Climate Prediction and Digital Preservation: press release
Climate Prediction and Digital Preservation: Predicting the Future and Preserving the Past
Venue: CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, Oxfordshire; CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory at Daresbury in Cheshiree
Date: 26 October 2006, 6:00pm for 6:30pm
The British Computer Society presents two talks on how information technology is being used to predict the future and preserve
the past. The first talk reviews the climateprediction.net project; which is the world's largest experiment to attempt to
forecast the climate of the 21st century. The second talk, on digital preservation, looks at how we can ensure that the digital
information we create today will continue to be accessible for as long as we may need it.
This session is one of the first by the BCS to be based in two locations - with one talk at CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
in Chilton, Oxfordshire, the other at CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, Oxfordshire. Attendees at each site
will be able to attend both talks via the use of a video link. The Oxfordshire and Chester & North Wales branches of the BCS
are organising this event, with the talks being given by senior consultants from Tessella Support Services.
In order to predict the world's climate for the 21st century it is necessary to run sophisticated computer models that require
vast amounts of computer processing power to run, so extremely long runs on supercomputers would be needed to get meaningful
results. climateprediction.net, developed by a partnership between the Universities of Oxford and Reading, the CCLRC Rutherford
Appleton Laboratory, Tessella, the Met Office, and others, distributes a version of the model to tens of thousands of members
of the public for running on home and office PCs. Each model has a different set of parameters, and runs in the background
for several months on each PC,
returning data to a central server. In this way it is possible to create a distributed, single purpose, supercomputer at a
very low cost which has a processing capacity much greater than any existing supercomputers. Dr Keith Norman from Tessella
will present this talk, looking at the background to the experiment, and how software is helping scientists to understand
the global climate.
Technology is now changing so fast that standard business computers of two decades ago are consigned to museums. In this context,
industry commentators have raised the prospect of a 'digital dark age' stretching from the late 20th to the early 21st century,
as huge
amounts of digital information are at risk of being lost. The second of the talks will explore the issues surrounding Digital
Preservation and how we ensure that the digital information we create and store today will continue to be accessible for as
long as we may need it.
Mark Claxton of Tessella will discuss the problems and some of the solutions based on experience assisting a number of clients
throughout the world.
Admission is free, and open to non-members, but you must register for this
event as spaces are limited.
Please register your interest in an e-mail to events-cnw@bcs.org.uk. The event starts at 6:00pm at both locations with coffee
and sandwiches, with the talks proper beginning at 6:30pm.
Notes for editors
Established in 1957, the British Computer Society (BCS) is the leading body for those working in IT.
With a world-wide membership now over 50,000 members in over 100 countries, BCS is the qualifying body for Chartered IT Professionals
(CITP).
BCS was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1984. Its objects are to promote the study and practice of computing and to advance
knowledge of and education in IT for the benefit of the public. BCS is also a registered charity.
BCS is licensed by the Engineering Council to award Chartered Engineer status (CEng) and Incorporated Engineer status (IEng);
and more recently by the Science Council to award Chartered Scientist status (CSci).
Founded in 1980, Tessella specializes in the application of innovative software solutions to scientific, technical and engineering
problems, and its offices within the UK, US and the Netherlands have built long-term relationships with organizations at the
leading edge of the scientific and engineering world. Tessella is vendor independent and recommends 'best of breed' solutions,
whether this involves custom software development or off-the-shelf solutions
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