Presence Rewired: The Re-materialisation of Digital Dance from the Sweatshop to the Pixel

50th Anniversary of TPRC—Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy: Looking Ahead to the Next 50 Years

Article considers various aspects of development of the nation-state in the time of modernity as well as implications for institutional settings of liberal democratic nation-state facing process of globalization and new mechanisms brought by the information society. On this basis situation of Europe and especially of the European Union, as a unique multi-cultural institutional structure, is examined taking into account especially question of European identity in contrast to cultural diversity of Europe. As a core matter this article argues that a solution for Europe could be in an attempt to redefine concept of identity of individual citizens of European states. Following Habermas' theory, this article explains that this new concept could be understood as forming a dual identity of citizen - one of its dimensions being universal political embedding in common values of the society, while the other one being rooted in cultural particularity of citizen's community, with possibility of connecting it to more cultural contexts. As the political dimension of the identity can never be completely separated from the cultural context from which it emerges, it must be emphasised that this level of identity must be understood as permanent process of democratic dialogue based on all representative cultural contexts of the society. New institutional structure of Europe must be based on three pillars in order to deal successfully with challenges of the information society and globalization: redefinition of identity of European citizens in terms of dual identity as mentioned above; actualisation of 64 educational systems in order to support this redefined content of citizenship; and finally activities to support possibilities of citizens' participation in the information society mechanisms, particularly support of the information literacy.

In my contribution I want to approach media architecture – specifically media facades and urban screens – as urban interfaces. In particular, I want to do justice to the social (“inter”) and dynamic (“-ing”) aspect of interfacing: in time – “historical”, temporary, and processual – and place – located, positioning, communicating. When departing from the question of “access” – the question raised by this book series – in my consideration of the specificities of media architecture, I wish to combine two perspectives. On the one hand, I consider the medium-specificity of architecture, and on the other, the architectural specificity of location-based and public forms of urban media. Hence, I take interface, or to be more precise, the verb interfacing as a concept that allows us to grasp the role of media architecture (and architectural media) in today’s information society – driven by the ambitions of shared access and of public participation: an open society of access for all. In particular, interfacing as a concept theorizes how “access” is always already an active form of exchange. Indeed, in the Age of Access, access is also a social issue, especially when taking place, literally, in urban public spaces. This literal, concrete “taking place” focuses the attention on the temporality as well as materiality of interfacing. The interface thus functions as a material object as well as a concept.

Commodifying Terrorism

Biomedical ontologies—A review

Building on the success of the 2002‐2004 Global Information Village Plazas, this symposium maintains its interactive format, allowing ASIS&T members an opportunity to express their personal views about the challenges and opportunities that the information society represents in their personal and professional lives.The discussion will focus on the issue of trust in information ‐ specifically on how information professionals and members of a general public judge the authority of the information they receive. The discussion will pay particular attention to the way in which perceptions of trust change in different cultural contexts ‐ for example in societies and cultures that allow their citizens greater individual freedoms in comparison to more rigid or collective societies and cultures.This topic relates specifically to the theme of this year's conference ‐ Shaping the Digital Future for All ‐ in that information crosses national boundaries on a daily basis. Information shared between cultures can be subject to diverse perceptions of trust, which in turn affects a person's views of the value of an increasingly global information society in their personal and professional lives. The issue of trust in information is also relevant to librarians and information professionals, who must address questions such as what their role in building trust is, and how they may accomplish this in an era of global digital information, where users may turn to multiple sources of information of varying degrees of authority or subjectivity.This year's Global Information Village Plaza adds a new information and communication tool in the form of a blog, built and maintained by the same team who maintained the blog for the 2005 ASIS&T conference. This online interactive forum will be reachable by any professional, thereby allowing ASIS&T to expand its circle of interaction and offering the information professional community around the globe who will be unable to attend the 2006 Annual Meeting an opportunity to contribute their thoughts on trust in information.

According to the prevailing clinical model of Internet addiction disorder, the symptoms of Internet addiction are not substantially different from the ones of other previously known behavioral and chemical addictions. In the present article we argue that this model significantly depsycholizes the phenomenon which stems from the mass use of information technologies providing access to cyberspace. We compare psychological characteristics of the Internet addiction to disembodiment, that is, lack of the physical body of an information technology user, first described by the media theorist M. McLuhan. Alongside anonymity, technological disembodiment is the inevitable consequence of the use of the Internet, and it is just as important in the formation of the addiction and accompanying disorders. But the phenomenon of virtual unsubstantial self which represents the manifestation of the Spirit Archetype in the realities of the digital society obviously exceeds anonymity in terms of importance and scope. Our theoretical model of the disembodiment on the Internet is based on the conceptions of ‘schizoid disembodiment’ and ‘unembodied self ’ by the British existential psychologist R. D. Laing. In particular, there is evidence to suggest likeness between the withdrawal from reality of a schizoid by way of ‘exit’ from their own physical body and the form of escapism specific to the Internet addiction in contrast to other addictions. Respective empirical constructs were measured and compared. We used the adapted version of the Chinese Scale by S.-H. Chen, which implements the clinical model of Internet addiction most consistently, and Disembodiment on the Internet Diagnostic Technique by N. V. Kopteva, A. Yu. Kalugin and L. Ya. Dorfman. The results indicate that with Internet addiction traditional symptoms of addictions correlate to the weakness of the divided self. This causes a range of problems aggravated by the ones caused by disembodiment, namely virtualization, de-realization of the self of a user and experience of illusiveness of existence. The data shows that dependence and disembodiment on the Internet may refer to a specific technological modus of a person’s existence within the information society.

Information technologies, such as IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR), have seen so much development that there is now a wide variety of digital equipment incorporated into the infrastructure of daily life. From the agrarian society (Society 1.0) through the information society (Society 4.0), humankind has created farmlands and cities by structuring natural environments physically and has built information environments by structuring them informationally. However, despite the rapid development of information environments, it may be fair to say that the perspectives of the human body have not changed at all since the industrial revolution. In the context of these recent technological developments, greater attention is being paid to human augmentation studies. These studies aim for a new embodiment of “human-computer integration,” one which can physically and informationally compensate or augment our innate sensory functions, motor functions, and intellectual processing functions by using digital equipment and information systems at will, as if they were our hands and feet. It has also been proposed that the technical systems that enable us to freely do what we want by utilizing human augmentations be called “JIZAI” (freedomization) as opposed to “automation.” The term “JIZAI body” used in these studies represents the new body image of humans who will utilize engineering and informatics technologies to act at will in the upcoming “super smart society” or “Society 5.0.” In these studies, human augmentation technologies are an important component of JIZAI, but JIZAI is not the same as human augmentation. JIZAI is different in scope from human augmentation, as it aims to enable humans to move freely among the five new human body images: “strengthened sense” (augmented perception), “strengthened physical body” (body augmentation), “separately-designed mind and body” (out of body transform), “shadow cloning,” and “assembling.” In the society of the future where JIZAI bodies widely prevail, we will use technologies that enable us to do what we have failed at or given up due to limitations of our physical bodies. We believe that a future society, one in which aging does not reduce our capabilities but instead increased options give us hope, can be realized. This special issue, consisting of two review papers and twelve research papers, deals with diverse and wide-ranging areas, including human augmentation, robotics, virtual reality, and others. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to all the authors and reviewers of the papers contributed to this special issue and to the editorial committee of the Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics for their gracious cooperation.

The article examines the book as a communication device. It analyses the impact of the invention of print on the European civilization in the 15th and 16th century. Drastically larger amount of available data and new ways of data retrieval were the main differences between cultures of print and medieval manuscript culture. In other words, »post-Gutenberg« European scholars and clerics dealt with much larger amounts of available information than their predecessors. Even more, preservation of data with memorizing and copying manuscripts was substituted by comparison of data. As a result, patterns of intellectual life were drastically changed. As such, consequences of the invention of print could be considered as an information revolution, which was one of the main preconditions of European enlightenment and reformation movements. With analysing the beginnings of book publishing, one thus analyses the roots of contemporary information societies. From this point of view, book and publishing history becomes an integral part not only of education of book professionals, but also of humanities and social studies.

Abstract: Marxist semiotics provides a comprehensive and critical framework for understanding and challenging the contemporary information society’s socioeconomic dynamics. By integrating Marxist theory and semiotics, this paper is to examine how commodities function as both material objects and carriers of meaning, and how digital advancements have intensified phenomena, such as alienated labor and symbolic consumption. Secondary data sources, including case studies and theoretical analyses, are utilized to explore real-world contexts that demonstrate the material and symbolic roles of digital commodities. Currency, as a meta-sign, interprets commodity signs and shapes societal values and relationships. The study addresses the information society, where the production, circulation, exchange and consumption of information form a cohesive trinity of media, intelligence and consumption. The fundamental arguments include the transformation of human survival in the digital age and the need for new academic interpretations, which contributes to both policy and theoretical discussions by bridging the gap between economic production and symbolic consumption. The study concludes with recommendations for further research on the socioeconomic implications of digital technologies.

The paper analyzes (in social-philosophic scope) the problem of interconnection for such categories as «information», «knowledge», «innovations» regarding contemporary sociocultural realities. The comprehension of mentioned categories’ correlation is considered as essential and indispensable precondition for the Intellectual Property Institution research (in its understanding like a social institution). Selected problematic’s relevance is determined by the increasing weight and significance of intellectual property in the information age. The intellectual property institution has become an inalienable sociocultural attribute of postindustrial society. As social-philosophic attention focus involves the phenomena and processes of a social life that specify the whole mankind development, then a problem of intellectual property’s positioning and its correlation with another information types should be an object of socio-philosophic reflection. The purpose of this research paper is a socio-philosophic investigation of the nature and patterns of interrelationship for information, knowledge and intellectual property, analyzing processes of information’s subjectification (its transformation to “knowledge”) and knowledge’s objectification (their conversion to sociocultural information). Learning of interdependence of mentioned processes in various forms of cognition and communicative actions, existing in the natural environment and culture, may facilitate to clear perception of the role and meaning that intellectual property institution performs in contemporary society. Methodological grounds of the research are based on general scientific methods and ad hoc approaches (as particularly are dialectical and comparative-legal methods, systemic, attributive, cognitive and procedural approaches). Changing of information’s ontological status, ambiguity and diversity in methods of approaching to understanding of information concept, transformation of social stereotypes for information transfer etc., all of these require a primary research of the category “information” and extraction of its features. Making an attempt also to conceive the character of notions as “knowledge”, “innovations”, “intellectual property” and their correlation, we have to analyze each of them. Post-nonclassical science and philosophy development period allows to contemplate a multidimensional self-sustaining world, that evolves itself permanently. We used to think about multiplicity of instruments for reality description, about features of the open systems’ behaviour, about irreversibility of local impacts on the sophisticated combination of processes. These ideas are accepted as a certain selfevidence, but some investigators are convinced of illusiveness of such self-evidence. Various facts and events that occur in life, turn the pace and revise directions of changes. Different ways and patterns of perception of the complicated surrounding world varies gradually the very models of reality awareness, offering a lot of interpretations, insinuating and sowing doubts, organizing and destroying, and eventually, arranging a self-organization of being and consciousness. Post-nonclassical science gives an opportunity to understand that the world is no longer a clear and defi nite. The things seemed self-evident actually may appear not so evident. At the same time, it turns out that we are capable of cognition and intellection (acquiring knowledge about) even those things, we just had no imaginations of. Using post-nonclassical theories’ formalism we construct models of reality, but we know it’s only a mental conjectures, not a reality itself. Meantime self-organizing mechanism’s principles hide themselves from the searching looks, that seek for truth, quest for verity and are thirsty for obviousness. Phrases “information society”, “information age”, “information approach” etc. have become familiar and frequently used. It’s clear intuitively why the predicate “informational” is such often used. It remains to understand the nature of that an information is. A legal defi nition for information as “any data that can be saved on material object or reflected in electronic form” doesn’t give us any conception of information and shows nothing about its influence upon social development process. Therefore we should appeal to another approaches in research of mentioned phenomenon. We also may use the following definition: “The phenomenon of information is a multistage, irreversible process of structure formation in an open nonequilibrium system, beginning from a random memorized selection that system does, moving from chaos to the order, and ending with a purposeful action according to an algorithm or a program that corresponds to the semantics of choice”. The information is understood as a process consisting of certain stages. Thus, Intellectual Property Institution in social-philosophic comprehension of interrelations amidst information, knowledge and innovations appears as heterogeneous, differently directed, multidimensional public institution that has a system-making meaning in respect of the contemporary postmodern- information-society.

This paper discusses: (1) the challenges that the European Statistical System (ESS) faces as the result of the recent appearance of phenomena such as the information society and the new economy, and (2) the extent to which new technological developments in data warehousing, knowledge discovery and extensive use of the internet can contribute to successfully meeting these challenges. Two specific issues are considered: the network nature of the ESS, and the new ways of producing statistics that reinforce the needs for research applied to statistics in domains such as data integration, distributed databases, EDI, automated data capture, analytical tools and dissemination. A historical overview is given of research activities financed by the European Commission as well as their relevance for DaWaK2000. A primary goal of this paper is to provide information about relevant research within the European Statistical System, and to invite the scientific community to participate actively in upcoming calls for proposals and calls for tender financed under the IST programme to solve the urgent needs for timely and high-quality statistics.

Technological measures entered into a mode of harmonization in the European legal space with Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. In Art. 6, para. 3, these measures, in the field of intellectual property better known as technological protective measures (TPM), were expressly intended, including for the sui generis right provided for in Chapter III of Directive 96/9/EC. The following analysis considers the forms of manifestation, dynamics, harmonization issues, and bottlenecks in the application of technological measures to intellectual property objects with an emphasis on databases. A handful of selected examples from EU case law and technical literature help to make visible the conflict between the technological and the legal, and sometimes between them and the fair, the expected and the reasonable. Such examples are like labels that the reinforce feeling of that contradictory union that gave birth to the expression “L’union de l’aveugle et le paralytique.” The analysis allows some conclusions, the aim of which is to contribute to the assessment of the effect of the application of the technological measures defined in the InfoSoc Directive, taking into account the nature and application of this protection, including on the digital databases rights in the current historical moment.

Artificial intelligence systems have been the dominant technology in recent years, which has had an intensive impact on the relations regulated by intellectual property law. Databases, for their part, as a modern high-tech product of growing importance in the information society, enjoy legal protection under Directive 96/9/EC of 11 March 1996 on the legal protection of databases. They are the subject of intellectual property both in European Union law and in the law of the Member States. Proceeding from the definition in the Database Directive and the technical nature of the two phenomena, considering possible hypotheses and existing solutions, this study aims to answer the research question whether „AI databases“ can be protected subject matter under the two established protection regimes, namely, copyright and especially sui generis right. The two main forms of legal life - legal doctrine and judicial practice, together with the application of an interdisciplinary approach, serve to clarify the ‚legal protection - databases - AI‘ relationship in EU law. The analysis justifies the need for the expression „artificial intelligence databases“ used in legal literature to accurately reflect the characteristics of the protected object at the current historical moment.

A major factor driving contemporary concerns about the fate of intangible cultural property is the rise of the Information Society, which has proven adept at stripping information from the cultural contexts that give it meaning. Efforts to preserve intangible heritage have tended to follow Information Society models by proposing that heritage be inventoried, then removed from the public domain and returned to the exclusive control of its putative creators. This essay reviews recent scholarly work and policy initiatives related to intangible cultural property, with an eye toward identifying their merits and flaws. It argues for a more ecological perspective, one that takes account of the unpredictable quality of information flows as well as the costs of attempting to manage them. Also explored are some of the difficult, unanswered questions about whether all intangible cultural heritage is equally worthy of protection.