collaboration

If the health of our planet is of interest to you, then the next two weeks are as important as any in history, as told by Connie Hedegaard.

The incoming president of COP15, the United Nation’s conference on climate change, does not mince words about the crucial nature of this global gathering. In an article on the conference’s website, she said that if the world fails to deliver a political agreement at the conference, which runs from Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen, Denmark, it will be “the whole global democratic system not being able to deliver results in one of the defining challenges of our century.”

Bringing human reform to such a tenuous facet of life may be the task with which the political officials in attendance are charged, but pushing that agenda down through the layers of everyday human life is quite another matter.

And this is a matter in which Email Center Pro is about to get intimately involved. Palo Alto Software’s collaborative email platform will take center stage at the conference, helping to eliminate the barriers that once existed between the people with deep knowledge about climate issues — the scientists — and those whose job it is to share that knowledge with the world — the journalists.

Working with the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the worldwide scientific organization advancing Earth and space research, Email Center Pro is provisioning its centralized, collaborative framework to accommodate the 700+ scientists from around the globe who will answer questions directly from journalists 24 hours/day for the duration of the conference. The scientists are scheduled to attend to email communication in two-hour stints.

For the AGU, this is a terrific opportunity to deliver the scientists’ wisdom — by providing journalists with unimpeded access — to those most in need of it: the planet’s inhabitants.

For Email Center Pro, which is hosted on the Internet, this represents an opportunity to prove much of its intrinsic value: the organization of communication and the chance to facilitate the mission critical development of a dynamic community. Conversations between scientists and journalists will take place around the clock and originate at points worldwide — and yet be virtually instantaneous. At the same time they are not so instantaneous that scientists aren’t allowed time to carefully consider replies to questions.

The conference will not only highlight the advantages of Email Center Pro, but also the continued viability of email as a communication vehicle. The benefits of instant messaging, screen sharing and video conferencing are well documented and true. But because it doesn’t demand the same kind of presence as those services, email still carries the load when it comes to flexibility.

COP15, and the subsequent AGU Fall Meeting being held Dec. 14-18 in San Francisco, are set to prove that.

Jason Gallic
Product Marketing Manager
Email Center Pro Guru

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