Lawrence+Tan+on+Green+Space+Development

 This Tuesday, September 21, 2010, I attended a lecture by Dr. Widodo Brontowiyono, the latest in a line of visiting professors invited by the College of Computer Studies. For a little background information, Mr. Brontowiyono hails from the Environmental Engineering Department of Universitas Islam Indonesia. To give some of my initial reactions, I was really impressed by the speaker because even though I didn’t understand his entire lecture because of the different accent he had, I still was able to grasp the totality or the summary of the point he was trying to get across to us students. I think it only shows how much he really knew what he was talking about. During the lecture itself, I was a little bit surprised because unlike all of the past seminars I’ve attended of visiting professors, Dr. Brontowiyono’s lecture doesn’t really tackle the //information systems// part of the problem. I think the lecture’s theme is more environmental than it is technological, which although unexpected, wasn’t necessarily useless. In fact, I really understood some concepts of the lecture which I really thought to be very important. The thing is, in my current environment, being an information systems student and all, I think I’m overexposed to the idea of Disaster Management Systems, which is an emerging trend nowadays. This lecture I think focuses on another phase of the disaster management process which is usually not tackled nowadays, disaster prevention. To take things into context, I guess the reality is, if it is possible to avoid a predicament, why not avoid it instead of using additional resources to manage it the time it happens. In accordance to this concept, the lecture introduces the idea of green spaces being developed to minimize the chances of floods and other disasters from happening. All in all, I think this lecture is very important because it really emphasizes on a whole new problem we information systems students could focus upon. Moreover, Mr. Ona’s question as to how information systems could be applied for green space development, I think, was the most vital part of the lecture. It introduces us to a whole new aspect of how information systems could affect not only the management, but also the prevention of disasters from happening, which I think is the most feasible and ideal solution of all.