information ecology is based on:

• a commitment to engage in a process of healing the earth and healing our selves

• a recognition of a unity in all of life - in all people, in all of nature, in all that exists;

• an appreciation of information, information systems and networks as life forms and life support systems, and of:
  • properties of information, information systems and networks

  • principles of information, information systems and networks

  • the transformed nature of property in a digital world

information ecology networks are based on a holistic approach to the fundamental properties and characteristics of information, information systems and networks in a networked information economy and society, and incorporate structures to uphold public access to global knowledge, public participation in decision making, and access to the law and to justice

information ecology networks have been developed in the context of a ten-year focus on the systematic application of information and communication technology in support of broad-based participation in the global conferences of the decade of the 1990s and in monitoring and facilitating the implementation of the global agreements reached during these conferences, and the development and compilation of extensive relational databases with information and documents relating to the participation of non-governmental organizations - ngos - in the work of the united nations

information ecology networks offer practical approaches to establishing foundations for a global civilization that can restore a lost balance with nature - and with each other - through the creation of global - and local - public spaces within which networks and communities and individual people can gather, compile and gain access to information on the state of the natural environment, doing so with common standards for organizing, exchanging and gaining access to information

information ecology networks are

• holistic information ecology frameworks, processes and protocols

  • in support of
    • access to information,
    • public participation in decision-making,
    • access to justice in environmental matters, and
    • understanding and practice of information ecology in
      • public administration
      • public education
      • public health

  • based on appreciation of
    • fundamental properties of information and networks
      • material
      • economic
      • legal
      • social
      • educational
      • intellectual
      • mathematical
      • etc.

information


• has
  • zero mass
  • zero physical size

• can
  • travel at the speed of light

• enables
  • common access to properties of the whole

• obeys the principles that its
  • value is enhanced by intelligent organization
  • flow is enhanced by intelligent networks
  • management is enhanced by intelligent protocols
  • understanding is enhanced by intelligent practice

the material and economic properties of information and networks, in conjunction with the powers of modern information and communications technologies, allow the compilation, storage, organization, integration and exchange of vast amounts of information, gathered from many different sources and through many different instruments. it has become technically possible to establish a common framework - a common global earth library and observatory - that can enable virtually free access to a vast body of public knowledge and information - including particularly, the body of knowledge that relates to the earth and the natural environment, opportunities for and threats to, a sustainable future, and to the survival, health and well-being - the commonwealth - of the earth's human inhabitants

information ecology networks have evolved from the habitat online partnership plan of action that was created to establish an holistic partnership framework to facilitate the monitoring and implementation of the habitat agenda and of the other agreements from the "rio cluster" of conferences and conventions into ngos@un - non-governmental organizations at the united nations - a framework that has been established to enable partnership participation in support of monitoring and implementing the agreements of the global conferences.

one of the key components of the hoppainformation ecology networks allowing possibilities, ... observe properties of the whole that have hitherto not been

information ecology network domains are centred on the .net top level domains - rather than .com which is currently the focus of global attention. the internet was designed as a network of networks - it is an internet, not an intercom; we surf the net, not the com. thus the .net domains - those relating to networking functions - are intrinsically the highest level of the top level domains, and are the domains most closely aligned with the design of the internet - and thus with the inherent power and properties of the internet

electronic mail and the effective use of well-managed networks of electronic mailing lists, in conjunction with well-organized, clear web site access - are the keys to networking functions in a forum for the exchange and access to news, documents, and information about pending public agenda and decision-making processes. in a participatory civil society committed to peace, sustainability and justice, a platform such as mailbase - the electronic mailing list server software developed by and for British Universities - appears to provide the best available technology

the design of information ecology networks recognizes that it is electronic mail, especially when distributed through well-managed electronic mailing lists - even more than the World Wide Web - that is becoming firmly established as the common medium for communication and information exchange in a rapidly growing range of economic, educational, organizational, social and personal transactions and interactions

information ecology networks incorporate the concept of information ecology domains. in an information economy, the essential transaction is the exchange of information. the domain - the web site, the electronic mail server, the chat room - becomes the mechanism, the place, through which the exchange takes place. the domain thus becomes the market place and the center of business

what this means is also reflected in the context of the emerging recognition of domain names as an important new form of intellectual property, is that the domain is becoming the seat of a new form of corporation in an evolving networked information economy and society. the governance of the corporation, of the institution, is administered through the domain, and through associated technical protocols

within an information ecology domains framework, a whole domain approach to domain names is incorporated, within which the .com, .net, and .org can each be components, corresponding to the commercial, networking, and non-profit activities & exchanges within the domain - including the possibility of a .edu - educational - component, providing requisite accreditation requirements are met