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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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 (2010/12/10) The call in which domusBITae took part, belongs to a larger thematic section of the Seventh Frame Programme for the promotion and deployment of electronic Infrastructures for scientific research. Its deadline was November 23rd, day in which we submitted a not fully developed proposal. The submitted texts partially described all changes included and decided within the last weeks of work, and they implied a significant variation to the initial proposal. Despite the chances to succeed in this specific contest, these novelties represent a relevant change in the proposed infrastructure and work teams which lead us to adopt them even for this call as a step for the competition into other related calls with better guarantees. These major upgrades can be synthesized in the following:
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
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Team conducted by: Prof. 
The center aims at following the new ideas, new proposals, and new programs in social, philosophical, scientific and technical activities outside of China, and to introduce these new developments to the Chinese audience, contributing to the policy-making in the central government, and to the modernization of China.
Team conducted by: Prof. Kang Ouyang (see 
SISI (Social Information Science Institute) was established in December 12th, 2006. We aim to develop systematic innovation research in social information science; promote discipline innovation in information science and humanities; and foster interdisciplinary approach in humanities and science. We have organized first national conference on social information science (MCSIS’07) and first international forum on systems science and information science (IFSSSIS’07). Also in August 2010, we organized Fourth International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science (FlS 2010).
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