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Pushing the Boundaries of the Sustainable Network

By Sarah Sorensen
November 11, 2009

As more and more of our activities are translated to the digitial world, we need to ask the question "Is the sustainable network unsustainable?" How do you balance 3+% of the world's emissions coming from a single industry with the potential to lessen environmental impacts of virtually every other industry?

The Network By the Numbers

By Sarah Sorensen
November 5, 2009

There are some interesting numbers that I've heard recently that I wanted to highlight to articulate the scale and scope of today's network...

10 Ways to Use the Network to Be More Sustainable

By Sarah Sorensen
October 22, 2009

We are currently in a pivotal point in our world's history - the choices we make today will impact future generations. We need to change our consumptive habits, adjust our resource dependencies and create more sustainable social, economic and political models. To do this, we will need the network,

Where Will The Next Nobel Prize Come From?

By Sarah Sorensen
October 13, 2009

I would like to take a moment to recognize this year's Nobel Prize winners in physics and highlight the role they played in advancing the sustainable network. The inventions of Americans Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were instrumental in fueling the growth and utility of the network, which in turn fuels it's relevancy and spurs ongoing innovation...

Can you really save the planet by using the Internet more?

By Sarah Sorensen
October 6, 2009

The network offers us a sustainable platform for change, but to use it to its full advantage we must understand it; we must understand how it works, how it's integral to our daily lives and how its potential can be tapped more effectively to tackle our toughest environmental, social, economic and political problems.

The Mobile Frontier - The Future of the Sustainable Network

By Sarah Sorensen
September 30, 2009

The mobile network has created unprecedented opportunity for the world. It truly is pervasive - spanning out across geographies and socio-economic boundaries to enable sustainable participation, growth and potential prosperity on a previously unimaginable scale.

Latest Installment in the Net Neutrality Debate

By Sarah Sorensen
September 22, 2009

Yesterday, the FCC proposed rules that would create more government control over the Internet and force Internet providers (including wireless) to treat all Web traffic equally. There could be unintended consequences...

Energy Revolution is Equal Parts ET and IT

By Sarah Sorensen
September 15, 2009

I had the privilege of hearing Thomas Friedman talk about his latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded and how accelerated globalization is presenting us all with new challenges and opportunities that need to be met head on if we want to sustain our planet and way of life. Challenges and opportunities that will not only take innovations in energy technology, but also information and communications technology...

Taking Education into the Digital Information Age

By Sarah Sorensen
September 1, 2009

In this Digital Information Age, that way is constantly evolving, growing in scope, both in terms of possibilities and challenges. An education represents one of the foundational steps on that path, and as such it arguably plays the single largest role in preparing our children to participate in the global economy.

Sustaining Opportunities for Women

By Sarah Sorensen
August 24, 2009

Deep rooted attitudes and social norms persist that allow for the continued brutality, held in place, in large part, by impovrished conditions that provide very few posibilities for improvement (real or perceived). While awareness and pressures to create change are critical, real change will likely only come when there is greater opportunity. And this is where the network can play a role...

Health IT in the Healthcare Debate

By Sarah Sorensen
August 12, 2009

In the face of all the uncertainty around healthcare, one thing that is certain is technology (Health IT) is going to play a large role in the transformation and advancement of the every day health and wellness of individuals around the world.

Clean Energy and Security Act - First Step for U.S.

By Sarah Sorensen
June 30, 2009

"What does this Act mean?" Almost everything about the bill can be debated, from whether the cap and trade system it introduces will be effective to whether the carbon emissions targets are going to be impactful. But it's a start...

Does "green" really matter?

By Sarah Sorensen
June 23, 2009

"Green" has a definite role in business, while politics and religion are probably best left outside the board room. Why does "green" matter? Setting aside issues around climate change - which is often where religious debates occur - from a practical standpoint, there are real business implications.

The role of communications in greening the planet

By Sarah Sorensen
June 16, 2009

The "Smart 2020" report, commissioned by the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI), with analysis by McKinsey & Company, estimates that information and communications technology (ICT), of which the network is a key component, has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by 15 percent by 2020. But it is also true that the ICT industry contributes to overall emissions during their lifecycle. And as more information and resources are digitized and the reliance on our connections to these online assets increases, those emissions will increase too. So there is work that needs to be done within the industry to ensure maximum benefit is derived from communications technologies, while minimizing their impact.

Celebrate Earth Day by Sharing Your Green Living Tips

By Mary Rotman
April 22, 2009

We're celebrating Earth Day in our offices today by running a contest on Twitter (@oreillymedia). We're asking people how they're living green, and we've been getting a lot of great responses!

The Long Emergency: An Interview with James Howard Kunstler

By Kurt Cagle
January 12, 2009

We'll, let's just start by saying we've constructed an infrastructure for daily life with no future. That's pretty disturbing, isn't it? I customarily refer to this as the greatest misallocation off resources in the history of the world. Having poured all our post-WW2 wealth in it, we've made ourselves hostage to the psychology of previous investment -- meaning we will desperately try anything to keep it all going, to sustain the unsustainable, at all costs. Thus, we'll be squandering our dwindling resources in a gigantic act of futility. That's the Big Picture end of the story.

Some thoughts for a New Era

By Kurt Cagle
January 6, 2009

This particular look forward is definitely longer than what I have written in years past, and for those of you who have managed to wade through the admittedly voluminous text I both admire your fortitude. This has been a hard...

Sustainability, Boxing Day, and Open Source Software

By Kurt Cagle
December 28, 2008

Boxing Day, celebrated on the day after Christmas, is a British holiday that's migrated to Canada, and is slowly beginning to make inroads even into the United States. It had its beginnings in the late 18th century, when the landed lords of England, after having given one another presents after Christmas Mass began an interesting custom. After having received new dresses, dress suits, hats and so forth, they would go into their wardrobes and childrens' play rooms and find those things that they no longer wore or used or played with, presenting them as gifts to their servants and staff, a custom which eventually extended to giving inexpensive gifts and trinkets to their tenant farmers and needy villagers.

The Energy Secret

By Julian Darley
December 2, 2008

Do we really understand the deepest causes of the economic crisis? If not, then we run the risk that our remedies will not produce sustainable results.

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