Around the World Online Conference

The Kule Institute for Advanced Study is pleased to announce the speaker list and schedule for the Around the World 2018 online conference on the theme of "Sustainable Research: Modelling Nearly Carbon-Neutral Practices in the 21st Century." The Around the World conference is an experiment that brings together a research dialogue without the environmental cost of traditional conferences. This is a hybrid e-Conference event, which means it will be screened for live audiences at the University of Alberta and our other partner institutes as well as live-streamed online around the world. Registration is free! During the week's events, viewers are invited to take part in the online conversation and submit questions for our guests.

Why the theme of "Sustainable Research"?

Traditional conferences have a surprisingly large CO2 footprint. According to a recent study by researchers at the UCSB nearly one-third of CO2 emissions produced by university campuses come from flying to conferences and other academic related events. This conference is an opportunity to stimulate discussion about sustainable research in its many forms as well as address the question of how we as an academic community can work together to learn how to better mobilize ideas without flying so many people.

Featured Speakers:

• Peter Kalmus, NASA climate scientist
• Andre Anders (Sweden's Huawei Technologies) and Douglas Barage (UAlberta), leading experts on energy consumption in the digital era
• Erika Daley, Program Manager of My Green Lab
• Petra Dolata (UCalgary), Canada Research Chair of the History of Energy
• Artist-Researchers Andrew Yang and Christa Donner (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
• Ken Hiltner (UCSB) and Terry Anderson (UAthabasca), leaders in e-Conferencing in academia ...and more!

Daily Events: April 30th - May 4th. See http://aroundtheworld.ualberta.ca for the complete schedule!

All events are free and open to the public. Watch the livestream online at http://aroundtheworld.ualberta.ca or join us for in-person live screening at eHUB, 9007 HUB Mall, Edmonton, AB throughout the week. There will also be an opening reception on Monday, April 30th at 1:00pm in the eHub space.

RSVP for general sessions (OPTIONAL): https://atw2018.eventbrite.ca

RSVP for the Friday, May 4th Data Visualization Workshop (MANDATORY): https://kias-dataviz.eventbrite.ca

Tweet at us using #ATW2018!

About the Around the World conferences

The Around the World forum, organized for the sixth time this year, is an experiment that brings together scholars from around the globe to talk about digital culture without the environmental cost of traditional conferences. Institutes and researchers are invited to participate either through presenting or by joining in the discussion. The conference is live-streamed world-wide and archived after the event.

Previous years' conferences focused on Digital Media in a Post-Truth Era (2017), Libraries, Archives and Public Life (2016), Big Data (2015), Privacy and Surveillance (2014), and Technology and Culture (2013). In 2015, the symposium website attracted 973 unique visits from 39 countries and 179 cities, and the official hashtag of the event (#UofAWorld) trended on Twitter at #1 in Edmonton on the day of the conference.

In 2016, the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) has been recognized with a Campus Sustainability Leadership Award for Green Spaces by the UAlberta Office of Sustainability for the 2015 KIAS Around The World event.