Dave Govoni, who is
a “palaeontologist gone bad” (but I don’t
believe him), works for the USGS as an information scientist.
He has posted a rather wordy, but extremely interesting presentation
on http://www.slideshare.net/dgovoni
entitled “Scientific Information Management at the U.S.
Geological Survey: Issues, Challenges, and a collaborative
Approach to Identifying and Applying Solutions”. Right
now the geographers will be powering down while Alan McKirdy
and a few others at SNH will be sitting bolt upright. Bear
with me. The interesting bit is the introduction of the term
“Communities of Practice” (CoPs) which Dave and
his co-author, Thomas Gunther, credit to Etienne Wenger (whose
introductory paper on CoPs at www.ewenger.com is also well
worth reading).
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a
concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to
do it better as they interact regularly. Having the same job
title or belonging to the same professional association doesn’t
do it. It is the interaction bit, the learning together bit,
which is important. CoPs need to be understood and encouraged.
Read Dave and Etienne’s contributions and see if you
agree. It is also interesting to compare this basically North
American viewpoint on problem solving with Richard Muir’s
advocacy of the power of the amateur. There is a lot of common
ground. Anyway, remember its easy to start interacting with
GeoJuice. Just take out your subscription and start producing
your visual essays, graphics etc. to share with the rest of
us. Contribute. Grow. Enjoy.
The geography of the collapse in bee colony numbers in North
America in particular is fascinating and really has to be
passed on to our students. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
is only really scary because we don’t know what it is.
The geography of the the agriculture (extensive, monocultural
farms), a system which neccessitates the transportation of
millions of bees around the USA each year, is well researched
and understood. The need for changes to this system is also
well understood. Give the kids the facts and ask them how
to improve farming practices in the almond groves of California
and the blueberry fields of Maine. Now that’s a fat
question! A good starting point is this clip from the BBC
News site -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6710000/
newsid_6713600/6713675.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm - 14k
This problem is undoubtedly related to environmentally unfriendly
farming practices so it was heartening to read about the recent
purchase in Florida of 187,000 acres of sugar cane farmland
which is to be taken out of production in an effort to secure
the future of a vital ecosystem. “In the wake of the
deal, US Sugar is expected to cease operations in Florida,
where cane harvesting brought the company an estimated $400m
in annual profits. Sugar beet producers would in position
to gain a foothold on the American natural sweetener market.”
View the slideshow at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/
2008/jun/26/conservation.endangeredhabitats
?picture=335290112
Check out the Toll Bar floods presentation while you are there
as well. Have a great summer holiday!
You’ve earned it. Thank you.
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