#digiTALK at the ZKM on the topic of "Sustainable digitization"
Scientist Rainer Rehak has been working on the interplay between computer science and society for ten years. On Twitter, the critical computer scientist from the Berlin Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society sometimes shares posts by climate activist Greta Thunberg or calls for a more sensitive and responsible handling of personal data under the slogan “Who actually protects data privacy?”. Sustainability is another of Rehak’s hobbyhorses.
On 22 October from 7 p.m., the digitization expert will be a guest at #digiTALK Karlsruhe at the ZKM I Center for Art and Media on the topic of “Sustainable Digitization”. Because the event will take place in hybrid form due to the coronavirus regulations, Rehak’s keynote speech “Digitally sustainable – is that even possible?” will be streamed live from Berlin.
The #digiTALK event series was launched in 2015 by the Science Office of the City of Karlsruhe, the online news portal ka-news and Karlshochschule Karlsruhe as a digital regulars’ table for networking media and IT professionals. Since then, numerous contemporary IT topics such as online trading, digital education and fake news have been discussed at the round tables.
Do digitalization and environmental protection go together?
In a panel discussion, Sebastian Richter from OK Lab Karlsruhe, Sarah Jansen from FabLab Karlsruhe and Barbara Kiolbassa from Media Communication at the ZKM will then talk about the effects of digitalization on the environment. The question of the compatibility of environmental protection and modern technology has been discussed in many forums and companies since the global spread of the internet. Due to the immense amount of energy required to provide computer centers in the largest IT companies, every search query on the Internet leaves an ecological footprint due to the associated emission of environmentally harmful carbon dioxide. On the other hand, some of the largest IT companies have already recognized the signs of the times and supply their headquarters exclusively with renewable energy such as solar power. However, such questions are still not easy to answer, as the end devices used by searchers are also powered by electricity. This is why the #digiTALK also asks how daily media consumption can be made as sustainable as possible. The experts will discuss in depth whether appeals to the population are enough or whether other control options such as an environmental levy are perhaps needed.
OK Lab and FabLab provide knowledge for citizens
The compatibility of digitalization and sustainability is regularly discussed at the OK Lab Karlsruhe. The “OK” stands for Open Knowledge. Open Knowledge International, an organization founded in 2004 to promote greater transparency and citizen participation, says it has been committed to the dissemination of open data. Several dozen regional OK Labs have been set up in Germany under the umbrella of the German branch of the Open Knowledge Foundation. Programmers, designers and journalists volunteer to develop projects to better explain and visualize complex issues. The projects of the regional OK Labs are also referred to as “Citizen Science”. By collecting as much information as possible, the citizens involved can help scientists collect data for research studies. One well-known citizen science project is the annual “Garden Bird Hour”, in which amateur ornithologists count the songbirds in their garden for a specific hour. For years, the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) has been drawing conclusions about changes in the populations of individual bird species. The FabLab (short for “fabrication labratory” or fabrication laboratory) is also dedicated to networking creative scientists. Through joint projects, innovative digital production processes and concepts such as 3D printing or laser cutting are to be made available to the public. The global movement was founded in 2002 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today, there are around 150 such workshops worldwide.