Document: REI-3-2-1

The technology and sociology of information use in ecology.

REICHMAN, O.J.*

University of California, Santa Barbara 93106 ¹

Abstract:
Many basic research questions remain to be answered in our discipline. While some simple issues in ecology have been resolved or at least had their intellectual boundaries established, more complex questions remain to be answered. These are certain to be identified and scrutinized by other participants in this symposium and hence I will focus on the processes employed to address the questions. The complex ecological questions to be addressed in this century will require the synthesis of vast amounts of heterogeneous data and a new mode of scientific collaboration. The information needed will include large quantities from within ecology (to allow comprehensive analyses of patterns) and access to the core data of adjacent disciplines (to facilitate understanding of complex processes). Accordingly, I ask the following three questions: 1. How will we collaborate within and between disciplines? 2. How will we use information? 3. How will we distribute information and knowledge? These questions have both technological and sociological elements. We certainly imagine that technology is changing directionally - continually advancing the opportunities for access to information (although we could be buried with unnecessary or unreliable information). It is unclear whether the sociological aspects of the use of information are advancing. While there is a greater understanding of the need to share information, new journals and scientific societies continue to fracture our discipline and the reward system for scholarship does not promote collaboration.

Keywords: information, data, technology, sociology, informatics, synthesis, analysis

This abstract is being presented at: 8:35 AM in session:
Symposium # 7: Thirty Questions for Ecology in the 21st Century.