Events involving ScII participation in 2011

Last Updated on 07 February 2012 administrator 16 November 2011

Along the last Months, several scientific and cooperation events with relevant participation of ScII members took place:

Discourse of topology, Berlin, March

In March, the meeting organized by the Institute für Design Science (Germany) and chaired by Rainer Zimmermann in Berlin (Discourse of topology: language and space in urban systems) brought to the fore some core questions of philosophy of information regarding, on the one hand, the very foundations of meaning, on the other hand, rhetorical, ethical and sociological aspects of the virtual spaces and of the information society. Regarding ScII participation –besides our colleague Zimmermann- also J.M. Díaz held a presentation on “information and urban systems”.

Constitution of the International Society for Information Studies

In July the International Society for Information Studies (ISIS) was officially constituted under Austrian law and conformed by an executive committee as accorded at the FIS2010 conference held in Beijin and is composed by several BITrum members. In order to support –among other envisaged activities- the organization of the next FIS conferences, ISIS is currently running through an organizational phase. As announced within ScII news, next conference on the Foundations of Information Science (FIS) -to be held in Moscow- will be celebrated for the first time under the umbrella of ISIS.

The difference that makes a difference, UK, September

In September, the interdisciplinary workshop in information science and technology The difference that makes a difference (DTMD-2011), held in the Campus of the Open University at Milton Keynes, UK, brought again together Wolfgang Hofkirchner, who opened the Meeting, Rainer Zimmermann and José María Díaz, who both presented a double paper presenting their investigation (s. contributions blog). The importance of developing a proper interdisciplinary approach was discussed and indeed exhibited by the misunderstanding arisen at the discussions. See Programme & Proceedings.

System experts gathering on Bertalanffy’s 110 Anniversary, Vienna, November

Significant ScII presence was also gathered on 17 November 2012, when the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of System Science (BCSSS) hosted about 30 international systems theorists and practitioners, among them leading representatives of systems movement organisations like the President of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (IASCYS), Matjaz Mulej; the representative of the European Union for Systemics (UES/EUS), Pierre Bricage; the Director-General of the World Association of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC), Raul Espejo; the representative of the recently founded Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University, Alexander Laszlo, to name but a few.

Relevant discussion on what systems thinking is for in the age of global challenges, as well as around the elaboration and the impact of General System Theory was held. Due to the close linking between the concepts of system and information, some insights were also brought to the understanding of information.