We are in the midst of a revolution about the expectations of how IT can substantially improve communications and collaboration among scientists… (Kling, et al., 2000, n.p.)

To address both social and technical aspects of the development of the discipline of ecology, we propose a workshop to bring together scientists and technologists to discuss the work practices and information needs of ecologists. The purpose is to forge new relationships across disciplines so that appropriate kinds of expertise can be brought to bear on the development of collaborative tools and technologies. If such tools are to move ecology toward its desired goal of increasing the scale of ecological research to match the important questions ecologists pose about interrelationships in the natural world, the expertise of life scientists, computer scientists, social scientists, and librarians will be needed to develop the powerful tools desired.

If you would like to read more, please see the entire workshop proposal.