- Details
Conference Theme:
SMART SUSTAINABILITY:
the Information Systems Opportunity
Ken Geisler's Presentation
In the last few years, the word "smart" has been appended to many central features of the modern world, such as cities, grids, organizations, and buildings. Smart, in this sense, implies that information systems are used to advance sustainability. A smart city produces less waste, requires less water, and has highly efficient and convenient public transit. A smart building uses information about the weather and occupancy to reduce energy consumption. A smart organization consumes fewer resources by applying novel ways to substitute physical artifacts and resource sinks with information.
Trends towards networked objects that communicate and autonomously coordinate, the Internet of Things, and the growth of big data are some fragmented manifestations of this. It is about making smarter decisions about sustainability through the use information systems at every level—organizations, networks of entitles (organizations, supply chains, resources), geographic conglomerations (cities, regions, nations), and the society.
Thus, it is an opportunity for IS scholars and practitioners to contribute novel ideas to help substantively shape an ecologically sustainable society.