Energy informatics: designing a discipline (and possible lessons for the IS community)

If we were to design a new scientific field with a clean slate perspective, what might be

the outcome? The panelists have been working in various ways for the last few years on

establishing a new domain of inquiry, Energy Informatics. The panel will address key

questions that they think should be considered by those designing a new discipline.

Specifically, they will address the following critical questions: (1) How do you enhance

research community effectiveness? (2) How do you enhance research community

efficiency? (3) What are the central activities and key resources? (4) How do you assess

an effective contribution? These questions follow directly from the panel’s contention

that a new field should make every endeavor to avoid accepting legacy systems as an

appropriate infrastructure for conducting research in today’s world.