We are in the midst of a worsening climate crisis and open source and data are important parts of the solution.
Speaker
Michael Winston Dales
Agenda
6:30pm - Start time
9:30pm - End time
Synopsis
We are in the midst of a worsening climate crisis, and open source and open data are important parts of the solution: but we must do better!
In this talk Michael will present work on two efforts to try save the planet taking place at the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, one looking at the threats to biodiversity and another at measuring the impact of efforts to restore tropical forests, and highlight:
How open source and open data are playing a key role in that effort: libraries and data we’ve used, and others we’ve built and published Where these tools and public datasets actually start to get in the way and hinder rather than help Today, researchers have at their disposal a wealth of data from satellites, lidar on the ISS, nets of sensors deployed around the world, and so forth.
But processing all that is made much harder because the tools and operating systems computer scientists have generated are not fit for the challenge.
We’re literally getting in the way of saving the planet!
In this talk Michael will also highlight areas where we need to rally round and help create the next wave of open source software and archival tools that are going to help those who are helping save humanity.
About the speaker
Michael Winston Dales
Michael is a Planetary Computing Fellow at the Cambridge University Computer Lab and a member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, working at the intersection of computer science and ecology:
investigating how from a systems approach computing can best support those trying to save the planet.
Previously he’s worked in many different domains, all linked by an aim to use technology to make technology work for people better:
at Bromium he lead the Mac product team working on virtualisation-based security software, he worked at Ndiyo, a not-for-profit working to make thin client computing a solution to equitable internet access in the developing world, and he’s worked in gaming and education in the earlier days of geolocation in mobile.
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