@JackTownsend_

Connecting Global and Local: Using Open Data to Convey Climate Change Risks, Responsibilities and Mitigation & Adaptation Opportunities

Lowest ice levels in history

1990

s

Problems

Human Impact

Problems

Complex social & environmental challenge

Problems

Problems Public engagement with climate

change

Climate change

requires diverse actions by people around the world

However to act effectively, people need to be

well informed about the challenge (often not)

motivated to act - can seem far away in time & place

Hoffman (2011)

informs

motivates by connecting

Sustainable Development

• Focus groups of experts

• Re-design

• Build second version

• User testing with school pupils

Next steps

Conclusions

• Communicating climate change is central to making individual

and social changes for mitigation

• The rapidly growing resource of open data online provides an

excellent foundation for communication

• Stories and imagery of significance to the user are much more

powerful than “dry” number and facts (Lakoff, “personal frames”)

• Interactive visualizations empower the user to draw their own

stories from the data, along with meaningful imagery.

• Open innovation competitions and hackathons are an effective

way to generate novel visualization projects

Some caveats

• Environmental info better integrated into generally useful

interactive tools for work, education, or interest.

– Avoid engaging only with those who already have an

interest

– Likely to give users reason to keep coming back.

• Sustainable development is highly complex and inherent

tensions and trade-offs need to be communicated

…some more caveats

• With hackathons and app competitions need to achieve

the other sort of sustainable development

• Visualisations and open data can create

accidental false impressions, or be used misleadingly

• The whole global public does not have access to

visualization technologies = the digital divide

Further research interests

How can open knowledge, the Web and ICTs

help roll-out renewables for international development?

Forming & maintaining groupsCoordinating and informing organisationsEnergy type and site selectionAccessing and servicing financePurchasingLearning/ accessing expertiseSystem status and impact monitoringIntelligent distribution networks

References

• Townsend, J. et al. (2012) “Open Knowledge Festival Sustainability Stream Recap”,

http://openeconomics.net/2012/10/06/okfestival-sustainability-stream-recap/

• World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal,

http://sdwebx.worldbank.org/climateportal/index.cfm

• G Lakoff (2010), “Why it matters how we frame the environment”, Environmental

Communication, Taylor & Francis.

• AJ. Hoffman (2011), “Sociology: The growing climate divide” ,Nature Climate Change

• O’Neill, S., & Boykoff, M. (2009). The Role of New Media In Engaging the Public With

Climate Change”, Lakeland.

• Rosling, H. (2007). “Visual technology unveils the beauty of statistics and swaps

policy from dissemination to access.” Statistical Journal of the IAOS

• ER Tufte, PR Graves-Morris (1983), “The visual display of quantitative information”

@JackTownsend_

Thank you

@JackTownsend_