I’ve been interviewed a few times in the past weeks (Beeby Fellow, ODT). I’ve been surprised by the first question asked by every journalist:
you’re in computing – that’s not sustainability, how come you’re writing a book about teaching sustainability?
My answer “oh I used to be a botanist/geographer” has satisfied the journalists, but has had me increasingly thinking. The interchange has coalesced a significant principle of the book. If I was a botanist, the journalists wouldn’t have asked that question (and I wouldn’t have had such a ready answer!). I should have said something like:
that’s a good question but my hope is that in a few years you wouldn’t ask it. Sustainability is something that affects all of us, in every discipline, no less a computer scientist than a botanist, no less a nurse than a geographer
Clearly this answer needs some more thought but the redundant question has helped me a lot. Perhaps spending time with experienced journalists with critical and enquiring minds should be a requirement for everyone who’s just setting out to write a book. Perhaps their need to make stories accessible and engaging for everyone is a really good way out of a sheltered academic existence – even if the questions (and answers) seem naive.
Computing for Sustainability 
Leigh
February 17, 2009
Absolutely! I’ve been suggesting for some time that we try and get an embedded journalist active with most things, but especially the sustainability project. That person would probably be Marketing people we have, but even they are too close to the organistion to be able to give us that 3rd person perspective. That little promo paper that the research unit put out a few months ago was really handy. It may not have got all the facts of each project exactly right, but it did give us a digestible amount of information about what was going on. More than a press release..