wolfgang hofkirchner

i’m just at dubai waiting for the connection flight to beijing. i’m looking forward to the conference where we will discuss the establishment of a scientific society for the science of information. here is the programme.

this is a quote from Gunilla Bradley’s book “Humans on the Net” from 2001, p. 21.

together with around 50 people i was invited to the celebration of Gunilla’s lifework on the occasion of the forthcoming release of a festschrift for her edited by her friends and colleagues Darek Haftor and Anita Mirijamdotter (see here). it was held at the linnæus university, växjö, sweden, which is located in småland where Gunilla was born and grew up.

the event was touching. what traces do we leave on earth when we vanish? will we have contributed to a better future worth living? do we who are researching into icts and society help shape icts for (shaping) a good society?

Gunilla has certainly been doing so. and she has been encouraging a many people – students, scholars, friends, family – to do alike.

the meeting could make us reassure ourselves that we are on the right track though we have to fight a many obstacles in our way – and that we have to become better.

more than 70 contributions have been submitted. that’s really a success. we are inmidst the review processes. all accepted papers will be published in triple-c.

as the fis 2010 conference will be part of a multiconference, the date has been accommodated.  (more…)

a new video of mine was released on the youtube channel of uoc (open university of catalonia). it’s not a good performance i show there. however, you might be interested in my view of the field. (see also “presentations“.)

we have received 65 registrations so far for our upcoming icts-and-society network meeting next week from europe, from both americas, from asia and from australia. we will have 2 paper sessions and a number of round tables and workshops which have been set up in a rather self-organised manner. 15 phd students are going to make presentations and will receive feedback from senior scientists. we will have space for ad-hoc gatherings and discussion in addition to the pre-set programme. bill dutton and juliet webster are our keynote speakers. the open university of catalonia invites us to an informal reception at the eve of the meeting.

so i’m happy already in advance about the meeting and i’m happy to have been able to facilitate its organisation. the network grows and the meeting gives evidence for that.

more details of the programme are available at http://www.icts-and-society.net/meeting/.

the motto of the blog is taken from the refrain of the title song of Xavier Naidoo’s latest album. the first sentence identifies a space of possibilities for the improvement of the human condition hic et nunc (my translation: “everything can get better, let’s bring heaven down to earth”). the second sentence reassures us that we might take a moral responsibility for realising possibilities for the good (“everything ought to get better, let’s bring heaven down to earth”). and the last sentence provides us with the synthesis: we act according to the responsibility, and we are confident (“everything will get better, we bring heaven down to earth”).

i understand these lines as a call for working towards the realisation of philosopher Ernst Bloch’s not-yet.

this message seems, at a first glance, in sharp contrast to Karl R. Popper’s well-known criticism. but Popper’s criticism holds only for utopianism that does not take into account missing possibilities for realisation – not for Bloch’s concrete utopia that is anchored firmly in the hic et nunc.

i like Xavier Naidoo’s songs. in particular, i like his song “Gib Dich Nicht Auf” (my translation: “Don’t give up yourself”). in that lyrics Xavier Naidoo asks you not to deprive yourself of your dreams when more and more swapping them for commodities you don’t need. this reminds me of the criticism of the consumer society en vogue among the generation of 1968 in which i grew up. thinking of the gadgets icts provide us with today this criticism is still timely.

in this interview (click here), together with André Tosel, Edgar Morin is asked about the state-of-the-world and how to change it. he recently published a book about Marx (in french). btw, in july he will celebrate his 90th birthday!

see http://www.icts-and-society.net/meeting/.

(information about the network itself can be found at http://www.icts-and-society.net/.)

http://www.sciforum.net/conf/fis2010

the first ever conference on science of information is to be held in beijing this august. i happen to be co-chair. (more…)