date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:47:55 +0200 from: Richard Somerville subject: Invitation to: Helge Drange , Michael Prather , , , , Piers Forster , peter.lemke@awi.de, Nathan Bindoff , jto@u.arizona.edu, Phil Jones , richard.wood@metoffice.gov.uk, stocker@climate.unibe.ch Dear Colleagues, I have been asked to organize a session on climate change at a rather unusual meeting to take place in Venice, Italy, December 17 - 19, 2008. This email is an invitation to you to attend. The meeting is described at http://www.itrevolutions.org/ and if you scroll down, you will see a theme on climate change. I have also pasted below some descriptive material that was sent to me. The event is held under the auspices of an information technology and computer science organization described at http://www.icst.org and having strong links to the business community. It is thus not one that has had much previous contact with the climate science research community. The location is attractive, and the meeting offers the promise of interacting with a wide range of stimulating people. Unfortunately, the organizers cannot offer financial support. There is also a conflict with the AGU meeting in San Francisco. Can you please send me a quick preliminary indication of your potential interest in participating? Your response will not commit you to anything, but it will help me give the organizers some feeling for how the community reacts to the proposed climate change theme. Thank you in advance. I look forward to hearing from you. Best regards, Richard C. J. Somerville Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of California, San Diego, USA http://richardsomerville.com ****************************************************************************** In December 2008 (17-19, Venice, Italy) IT Revolutions (http://www.itrevolutions.org/) will bring together funding agencies and government representatives from around the world - with corporations and visionary academic contributors - to set future directions in ensuring a smooth transition while enabling IT to unleash its full power in serving the world. The Forum is structured around the Themes - and we will have position papers for each Theme. IT Revolutions is envisioned as an opportunity to raise awareness to the major challenges facing the IT community. We want to have plenary sessions with the Keynotes from each Theme - then we will split into parallel sessions - workshop style - for each Theme. In addition - each Theme will have its own panel with the funding reps and companies to discuss the way forward - and we will have a joint panel with the funding agencies for all Themes - to see how they all converge / diverge. Each Theme Chair is one of the most prominent / emerging leaders in their areas and will deliver one of the Keynotes for their Themes (as Chairs they may select other position papers to become Keynotes to be presented in the IT Revlutions planery forum.) For all Themes we are seeking: 1. Position papers debating the paradox as it relates to the respective Theme. 2. Panels with industry and academia including funding agency rep. and government reps. These shall be international. 3. 'Inter-Theme' panel discussions crafting future directions that will conclude the IT Revolutions meeting. These directions will be published by the ICST as a reference for where we are and where we shall invest our efforts. ******************************************************************************