The overall theme of the EMCSR 2014 was “Civilisation at the Crossroads: Response and Responsibility of the Systems Sciences”. Now the Bertalanffy Center is supporting another conference in Vienna that variegates that theme: “The Information Society at the Crossroads – Response and Responsibility of the Sciences of Information”.

This new conference shifts the focus on responsible science from systems sciences to the sciences of information. Many of the disciplines dealing with concrete manifestations of information processes – like computer science, linguistics, communication, cognitive biology to name but a few – are already using systemic approaches. But there are nonsystemic approaches too. As this conference will discuss the topics in an interdisciplinary way, it is a forum where systems thinking can add to transdisciplinarity, also in the sense of including the stakeholders.

That conference is the ISIS Summit Vienna 2015 hosted by the Faculty of Informatics of the Vienna University of Technology: summit.is4is.org.

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It is a coincidence that this event will take place 200 years after the then called “k.k. polytechnisches Institut” was founded. And it is another coincidence that the motto of the Vienna University of Technology is “Technik für Menschen” – “Technology for People”.

Those coincidences are partly due to the fact that BCSSS President Wolfgang Hofkirchner who is affiliated to the Vienna University of Technology is the current President of the International Society for Information Studies (ISIS – is4is.org).

Now there is phase 1 of the preparation of the event. As with the EMCSR, communities are called upon to engage. They can make proposals for contributing to the summit and take the lead in organising certain tracks or even conference streams. Look at summit.is4is.org/calls/call-for-participation.

If you want to submit an idea, don’t hesitate to send it to summit@is4is.org (don’t forget to replace the blank-‚at‘-blank by @)! Your ideas are welcome before 17th of November.

After consolidation of all proposals, phase 2 will start and invite individual researchers, developers, users, business men, politicians, NGO/CSO activists and else to make their individual contribution to a special part of the summit.