Closing Session Information and the Quality of Life: Environmentalism for the Information Age David M. Levy Professor, The Information School University of Washington

Abstract

Many of us today are troubled by the amount of information we are
expected to deal with and by the accelerating pace of life. For all their evident value, our newest information sources and technologies, including cell phones, the Web, and e-mail, are clearly contributing to our sense of overload. Forty years ago, the environmental movement emerged in response to the realization that unchecked urbanization and industrialization were upsetting the earth's precious natural balance. Today, we are beginning to realize that the torrent of 24/7 media and information is upsetting *our* balance. Could we be on the verge of a new environmental movement, information environmentalism? In these remarks, drawing on recent work at the Information School of the University of Washington, I will argue that recovering the contemplative dimension of life offers us a way to begin rectifying the current state of affairs.

Speaker Biography

David M. Levy is a professor in the Information School of the University
of Washington. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University in computer science (1979) and a Diploma in calligraphy and bookbinding from the Roehampton Institute, London (1982). Prior to joining the Information School faculty, he was a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). His book, Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age (Arcade Publishing), appeared in 2001. For the academic year 2005-2006 he is holder of the Papamarkou Chair at the Library of Congress and the recipient of a Contemplative Practice Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies.