This web-area is reserved to post any relevant announcement to its community of user, i.e., in the DomusBITae project development or in any other editorial activity as BITagora. List of updates |
Updates
This web-area is reserved to post any relevant announcement to its community of user, i.e., in the DomusBITae project development or in any other editorial activity as BITagora. |
A new interdisciplinary event within PRIMER initiative
Understanding complexity: systems, emergence and evolution
Introduction The problems that our contemporary societies are facing overwhelm the methods of the specialised scientific and professional disciplines. They demand –in order to harness our very existences– a decisive confrontation of the complexity in which our problems are rooted. The theory of systems offers a path for such confrontation whenever the crucial aspects of how complexity emerges, how it is structure, and how it evolves is properly addressed. Under this perspective the course aims at offering an introduction into the general foundations of systems with a view to the conceptualizing of energy and information, insofar as such conceptualizing can constitute a keystone for the effective articulation of scientific and practical disciplines. Such articulation is indeed the main goal of the European initiative PRIMER (PRomotion of Interdisciplinary Methodologies in Education and Research, http://primer.unileon.es) under which this event is convened, complementing other courses held during the past years. The city constitutes a complex system example of particular interest in which almost all scientific and practical disciplines can be convened in order to exhaustively dealing with the dynamics of its complexity. Hence, the city will serve as paradigmatic case for the study of the emergence and dynamics of complex systems, addressing at the same time the relevant relation between design and ethics, which in urban planning is particularly clear. Introductory Webinar: The social praxis in the theory of systems |
PRIMER gives an step forward through the second edition of the international workshop on Social Networks-León
Summer Course and International Workshop: Social Networks, from communicating to solidary networks (an interdisciplinary approach) Continuing the series of international events organised since past year concerning the promotion of interdisciplinary studies, the PRIMER initiative gives an step forward organising the second edition of the international summer course on social networks in collaboration with the PRIMER consortium members. Establishing liaison with the workshop on open system thinking organised past May, the new event on social networks will delve in the systematic view on social networks with respect to the problems challenging the information society at the socio-politic, economic, environmental, educational, scientific, cultural terrains. Moreover, regarding organisational issues, the event deploys the hybrid concept of event and the open-badge certification, which belong to PRIMER core objectives. A meeting aimed at discussing PRIMER proposal for the next call within the European support programme Erasmus-for-all will be held on Saturday 14th, 15:30 pm (Brussels time).
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Workshop on Open Systems Thinking
May 15-17, 2013 :: Sierra Pambley :: León :: Spain The foreseen activities for the meeting include –besides the scientific gathering– an open course for the public (in Sierra Pambley) and a training activity for academics (in the Language Center of León University). Both can be followed through the virtual rooms of UNED. It constitutes a first milestone in the development of an international academic programme coordinated by University of León for the promotion of interdisciplinary studies; a project emerged from domusBITae initiative, which in turn was initiated by BITrum in 2010 (s. PRIMER initiative). The activity is a result of the collaboration among several European universities (Vienna University of Technology, Munich University of Applied Sciences, UNED, Mälardalen University –Sweden-, University of the Aegean –Greece) and other scientific institutions (BITrum, Bertalanffy Center for the Study of System Science, Cybersociety Observatory). Access to the Meeting Portal (in Spanish) INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVES Interdisciplinarity in education and science represents a fundamental path for facing global challenges, as recognised by several international education and scientific policies –substantiated in important funding policies. This approach is rooted in the fact that the complexity of the problems concerning our modus vivendi –regarding its biospheric, geo-politic, intercultural and socio-economic dimensions– grows in higher degree than the capacity to cope with problems by science articulated through the traditional schema of subdivided specialities. Hence, the possibility to master the complexity of our problems will rely on the capacity to jump over the barriers between specialities and to success in the effective collaboration among them. Nevertheless, despite efforts is repeatedly observed the insufficient advance in the cooperation between scientific disciplines. There is however science and technical methods, widely and successfully used for decades (for instance, cybernetics), used to jump over the borders of traditional disciplines in order to understand and steer systems of high complexity, as ecosystems, robots, socio-economic dynamics… In this workshop, a general outlook on methodologies for the combination of scientific and technical domains will be shown, aiming to range the challenges of the scientific organisation and the possibilities of a systematic and open approach to interdisciplinarity. It belongs to a coordinated effort among several European scientific and higher education institutions for the PRomotion of Interdisciplinary Methodologies in Education and Research (PRIMER) which integrates systems science, open innovation and design science. Through this “open system thinking” several scientific and educational projects are tackled dealing with different theoretical and practical complex problems. By hosting the event at the Sierra Pambley Foundation, who has been involved for 125 years in a movement devoted to the integral education through the articulation of culture and sciences, the venue in itself offers a living example of systematic facing complexity. |
Upgrading domusBITae as a crossroad for interdisciplinary studies to the Lifelong Learning Programme 2013
As previously mentioned within this site, the domusBITae initiative has been focused on the promotion of interdisciplinary studies as a whole, including of course the former objective of establishing a ground for the interdisciplinary study of information. Though the proposal of a Resource Centre for Information Studies, thoroughly developed at the end of 2010, shall be updated whenever a proper call is convened again (what has not been the case in the last two years, but is expected for the next European Frame Programme), in the meantime, the activities carried out within domusBITae circle, particularly between the Universities of León (ULE) and Munich (HM) have put the accent on the broad sense of interdisciplinary studies, from which a proposal -due at the end of January- is planned to be submitted on this topic to the Lifelong Learning Programme (as a Multilateral Project, see call). This focus meets indeed one of the objectives of the European Commission as a means to face the complex challenges of our societies (s. EC: "New societal challenges for the European Union", Brussels, 2009; EURAB: "Interdisciplinarity in Research", 2004). These strategic objectives together with the European authorities' intention to boost social responsibility in compliance with the recommendations of the recently approved International Standard ISO 26000 provides a solid starting point to the promotion of interdisciplinary methodologies in research and education. This is particularly the case because, as several studies has shown, there is still a lack of methodology and general criteria for properly assessing and deploying interdisciplinarity -despite its strong support by different public public bodies in Europe and abroad (e.g., DEA-FBA: "Thinking Across Disciplines", Copenhagen, 2008). In order to fill this gap, we propose relying on a double focus: a systematic one, based upon systems and complex thinking; and a paradigmatic and practical one rooted on ongoing, successful interdisciplinary research (as information studies, cybernetics, environmental studies, or biotechnology), to be applied simultaneously at the education and research work through the problem-oriented cooperation enabled by the participants. It is needless to say that according to this focus the intention to participate by the Institut für Design Science (IDS) of Munich, the Betalanffy Center for the Study of System Science (BCSS), and the International Society for Information Studies (ISIS) represents a significant added value to the initiative. To this end, a preliminary proposal was presented to these research organisations, and approved past summer. In December the preliminary proposal was also approved by both the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies of HM and ULE. |
Three new Partners for a Promising Journey on Interdisciplinary Research and Education
In July the 5th 2011, representatives of the Institute für Design Science (IDS), the Bertalanffy Center for the Study System Science (BCSSS), the International Society of Information Studies (ISIS), meted together with domusBITae partners belonging to BITrum, University of León (ULE) and Hochschule München (HM) in Munich in order to discuss the initiative started by the cooperation between the Spanish and the German universities, targeted to the promotion and development of interdisciplinary methodologies in research and education. Several fields already active in such terrain (for instance, interdisciplinary investigation in information (BITrum and ISIS), System science and Cybernetics -BCSSS and Group of Cybernetics at ULE-, Ecology and Sustainability -ULE, HM, BCSSS-, Information Society -BITrum, ISIS-, Education -ULE-) would constitute fields for development of the proposed project. Some activities carried out along 2011 and 2012 constitute preliminary actions for demonstration and development of the initiative (e.g. the International Workshop on Information and Systems, Munich 18/1/12, the international meeting and summer course on "Social Networks: from indignation to change (ethic, aesthetic and politic aspects)", León 21-23/9/12). The cooperation shall substantiate in a joint proposal to the Life Long Learning Programme of the European Commission, whose deadline for the opened call is at the end of January 2013. |
Cooperation Treaty among Munich University of Applied Sciences, University of León and Technical University of Vienna
In the summer of 2011 a cooperation agreement on science and education was advanced among the Munich University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule München, HM, Germany), the University of León (ULE, Spain) and the Technical University of Vienna (Technische Universität Wien, TUW, Austria). The agreement, settled in connection to the join participation in the domusBITae innitiative, was also linked to the professorial stay of José María Díaz Nafría (ULE) at the Hochschule München and the related investigation, undertaken together with Rainer Zimmermann (HM), aiming at searching a proper foundation for the interdisciplinary understanding of information, for which a manifesto from an evolutionary perspective is being discussed among the former authors and Wolfgang Hofkirchner. Though the agreement was proposed at the first place for supporting scientific research, the frame is actually opened to educational activities - as the professorial stay of José María at the HM is to be considered, but also applicable to other programmes of student or teaching mobility -, as well as cultural activities - as the envisaged exchange of university choir ensembles. By these means we consider the domusBITae initiative is enriched including more commitments and better grounds at the level of both scientific research and education. |
domusBITa Proposals to the European Commission and Assessments in 2011
As it was announced within this site, domusBITae has been proposed as candidate to two programmes of European support in the fields of e-Infrastructures for scientific research in Autum 2010, and educational cooperation (Alfa III) in Spring 2011. To this end a consortium was founded in November integrating 14 research and higher education institutions (from 5 European countries, 2 from China, 1 from the USA), which also gathered the commitments of the Supercomputing Center of Castilla y León and BITrum Research Group. This consortium constituted the formal proponent to the e-Infrastructures programme, whilst the proposal to Alfa III was proposed together with 6 Latin American Universities (University of São Paolo -Brasil-, University of Antioquía -Colombia-, Instituto Politécnico Nacional -México-, Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad Nacional del Este -Paraguay-, and Universidad Científica del Sur -Perú).
The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation granted the initiative within the National Research Programme in order to make it competitive within the European Research Area. Following the objectives of the supported project the initiative was presented in a number of scientific events (s. announcement of Oct-2010), the aforementioned consortium was constituted, whilst early submissions to appropriate calls served to mature the proposal into the corresponding support lines in order to become successful in future editions. This foresight was confirmed by the evaluation of the aforementioned proposals: the eligible requirement were fully meted, but some improvements shall be done for the purpose of becoming elected within a frame of high competitiveness (e.g. only a 5% of proposals are elected for ALFA-III).
Concerning envisaged calls:
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Preparation of a proposal to the ALFA III Cooperation Programme with LA
(2011/03/14) domusBITae is preparing a proposal to the ALFA III Programme of co-operation between Higher Education Institutions of the European Union and Latin America, belonging to the EuropeAid Development and Cooperation Frame of the European Commision. The proposal is aimed at developing an international academic programme, particulary focused in contributing to the erection of a Common Higher Education Area in LA, in which information represent the thread of commonality among different scientific disciplines. To this end 3 major goals are pursued (1) the broadening and consolidation of an open e-Science environment for the cross-disciplinary study of information at a regional and global scale, aimed at promoting an interdisciplinary culture; (2) the development of cross-disciplinary educational programmes based on the natural, technical, social and human aspects of information, aimed at contributing to the erection of a Common Higher Education Area; (3) the support of academic and training programmes by means of open information infrastructures. Due to programme constraints, only domusBITae members of 2 EU countries can be partners of the proposed action together with at least 4 Higher Education Institutions of 4 LA countries. The rest of domusBITae members will be included as associates, for whom per diem and travel expenses are eligible costs. Until 25/03/2011 a brief description (4 pages) of the proposal has to be submitted. In case of being elected, a full proposal has to be presented after an invitation in which the deadline is specified. See more details about the going-on proposal. |
domusBITae was proposed to the Seventh Frame Programme in a call devoted to Data for e-Science
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In the next figure some of these upgrades are illustrated. Specifically: (i) the Educational oriented tools (C&E stands for Collaborative and Education, EG for Education Group) aimed at the progressive constitution of an e-Campus; (ii) the domusBITae gate split into a confederated set of sites using an specialised CMS, and a user interface integrating all the resources into the infrastructure; (iii) the semantic network linked to the metadata structures of the system as a whole, to the search engines of the user interfaces, and to the interdisciplinary glossaries. In the page of Open/Submited Proposals the calls and programmes identified as fitted to domusBITae initiative have been systematised. For a description and access the the proposal submitted on Nov.23 see here. The details concerning the planning of each module and working activity must be deepened, but we face now a basic proposal emerging from consortium contributions notably enhanced with respect to the original proposed system. From coordination we wish to thank the commitment of all members and wish to encourage a continuous collaboration until the inclusion of the initiative into a supported action. |
2010/12/03-The domusBITae gives a step forward in its internationalization with two new Chinese partners
We are very pleased to announce and welcome the recent incorporation of the Chinese Center for Overseas Social and Philosophical Theories (CCOSPT) and the Social Information Science Institute (SISI) at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Both represent robust pillars to the internationalization of the proposed infrastructure and the achievement of the expected impacts, on the other hand, this bring us the oportunity of strengthening the friendship intiated in Summer, 2010, in the ocassion of the 4th International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science, hosted and co-organized by the Social Information Science Institute and the Beijin University.
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