IS4SI 2017 Summit brings under the same roof 4 main conferences, 4 symposia presenting the state of the art research; 7 workshops providing forum for discussions, critical thinking and knowledge co-creation; 14 expert panels addressing selection of most challenging topics in a dialogue with the audience, important for the development of scientific, technological, cultural, philosophical and social aspects of interdisciplinary information studies; specialized tutorial and finally artistic programme related to algorithms and generative models.

Gothenburg summit is a continuation of a series of conferences, which are periodically convened, one of them since 1994. Since its constitution, the International Society for Information Studies (IS4SI) organizes a biennial summit gathering researchers all over the world who work on research in information science, its philosophy, technology and culture and related fields within the field of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary information studies.

The foregoing summit was held in Vienna 2015 and the next is planned at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2019. Prior to Vienna summit there was a conference in Moscow in 2013. At the conference held in Beijing in 2010 the foundations of the Society in its present form were built.

Each summit of the International Society for Information Studies addresses a specific complex of issues, as we are trying to orient focus of variety of communities under umbrella of the society, towards a common theme and try to discuss and exchange thoughts across disciplinary borders. The previous meeting in Vienna in 2015 went under the motto Information Society at the crossroads, while in 2013, in Moscow, the topic was Perspectives of Information in Global Education as a new Approach for the 21st century. 2010 conference in Beijing was devoted to Philosophy of Information and Information Science. At that occasion, variety of loosely bound associations of research communities founded officially the International Society for Information Studies. However, history of associations between diverse communities and individual scholars within information studies is much older than that. Foundations of Information Science, one of our core communities, held its first conference in Madrid, Spain, as early as 1994 – thus more than 20 years ago.

Gothenburg summit includes the following four conferences that are held on periodical basis:

• The Seventh International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science (FIS), this year addressing: Structure, Dynamics, Complexity in the Informational Nature
• The Third International Conference on Philosophy of Information (ICPI), in 2017 focused on: Information Philosophy: The Philosophical Foundations of the Information Era
• The Sixth conference Difference that Makes a Difference (DTMD) – this year held as a workshop: Information, Narrative and Rhetoric: Exploring Meaning in a Digitalised Society
• The International Forum on Ecological Methodology in Information Studies (IFEIS) with a focus on The Problem of Reductionism in Information Studies

Under the same overarching theme DIGITALISATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY: Embodied, Embedded, Networked, Empowered through Information, Computation & Cognition! the summit also presents:

• 10 internationally leading keynote speakers from variety of research fields relevant for studies of information addressing topics from biosemiotics emergence of reference, to the human-cyber partnerships, semantic information, ethical concerns in system design, general theory of information, apocalyptic AI to digital revolution, physical uncomputability and information processing to information philosophy.
• 14 specialized expert panels open to the elucidation of thought-provoking topics related to digitalization, sustainable society
• 4 symposia presenting state of the art research results, including a special doctoral symposium for PhD students working on the major themes of the summit
• 7 workshops designed to foster discussions, mutual exchanges, critical thinking and co-production of knowledge
• 2 specialized tutorials to provide interactively better acquainted with a specific topics
• An artistic programme related to algorithms and generative models

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE INFORMATION SOCIETY

The stage for the Gothenburg summit is set by the theme of Digitalisation for sustainable society, in light of information, computation and cognition. As our previous meetings, the summit 2017 reflects the moment we live in – a nascent movement of digitalization that has started to radically change our society, globally, in literally all its aspects. It is based on the computing technology (in all its forms, digital and analog, that all now go under the name “digital” that stands for any kind of computational system), which in its turn is based on information and data processing, which all goes back to cognition and intelligence of a cognizing agent in order to acquire meaning.

Digitalization has a potential to fundamentally transform the way we live, our whole civilization and our identities. Often mentioned definition from the Business dictionary: Digitalization is integration of digital technologies into everyday life by the digitization of everything that can be digitized – does not tell it all. Digitization as transformation of everything into digital data is only part of the story, telling that libraries will be digitized and turned into formats easy to process by computers. Sensors of various kinds, controlling variety of processes, from traffic control to health care, education, entertainment, production, monetary flows and government will produce increasing amounts of data suitable for further processing and analytics.

During digitalization data will be increasingly collected, communicated/exchanged and analyzed in cognitive and intelligent computational ways. We talk about cognitive computing and deep learning as two central and hugely promising fields. Data are atoms of information that constitute intricate web of relationships.

Communities of International Society for Information studies are dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of information in its many forms and through variety of approaches. The summit in Gothenburg will provide both an opportunity to meet in plenum addressing “the big picture” by keynote speakers and plenary panels, and exchange ideas about specific topics of interest in number of parallel sessions. We are looking forward to attend a rich programme of Gothenburg summit, and to meet across disciplinary and specialist borders, to learn from each other and to commonly address opportunities and challenges of the data-driven, information-based era.

The stage for the Gothenburg summit is set by the theme of Digitalisation for sustainable society, in light of information, computation and cognition. As our previous meetings, the summit 2017 reflects the moment we live in – a nascent movement of digitalization that has started to radically change our society, globally, in literally all its aspects. It is based on the computing technology (in all its forms, digital and analog, that all now go under the name “digital” that stands for any kind of computational system), which in its turn is based on information and data processing, which all goes back to cognition and intelligence of a cognizing agent in order to acquire meaning.

Digitalization has a potential to fundamentally transform the way we live, our whole civilization and our identities. Often mentioned definition from the Business dictionary: Digitalization is integration of digital technologies into everyday life by the digitization of everything that can be digitized – does not tell it all. Digitization as transformation of everything into digital data is only part of the story, telling that libraries will be digitized and turned into formats easy to process by computers. Sensors of various kinds, controlling variety of processes, from traffic control to health care, education, entertainment, production, monetary flows and government will produce increasing amounts of data suitable for further processing and analytics.

During digitalization data will be increasingly collected, communicated/exchanged and analyzed in cognitive and intelligent computational ways. We talk about cognitive computing and deep learning as two central and hugely promising fields. Data are atoms of information that constitute intricate web of relationships.

Communities of International Society for Information studies are dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of information in its many forms and through variety of approaches. The summit in Gothenburg will provide both an opportunity to meet in plenum addressing “the big picture” by keynote speakers and plenary panels, and exchange ideas about specific topics of interest in number of parallel sessions. We are looking forward to attend a rich programme of Gothenburg summit, and to meet across disciplinary and specialist borders, to learn from each other and to commonly address opportunities and challenges of the data-driven, information-based era.