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. |
posted Sep 18, 2011 3:26 AM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 20, 2011 10:01 AM
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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. |
posted Sep 18, 2011 12:16 AM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Oct 24, 2011 9:13 AM
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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 S ão 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:
- Within the line of e-Infrastructures for Scientific & Technical Research, the FP7-Capacities-Working Programme-2011 not include any support line appropriate to our thematic. Thus it will not be until Autumn 2012 when the next suitable call to our initiative will be convened.
- Within the line of higher-education, it is envisaged a suited thematic within the "Longlife Learning Program" of the European Commission, to be submitted next Winter 2012.
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posted Mar 13, 2011 4:01 PM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 18, 2011 12:15 AM
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(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.
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posted Dec 8, 2010 8:43 AM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 18, 2011 12:15 AM
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 (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: - Broadening of the consortium including: two Chinese partners (the Chinese Center for Overseas Social and Philosophical Theories; and the Social Information Science Institute), a German University (Hochschule München) and an academic institution devoted to e-Learning in Latin America (Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana). This geographically and thematically represents a relevant furthering of the infrastructure scope: into the Asian and American continents, and the educational realm.
- A semantic core of the infrastructure as a means to bring about the integration of the infrastructure through a direct linkage with the scientific interdisciplinary clarification work. This semantic background would nourish from the glossary module, merging into a metadata structure which provides interoperability within the whole infrastructure.
- User interfaces based on user experience and empowered by visualization tools aimed at facilitating collaborative work, navigation and data organization. By these means the infrastructure gains another integration path more visible than the semantic background and directly linked to the usability and accessibility criteria.
- The design and assessment councils on: (a) security and trust, (b) usability and user experience, and (c) interoperability are oriented towards a proactive search on best practises for the design concerning these specific topics. This objective responds better to the goals of the European Commission programmes regarding the promotion of best practises.
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. |
posted Dec 1, 2010 1:54 AM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 18, 2011 12:05 AM
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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.
China Center for Overseas Social and Philosophical Theories, China
 Team conducted by: Prof. Gang Liu ( see Science Advisory Board)
The CCOSPT, attached to the Central Translation and Compilation Bureau and established in September 2009, grew out of debates with scholars in diverse disciplines in China and abroad. The Center strives to mobilize and coordinate both innovative research and usable development. CCOSPT in integrated by a group of full-time research professors and fellows, as well as part-time scholars in various fields from inland and across the world devoted to joint research projects. Especially, surveys of Internet impacts to the modern society in China find its priority in CCOSPT.
 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.
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Social Information Science Institute at HUST, China
SISI is dependent of the Huazhong Univesity of Science and Technology (HUST) is a national key university directly under the administration of the Ministry of Education of P. R. China. HUST is among the first Universities joining the national “211 Project” and “985 Project”. It was founded on May 26, 2000 as a result of the merger of the former Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Tongji Medical University and Wuhan Urban Construction Institute.
 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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posted Oct 29, 2010 1:53 PM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 18, 2011 12:08 AM
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Munich University of Applied Science, Germany Conducted by Prof. Rainer ZIMMERMANN
 HM
is one of the largest Universities of Applied Sciences in Germany.
Particularly Faculty 13: for General and interdisciplinary Studies (in which Prof. Zimmermann is professor of philosophy) plays a significant role in the provision of a general education. The faculty has significant strengths in intercultural communication and virtual education,
both of significant added value to the purposes of domusBITae.
Rainer Zimmerman: Philosophy of Complex Systems
(PhD in Mathematics in 1977 from Frei Universität Berlin; PhD in Philosophy in 1988 from TU Berlin). S e
is Professor of Philosophy at the Falculty 13 (HM). His
interdisciplinary profile can be clearly observed in the varied
positions he has held in his academic career:
In 1998, Habilitation in Natural Philosophy (University of Kassel) –
since then member (Privatdozent) of the department there; 1999/2000
Visiting Scholar at the History and Philosophy of Science Department and
Visiting Fellow of Clare Hall, both at Cambridge (UK) – since then Life
Member of Clare Hall; 2001 Research Visitor to the University of
Bologna, Cooperative Research Project there under the title
"Reconstruction of the Historical City Centre"; 2003 Senior Visiting
Fellow to the Institute of Advanced Studies, Villa Gandolfi Pallavicini,
University of Bologna; 2006 International Visiting Professor at the
Information and Communication Technologies and Society program,
University of Salzburg; 2010/2011 Visiting Professor, Centre for
Metropolitan Studies, TU Berlin. | John MINGERS: Information theory, information and meaning, semiotics John MINGERS: Information theory, information and meaning, semioticsDr.
John Mingers received his Masters degree in Systems Thinking from
Lancaster University and his PhD titled “Knowledge and Action in
Management Science” from Warwick University in 1994. Originally an
operational researcher at British Leyland and Unilever, John joined
Warwick Business School in 1987 and became a Professor of OR and Systems
in 1998. He joined Kent Business School in 2003 as Director of
Research. He was elected as an Academician of the UK Academy of Social
Sciences in 2009.
He has been a member of the Council of the
OR Society and Chair of the UK Systems Society, and is currently a
member of the Editorial Board of MIS Quarterly and is a past member of
the Editorial Board of European Journal of Information Systems, Systems
Research and the Behavioural Sciences, and the Journal of Mixed Methods
Research. He has published the only comprehensive study of
autopoiesis – “Self-Producing Systems: Implications and Applications of
Autopoiesis”. His latest monograph is “Realizing Systems Thinking:
Knowledge and Action in Management Science”. His theory of information,
and its relationship to meaning, has been developed in papers in
Information Systems Research, Information and Organization, and
Knowledge Management Research and Practice. |
posted Oct 21, 2010 10:41 AM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 17, 2011 11:59 PM
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As planned within the development of domusBITae, the initiative has been presented at several international gatherings as a means to strengthen the consortium and to disseminate the idea, thus increasing impact potentials. To this end, domusBITae has been generally proposed to the scientific audiences as a tool for enabling research in the interdisciplinary study of information including formal, natural, social, technical and philosophical aspects, since the factual disciplinary- and geographical divide hinders such interdisciplinary approach. The scientific meetings in which the initiative has been presented were: - 3rd ICT & Society Network Meeting, held in Castelldefels (Barcelona, Spain), June 28 July 02, 2010
- 4th International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science (Beijin, China), August 20-23, 2010
- 15th International Conference on Information and Documentation Systems (Zaragoza, Spain), October 6-7, 2010
- 6th Conference of the Spanish Society for Analytic Philosophy (Tenerife, Canary Islands), October 14-16, 2010
In all these gatherings, domusBITae representatives participated actively in the organization of the event pursuing to optimally reach the audiences. Furthermore, a representative of domusBITae attended the European e-IRG (e-Infrastructures Reflection Group) Workshop concerning the current status of the e-Infrastructures and e-Sciences in Europe, held in Madrid, June 17, 2010.
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posted Sep 28, 2010 6:02 PM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 18, 2011 12:06 AM
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We are very glad to announce that a support by the Spanish Ministry of Science (MICINN) has been recently awarded aimed at preparing the domusBITae initiative as a candidate for a programme to be developed in the European Research Area.
The elected proposal, submitted in March 2010 to the programme of Not Targeted Fundamental Research (complementary actions), which is part of the national plan of R+D+i, was developed within this site, where it is still available ( see proposal). The purpose of this supported action, as well as the programme as a whole, is aimed at developing a proposal for the engagement of Spanish research teams into the EU Frame Programme of Investigation, Research and Innovation. The team responsible for this preparatory action is composed by: Francisco Salto (main researcher, ULE), José María Díaz (ULE), Leticia Almuzara (ULE), Félix Barrio (Inteco) and Mario Pérez-Montoro (UB).
The main tasks to be carried out are: - presentation of the initiative at international gatherings (strengthening the consortium)
- convening the consortium
- elaboration of consortium agreement
- elaboration of proposal
- presentation of proposal to open calls
Though the approved preparatory action is to be carried out in 12 Months starting from October 2010, the next deadline for submitting a proposal to an appropriate competitive programme is November 24th, 2010. Thus, gathering the consortium to meet some fundamental agreements is an urgent task, to be done within the next two weeks. As a guidance, consortium parties might consider the work plan depicted within this site, though now more members has to be considered (i.e. the distribution of work has to be re-distributed, though not the general plan of development sumarized in the PERT diagram. Though the preparation time for developing the aforementioned duties before the deadline of November 24th is sort, fortunately, most of these task are significantly advanced, as it can be seen in the pages of this site. |
posted Sep 28, 2010 6:00 PM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 18, 2011 12:06 AM
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 One of the main objectives of the Fourth International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science, held in Beijin on past August, was the foundation of an interdisciplinary scientific union in information studies which unlike “information science” integrates not only social, humanistic and technical sciences but also natural, formal and philosophical. (See report of the Conference in: BITrum site or in BITagora)
Although the space of the conference was not enough to agree details concerning methodological and organizational aspects (which will be further by a special committee), it was relatively easy to accord the general purpose of bringing together endeavours for constituting a wide disciplinary domain at the international level in which the multifaceted aspects of information (formal, physical, chemical, biological, cognitive, ethical, social, technological and philosophical) were integrated.
 The number of methodological proposals presented in the congress aimed at building a new science of information with the aforementioned features (about one-fourth of the contributions) shows by itself: on the one hand, the consensus concerning the general purpose; on the other hand, the lack of methodological agreement. Among these proposals, domusBITae was presented by José María Díaz as a toehold for bridging the global community of information studies without methodological commitments: as electronic-Infrastructure to facilitate the articulation of the involved community -for communicating, sharing resources and results, cooperation, etc.-, and to enable the mutual understanding by means of disambiguation and clarification of each other viewpoint -as discussed in the aforementioned reports-: (J.M. Díaz Nafría and F. Salto, Towards a transdisciplinary frame: Bridging domains, a multidimensional approach to information, http://www.sciforum.net/presentation/278)
The interest for consolidating a discipline for the study of information including the aforementioned aspects offered a sufficient basis to decide the constitution of the international association, named: “International Society for Information Studies” (ISIS), which details will be defined by the aforementioned special committee. The acronym of the founded association, ISIS, corresponds to the name of the ancient Egyptian goddess who reconstructs her husband Osiris after he was cut up and disseminated by his jealous brother Seth. Allegorically, this represents an obvious correlate with the role of information.
As it was accorded, ISIS will support and use the eventually developed domusBITae infrastructure as an articulation means of the society for which the Internet domain www.is4is.org has already been reserved.
We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to the organizers and hosts of this gathering since undoubtedly it represents a significant step forward in the foundation of a fully interdisciplinary science of information at the global level. |
posted Sep 28, 2010 5:57 PM by José María Díaz Nafría
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updated Sep 18, 2011 12:09 AM
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We are very glad to inform the incorporation to domusBITae consortium during this summer of two teams from the University of Szeged, Hungary, and Aalborg University Copenhagen, Denmark. The former enriches the consortium with an historical and high-technology background from the Library and Infomation Science pole; the later with their innovative approaches in media technology. The heads of both teams, Lazlo Karvalics and Luis Bruni respectively, will also contribute from the expertise of their outstanding scientific works to the Science Advisory Board of domusBITae.
Lazlo and Luis, Cordially welcome to domusBITae, and thank you for your support.
University of Szeged, Hungary (USZ)The University of Szeged has become the largest university of Hungary outside the capital with the integration of several universities and colleges in 2000 under the name of the University of Szeged, whose history dates back over 400 years ago. Nowadays, it constitutes not only a reference centre of knowledge with outstanding facilities (as the Education and Information Center), but also a crucial actor of innovation in Hungary. The Department of Library and Information Science is currently developing its INFORMATORIUM, a 110 square meter ultra-high tech information visualization, processing and service center, a new generation space for design and manage the information flow in academic environment. It provides excellent features for the coordination and performance of research projects.
 Lazlo Karvalics; Born in Budapest, Hungary. MA in History, Literature and Linguistics; PhD and Hab. in History, ELTE,Budapest. He is Founding director of the BME-UNESCO Information Society Research Institute; associate professor, Head, Department of Library and Human Information Science,University of Szeged. Fulbright Research Scholar, George Washington University, Center ofInternational Science and Technology Policy (CISTP). Teaching and research on social impacts of information technology, comparative analysis of national information strategies, information history and education in the information age. Invited expert in several EU-projects and events. Has written books, studies and plenty of small articles for the dissemination of the "Information Society thinking" and Internet-culture. (Some more strokes on his biography in domusBITae Circulus page -Advisory board-)
Aalborg University Copenhagen, Denmark (UA)
The research and training programmes of the department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology are focus on the studies of human and computer relations, audio-visual effects, the human perception, immersive computer systems and new interfaces. Its laboratories provide the state of the art equipment in media technology (motion capture, visualization, sensors, etc).
Luis Emilio Bruni: Born in 1963 in Caracas, Venezuela. Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Theory of Science at the Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (M.S. International and Global Relations, Universidad Central de Venezuela; B.S. Environmental Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, USA). Since 2004 he is at Aalborg University (Denmark) where he is associate professor at the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, teaaching courses on multimodal perception and cognition, digital culture and theory of science. His current research covers relations between cognition, technology and culture with focus on sustainability. (Some more strokes on his biography in domusBITae Circulus page -Advisory board-) |
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Team conducted by: Prof. Kang Ouyang (see 
