N a t
u r e G a t e®
R&D
and business program in progress
Handout for the poster in the
meeting of the European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy (EPBRS) held
under the Finnish Presidency of the EU. Helsinki-Espoo, 17.-19. November 2006
Professor Mauri
Åhlberg,
(Email: mauri.ahlberg@helsinki.fi Homepage: http://www.helsinki.fi/people/mauri.ahlberg
)
Producer Eija
Lehmuskallio, Photographer Jouko Lehmuskallio
(Email: eija.lehmuskallio@recproductions.fi,
eija@luontoportti.com )
Introduction
N a t u r e G a t e® is
a social innovation in progress. It
will promote biodiversity research, policy making and
biodiversity education. NatureGate® is described in greater detail in the
following documents: Åhlberg, Lehmuskallio and Lehmuskallio (2006a and 2006b); Young, Åhlberg, Niemelä,
Parr, Pauleit & Watt (Editors) (2006). In the long term, it will be financially
self-supporting in the same way as Google®. Google has shown amazing
development from 2000 to 2006 (Battelle 2005, Vise & Malseed 2005). From a humble
beginning Google has become one of the biggest and most valuable companies in
the world. Google and its rivals have transformed both business and the whole
culture by the web search-activities they created. The idea of NatureGate® is a
kind of “NatureGoogle”, a free service creating plenty of added values and
business opportunities for everybody from individuals to societies and
organizations, for the whole humankind. There is emerging understanding in the
importance of integrating interdisciplinary research and networked society,
education and importance of healthy sustainable business in creating wealth for
sustainable development, good environment and good life (e.g. Åhlberg 1998,
Cairncross 2002 and 2006).
Biodiversity research
N a t u r e
G a t e® will promote biodiversity research in many ways, e.g.;
(1)
creating
a collection/library of excellent photographs, aesthetically appealing, and
scientifically accurate
(2)
through
digital photographs, uploaded by users, attached with geographic positioning, by notes and
discussions of users, and by cumulative collaborative knowledge building by
biodiversity experts.
Biodiversity education
Biodiversity
education will benefit from NatureGate® in many ways, e.g. by having free, systematic,
comprehensive, digital collections of high quality photographs and descriptions
of flowering plants, and later on other organism and their biotopes, and easy
to use, fast, patented software for identification of plants, and later on other
organisms.
NatureGate® - funding
Earlier similar
efforts have suffered from shortage of funding. In NatureGate® approach, public
funding will be used only for starting up the main servers. NatureGate®
business will integrate ecologically, economically and socially sustainable
development, and it will create enough wealth for continual spreading and
improvement of the networked NatureGate® servers in all the main countries and
regions. This way it creates a global learning space for biodiversity research,
policy making and education.
References
Åhlberg, M.
1998c. Education for sustainability, good environment and good life. In
Åhlberg, M. & Leal Filho, W. (Eds.) 1998. Environmental education for
sustainability: good environment, good life.
Frankfurt am Main:
Peter Lang, 25 - 43.
Åhlberg, M.,
Lehmuskallio, E. and Lehmuskallio, J. 2006a. NatureGate®, concept mapping and CmapTools:
Creating global networks of servers for improved learning about, in and for
nature, ecosystems, biodiversity, and sustainable development. In Canas, A.
& Novak, J. (Eds.) Concept Maps: Theory, Methodology, Technology.
Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Concept Mapping.
http://cmc.ihmc.us/cmc2006Papers/cmc2006-p230.pdf#search=%22NatureGate%22
Åhlberg,
M., Lehmuskallio, E. and Lehmuskallio, J. 2006b.NatureGate® R& D and
business program – a general description and a proposal for
http://bulsa.helsinki.fi/~maahlber/Vetenskapsakademien_9.11.2006.doc
Battelle,
J. 2005. The search. How Google and its rivals rewrote the rules of business
and transformed our culture.
Cairncross,
F. 2002. The Company of the Future.
Cairncross,
F. 2006. People, Science and Society: the Challenge of Climate Change - The British
Association for the Advancement of Science. Presidential Address to the
Festival of Science in
http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/PressOffice/PressReleases/_PresAddress06.htm
Vise, D.
& Malseed, M. 2005. The Google story.
Young, J.,
Åhlberg, M., Niemelä, N., Parr, T., Pauleit, S., & Watt, A.D. (Editors).
2006. Actions for the 2010 biodiversity target in
Figure
1.Main elements of NatureGate® R&D and business program in
|
(1) the starting
point |
(2) the next level |
(3) the more
advanced level |
|
photographs
and videos of flowering plants, and
vascular plants in general, later on all organisms. The easy-to-use,
fast, patented soft ware for plant species identification. |
ecosystems and their
services for the whole humankind |
sustainable development, UN Decade
of Education for Sustainable development (2005 –
2014) |
|
refers to |
refers to |
refers to |
|
concrete objects |
both concrete and abstract
objects, real
ecosystems, the biggest is biosphere itself,
can be represented by systems models, more abstract than individual species and
specimens |
very abstract objects and reasoning
of very complex issues and problems of the real world. Involves plenty of
high quality learning, thinking, and acting for sustainability |
|
encourage studying,
investigations, and inquiries of them in nature, outdoors, e.g. taking digital photographs and uploading
them to NatureGate® server. |
encourage studying, investigations, and inquiries of them in nature, outdoors,
e.g. taking digital photographs and
creating conceptual models, and dynamic models |
encourage both individual and collaborative
knowledge building and acting to promote sustainable development |
Table 1.
Some of the main content elements of NatureGate® R&D server on three
levels.
(Source: Åhlberg,
Lehmuskallio & Lehmuskallio 2006b)