degradation as well as the interaction of these units with each other and the environment. The system studies that are necessary to assess the trade-offs in such areas as materials choice (e.g., paper or plastic grocery bags, disposable or cloth diapers) are

difficult and frequently are hampered by lack of understanding of these interactions. Understanding the total system remains a daunting challenge.

This volume builds on earlier efforts of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the area of technology and the environment. 1 It contains selected papers from the July 1997 Workshop on Industrial Ecology, Enabling Environmental Performance Improvement: The Role of Knowledge and Information Technology. The papers are presented in three sections. The first section explores the implications of information technologies for sustainable development and the legal context within which information and knowledge systems are evolving. The second section focuses on the areas where most of the path-breaking work is occurring—the individual corporation—and the information- and knowledge-sharing tools and techniques that are being developed in that arena. The third section provides examples of systems that are evolving in the relationships between corporations and society as a whole. Although the latter are still in development, they offer exciting potential for substantially improving the environmental efficiency of the economy.

This overview provides a context for the accompanying papers by discussing the role of information and knowledge systems in the evolving discipline of industrial ecology. It describes how companies are leveraging these systems to reap environmental benefits and how novel applications of information technologies are bridging the gap between industrial practice and society’s interest in the environment and sustainable development. It concludes with suggestions on how to address some of the difficult issues related to “green” information and knowledge.

THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION AND INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY

Compared with the previous several decades, we now have a much better understanding of how human activities affect the environment. The vast majority of obvious environmental problems—caused by practices such as dumping trash and other waste material in open pits, disposing of wastewater in streams and rivers, and emitting emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere—are the result of what were once standard industrial practices. Steps to remedy these problems have focused on remediating specific sites and instituting compliance with, and enforcement of, end-of-pipe requirements and standards. Although adequate for their limited purposes of providing clean air, water, and land, these approaches increasingly are recognized as inadequate to deal with the more global perturbations of natural systems—climate change; loss of habitat and biodiversity; and depletion and degradation of soil, water, and atmospheric resources.

The knowledge base on which environmental decisions can be based is much broader and deeper than ever before. Ecology, which involves the study of the

interactions among organisms and between organisms and their physical environment, continues to inform decision making across a wide range of applications, from agriculture and forestry to the design of artificial wetlands and the restoration of healthy ecosystems. Along with the other basic sciences, ecology will continue to improve the understanding of relationships between environmental concerns and human economic activities.

Some of these concerns are directly related (e.g., the link between chlorofluorocarbons and stratospheric ozone depletion). Solutions to such concerns (e.g., the Montreal Protocol and the development of environmentally friendly technologies and policies to speed their deployment) have tended to take into account industry’s use of materials, energy, capital, labor, technology, and information, as well as the interaction of industrial systems with natural ecosystems. Industrial ecology is based on keeping track of the former and understanding the latter. Solutions based on industrial ecology include such approaches as designing goods and services in terms of their environmental life cycle so as to minimize environmental impacts and defining, assessing, and charting future technological directions to enable the achievement of sustainable development.

In industrial ecology, systems of production and consumption are considered as one. Therefore, solutions to environmental problems need to consider how production and consumption operate as a unit and interact with the large-scale environment. Yet much of environmental policy still focuses on manufacturing and production practices that often merely shift the problem elsewhere in the system. The more comprehensive view is critical when one considers, as Allenby (this volume) points out, the growth of the services sector. This sector, driven by information and knowledge acquisition and sharing, accounts for at least 60 percent of U.S. economic output and employment (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1996). The industries in this sector perform key economic and societal functions such as transportation, banking and finance, health care, public utilities, retail and wholesale trade, education, and entertainment. With the exception of transportation and utilities, these activities are not commonly associated with environmental impacts. Yet all consume energy and materials, and some, such as banking and financial institutions, indirectly influence the environment (e.g., through investment decisions). The service sector thus represents an untapped resource for environmental efficiency improvements. Service firms are well positioned to leverage their suppliers (upstream of operations) as well as their customers (downstream of operations) to effect systemic change (Richards and Kabjian, this volume). Their ability to do so can be enhanced by having better information upon which to base decisions.

To be successful, industrial ecology must adapt and incorporate technologies from any area that is found useful. Neither traditional environmental remediation—compliance or pollution control technology—nor “green” technologies alone are sufficient if environmental concerns are to be effectively mitigated. Information technology is a case in point. Never developed for environmental or

“green” purposes, it nevertheless is creating new sectors of economic activity— most recently, electronic commerce—that is already changing the economics of industry. Freeman (1992) refers to the innovations in information and communications technology as technoeconomic revolutions—innovations that transform production and management throughout the economy.

Indeed, the current information and communications revolution is allowing pervasive changes to be made. The impacts of this revolution on the industrial metabolism of the economy and on industrial systems are being felt already, particularly in the monitoring and control of emissions; the use of energy and materials; the control of quality and inventory; and the improved control of manufacturing processes. Many of the energy-saving technologies and process changes that promote cleaner production depend on the incorporation of electronic sensors and monitors that provide input to control operations. System models of these processes often are complicated and their use requires online computers for proper implementation and compliance with many regulatory objectives.

Information and communications technologies also make possible improved quality and inventory control and help to reduce and eliminate defective or sub-standard products. This is not a result of the technologies themselves, but of a diffusion of a management philosophy associated with the technology. Pressures to reduce costs or to meet quality, design, performance, manufacturability, or environmental goals have been met by continuous improvements that are the result of the collective actions of all who are involved in the production or service function, or by users and customers. More recently, these improvements have been aided by the adoption of information technologies that help manage inventory and controls and capture and disseminate knowledge. Although the combined benefits of applying information technology with new management philosophies extend beyond a single plant to networks of plants, including outsourced activities, some of these practices may have negative environmental consequences. For example, just-in-time practices can lead to increased transportation (by truck, rail, and airplane) and associated increases in energy use and local air pollution.

Information and communications technologies also have resulted in fewer materials being used per unit product or function. For example, semiconductor technology uses vastly fewer materials and less energy than old vacuum-tube technology, and it is much more powerful. Similarly, on the materials front, there has been a reduction in metal consumption over the past 20 years (Sousa, 1992). Some of this reduction can be attributed to the information and communications revolution itself, which underlies improved product design systems. These systems use computer modeling to decrease reliance on prototypes. Information and communications technologies also have improved energy and material efficiencies because they have enabled innovations in new efficient manufacturing processes and the creation of new complex materials. The use of more-complex

materials, however, has made recovery more difficult, and past experience shows that many previous environmental ills have resulted from the accumulation of materials in the environment. Hence, one might expect separation technologies to grow in importance as part of an overall environmental strategy.

The information and communications revolution is forging a far more integrated economy. At the same time, addressing environmental and sustainability concerns requires a multidimensional approach that is interwoven with the global economy and the planet’s natural systems. Both factors, according to Allenby (this volume), are mutually reinforcing. This is because the concept of sustainability requires a global economy in long-term harmony with its supporting natural systems, which in turn will generate a far more robust economy—one that is more informationally dense, in which information is substituted for other inputs such as raw materials and energy. Citing economic trends in the information industry, Allenby shows that substitution of information for materials and energy has reduced the costs and use of these resources. He speculates that the demands for sustainability will increase the substitution of information for other inputs and postulates that sustainability itself may well be unattainable without such substitutions.

Information substitution, although an important contributor, will not, by itself, generate the ideal environment. As noted above, such substitutions are not without trade-offs, and “smart” policies will be needed. In the area of transportation, for example, there has been a merging of information and communications technologies in automobiles and traffic systems, including the development of so-called smart highways and vehicles to control traffic flow. The same has happened in air travel. Yet in neither case has the fundamental problem of reducing traffic been addressed. There are solutions, such as increasing ridership on public transportation. This may occur if significant improvements are made in transportation systems and if personal vehicle use is discouraged. Another alternative is to encourage people to work from home, telecommuting instead of traveling to work. Although such telework policies are beginning to appear in the workplace, gains from such practices can be offset easily by increases in other types of travel. For any of these approaches to be effective, the focus must be on addressing the problems of the total transportation system with a view toward minimizing the need for travel.

Hence, in many ways, information and communications technologies will continue to contribute positively to the environment in terms of reductions in materials and energy use. However, the final outcomes of such measures are likely to remain uncertain. Other areas in which application of the technology can contribute to environmental improvement include knowledge management— capturing information and knowledge so that past mistakes are not repeated (as discussed by Richards and Kabjian, this volume)—and knowledge creation. Legal barriers that are predicated on the traditional physical formats of knowledge, such as books, need to be addressed, according to Cohen and Martin (this

volume). The current legal system is not well equipped to deal with “data mining” of publicly available information and to protect intellectual property rights in a world where access to information is easy and the information itself can be quickly reproduced.

At issue is data ownership. Is it the creator of the data or the individual who compiled them who has rightful ownership? Current intellectual property laws were not designed to protect and encourage the dissemination of compilations of factual information. They were designed to protect property. Creative expression and data do not fit well in either of these categories. Data are neither creative expressions like books, paintings, or sculptures, nor unique inventions. Database creators want protection the very moment that their data are gathered. In addition, databases are extremely dynamic and undergo constant change. As Cohen and Martin (this volume) point out, current patent and copyright laws are not suited to protect data or the compilation of data in a database. In the case of copyright, not only is current law ill-suited to the task, but it expressly bars protection of ideas, principles, and facts. In the case of patent laws, it can take years to process a patent application, and a clear definition of the unique invention is required.

Other laws, such as those related to trade secrecy and the tort of misappropriation, are equally ill-suited to protect the compilation of data. To address the common flaws intrinsic to the current intellectual property laws, Cohen and Martin suggest a two-phase approach that incorporates both property and liability. The first phase would provide a “blocking period” designed to give a certain amount of lead time for the database creator. During this period, a property rule would apply, and competitors would not be permitted to use or copy the new database without the database creator’s consent. This initial blocking period would be followed by an automatic license. Absent some other agreement, the database creator would be obligated, at a minimum, to share the data with all secondcomers at rates established by a regulatory body composed of industry representatives and government officials. Under this approach, data creators would recover investments made during the compilation process, but the data would remain publicly accessible under fair and reasonable terms. This framework would serve society’s interest in knowledge sharing, research, and development as well as data creators’ legitimate interests in recouping development costs.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS WITHIN THE FIRM

The legal issues raised by Cohen and Martin are a product of our knowledge-driven society. Many experts in management believe that the manufacturing, service, and information sectors will be based on knowledge in the future, and business organizations will evolve into knowledge creators in many ways.

Drucker (1993) suggests that one of the most important challenges for every organization in the knowledge society is to build systematized practices for managing a self-transformation. Organizations have to abandon obsolete knowledge and learn to create new products and processes by improving ongoing activities and continually innovating in an organized way. Successful organizations of the future will have institutionalized the concept of growth based on knowledge creation and learning.

Three papers in this volume describe how private firms can develop information systems to better manage and create knowledge for environmental purposes. Richards and Kabjian point out that there are several opportunities to improve and apply environmental knowledge sharing, many of which cross traditional organizational boundaries. Such knowledge sharing may occur within a firm or involve the firm in collaborations with outside stakeholders that have interests in the company’s environmental performance. Examples from DuPont (Carberry) and Rhône-Poulenc (Heptinstall) provide case studies of how individual firms in a heavily regulated sector—chemicals—are beginning to develop internal knowledge-sharing initiatives. Carberry shows how a vast array of information technologies such as e-mail, relational databases, CD-ROM, expert systems, Internet-based Web pages, teleconferencing, and videoconferencing is helping companies communicate environmental policies, exchange information about cleaner production technology, and report compliance data. In each instance, these new technologies provide for the rapid distribution or dissemination of environmental experiences, information, and knowledge that enhance technology transfer and enable companies to more effectively address compliance control and remediation. Hepinstall, on the other hand, discusses the challenges that firms face in implementing knowledge-sharing systems that share relevant environmental information internally within a company.

Graedel (this volume) and Ishii (this volume) explore another facet of the green technology challenge, namely, creating environmental knowledge that is of use to product designers. Graedel walks us through the design process, showing at what stages—from initial concept to final design—environmental knowledge can be useful. For example, when a product is in its conceptualization stage, he suggests addressing very basic environmentally related questions such as whether forbidden or highly regulated substances or materials will be required to manufacture the product and what the potential environmental impacts of the product throughout its life cycle, including recycling, might be. Some of the information needed to answer these questions may be located easily, but in other instances, the knowledge required may have to be created. Ishii illustrates one technique— the reverse fish-bone diagram—that designers can use to gain knowledge about parts and components of existing production. The purpose of undertaking such an exercise is to create knowledge that can be used in future designs to improve the recyclability of the product or family of products.

These examples show some steps of knowledge management and creation that a firm can take to improve its own environmental performance. Modern production operations, however, are nodes in an increasingly complex network of suppliers and distributors, which in turn require equally sophisticated knowledge systems if they are to be properly informed. Kleindorfer and Snir (this volume) explore environmental stewardship activities in this highly complex supply chain by focusing on how environmental information is gathered and used. They suggest that information technologies may help firms improve the environmental aspects of their products at three important levels: product and supply-chain design to minimize environmental impacts, ongoing waste minimization and risk mitigation after the product has been deployed, and diagnostic feedback from supply-chain participants to assess opportunities for new products and processes.

Heim (this volume), in turn, addresses how new software developments and the use of the Internet to distribute the software will allow small companies to model their manufacturing processes by accessing “plug-and-play” software components from various sources to develop manufacturing models of their operations. Whereas these models often can be used to optimize production, the technique of accessing such software and developing unique models is new. Similar applications may be developed that will help small manufacturers improve their environmental performance.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLABORATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Beyond the firm, environmental knowledge creation and management involve collaborations that are more complex. The complexity tends to be a huge obstacle that impedes the progress towards individuals involved working together effectively. Yet there is a critical need for collaborative work in the larger arena beyond the firm, and several collaborative arrangements have emerged. One is sector specific. In the for-profit world it takes the form of consortia of firms from a specific industrial sector working together on a particular problem. In the nonprofit sector, it takes the form of government agencies often forming task forces to work together on common issues. Another collaborative arrangement involves partnerships consisting of for-profit firms, private nonprofit interest groups, and the government that work on developing consensus on and solutions to issues of common interest. While the motivations that drive the two types of collaborations may differ, the challenges in both revolve around developing a common understanding of approaches to the problem at hand and establishing a standard terminology that all can work with.

Killgoar (this volume) makes the point that, from a private-sector perspective, the motivation for collaboration is to gain data, information, and knowledge. Using the automotive sector as an example, he describes the nontechnical, softer

issues that arise in establishing and ensuring successful collaborations, such as building trust and developing common terminology. These issues, if successfully dealt with, can have enormous payback in development of new technologies. The challenge is to integrate information gleaned from these collaborative efforts into the operations of the constituent firms.

Government collaborations, on the other hand, are motivated by public-interest concerns such as getting information obtained by the government into wider circulation. The Environmental Data Exchange Network (EDEN) project, a collaborative effort of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is a case in point. These agencies have different types of related information from disparate sources and in different databases. According to Pitts and Fowler (this volume), EDEN seeks to provide a dynamic information system for accessing environmental data stored in diverse distributed databases. Like the collaborations in industry, the players involved in EDEN also had to agree on a framework of common approaches and a common terminology.

This collaboration also illustrates the innovative use of InfoSleuth™, a new software technology that uses intelligent software agents to provide uniform access to specific sets of information on geographically distributed environmental databases through standard Internet browsers. InfoSleuth™ itself was developed in a collaborative effort involving General Dynamics Information Systems (formerly Computing Devices International), NCR Corporation, Schlumberger, Raytheon Systems, Texas Instruments, TRW, and the DOD Clinical Business Area, and was partially supported by NIST. The motivation behind the development of InfoSleuth™ was to broaden the focus of current database research to produce a model that combines the semantic benefits of a structured database with the ease of publication and access of the World Wide Web.

Technologies like InfoSleuth™ will grow in importance as publicly available information changes the landscape of knowledge management and creation. Eagan, Wiese, and Liebl (this volume) describe Wisconsin’s effort to develop an information system that will provide integrated environmental information about industrial facilities throughout the state via the Internet. Not only are socially responsible investor institutions on the quest for such information, but the public is also.

The extent to which information systems, mainly based on the Internet, support the development and distribution of environmentally relevant information and the potential power of this type of information distribution system usually is not well recognized, in part because of the newness of the medium. Already, however, global environmental information networks, complete with chat rooms and instant reporting of environmentally relevant events, are being developed (Knauer and Rickard, this volume). The Internet is unique in its ability to facilitate dialog.

Use of the Internet is enhanced further by effective organization of relevant information. Choucri (this volume) demonstrates how distributed knowledge-networking systems, such as the Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD), can broaden the concept of merging knowledge from science with management prescriptions. GSSD is designed specifically for use in conjunction with Internet resources. Its knowledge base is organized as a hierarchical embedded system of entries about human activities and conditions; sustainability problems associated with human actions; current scientific and technological solutions; attendant economic, political, and regulatory solutions; and the broad range of evolving international actions and responses.

An example of how environmental information on the Internet is organized and used for broadcast and communication is provided at http://www.scorecard.org . This Internet site, established by the Environmental Defense (ED), pulls together Toxics Release Inventory data that companies report to the EPA and relates it to specific manufacturing sites on local- or national-scale maps. Knowledge is enhanced by linking information on specific chemicals to information on health and toxicity. By linking data and information, ED has put knowledge about emissions from specific industries and their potential harmful effects into the hands of individuals who may be affected. The existence of the Web site allows users to act on the information they find by, for example, communicating their concerns to responsible individuals in companies or to local regulators.

The implications of these developments for companies is that they have to be vigilant in providing accurate and meaningful information to the public. Knowledge, not just data, is particularly important because, with knowledge, the public can influence firms to change their behavior. Costs that reflect environmental performance and the availability of capital to address issues will have immediate and powerful impacts on firm behavior; similarly, public concerns about a firm or a nearby facility can create significant costs and even force curtailment of operations or closure of the facility. As the chemical industry learned—and responded to through the Responsible Care Program— public accountability is an increasingly powerful reality of corporate life. By reducing the level of false information, the credibility of all involved in environmental discussions will be heightened. If decision making is to be effective, it must be informed.

THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

As the papers in this volume show, an environmentally and economically efficient world will not necessarily be a simpler world; rather, it will be more complex and more informationally dense. There will be more, not less, demand for systems that can integrate information into knowledge across disparate spatial, temporal, and organizational scales.

These trends have at least three important public policy implications. First, there have to be incentives to generate environmentally relevant knowledge. From an industrial ecology perspective, such knowledge can impact the design of products, engineering or reengineering of ecological systems, communication with customers, understanding materials and energy flows, and research and development. Government support of academic research in this area can help identify new processes and techniques that enhance ecological objectives, articulate technical and management standards that reflect best strategic environmental approaches, and define criteria for determining environmental impacts and metrics of environmental performance. This narrow need within the realm of the industrial sector may seem trivial in the context of larger environmental issues of climate change and biodiversity but it is critical, particularly for the large and growing number of small and medium-sized manufacturers.

Second, there is a serious need to ensure that the environmental information is of high quality, not misinformation. The difficulty in this regard is that growth of scientific knowledge involves uncertainty. A useful safeguard might be a peer review process that continually assesses the validity of the information on which government agencies and private enterprises depend for decision making.

Finally, given the world’s increasing technological sophistication and the close interaction between technological progress and environmental concerns, there is a need to develop a technologically and environmentally literate citizenry.

Drucker, P.F. 1993. Post-Capitalist Society. New York: Harper Business.

Freeman, C. 1992. The Economics of Hope: Essays on Technical Change, Economic Growth and the Environment. London: Pinter.

Sousa, L.J. 1992. Toward a new materials paradigm. Minerals Issues (December). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of Mines.

U.S. Department of Commerce. 1996. Service Industries and Economic Performance. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce.

Information technology is a powerful tool for meeting environmental objectives and promoting sustainable development. This collection of papers by leaders in industry, government, and academia explores how information technology can improve environmental performance by individual firms, collaborations among firms, and collaborations among firms, government agencies, and academia.

Information systems can also be used by nonprofit organizations and the government to inform the public about broad environmental issues and environmental conditions in their neighborhoods.

Several papers address the challenges to information management posed by the explosive increase in information and knowledge about environmental issues and potential solutions, including determining what information is environmentally relevant and how it can be used in decision making. In addition, case studies are described and show how industry is using information systems to ensure sustainable development and meet environmental standards.

The book also includes examples from the public sector showing how governments use information knowledge systems to disseminate “best practices” beyond big firms to small businesses, and from the world of the Internet showing how knowledge is shared among environmental advocates and the general public.

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The Role of ICT for Sustainable Development: A Cross-Country Analysis

• Original Article
• Published: 19 February 2021
• Volume 34 , pages 225–247, ( 2022 )

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• Parvathi Jayaprakash   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8826-2993 1 &
• R. Radhakrishna Pillai 1  

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The study conducts a country-level examination of the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on sustainable development. Sustainable development is an agenda that global countries are determined to achieve. The ubiquitous nature of ICT and the benefits it accrues make it an inevitable choice to address the sustainable development agenda of nations. The literature on the influence of ICT on sustainable development at a global level is scant and the available literature provides ambiguous results on the relationship. This study conceptualizes sustainable development as three dimensions—economic, social and environment and supports the contention using secondary panel data analysis. A dataset comprises of 80 countries during the years 2000–2016. A Seemingly Unrelated Regression Estimation method helps in understanding the simultaneous relationship of ICT with the three described dimensions. To explore the relationship further, mediation analysis was conducted to understand the relationship of ICT with each dimension of sustainable development in the presence of the other dimensions. The results indicate that ICT has a significant positive influence on the dimensions of sustainable development of a nation. However, further examination with the mediation analysis reveals that ICT has a strong influence on the economic dimension and the spillover effects from economic dimension result in the realization of environmental and societal dimension of sustainable development. The results indicate that the unprecedented diffusion of ICT across remotest countries of the world is a ray of hope to address the agenda of sustainable development. However, the utmost attention must be taken to balance the three dimensions of sustainable development. The policy makers need to keep a critical eye on the environmental dimension and develop policies that incentivize the use of environmentally friendly technologies to ensure minimal or no impact on the environment and thereby ensure ICT as a catalyst for sustainable development.

Cet étude examine, au niveau des pays, l’impact des technologies de l’information et de la communication (en anglais : Information and Communication Technologies, ICTs) sur le développement durable. Le développement durable est une agenda que les pays globales sont déterminés à atteindre. La nature omniprésente de l’ICT et les avantages qu’en dérivent le rendent un choix inéluctable afin d’adresser les agendas de développement durable des pays. La littérature concernant l’influence de l’ICT sur le développement durable à niveau globale est cependant maigre, et le peu de littérature qu’existe ne donne que des résultats ambigus sur cette relation. Cet étude conceptualise le développement durable sur trois dimensions – économique, sociale, et environnementale—et corrobore son assertion en analysant des donnés secondaires individuelles temporelles, utilisant une base de données comprenant 80 pays pendant les années 2000-2016. Une méthode d’estimation de régression apparemment indépendante aide à comprendre les relations simultanées de l’ICT avec ces trois dimensions. Pour mieux explorer ces relations, on a utilisé une analyse de la médiation pour comprendre la relation de l’ICT avec chaque dimension du développement durable en présence des autres dimensions. Les résultats indiquent que l’ICT a une influence significativement positive sur les dimensions du développement durable des nations. Cependant, un ultérieur examen utilisant l’analyse de médiation révèle que l’ICT a une forte influence sur la dimension économique, et que les répercussions de la dimension économique aboutent à la réalisation des dimensions environnementales et sociales du développement durable. Les résultats indiquent que la diffusion sans precedent de l’ICT à travers même les pays les plus lointains est un lueur d’espoir pour l’implémentation de l’agenda du développement durable. Cependant, il faut être très attentifs à équilibrer les trois dimensions du développement durable. Les décideurs politiques sont censés d’apporter un regard critique sur la dimension environnementale, et développer des politiques qui incitent l’utilisation des technologies respectueuses de l’environnement pour assurer un impact environnementale minimale ou nul, ainsi assurant que l’ICT soit un catalyseur du développement durable.

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Jayaprakash, P., Radhakrishna Pillai, R. The Role of ICT for Sustainable Development: A Cross-Country Analysis. Eur J Dev Res 34 , 225–247 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-021-00369-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-021-00369-1

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Role of information technology in environment and human health.

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Role of Information Technology in Environment and Human Health!

Information technology has tremendous potential in the field of environment education and health as in any other field like business, economics, politics or culture. Development of internet facilities, Geographic Information System (GIS) and information through satellites has generated a wealth of up-to- date information on various aspects of environment and health.

A number of software have been developed for environment and health studies which are used friendly and can help an early learner in knowing and understanding the subject.

Database on Environment System :

Database is the collection of interrelated data on various subjects. It is usually in computerized form and can be retrieved whenever required. In the computer the information of database and can be very quickly retrieved. The comprehensive database includes wildlife database, conservation database, forest cover database etc. database is also available for diseases like HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Fluorosis, etc.

(a) National Management Information System (NMIS):

NMIS of the Department of Science and Technology has compiled a database on Research and Development Projects along with information about research scientists and personnel involved.

(b) Environmental Information System (ENVIS):

The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India has created an information System called Environmental Information System (ENVIS). With its headquarters in Delhi, it functions in 25 different centres all over the country.

The ENVIS centres work for generating a network of database in areas like pollution control, clean technologies, remote sensing, coastal ecology, biodiversity, western Ghats and eastern environmental management, media related to environment, renewable energy, desertification, mangroves, wildlife, Himalayan ecology, mining etc.

(c) Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS):

Satellite imageries provide us actual information about various physical and biological resources and also to some extent about their state of degradation in a digital form through remote sensing. Satellite imageries provide us actual information about various physical and biological resources and also to some extent about their state of degradation in a digital form through remote sensing. We are able to gather digital information on environment aspects like water logging, desertification, deforestation, urban sprawl, river and canal network, mineral and energy reserves and so on.

(d) Geographical Information System (GIS):

GIS has proved to be a very effective tool in environmental management. GIS is a technique of superimposing various thematic maps using digital data on a large number of inter-related or inter dependent aspects. Several useful soft-wares have been developed for working in the field of GIS.

Different thematic maps containing digital information on a number of aspects like water resources, industrial growth, human settlements, road network, soil type, forest land, crop land or grassland etc. are superimposed in a layered form in computer using software.

Such information of polluted zones, degraded lands or diseased cropland etc. can be made based on GIS. Planning for locating suitable areas for industrial growth is now being done using GIS by preparing Zoning Atlas. GIS serves to check unplanned growth and helps in providing correct, reliable and verifiable information about forest cover, success of conservation efforts etc.

They also provide information of atmospheric phenomena, like approach of monsoon, ozone layer depletion many new reserves of oil; minerals etc. with the remote sensing and GIS play a key role in resource mapping, environmental conservation, management, planning and environmental impact assessment.

It also helps in identifying several disease infested areas which are prone to some vector-borne diseases like malaria, schistosomiasis etc. based upon mapping of such areas. There are several Distribution Information Centres (DICs) in our country that are linked with each other and with the central information network having access to international database.

They also provide information of atmospheric phenomena like approach of monsoon, ozone layer depletion, inversion phenomena, smog etc. We are able to discover many new reserves of oils, minerals etc. with the help of information generated by remote sensing satellites. Thus remote sensing and GIS play a key role in resource mapping, environmental conservation, management, and planning and environmental impact assessment.

(e) The World Wide Web:

With resources material on every aspect, class-room activities, and digital files of photos, power-point lecture presentations, animations, web-exercises and quiz has proved to be extremely useful both for the students and the teachers of environmental studies.

The role of online learning centre website has the following features:

(a) Student-friendly features:

These include practice quiz, how to study tips, hyperlinks on every topics with detailed information, web exercises, case studies, environmental maps, key-terms, career information, current articles, and interactive encyclopaedia and how to contact your elected officials.

(b) Teacher-friendly features:

These include in addition to above supplement resources charts, additional case studies, answers to web exercises, solutions to critical thinking, questions, editing facility to add or delete questions and create multiple version of same test etc. Information technology is expanding rapidly with increasing applications and new avenues are being opened with effective role in education, management and planning in the field of environment and health.

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The Role of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) In Environmental Sustainability

2019, IOSR Journals

ICTs play a key role in the protection and sustainability of the environment. This paper provides an overview on how ICT can help tackle environmental challenges. It also examines the benefits of ICT in the environment and how ICT investments can help guide in setting policy that will promote societal sustainability. The paper further addresses effects of ICT on sustainability in the areas of education, energy, environment, and transportation. It observes that ICT can improve transportation via the use of smart meters to monitor traffic (resulting in congestion pricing) and make energy delivery and consumption more efficient with the use of smart thermostats. Tele-and video-conferencing can reduce travel needs, leading to reduced carbon emissions for the environment. Distance and online learning technologies can reduce the need for brick and mortar buildings as well as the need for transportation in delivering education. Finally, telemedicine, ehealth, and m-health have the potential to make delivery of public health more efficient. Adoption and proper utilisation of ICT thus have the potential to promote sustainability within the society at large.

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"Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) not only constitute an industry in their own right but they also pervade all sectors of the economy, where they act as integrating and enabling technologies. ICTs have a profound impact on society, and their production and use have important consequences for development in economic, social and environmental areas. The extent to which ICTs also affect progress towards environmental sustainability in an economy is an issue that is still under debate. There is, however, increasing evidence that significant opportunities and threats are involved. These deserve more research and more attention in energy, climate change and technology policies. The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (part of the Joint Research Centre - European Commission) has commissioned a study entitled ‘The Future Impact of ICTs on Environmental Sustainability’, which aims to explore (qualitatively) and to assess (quantitatively) the way that ICTs will influence environmental sustainability between now and 2020. This study is the first quantitative projection to be carried out on how ICTs could affect the environment in the European Union. In order to estimate the effects of ICTs on a set of five environmental indicators, the project team adopted an innovative methodology combining qualitative scenario-building and quantitative modelling. The general conclusion was that ICTs can modify the value of these five indicators. ICTs could improve the situation, reinforcing positive effects in the environment, or they could worsen the situation. This suggests that environmental policies have to be designed to ensure that ICT applications make a beneficial contribution to environmental outcomes, and, at the same time, suppress rebound effects. There are significant opportunities for improving environmental sustainability through ICTs, which can rationalise energy management in housing (or facilities), make passenger and freight transport more efficient, and enable a product-to-service shift across the economy."

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Purpose – ICT offers a peculiar 21st Century conundrum as it both a cause and solution to rising carbon emissions. The growth in the digital economy is fueling increased energy consumption whilst affording new opportunities for reducing the environmental impacts of our daily lives. This paper responds and builds on Fairweather’s overview of slow tech by providing examples of how ICT can be used to reduce energy. Encouraging examples are provided from the field of energy and buildings and implications for wider society are raised. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a comprehensive literature of latest developments in the field of digital economy, energy and sustainability. Findings – This paper builds on the previous overview ‘The Clean Side of Slow Tech’ and provides clear and encouraging signs of how ICT can be used to contribute to sustainability through controlling systems more efficiently, facilitating behaviour change and reducing energy consumption. Future challenges and recommendations for future research are presented. Originality/value – This conceptual paper presents the latest research into the use of ICT in energy reduction and offers cautious, but encouraging signs that whilst the environmental impact of ICT must not be overlooked, there are benefits to be had from the digital economy. Keywords – Green ICT, Digital Economy, SMART buildings/cities,

Beth Karlin

This workshop brings together researchers from the entire iSchools community to propose, share and discuss their current research and future research agendas and foster collaborations on ICT for Sustainability. Sustainability as a research focus has inspired the creation of a number of workshops and conferences, including the International Conference on ICT for Sustainability (http://www.ict4s.org). ICT plays a major role in sustainability. It threatens sustainability as ICT devices cause carbon emissions, produce e-waste, but it can also be an enabler of sustainability [4], in form of systems that support the protection of natural resources, and that foster social sustainability, in the form of systems that foster communities and participation [8, 5]. These supporting systems come from many intellectual traditions within and beyond the information field (e.g., requirements engineering [9], software quality [10], life cycle analysis [6]) and design (e.g., sustainable HCI [1, 11]). As information scholars, we have a responsibility to work to ensure the survival of life on this planet, including humans as well as other rational agents, namely animals [2]. Sustainability is thus a critical value for ICT researchers to embrace and strive toward [3, 7, 12]. The iSchools community provides an excellent place to discuss this crucial topic at the intersection of information, society, and technology. This workshop will bring together scholars from across the information field studying ICT for sustainability, to foster new interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborations. 2 Proposed Format The workshop is planned as a full day workshop. We will solicit abstracts, papers, and/or position statements, and will set up easychair for managing submissions. Participant registration will be managed through the conference registration site. We will start the morning with a series of short presentations by the authors, each of them followed by a brief discussion. The audience will be engaged by guiding questions from the moderators to spark discussion. We will wrap up the morning session by summarizing the talks and connecting them to identify common topic areas and future research needs. For the afternoon sessions, we envision a series of breakout sessions that discuss selected common topic areas and future research needs. These breakout sessions shall facilitate the design of a future research agenda as well as the development of new research collaborations between the participants. The results from the breakout sessions will be reported back in a plenary wrap up session that outlines possible next Abstract This workshop brings together researchers from the entire iSchools community to propose, share and discuss their current research and future research agendas and foster collaborations on ICT for Sustainability. ICT plays a major role in sustainability. It threatens sustainability as ICT devices cause carbon emissions, produce e-waste, but it can also be an enabler of sustainability, in form of systems that support the protection of natural resources, and that foster social sustainability, in the form of systems that foster communities and participation. These supporting systems come from many intellectual traditions within and beyond the information field and design. The iSchools community provides an excellent place to discuss this crucial topic at the intersection of information, society, and technology.

Giovanna Sissa , Juan Carlos López

Paraskevi Mentzelou

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is the combination of hardware, software and services for capture, process, transmit and for displaying data and information electronically. Sustainable development is the development that fulfils the current needs without setting in danger the next generations' needs fulfilment. At a first glance, ICTs and environment sustainable development seems to be two sectors that look extrinsic but the impact of ICTs in the environment is widely accepted by the scientific community and frequently is taken for granted. In the scientific community there is a strong belief that these two sectors are correlated but still there are many uncertainties on where the border lines between these two scientific sectors lay. Clear quantified evidence has not been found yet despite the extensive research based on the link of ICTs and successful environment sustainable development. This study deals with the impact of ICTs on environment sustainable development and is based on the unique characteristics of ICTs and their concrete contribution to environmental sustainability. A general approach is taken by categorizing ICTs in three main domains: a) ICTs advances and development; b) Green ICTs and c) ICTs for the environment and the positive and negative affects of each category are presented.

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Role of Information Technology in Environment & Human Health Explained

Talking about Information Technology in the fields of environment education and human health as compared to other respective areas such as business, economics or culture and politics, provides a hand in improving the status.

With the growth of internet and technology, geographic information and data gets transmitted generating a higher affluence of the updated information on several aspects of environment and human health.

As several software created for environment and human health studies are available in the market, it makes it friendly for users and helps them learn each subject with ease. Let’s get into the article to understand the role of IT in environment and human health a little better.

Role of IT in Environment

Here are some important roles of IT in the space of environment studies and human health. Check it out.

1# Remote Sensing

A satellite-based technique used to assess the ongoing changes in the environment is called Remote Sensing. It helps in predicting natural calamities such as droughts, floods, cyclone or volcanic eruptions etc.

The Remote Sensing technique can also be used in exploring the availability of crude oils, mineral deposits and the location of geothermal power sources.

2# Compiling Database

Database refers to a collection of inter-related data on various subjects. While it is stored on a computer, it can be readily retrieved whenever required. In the United States, there are several Distribution Information Centers (DICs) which are linked to each other having a central information network accessible to international database as well.

Coming to comprehensive database, it includes topics like wildlife, forest cover, conservation as well as diseases such as malaria, fluorosis, HIV, AIDS etc.

3# Geographical Information System (GIS)

Proved to be a very effective tool in the assessment of environment changes, GIS is technique that imposes thematic maps using digital data on a large number of inter-related or inter-defendant aspects.

Thematic maps can contain data on aspects like water resources, forest land, soil type, crop land, industrial growth, human settlement etc. in a layered form using computer software.

Application –

• Useful for Land Use Planning
• Interprets polluted zones & degraded lands
• Provides information on atmosphere changes such as monsoon, ozone layer depletion, smog and inversion phenomenon
• Plans for locating areas for industrial growth using Zoning Atlas
• With the help of Remote Sensing, assesses resources, environment conservation and impact

4# National Management Information System (NMIS)

It is a part of the department of Science and Technology which has a compilation of database on projects based on Research and Development including information about research scientists and personnel involved.

5# Environment Information System (ENVIS)

Established in 1982, ENVIS aims at providing environmental information to policy makers, engineers and scientists across the world in order to generate a network database to examine areas such as pollution control, clean technologies, biodiversity, renewable resources, wildlife, environmental management and remote sensing technology.

The ENVIS network includes participation of several institutions forming a number of nodes and due to its compact network, it is now designed as the National Focal Point (NFP) for INFOTERRA, which is a global environment information network of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

The network focuses on creating websites on environment related areas, establishing linkages with several information sources while creating a database on selected parameters and publish bulletins. It works as an interface for users reading upon this subject.

Objectives of ENVIS-

• Building a repository and dissemination center in Environmental Science & Engineering
• Enhancing modern technologies of processing, storage, acquiring, retrieval and dissemination of environmental information
• Promoting research, development and innovation in environmental information technology
• Providing national environment information in order to fulfil the future needs

Role of IT in Human Health

While information technology plays a huge role in human health areas such as bioinformatics, genome sequencing, biotechnology, gene engineering, maintaining DTA databases and online medical transcription in order to enhance the space of human health. It also works towards identifying several diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis , HIV and more.

Understanding Bioinformatics helps in curing severe diseases such as osteoporosis and also helps in Human Genome Project by developing a computer program which focuses on genome sequencing. The aim of this project is to create maps of the entire set of genes in the human cell by decoding almost 3 billion units of human DNA. This is the power of information technology in the sector of human health.

6# Online Health-Related Information

The online information portal works as a vast quantum of information related to human health and environment subjects. If a patient wants to self-analyze himself, they can do it. If they wish to consult a doctor, they can also book a consultation online.

OSHA provides an online portal for employees to seek information on hazardous and non-hazardous activities at the workplace to make the employees aware and also provides safety measures to follow.

United States based company, M-Square , recently started Home Medical Transcription System called HomeTrans, which allows the patient to seek online medical service sitting at home. Any person with a computer, phone, helpline number, voice script software or internet can operate medical transcription.

7# World Wide Web

With unlimited accessible data available on the world wide web (www), it has now become one of the largest online learning centers to read, understand, learn and act upon using this power web which aims at providing current information on areas related to human health and environment science.

It has made available several activities, digital files, photos, web-exercises, presentations, and quizzes related to the above-mentioned areas which results in helping today’s students, teachers as well as professionals working in these fields to pursue environmental and health studies.

As you can see, Information Technology is rapidly growing in every sector of development especially in the Environment and Human Health space with increasing applications and providing new avenues with an effective role in education, management and planning in these fields.

Hope this article helped you understand the Role of IT in the Human Health and Environment sector in-depth!

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Promises and Pitfalls of Technology

Politics and privacy, private-sector influence and big tech, state competition and conflict, author biography, how is technology changing the world, and how should the world change technology.

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Josephine Wolff; How Is Technology Changing the World, and How Should the World Change Technology?. Global Perspectives 1 February 2021; 2 (1): 27353. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2021.27353

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Technologies are becoming increasingly complicated and increasingly interconnected. Cars, airplanes, medical devices, financial transactions, and electricity systems all rely on more computer software than they ever have before, making them seem both harder to understand and, in some cases, harder to control. Government and corporate surveillance of individuals and information processing relies largely on digital technologies and artificial intelligence, and therefore involves less human-to-human contact than ever before and more opportunities for biases to be embedded and codified in our technological systems in ways we may not even be able to identify or recognize. Bioengineering advances are opening up new terrain for challenging philosophical, political, and economic questions regarding human-natural relations. Additionally, the management of these large and small devices and systems is increasingly done through the cloud, so that control over them is both very remote and removed from direct human or social control. The study of how to make technologies like artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things “explainable” has become its own area of research because it is so difficult to understand how they work or what is at fault when something goes wrong (Gunning and Aha 2019) .

This growing complexity makes it more difficult than ever—and more imperative than ever—for scholars to probe how technological advancements are altering life around the world in both positive and negative ways and what social, political, and legal tools are needed to help shape the development and design of technology in beneficial directions. This can seem like an impossible task in light of the rapid pace of technological change and the sense that its continued advancement is inevitable, but many countries around the world are only just beginning to take significant steps toward regulating computer technologies and are still in the process of radically rethinking the rules governing global data flows and exchange of technology across borders.

These are exciting times not just for technological development but also for technology policy—our technologies may be more advanced and complicated than ever but so, too, are our understandings of how they can best be leveraged, protected, and even constrained. The structures of technological systems as determined largely by government and institutional policies and those structures have tremendous implications for social organization and agency, ranging from open source, open systems that are highly distributed and decentralized, to those that are tightly controlled and closed, structured according to stricter and more hierarchical models. And just as our understanding of the governance of technology is developing in new and interesting ways, so, too, is our understanding of the social, cultural, environmental, and political dimensions of emerging technologies. We are realizing both the challenges and the importance of mapping out the full range of ways that technology is changing our society, what we want those changes to look like, and what tools we have to try to influence and guide those shifts.

Technology can be a source of tremendous optimism. It can help overcome some of the greatest challenges our society faces, including climate change, famine, and disease. For those who believe in the power of innovation and the promise of creative destruction to advance economic development and lead to better quality of life, technology is a vital economic driver (Schumpeter 1942) . But it can also be a tool of tremendous fear and oppression, embedding biases in automated decision-making processes and information-processing algorithms, exacerbating economic and social inequalities within and between countries to a staggering degree, or creating new weapons and avenues for attack unlike any we have had to face in the past. Scholars have even contended that the emergence of the term technology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries marked a shift from viewing individual pieces of machinery as a means to achieving political and social progress to the more dangerous, or hazardous, view that larger-scale, more complex technological systems were a semiautonomous form of progress in and of themselves (Marx 2010) . More recently, technologists have sharply criticized what they view as a wave of new Luddites, people intent on slowing the development of technology and turning back the clock on innovation as a means of mitigating the societal impacts of technological change (Marlowe 1970) .

At the heart of fights over new technologies and their resulting global changes are often two conflicting visions of technology: a fundamentally optimistic one that believes humans use it as a tool to achieve greater goals, and a fundamentally pessimistic one that holds that technological systems have reached a point beyond our control. Technology philosophers have argued that neither of these views is wholly accurate and that a purely optimistic or pessimistic view of technology is insufficient to capture the nuances and complexity of our relationship to technology (Oberdiek and Tiles 1995) . Understanding technology and how we can make better decisions about designing, deploying, and refining it requires capturing that nuance and complexity through in-depth analysis of the impacts of different technological advancements and the ways they have played out in all their complicated and controversial messiness across the world.

These impacts are often unpredictable as technologies are adopted in new contexts and come to be used in ways that sometimes diverge significantly from the use cases envisioned by their designers. The internet, designed to help transmit information between computer networks, became a crucial vehicle for commerce, introducing unexpected avenues for crime and financial fraud. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, designed to connect friends and families through sharing photographs and life updates, became focal points of election controversies and political influence. Cryptocurrencies, originally intended as a means of decentralized digital cash, have become a significant environmental hazard as more and more computing resources are devoted to mining these forms of virtual money. One of the crucial challenges in this area is therefore recognizing, documenting, and even anticipating some of these unexpected consequences and providing mechanisms to technologists for how to think through the impacts of their work, as well as possible other paths to different outcomes (Verbeek 2006) . And just as technological innovations can cause unexpected harm, they can also bring about extraordinary benefits—new vaccines and medicines to address global pandemics and save thousands of lives, new sources of energy that can drastically reduce emissions and help combat climate change, new modes of education that can reach people who would otherwise have no access to schooling. Regulating technology therefore requires a careful balance of mitigating risks without overly restricting potentially beneficial innovations.

Nations around the world have taken very different approaches to governing emerging technologies and have adopted a range of different technologies themselves in pursuit of more modern governance structures and processes (Braman 2009) . In Europe, the precautionary principle has guided much more anticipatory regulation aimed at addressing the risks presented by technologies even before they are fully realized. For instance, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation focuses on the responsibilities of data controllers and processors to provide individuals with access to their data and information about how that data is being used not just as a means of addressing existing security and privacy threats, such as data breaches, but also to protect against future developments and uses of that data for artificial intelligence and automated decision-making purposes. In Germany, Technische Überwachungsvereine, or TÜVs, perform regular tests and inspections of technological systems to assess and minimize risks over time, as the tech landscape evolves. In the United States, by contrast, there is much greater reliance on litigation and liability regimes to address safety and security failings after-the-fact. These different approaches reflect not just the different legal and regulatory mechanisms and philosophies of different nations but also the different ways those nations prioritize rapid development of the technology industry versus safety, security, and individual control. Typically, governance innovations move much more slowly than technological innovations, and regulations can lag years, or even decades, behind the technologies they aim to govern.

In addition to this varied set of national regulatory approaches, a variety of international and nongovernmental organizations also contribute to the process of developing standards, rules, and norms for new technologies, including the International Organization for Standardization­ and the International Telecommunication Union. These multilateral and NGO actors play an especially important role in trying to define appropriate boundaries for the use of new technologies by governments as instruments of control for the state.

At the same time that policymakers are under scrutiny both for their decisions about how to regulate technology as well as their decisions about how and when to adopt technologies like facial recognition themselves, technology firms and designers have also come under increasing criticism. Growing recognition that the design of technologies can have far-reaching social and political implications means that there is more pressure on technologists to take into consideration the consequences of their decisions early on in the design process (Vincenti 1993; Winner 1980) . The question of how technologists should incorporate these social dimensions into their design and development processes is an old one, and debate on these issues dates back to the 1970s, but it remains an urgent and often overlooked part of the puzzle because so many of the supposedly systematic mechanisms for assessing the impacts of new technologies in both the private and public sectors are primarily bureaucratic, symbolic processes rather than carrying any real weight or influence.

Technologists are often ill-equipped or unwilling to respond to the sorts of social problems that their creations have—often unwittingly—exacerbated, and instead point to governments and lawmakers to address those problems (Zuckerberg 2019) . But governments often have few incentives to engage in this area. This is because setting clear standards and rules for an ever-evolving technological landscape can be extremely challenging, because enforcement of those rules can be a significant undertaking requiring considerable expertise, and because the tech sector is a major source of jobs and revenue for many countries that may fear losing those benefits if they constrain companies too much. This indicates not just a need for clearer incentives and better policies for both private- and public-sector entities but also a need for new mechanisms whereby the technology development and design process can be influenced and assessed by people with a wider range of experiences and expertise. If we want technologies to be designed with an eye to their impacts, who is responsible for predicting, measuring, and mitigating those impacts throughout the design process? Involving policymakers in that process in a more meaningful way will also require training them to have the analytic and technical capacity to more fully engage with technologists and understand more fully the implications of their decisions.

At the same time that tech companies seem unwilling or unable to rein in their creations, many also fear they wield too much power, in some cases all but replacing governments and international organizations in their ability to make decisions that affect millions of people worldwide and control access to information, platforms, and audiences (Kilovaty 2020) . Regulators around the world have begun considering whether some of these companies have become so powerful that they violate the tenets of antitrust laws, but it can be difficult for governments to identify exactly what those violations are, especially in the context of an industry where the largest players often provide their customers with free services. And the platforms and services developed by tech companies are often wielded most powerfully and dangerously not directly by their private-sector creators and operators but instead by states themselves for widespread misinformation campaigns that serve political purposes (Nye 2018) .

Since the largest private entities in the tech sector operate in many countries, they are often better poised to implement global changes to the technological ecosystem than individual states or regulatory bodies, creating new challenges to existing governance structures and hierarchies. Just as it can be challenging to provide oversight for government use of technologies, so, too, oversight of the biggest tech companies, which have more resources, reach, and power than many nations, can prove to be a daunting task. The rise of network forms of organization and the growing gig economy have added to these challenges, making it even harder for regulators to fully address the breadth of these companies’ operations (Powell 1990) . The private-public partnerships that have emerged around energy, transportation, medical, and cyber technologies further complicate this picture, blurring the line between the public and private sectors and raising critical questions about the role of each in providing critical infrastructure, health care, and security. How can and should private tech companies operating in these different sectors be governed, and what types of influence do they exert over regulators? How feasible are different policy proposals aimed at technological innovation, and what potential unintended consequences might they have?

Conflict between countries has also spilled over significantly into the private sector in recent years, most notably in the case of tensions between the United States and China over which technologies developed in each country will be permitted by the other and which will be purchased by other customers, outside those two countries. Countries competing to develop the best technology is not a new phenomenon, but the current conflicts have major international ramifications and will influence the infrastructure that is installed and used around the world for years to come. Untangling the different factors that feed into these tussles as well as whom they benefit and whom they leave at a disadvantage is crucial for understanding how governments can most effectively foster technological innovation and invention domestically as well as the global consequences of those efforts. As much of the world is forced to choose between buying technology from the United States or from China, how should we understand the long-term impacts of those choices and the options available to people in countries without robust domestic tech industries? Does the global spread of technologies help fuel further innovation in countries with smaller tech markets, or does it reinforce the dominance of the states that are already most prominent in this sector? How can research universities maintain global collaborations and research communities in light of these national competitions, and what role does government research and development spending play in fostering innovation within its own borders and worldwide? How should intellectual property protections evolve to meet the demands of the technology industry, and how can those protections be enforced globally?

These conflicts between countries sometimes appear to challenge the feasibility of truly global technologies and networks that operate across all countries through standardized protocols and design features. Organizations like the International Organization for Standardization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and many others have tried to harmonize these policies and protocols across different countries for years, but have met with limited success when it comes to resolving the issues of greatest tension and disagreement among nations. For technology to operate in a global environment, there is a need for a much greater degree of coordination among countries and the development of common standards and norms, but governments continue to struggle to agree not just on those norms themselves but even the appropriate venue and processes for developing them. Without greater global cooperation, is it possible to maintain a global network like the internet or to promote the spread of new technologies around the world to address challenges of sustainability? What might help incentivize that cooperation moving forward, and what could new structures and process for governance of global technologies look like? Why has the tech industry’s self-regulation culture persisted? Do the same traditional drivers for public policy, such as politics of harmonization and path dependency in policy-making, still sufficiently explain policy outcomes in this space? As new technologies and their applications spread across the globe in uneven ways, how and when do they create forces of change from unexpected places?

These are some of the questions that we hope to address in the Technology and Global Change section through articles that tackle new dimensions of the global landscape of designing, developing, deploying, and assessing new technologies to address major challenges the world faces. Understanding these processes requires synthesizing knowledge from a range of different fields, including sociology, political science, economics, and history, as well as technical fields such as engineering, climate science, and computer science. A crucial part of understanding how technology has created global change and, in turn, how global changes have influenced the development of new technologies is understanding the technologies themselves in all their richness and complexity—how they work, the limits of what they can do, what they were designed to do, how they are actually used. Just as technologies themselves are becoming more complicated, so are their embeddings and relationships to the larger social, political, and legal contexts in which they exist. Scholars across all disciplines are encouraged to join us in untangling those complexities.

Josephine Wolff is an associate professor of cybersecurity policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her book You’ll See This Message When It Is Too Late: The Legal and Economic Aftermath of Cybersecurity Breaches was published by MIT Press in 2018.

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Home — Essay Samples — Information Science and Technology — Technology in Education — The Role of Information Technology

The Role of Information Technology

• Categories: E-Learning Information Technology Technology in Education

About this sample

Words: 651 |

Published: Dec 5, 2018

Words: 651 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

What Is It?

Evolution of information technology in higher education.

• Access. What used to be based written grade books have become online spread sheet and websites that allow students to view up coursework.
• Communication. Modern Mobile devices have come along with Email feature that shortens response time.
• Online Courses. There are colleges which provide online courses that provide easier option for working college. Lecture notes and videos are ported online.
• Pubmeds and Google are one of the most used tools for information, journals and articles can be seen online
• Telecommunication and Telemedicine. For medical student it is now easier to discuss particular core with all around globe.

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Essay on Information Technology in 400 Words

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• Dec 2, 2023

Essay on Information Technology: Information Technology is the study of computer systems and telecommunications for storing, retrieving, and transmitting information using the Internet. Today, we rely on information technology to collect and transfer data from and on the internet. Say goodbye to the conventional lifestyle and hello to the realm of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

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Also Read: Essay on Internet

Scientific discoveries have given birth to Information Technology (IT), which has revolutionized our way of living. Sudden developments in technology have given a boost to IT growth, which has changed the entire world. Students are taught online using smartboards, virtual meetings are conducted between countries to enhance diplomatic ties, online surveys are done to spread social awareness, e-commerce platforms are used for online shopping, etc.

Information Technology has made sharing and collecting information at our fingertips easier. We can learn new things with just a click. IT tools have enhanced global communication, through which we can foster economic cooperation and innovation. Almost every business in the world relies on Information Technology for growth and development. The addiction to information technology is thriving throughout the world.

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• Everyday activities like texting, calling, and video chatting have made communication more efficient.
• E-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart have become a source of online shopping.
• E-learning platforms have made education more accessible.
• The global economy has significantly improved.
• The healthcare sector has revolutionized with the introduction of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and telemedicine.
• Local businesses have expanded into global businesses. 
• Access to any information on the internet in real-time.

Also Read: Essay on Mobile Phone

Disadvantages

Apart from the above-mentioned advantages of Information Technology, there are some disadvantages also.

• Cybersecurity and data breaches are one of the most important issues.
• There is a digital divide in people having access to information technology.
• Our over-relying attitude towards the IT sector makes us vulnerable to technical glitches, system failures and cyber-attacks.
• Excessive use of electronic devices and exposure to screens contribute to health issues.
• Short lifecycles of electronic devices due to rapid changes in technological developments.
• Challenges like copyright infringement and intellectual property will rise because of ease in digital reproduction and distribution.
• Our traditional ways of entertainment have been transformed by online streaming platforms, where we can watch movies and play games online.

The modern world heavily relies on information technology. Indeed, it has fundamentally reshaped our way of living and working, but, we also need to strike a balance between its use and overuse. We must pay attention to the challenges it brings for a sustainable and equitable society.

Also Read: Essay on Technology

Paragraph on Information Technology

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Ans: Information technology is an indispensable part of our lives and has revolutionized the way we connect, work, and live. The IT sector involves the use of computers and electronic gadgets to store, transmit, and retrieve data. In recent year, there has been some rapid changes in the IT sector, which has transformed the world into a global village, where information can be exchanged in real-time across vast distances.

Ans: The IT sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world. The IT sector includes IT services, e-commerce, the Internet, Software, and Hardware products. IT sector helps boost productivity and efficiency. Computer applications and digital systems have allowed people to perform multiple tasks at a faster rate. IT sector creates new opportunities for everyone; businesses, professionals, and consumers.

Ans: There are four basic concepts of the IT sector: Information security, business software development, computer technical support, and database and network management.

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Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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