NASA and Cisco Systems Inc. are working together to develop Planetary Skin, an online collaborative platform that harnesses the Internet to combine readings from satellite, airborne, sea and land-based sensors. The effort is aimed primarily at the issue of climate change, noting that of the $2.8 trillion stimulus plans around the globe there is $450 billion targeted to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The partnership announcement took place yesterday at the invite-only U.S. Climate Action Symposium in Washington, D.C. that featured appearances by top politicians from around the globe as well as business leaders.
The collaboration will start with a Rainforest Skin that will focus on deforestation of rainforests around the world, including an accounting of the changes in carbon in these regions.
“Cisco will bring its experience and expertise in networking technologies and advanced innovation to the project. Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group has a unique combination of business acumen, scientific, economics and policy understanding. Its experts will conduct complex data analysis and modelling, and share an in-depth knowledge of the next generation Internet Protocol architectures to determine how to best prototype, replicate and scale a Planetary Skin to millions of participants.”
The press release indicates that CISCO will be working with the United Nations, banks, businesses, international government agencies, universities, think tanks, non-governmental agencies and foundations on this initiative.
