Back to the Eternal City! All my bags are packed.....

I can't sleep. Terribly excited about the Summer School and the fact that it is going to be held in Rome! Will be ready to fly out in a couple of hours. Reflecting on my life and its direction, I realize that I've always been interested in all things 'green' but the very first time I took some direct action on focussing my energies was when I read a newspaper article calling on people to save the lakes in Bangalore, India. It then directed the reader towards a symposium that one could attend free of cost. It was "The Symposium on Restoration of Lakes and Wetlands" called Lake 2000. I recall sitting in the auditorium soaking in every bit of information that was being given out. But I knew even back then that much of what the experts said would remain well within the 'expert circle' for various reasons. Don't think much has changed since then. Dense communication and use of jargon top my list of pet peeves when it comes to communication from 'experts'. My biggest grouse with academia is that very often fantastic research is done but not as much is done about communicating those results to a lay audience in a timely, consistent  and accessible manner. 

For instance,when I worked in the CSR space at Infosys a few years ago, sustainability seemed like a shiny, new concept. Little did I realize that reams had been written about it. There were thousands of journal articles on the topic and hundreds of them were older than a decade or two! Why then did those crucial questions not percolate down to the general public? To give you a specific example, in 1991 a prominent scholar Sharadchandra Lele had dissected the semantics of 'Sustainable Development', a term that is bandied about ever so often! In his article he asked very pertinent questions about the exact meaning of the term and the various connotations it could have (as depicted in the diagram). Yet, surprisingly, none of the conferences I attended spoke about such underlying ambiguity and certainly nobody in business! Today I look back and realize how practically every project worth its salt claims to be 'sustainable' and I'm thankful the masters course at King's has helped me question things and go beyond the obvious.

Source: (Lele, 1991)

Perhaps many researchers attempt to communicate their work but only a few truly take the trouble to decode their expertise and make it accessible to anyone who is interested. I recall a pithy quote on advertising that best sums up the situation. 'Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.' - Stuart Henderson. But then again, perhaps publishers create an artificial void so that people would have to pay to access information. (One of the main reasons I am all for open access journals.) I guess having one's research locked up in labyrinths of red tape must be equally frustrating for researchers who'd like to shout from the roof tops about their findings. The point here is not to find fault with a specific person but to point out how research and technology are not half as effective if they are not backed up with powerful communication. 

I'm grateful that life has given me the opportunity to follow my passion even after a decade. I'm excited at the chance to learn about cutting-edge technology and policy in the EU with regard to water at the STREAM summer school at Rome. I'm also looking forward to networking and building strong contacts in the industry.  That apart, I'm trying couch surfing for the very first time. Will share more about my experiences with the hosts in my next blog. I'm tickled pink that someone would go out of their way to make a stranger feel comfortable in their city. My first host has volunteered to not only pick me up at the airport on a Sunday morning but has also kindly offered me a chance to join his group when they go salsa dancing later in the evening. Can't wait!

a dopo...