The Global Information Ecosystem We live in a vast sea of information

We live in a dense digital landscape shaped by constant streams of information. The scale and speed create confusion and distort what we rely on to make sense of the world. A clearer view emerges when we treat this shared environment as an ecosystem and care for its integrity.

As we move deeper into the Anthropocene, #World 2 and the digital age, everything goes digital, and we find ourselves living and working in a vast web of digital information. As of January 2020, over 6 billion pages were on the indexed World Wide Web, and that number continues to grow by the day.

This web of information is highly hyperlinked, forming a vast, dynamic network. It is a complex system that contains an enormous variety of information that some call knowledge.

Most of this information is static, but much changes by the second, even millisecond, such as the financial data on the foreign exchange market.

It is a global information commons to which over 4 billion people have read/write access.

Not only is it a dynamic storage space, but we can also connect and communicate with others via text, voice, or video. People, too, can be seen as repositories of information.

Last but not least, we must not forget the libraries of the world that still contain massive amounts of information yet to be digitized and may never be.

It is helpful to give this system a name. We can call it the web or label it the global information ecosystem (info-ecosystem)—an emerging metaphor that not everyone agrees with, but is a valuable way to conceptualize.

It is imperative that we do not pollute the global information system. It’s a precious resource.

The Global Information Ecosystem likens the enormous, linked digital world of data and information to an ecological system.

This metaphor highlights that our shared digital commons is a valuable asset requiring protection from harm, just as natural environments do.

Credit: David Gurteen

We can take small, steady steps to improve the quality of what we share and consume. We can pause, check our sources, and speak with care. We can help keep the information ecosystem healthier by treating it as something we shape together each day.