Ecological system meets 'digital ecosystem': can ICT benefit from understanding biology?

The description of a digital ecosystem as a “loosely coupled, demand-driven, domain clustered, agent-based, self organised, collaborative environment where agents form temporary coalitions for a specific purpose or goal, and each is proactive and responsive for its own benefit” has intriguing similarities with the definition of an ecosystem in ecology. Perhaps the similarities suggest that a deeper understanding of ecology may benefit the further development of ICT, and any differences may therefore represent cautionary tales. In this presentation, I describe characteristics of some ecological systems at several levels-from species to ecosystem-and speculate on the potential of these examples to catalyse innovation in ICT.