Tag: IM public lectures

Lecture Details
Thursday, October 20th, 2016
11:45am-12:45pm
Room 3089, Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building, 6100 University Avenue

The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are open to all members of the Dalhousie campus and surrounding community. Click here for the full schedule. We encourage you to attend in person, but if that is not possible you can access a recording on our website following the lecture. Live streaming is not currently available. 

Presented by the School of Information Management, the Environmental Information: Use and Influence research program, and the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance. Notice and poster attached.

Elizabeth De Santo & Lea Senft

Franklin & Marshall College (Pennsylvania)

How can stakeholders inform public policy? With increasing attention being given to evidence-based decision making, at least in Canadian political rhetoric over the past year, what can be learned from recent experience at national and global levels? What role does information fulfil in decision-making processes? In this lecture, two speakers from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania will draw on their studies to illustrate how stakeholder engagement and information exchange have played out in British and global conservation planning. They will outline recommendations for strengthening the use of information in public policy decisions.

Speaker 1: Elizabeth De Santo, PhD

California Dreaming: Challenges of Implementing Science-Based Marine Protected Area (MPA) Planning Processes in Different Political Contexts

Abstract: In response to direct and indirect pressures on the marine environment posed by increased development and climate change, the international community has been designating networks of marine protected areas (MPAs) and implementing marine spatial planning (MSP) in their exclusive economic zones, including offshore areas. This lecture critically assesses the role of evidence in marine conservation planning in the United Kingdom (UK), a process that drew heavily on the example set by California’s Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) planning process. Whereas the role of a science advisory panel played a constructive role and facilitated MPA planning in the Californian context, the outcome in the UK was quite different; evidence became a sticking point hampering the process. The actual designation of sites in the UK has been slower than expected, and none of the Reference Areas (e.g., no-take MPAs) recommended by stakeholder-led consultations have been implemented. Drawing on examples from the United States, Australia, and the UK, I will provide recommendations for effective science-led marine conservation planning.

Biography: Elizabeth De Santo is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Franklin & Marshall College, in the Department of Earth and Environment. Her teaching and research focus on marine conservation and environmental governance, critically examining: (1) the efficacy of spatial approaches to conserving marine species and habitats, and (2) the science-policy interface in environmental decision-making. She is particularly interested in the challenges of effectively implementing Marine Protected Areas and biodiversity conservation worldwide. Prior to joining Franklin & Marshall College, she was a faculty member in the Marine Affairs Program at Dalhousie University. She has also held positions with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Environment Center, consultancies with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada and the Institute for European Environmental Policy, and she is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law.

Speaker #2: Lea Senft

A Critical Examination of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES): Improving Mechanisms for Stakeholder Engagement

Abstract: In this talk, I will critically examine mechanisms for stakeholder engagement within the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), recently established within the Convention on Biological Diversity. Tying ecosystem services to this platform is not only vital for biodiversity conservation, but also depends upon good stakeholder engagement, as well as effective global assessments. Further, this project explores lessons learned from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. In particular, the IPCC’s strengths and weaknesses are examined in order to derive how IPBES can improve its approach, including stakeholder engagement. I have found that stakeholder engagement is at the early stages for IPBES, however, the organization is taking the necessary steps toward improvement. I have also seen that ecosystem services are at the forefront for IPBES, and its regional assessment plan provides more influential data for future conservation initiatives. In this talk, I will provide recommendations about areas in which IPBES can improve, drawing on the experience of the IPCC, and providing an in depth assessment of where IPBES needs to go to provide crucial conservation data.

Biography: Lea Senft is a senior undergraduate student, pursuing a Joint Major in Environmental Studies and Public Policy at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She is in her second year of independent study with Elizabeth De Santo, and has completed coursework in both American and global environmental policy.

Lecture Details
Thursday, October 6th, 2016
5:35-6:35pm *embedded in the class INFO 5500: Information in Society
Room 1011, Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building, 6100 University Avenue

The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are open to all members of the Dalhousie campus and surrounding community. Click here for the full schedule. We encourage you to attend in person, but if that is not possible you can access a recording on our website following the lecture. Live streaming is not currently available.

Suzuette Soomai
School of Information Management, Dalhousie University

Abstract: The factors influencing scientific communication are contingent on the characteristics of the many dynamic and iterative science-policy interfaces among decision-makers, scientists, and other stakeholders as revealed in case studies of the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This talk presents the important drivers to information production and the key enablers and barriers to communication based on direct observations at the organizations’ meetings coupled with interviews of fisheries scientists and managers. Unique features of decision-making and information use enable the production of credible, relevant, and legitimate information in each organization, including trade-offs in these attributes to support fisheries governance objectives. Understanding the interface can equip the organizations to evaluate or modify practices to increase the uptake of their information in decision-making and enable stakeholders to determine their most appropriate entry point in a decision-making process.

Biography: Dr. Suzuette S. Soomai is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) research program at Dalhousie University. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the role of scientific information—produced by fisheries management organizations— in policy- and decision-making for marine fisheries management. She holds an Interdisciplinary PhD and a Master in Marine Management (MMM) from Dalhousie University. She also holds a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Zoology and a BSc (Hons) from the University of the West Indies.

Dr. Soomai has considerable experience in fisheries resource assessment and management as she was a government fisheries scientist in Trinidad and Tobago. She has worked closely with commercial/large-scale and small-scale fishers in the Caribbean as well as regional an international fisheries management organizations in a range of research activities including fish stock assessments, freshwater aquaculture farming, and at-sea testing of marine bycatch reduction gear technologies.

Lecture Details
Wednesday, September 28th, 2016
3:30-5:00pm
University Hall, MacDonald Building, 6300 Coburg Road

The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are open to all members of the Dalhousie campus and surrounding community. Click here for the full schedule. We encourage you to attend in person, but if that is not possible you can access a recording on our website following the lecture. Live streaming is not currently available. 

Presented in partnership with Dalhousie Libraries, as part of the Digital Preservation Management Workshop.

Evelyn McLellan
President, Artefactual Systems (BC)

Abstract: The last decade or so has seen an explosion in the number of software tools and services designed to assist archives and libraries to preserve digital content and make it available online. Some institutions have been drivers of this change; some have been gradually drawn in as funders and implementers; and some have lagged behind, as yet unable to take advantage of new technologies to achieve their mandates to acquire, preserve and present digital content. What are some of the barriers to implementing new technologies, and how have institutions successfully overcome these barriers? And how well do existing tools and services meet institutional needs anyway? This lecture will draw on the experiences of the presenter, who has spent the last eight years working with institutions as they have attempted (both successfully and unsuccessfully) to launch digital preservation programs.

Biography: Evelyn is responsible for directing Artefactual’s business operations and strategy. She also works as a senior systems analyst on Artefactual’s development and client projects. Evelyn is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Master of Archival Studies program (1997) and, prior to joining Artefactual, had over 10 years experience as an archivist and records manager at a number of organizations including the City of Vancouver Archives and the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.  Evelyn has been with Artefactual since 2008, working as the first AtoM Community Product Manager, then as the Archivematica Product Manager, then assuming responsibility for managing Artefactual’s implementation and digital preservation strategy projects. In September 2013 she took on the role of President when Peter Van Garderen stepped aside to work full-time on archives systems research.

Lecture Details
Thursday, September 22nd, 2016
5:35-6:35pm *embedded in the class INFO 5500: Information in Society
Room 1011, Kenneth C. Rowe Management Building, 6100 University Avenue

The Information Management Public Lectures give attention to exciting advances in research and professional practice. The topics are diverse reflecting the importance and global extent of Information Management in today’s society. The lectures are open to all members of the Dalhousie campus and surrounding community. When feasible, recordings of the lectures are posted here for wider circulation. For the full schedule, visit the Public Lecture page of our website here.

NOTE: We encourage you to attend in person, but if that is not possible you can access an audio recording + slides on our website following the lecture (a notice will be sent when posted). Live streaming is not currently available.

“Complex Innovation and the Patent System”

Ryan Whalen

School of Information Management, Dalhousie University

Abstract: As the universe of available information becomes larger and innovation becomes more complex, the task of examining patent applications becomes increasingly difficult. This project demonstrates that the United States Patent Office has insufficiently responded to changes in the information universe and to innovation norms, leaving the Patent Office less able to adequately assess patent applications, and more likely to grant bad patents. 

After first demonstrating how innovation has been responsive to contemporary innovation norms for hundreds of years, this project uses information and data science methods to empirically demonstrate how innovation has drastically changed in recent decades. After empirically demonstrating the changed innovation system and the inadequate response to these changes by the Patent Office, this presentation concludes with policy prescriptions aimed to help the Patent Office implement examination procedures adequate to assess 21^stcentury innovation. These prescriptions include more granular crediting for the time spent by examiners assessing applications, an increased focus on teamwork at the Patent Office, improvements to the inter partes review process, and alterations to the analogous art doctrine.

Biography: Ryan Whalen is a faculty member of Dalhousie University’s School of Information Management. His research focuses on innovation policy, intellectual property law, and computational social science. He holds a JD from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and a PhD in Media, Technology, and Society from Northwestern University.