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News
The International Society for Information Studies (IS4SI) convenes a great melting pot on information research where glossariumBITri will serve as weaving device
 Since its constitution, the International Society for Information Studies (IS4SI) organizes a biennial summit gathering researchers who work on information studies and related fields from all over the world. The summit associates in one single event different international conferences related by their interdisciplinary perspectives. The summit was previously held in Vienna 2015 (where BITrum-RG organized a Symposium and its General Assembly, see BITrum new 19/01/2015) and is planned to be convened at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2019. Their predecessors were the conferences held in Beijing in 2010 where the foundations of the Society were built (see BITrum update from 2010/10/20), and Moscow in 2013 (s. BITrum update 2012/09/12). IS4SI 2017 brings under the same roof four conferences previously held separately:
These conferences, and a number of other parallel and consecutive scientific events are assembled in IS4SI 2017 Summit under the umbrella theme DIGITALISATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY: Embodied, Embedded, Networked, Empowered through Information, Computation & Cognition. The summit will provide a meeting place for researchers from academia and industry, educators, societal stakeholders and others from a broad range of communities to build connections between fundamental scientific questions and the most urgent human aspects of digitalization. All these subjects are understood from an interdisciplinary informational perspective. Besides the four aforementioned major conferences, the summit will feature:
 glossariumBITri as a tool to weave strandsThe glossariumBITri, which is now going through a vigorous transformation, will be used in IS4SI Summit Gothenburg 2017 as a way to weave the strands of the many different (and somehow scattering) matters dealt within the Summit. The glossariumBITri (gB) will aim to clarify the different concepts used in the Summit as a kind of transversal tool within the Summit. Under its new development phase, the system is intended to serve as a retrieval resource and assessment tool (using semantic network analysis) to determine the achievements in knowledge integration. On the one hand, the glossariumBITri will provide IS4SI Summit with a tool to weave its parts, increasing the possibilities to achieve synergetic results; on the other, the summit offers the clarification project, in which BITrum Research Group has been engaged since its origins, with the possibility to make a significant leap forward. The roots of this endeavour has been established in the joint partnership established among BITrum-RG, the National University of Santa Elena (Ecuador) and the Bertalanffy Center (Vienna). |
Presentation of glossariumBITri book edition and multimodal publishing system
 After a long navigation, the second book edition is presented on Tuesday, August the 30th, at 18:00 (Ecuadorian time) in the auditorium of the Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena-UPSE (La Libertad university campus, Ecuador). The presentation also includes the endeavor, in which we are currently working to modernize the interactive system, as well as the scientific journal, now launched in virtue of the inter-institutional cooperation among BITrum, UPSE, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana and Yachay Tech. The three components: gB-interactive, gB-journal and gB-book, are now entangled in a multimodal publishing system through which we expect to achieve the objectives of developing a fruitful and novel approach to investigating the thousand faces of information, as we started in 2008. Now we are standing on firm foundations and, since the object of study undoubtedly cross all the sciences, we hope that it will be a place where many of us meet in the arduous task of understanding the complexity of our surrounding world. To this end it is obvious we need many lights. Nevertheless, we count on the guiding thread of "information" as to weave endeavors. We hope you can join us! |
BITrum signs a cooperation agreement with the universities of León and Santa Elena for the development of the glossariumBITri journal
 The journal will include peer-reviewed contributions divided in the following sections: 1) original research, linked to the interactive-gB and its discussion; 2) specific reviews, be them systematic (about topics related to the study of information) or interdisciplinary (facilitating the access to the results of a discipline from others) of high impact works (books or articles) from third authors; 3) free mirrors, namely reviewed versions of high impact articles which introduce enough variations so that they can be considered as new. 4) novel research (pre-doctoral works, thesis chapters, etc); 5) Reviews of book or articles of relevant thematic interest. Additionally it will host non-peer-reviewed contributions classified in the following categories: calls and news; interviews to outstanding researches; reports of international gatherings; comments to scientific contributions; open questions and bibliographical catalogue of shared texts. |
BITrum signs a cooperation agreement with the Ecuadorian University of Santa Elena
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The PROMETEO Project of the Ecuadorian Government selects BITrum’s research programme
BITrum convenes a Symposium in the IS4IS Summit Vienna in June 2015
 Call for Contributions:
Weaving the understanding of information
Track within the IS4IS Summit Vienna 2015 3-7 JuneAs co-organisers of the Summit, BITrum will coordinate this track designed to re-launch the fabric of the glossariumBITri. Both the new journal and the activities started in Ecuador offer a fruitful arena for BITrum's objectives. The unification endeavour, to which our Vienna colleagues have trend, represents an exceptional opportunity to surmount the differences often hindering the weaving of a common understanding of information, as we aim to. We hope to meet you in Vienna!ObjectivesIs it possible to build a coherent model of information that bridges vested interests across the sciences? In the past two decades, efforts have been made toward a common understanding of information, but concurrently and even to a larger extent, this understanding has been scattered by specialised disciplines focused on their disjoined insights. In a practical context, this opposition is analogous to the one established between those advocating for information as a “commons” and those promoting the commodification of information. Whereas the former consider information as necessarily attached to a larger cultural and societal basis, the latter deem information as a kind of asset that can be used for the own benefit. 
ModeratorsJosé María Díaz Nafría, Universidad de León, Spain; Senescyt, Ecuador; Munich University of Applied Sciences, Germany Subjects and scopePapers that help clarify concepts, metaphors, theories or problems concerning information are welcomed, for example: What is information content? How can we account for the essential fuzziness of awareness and morphogenesis? What is the relation between information and knowledge, information and energy, information and computation? What are the logical properties of informational states? Is an evolutionary concept of information pervasive enough to cover all information phenomena? Further, papers that help develop the glossariumBITri’s network are encouraged, whether they present a new node (concept, metaphor, theory or problem) or a critic, discussion or extension of an already weaved node. Some proposals may be added early (prior to IS4IS) to the interactive-glossariumBITri, which will then be interconnected with other online media to stimulate open discussions on hot topics. A selection of relevant contributions will be collected in a special issue of glossariumBITri-journal. Target groups
Important Dates, Submission, InformationSubmissions (from april on, please notify to BITrum coordination): http://sciforum.net/conference/isis-summit-vienna-2015/page/instructions Registering (for special rates contact BITrum coordination): http://sciforum.net/physicalconference/registration/70 Information about IS4IS Summit Vienna 2014: http://summit.is4is.org/ |
| Attachments:
Convocatoria - CfP - BITrum-is4is-v2.pdf
BITrum co-organises the third edition of the interdisciplinary workshop on social networks
 An Interdisciplinary Approach 19-21 September 2014 :: Sierra Pambley :: León :: Spain Following the line of international courses and scientific gatherings carried out during the past three years to promote interdisciplinary studies, BITrum co-organises an international course on social networks in collaboration with Universidad de León and the institutions involved in the PRIMER initiative. Such initiative continues and broadens the horizon of domusBITae initiative, preserving the commitment of developing interdisciplinary information studies. This endeavor is now strengthened through the decision of some Ecuadorian public institutions to develop BITrum's activities in this field. This commitment has been manifested in this occasion through the participation of 3 researchers of the Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena (UPSE), the professors: Villao, Orozco and Torres. The event includes a workshop aimed at developing the exposition Geography of Inequality, in collaboration with Le Monde Diplomatique.
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2013 BITrum Activity Report
Since the past general Assembly in September 2012 (held in San Isidoro in the mid of an Interdisciplinary Workshop on Social Networks) many things have been going on in BITrum’s arena:
- Two monographs related to the social aspects of information have gone out of the presses while two other, related to systematic approaches, will come out soon.
- Two major public events have been held in May and September 2014, linked to other online and offline activities along the year;
- A new international initiative aimed at the PRomotion of Interdisciplinary Research and Education (PRIMER) have been set up, consolidating previous efforts and collaborations, and specifically gathering the support of a significant number of institutions;
- BITrum have also collaborated with other projects and institutions in relevant areas to the deployment of BITrum’s objectives.
- New members have been welcomed into BITrum Group, who has clearly enriched our sail with their contributions;
- A number of new article proposals have been received to enhance the GlossariumBITri, whose audience has keep on growing;
- Some BITrum Members have authored along the period some significant bibliographic contributions to the understanding of information in its polyhedral being.
But to know what we are really talking about, let us see these points a little more in detail:
Collective works
For the contributions done to the 2013 events, two further collective works are in press: The special issue of the Austrian Journal Systems “Facing complexity: networks, systems and the information society” (LINK), a new issue on Social Networks in the Spanish version of Le Monde Diplomatique, compiling a selection of Spanish texts.
Organised events
PRIMER initiative
This initiative expands the interdisciplinary conception of BITrum to other knowledge areas, though taking information studies as a paradigmatic case. It was discussed in 2012 and set up at the beginning of 2013 according to a strategic statement aimed to provide support to the most of the activities held past year and to be presented as a candidate to the new Erasmus+ programme of the EC in April 2014. Among other activities we developed a new web linked to BITrum web-system in which the related events has been informationally hosted. The supporting effort of the participating institutions have been decisive for the ongoing success of the initiative which so far has gather some hundreds of participants. More details of the activities, rationale and collaboration network can be found in PRIMER portal.
Collaborations
As a result of the deployed activities BITrum has collaborate with a number of institutions and projects beyond the mentioned PRIMER network:
- With the International Society for Information Studies (ISIS) we have keep our collaboration setting up its information system based on domusBITae concept.
- Several events in Spain and Germany have been enriched by our collaboration with the Institut für Design Science (IDS), hub of the project Foundations of philosophy we have also contributed to, and the Observatory of the Cybersociety (OCS).
- Together with the International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE), and the American IEEE, we are co-organising an Information Ethics panel for the 21 Century Norber Wiener IEEE Conference, June 2014, Boston.
- With University of León, and besides the organisation of most remarkable events, we have contributed with the projects: (i) Impact of ICTs in civic attitudes in Education; (ii) Education in values: inquiry into the hidden syllabus; and (iii) MyUniversity, eDemocracy in the European Higher Education System.
New Members
First we must grateful mention Francisco Álvarez and Julian Marcelo, who were actually part of the group in the past General Assembly but not properly presented to the rest of the group, both have done significant contributions in the past years in the areas of Philosophy of Science and Technology and Information Uncertainty respectively; but we also joyful greet Enrique Díez, who has contributed in the field of ICT and education as well as in organisational matters, Paz Benito, expert in geography and co-organiser of upcoming events; Marcelo León, expert in regional economic development and contributor to some webinars held in May and December, and promotor of the collaboration with Ecuador; Cecile Malaspina, expert in aesthetics and translator of Simondon and Morin, who has contributed to the event recently held; Mahmoud Rasmi, expert in aesthetics and finances and contributor to several activities since past year; Balu Athreya, interested in clarifying information phenomena in medical concerns and eager to lead an article of glossariumBITri regarding the issue; and Mauricio Ortiz, student of mechanical engineering who has widely contributed to the deployment of the PRIMER initiative. (See members' presentation)
GlossariumBITri
As we informed past year, the visibility of the glossariumBITri has keep on growing, even without taking care of being indexed or referred in public bibliographic catalogues until recently. The number of visits has grown in the same proportion as past years, and readers come now from all over the globe, concentrating the Latin American countries the higher audience. The achieved impact can be somehow reflected in the maximum figure of 10.413 pages visited in past October (the figures below show the number of visits between 1/1/2010 and 31/12/2013, excluding visits done to the domain bitrum.unileon.es).
Concerning new content proposals, there is a number of new contributions that have been forwarded by different authors covering new areas. Insofar as one of our objectives was to facilitate the visibility of the contributions through different publishing means, and while TripleC (with whom we had agree the publication of selected articles) has significantly changed its orientation as to cover the areas of the glossary, we have been hesitating about what to do next. We have finally taken the resolution of opening an electronic open journal, hosted in some of our collaborating universities, for the periodical publication of new and reviewed articles. In the next general assembly we would like to discuss some details.
Bibliographic contributions
A number of articles and contributions to collective works, difficult to summarize, have been published by BITrum members concerning the understanding of information we encourage to share and discuss with the rest of the group through the BITrum blog of contributions and the BITrum’s Facebook-page newly open. All of them represent significant contributions we grateful cheer.
We hope this brief summary provides you a sufficient picture to be aware of BITrum’s activity and endeavour to develop our objectives. We are eager to keep on developing them, and to open more spaces of participation among all members. We would like to discuss with you the future course in the (off- and on-line) general assembly to be held next week coincident with a seminar held by Rainer Zimmermann in León, concerning the Understanding of complexity, with interesting regards to the conceptualization of information in relation to the dynamic of reality...
BITrum welcomes new members
Nothing is more important to the fulfilment of our objectives than gathering efforts and enthusiasm around them, thus nothing can be more effusively saluted than the willing to participate in the group of new researchers who have indeed amounted since 2012 new contributions, proposals, ideas… In name of the group our most cordial and grateful welcome.
First we must grateful mention Francisco Álvarez and Julian Marcelo, who were actually part of the group in the past General Assembly but not properly presented to the rest of the group, both have done significant contributions in the past years in the areas of Philosophy of Science and Technology and Information Uncertainty respectively; but we also joyful greet Enrique Díez, who has contributed in the field of ICT and education as well as in organisational matters, Paz Benito, expert in geography and co-organiser of upcoming events; Marcelo León, expert in regional economic development and contributor to some webinars held in May and December, and promotor of the collaboration with Ecuador; Cecile Malaspina, expert in aesthetics and translator of Simondon and Morin, who has contributed to the event recently held; Mahmoud Rasmi, expert in aesthetics and finances and contributor to several activities since past year; and Balu Athreya, interested in clarifying information phenomena in medical concerns and eager to lead an article of glossariumBITri regarding the issue.
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Workshop: Understanding Complexity, January 27-30, 2014, León (Spain)
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 |
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