Dear Members of the NExJ Editorial Board – I have entered into an agreement with The Institute for a Global Sustainable Information Society (GSIS) to participate in an Online Workshop at the
International Society for the Study of Information (IS4SI) Online Summit, 12-19 September 2021 and to publish the proceedings of the workshop as a special issue of our journal New Explorations: Studies in Culture and Communication.
The topic of the workshop is as follows: The current pandemic crisis is a reminder that the humankind lives in an age of global challenges. Responses require worldwide efforts to assure survival and a better life for all. What can we learn from the failures and successes during our performance in the COVID-19 crisis for tackling even deeper crises – crisesregarding how we developour societies, our natural environmentand our technologies? How can we avoid passing points of no return? How can we empower humankind to do what needs to be done? How can we shape digitalisation for mitigating and solving those crises instead of escalating them? (A fuller description of the workshop is reproduced below.)
I am a member of GSIS and part of the Programme Commitee. I suggested to my friend Wolfgang Hofkirchner one of chairs of the workshop that it would be interesting to have members of the NExJ team with their interest in McLuhan and media ecology to participate in the workshop since the aims of GSIS and NExJ overlap. In fact I once wrote a paper in which I showed the parallels that exists between media ecology and McLuhan studies and the general systems approach of GSIS which I have attached here.
I therefore invite you to consider writing an article in terms of the topic as described above. The deadline for the submission of the abstract is June 15 with feedback by July 1. A number of NExJ Editorial board members have agreed to write an article for the workshop and the special issue among whom are Paul Levinson and myself.
Could you please let me know if you are interested in this project by email.
Here is the first draft of my article I have prepared for the workshop.
Here is more information on the workshop.
Online Workshop at the International Society for the Study of Information (IS4SI) Online Summit, 12-19 September 2021*ORGANISATIONSpecial Interest Group Emergent Systems, Information and Society(@IS4SI, @The Institute for a Global Sustainable Information Society (GSIS), and @Leibniz Society of Sciences to Berlin e.V. (LS)), and Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Social Responsibility(FIfF) CHAIRSWolfgang Hofkirchner, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria, GSIS, and LS Hans-Jörg Kreowski, University of Bremen, Germany, FIfF, and LS PROGRAM COMMITTEE Kirsten Bock, Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, GermanyYagmur Denizhan, Bogazici University, Istanbul, TurkeyHelena Knyazeva, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia Mina Koukou, independent researcher, Nice, FranceRobert K. Logan, University of Toronto, and Ontario College of Art & Design University, Toronto, CanadaYurii Mielkov, Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, UkraineJosé María Díaz Nafría, Madrid Open University, SpainRainer Rehak, Weizenbaum Institute Berlin, GermanyBritta Schinzel, University of Freiburg, GermanyTomáš Sigmund, University of Economics, Prague, Czech RepublicModestos Stavrakis, University of the Aegean, Greece SUMMIT KEYNOTE SPEAKERSJulian Nida-Rümelin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, GermanyRainer E. Zimmermann, Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, Germany, and Clare Hall, UK Topic:The current pandemic crisis is a reminder that the humankind lives in an age of global challenges. Responses require worldwide efforts to assure survival and a better life for all. What can we learn from the failures and successes during our performance in the COVID-19 crisis for tackling even deeper crises – crisesregarding how we developour societies, our natural environmentand our technologies? How can we avoid passing points of no return? How can we empower humankind to do what needs to be done? How can we shape digitalisation for mitigating and solving those crises instead of escalating them? The Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanismclaims: “We must shape technologies in accordance with human values and needs, instead of allowing technologies to shape humans. Our task is not only to rein in the downsides of information and communication technologies, but to encourage human-centered innovation. We call for a Digital Humanism that describes, analyzes, and, most importantly, influences the complex interplay of technology and humankind, for a better society and life, fully respecting universal human rights.” [https://dighum.ec.tuwien.ac.at/] Digital Humanism sets out for an update of humanism – the image of human beings – in times of digitalisation, aiming at promoting a humane digitalisation. Humane digitalisation needs to take account of the dangers that threaten humanity with extermination. It must provide tools for mastering those global challenges. This workshop focusses on discussing § the foundations of Digital Humanism as well as § steps towards its implementation from the design to the use of information and communication technologies for a techno-eco-social transformationto cope with the global challenges. Thus, contributions are welcome to bridge different disciplines from § social and human sciences including philosophy, cultural sciences, political science, economics, and arts, to § any field of informatics including, in particular, artificial intelligence, robotics, cyber-physical systems, human-machine interaction, and data science – in an inter-/transdisciplinary attempt as, for example, science and technology studies, technology assessment, future studies do.
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