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Global CyberPolitics

Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD)

The Global System for Sustainable Development (gssd.mit.edu) is the initial operational representation of the logic in Mapping Sustainability, that is then transformed into an interactive system for global knowledge networking and knowledge development.

Overview

The goal is to facilitate access to, and provision of, knowledge bearing on transitions toward sustainability. More specifically, the challenge is to reduce barriers to knowledge access, provision, sharing and distribution worldwide. The Figure below shows the homepage.

Global System for Sustainable Development (GSSD)
GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (GSSD) – HOME PAGE
Source: GSSD website gssd.mit.edu

GSSD Functionalities

The Figure below highlights the GSSD functionalities. We show how the architecture of the knowledge system, and its conceptual foundations, are joined to address key knowledge needs and demands, and in different social and/or institutional contexts. 

GSSD website overview.
GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (GSSD) OVERVIEW
Source: gssd.mit.edu

Knowledge Architechture

The knowledge architecture is integrated by a connectivity logic. Figure 5.4 below shows the overall logic. This logic provides the operational system for search and retrieval.

Knowledge architecture
KNOWLEDGE ARCHITECTURE
Source: Choucri, N., Fairman, L., & Agarwal, G. (2022). CyberIR@MIT: Knowledge for science, policy, practice (Working Paper No. 2022-09). MIT Political Science Department.
Note: Based on gssd.mit.edu. See also Mapping Sustainability (Choucri et al., 2007).

Value Proposition

GSSD (gssd.mit.edu), is relevant to different types of “users”—ranging from those that “demand” knowledge and information on select issues of interest to those that seek to “supply” knowledge to a broader community. It spans technical, operational, socio-economic, and political issues, as well as decision and policy areas:

  • Conceptual framework, based on collaborative research regarding computer science and international relations in political science.
  • Content representation, anchored in an ontology based on multidisciplinary research and the knowledge base.
  • Strategy for integrating and organizing knowledge domains consisting of multi-dimensional, multi-sector, and multi-disciplinary content.
  • Process to organize knowledge content with interrelated concepts in a nested, internally consistent form.
  • Alternative search and retrieval functions.
  • Evolving knowledge content and repository base for emergent research.
  • Submission process to capture knowledge-content in an internally consistent form.

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