Web Portal. Environmental Research Data Management - Essay Example

?WEB PORTAL The adaptation and use of web portals to promote ecological issues in society has come about the right time when environmental research data management (ERM) is gaining so much popularity and importance in discussions and issues of environmental and cultural information collection. Ecology may generally be defined as the relationship between living organisms, including plants and animals, and their environment (Levitt, 2008). It will be noted that the living organic component of the environment has so much dominance on the outcome and preservation of the environment. Much of the issue of environmental outcome and preservation also depends largely on how these living organisms relate to each other and influence the living of each other. In today’s era of environmental advocacy for the conservation and preservation of the environment therefore, it is proposed that the use of ecological web portals could be used as very effective avenues and media for the promotion of environmental awareness on how human behaviour in the ecosystem can influence the perpetual conservation and eventual preservation of the environment. The idea behind the use of ecological web portals to promote environmental protection is to ensure that there is a centralized destination and system, from which data and information regarding environmental interactions between various living organisms, and more specifically the effect of human behaviour on the environment can be sampled from. To effectively achieve the goal of the proposal, it is expected that a number of research questions will be answered. Through the use of research data collection in answering these questions, it is expected that the aim of the proposal will be achieved in the long while. The research questions are given as follows: 1. What are the specific human behaviours that impact on the environment negatively? 2. How can the use of a centralized web portal be used to solve these problems? 3. How can the use of web portals be promoted to reach a wider audience to play the role for which it is implemented? 4. What challenges are likely to be faced in the use of ecological web portal to promote environmental protection? In relation to the first research question, it will be noted that the human species is a very powerful component of the ecosystem, which controls majority of the interactive activities that take place within the environment. This is said because the human beings have the power to raise other organisms and species within the ecosystem such as animals and plants and directly influence the way that these species relate to the environment. Due to this power possessed by humans, there are number behaviours that they put up that have been identified to affect the ecosystem negatively. In an attempt to answer the first research question therefore, the researcher shall undertake a comprehensive and systematic literature search to come to terms with examples of human behaviours and practices that affect the environment negatively. It is proposed that when most of these ecological practices and behaviours are known, it will pave the way for much information to be given on these behaviours on the web portals to the designed. Another relevance of this research question is that when the specific behaviours that affect the ecology are not known, the portal will only be championing a course that does not affect its users in any way. On the use of a centralised web portal to solve problems related environmental protection, it can said that this is a more modern form of information transmission that promises to have a larger reach and coverage than most available avenue (Popovic et al, 2005). This is because web portals are seen as components of the new media and for that matter, social media that have currently taken over the use of the internet. Because of the scope of users of web portals, the coverage of the advocacy that will take place will be impacting. For instance schools of higher education including universities, could become major targets for creating ecological awareness. Even more, it will be noted that web portals are more portable and accessible as compared to other available media. This is because there are several devices and equipment that can be used to access information on web portals. Examples of these devices are laptops, tablet computers, Smartphone, blackberries among others. As the popularity of these devices increase, it means that there are going to be more and more people who will come into contact with information promoted on the web portals. Having identified that the use of web portals will be a useful avenue for the promotion of ecological awareness, it is also important to look at ways of reaching as many audience with the web portals as possible. This is because in a very logical term, the more audience the web portals get the more lives that will be impacted as a result. The third research question therefore looks at ways of promoting the web portals to reach a larger audience. From this respect, it is proposed that the ecological web portal be used an experimental social media platform, that will be promoted by the use of popular social networks such as Facebook and twitter. What this means is that the existence and presence of the web portal should be promoted and publicised on the advertisement columns of these social media networks. The reason for this proposed medium of promotion is that the use of these social networks keeps becoming popular by the day and the number of users patronising them keep increasing (Levitt, 2008). Once this platform is used to advertise and publicise the presence of the web portal thereof, the rate of exposure and tendency that a lot of people will come to know of the existence portal is higher. Even though a lot has been said on the use of web portals for the promotion of ecological awareness among people, most specifically students and other elite members of the population, it is also not without a fact that using this avenue will come with its own challenges. For instance is it envisioned that there could be possible apathy towards the use of the web portal as a medium of learning. What this means is that people who have been used to the traditional ways of seeking information in the country through the use of information vans, fliers, public address systems and one-on-one education will find it challenging, switching on to this new medium of seeking information. Again, the cost of promotion through the use of advertisement on social network platforms will be expensive and will require more start up capital. These challenges notwithstanding, it is admonished that the ambition of having an ecological web portal to address the issue of environmental protection continued to be championed since it comes with so much merits than its demerits. REFERENCE LIST Levitt T. (2008). Ecological Integration: The Systemic Approach. University Press: Harvard. Popovic, A., Lindic, J., Stemberger, M. I., and Jaklic, J. (2005). Web Triad: the Impact of Web Portals on Quality of Institutions of Higher Education - Case Study of Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. pp. 313-324. Retrieved from http://informingscience.org/proceedings/InSITE2005/I25f94Popo.pdf. Read More