IT/SD Introduction.

IT/SD 2005 Program Objectives

[Page under construction. Way out of date.]

Rethinking Work offers all those who are interested a 21st century group work platform, mediated by a steadily expanding series of electronic and communications tools, and specifically targeted to encourage and support alternative thinking and hands-on experimentation in the troubled world of work. Think of it as an open, electronic "think-tank".

The basic thesis behind the program is that the range of ideas that are at present being publicly discussed, and even more of the alternative work concepts actually being tried or demonstrated, is altogether insufficient given the dimensions and the character of the problems before us. In response to this challenge, we propose that this independent international collaborative initiative may well be able to make a useful contribution.

The xWork Conundrum - "Technology is part of the solution"

The Information Society, Sustainable Development, phrases with a noble ring and quite fashionable at the moment -- with different groups using them in different ways for different reasons. More and more international events, conferences, seminars, and the like are being organized around these vital themes. But how? Hmm, with feckless consistency - and quite ironically given that Moore's Law has yet to be repealed - organized with a decidedly backward technology bent (unthinking physical travel) that is serving to hold them back in terms of their international reach and actual impact when it comes to implementing specific remedial programs and projects.
xWork is the way that we could, that we should be putting low cost, widely accessible Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) -- and more broadly the full Information Society toolkit -- to work for the only way to live and work on this crowded planet in the 21st century. . . sustainably.
Of course, technology is not going to solve all the challenges of sustainable development, but we here at The Commons are firm believers that "technology is part of the solution". Indeed one thing that we have learned over the last decade of discouragingly slow 'progress' (backtracking in most cases, really) in these matters from a global perspective, is that none of us are going to get very far with the challenges if we do not learn to make creative use of the full range of tools that are at our disposal. Which brings us right up in front of information and communications technologies, an area where there is a huge amount going on and where the tools available to support the international sustainability movement are advancing with great strides. Good. Let's start.

Original IT/SD program at The Commons

The time has come to bring this program back to life. Here you have our quick first cut at the web site. Our objective: to extend and activate the IT/SD program.

Our immediate tasks are two (in addition to the focused work in support of the next steps of the Gender/Mobility Network:)

To extend our watching brief and specifically to cross-check and update our coverage of leading edge projects, programs, groups and publications on our topic world wide. You can see the present state of play on this by clicking here.
In parallel, we would like to develop the network for this collaborative group project, something that we have found to be important in our other IT-based programs under The Commons. Experience shows that the group comes alive once we have a minimum of a couple of hundred people following the various news and events, and at least a score of countries. To join the group, we invite you to click here and send us a blank email as indicated. (Please be sure that we will respect both your time and confidentiality of your address.)

This is a collaborative task and we hope we may get some help in this. Perhaps from you?

Initiated in early 1996, suddenly almost a decade ago, our initial IT/SD web site and support program stated its task as follows:

"This Forum is being developed under The Commons to provide a convenient place for the exchange of ideas, views, information and encouragement on the thorny subject of the so-called "information society", as a booming domain of technology and societal development which could lead us toward a more sustainable world -- and the reality, which may require some very hard thinking indeed and by no means guarantees any such happy outcome.

"The Web site is being linked to a number of research programs, publications, meetings, media events and demonstration programs which are trying to make sense of what is going on and what should be happening in this broad domain. The entire program, while it follows research and theoretical developments with great interest, is above all geared to policy, practice and action. It is aimed to inform, incite and provide a rallying point for concerned public agencies, private companies, labor unions, community and public interest groups, and the individuals who are the ones who in the final analysis are going to adopt sustainable behavior -- or not! The goal behind this effort is to forge a powerful constituency for sustainability and to demonstrate in telling practical terms that it can be achieved in a convivial and efficient manner."