But networks nevertheless. If training in the environmental sciences can be much more available, e.g. through virtual means, and form a common reference background, my expectation is that it will significantly strengthen the scientific ability of both governments and non-governmental organizations over a 10 year period. The challenge that we find in bringing postgraduate knowledge to this national group is the extent to which individual unsupported learning is adequate, or whether institutions matter in their role as providers of knowledge beyond being digital linkers, software producers, data base providers and methodology developers. On the one hand the provision of largely unsupported distance learning is truly low-cost, has an element of freedom for the individual which is persuasive, and the quality of the material provided can be of the highest order. The pattern that now emerges is that institutions matter, and matter most for those least privileged either in terms of background or current working environment.
Good institutions matter most.
We should recognize that as those who have been blessed with opportunities to get postgraduate training at established universities, we should in our experimentation with the virtual world of learning not forget that we ourselves got to where we now are as a result of very concrete Alma Maters. Also referring to Indian experience some of the most remarkable experiments currently underway are conducted by the M.S.Swaminathan Foundation in Chennai. Their experiments with Information Villages are truly extraordinary. I was distinctly impressed by a local setup near Pondicherry on the Bay of Bengal in southern India, where they read down data from US Naval satellites in the early morning for form estimates of wave heights, which they then broadcast by loudspeakers to the local fishermen venturing into these dangerous waters for a living. The initiatives that we will be discussing at this workshop rest squarely on more interdisciplinary approaches to classical science, combined with new platforms for information dissemination and new modes of learning.