Flat Earth and EDEN 2007

Geisha!
Originally uploaded by Remara Photography 2.0

The Earth does go round the sun, Galileo was right, but a lot of the evidence in Galileo's time showed the Earth to be flat and there were a lot of sceptics, who we now laugh at. However, I'm sure there were a lot of strange ideas going round in the renaissance that were wrong and now are more-or-less forgotten. A certain element of scepticism is wise, even if the sceptics are wrong at times.
I've been looking at the EDEN 2007 programme and on day 2 the theme of the key-notes seems to be new trends (i.e. web 2.0) and institutional/national policy. Sometimes it seems as if the policy makers and the actors in a new area are refusing to look at one another. The policy-makers are reluctant to listen. Is this a bad thing? Looking backwards we can see which trends have become accepted practice, but we tend to forget the trends that disappeared without trace. As I wrote above, a certain element of scepticism is wise, even if the sceptics are wrong at times.