ITeG-Lectures 2015/16

The Research Center for Information System Design (ITeG) at the University of Kassel is organizing a lecture series in the winter semester 2015/2016 in cooperation with the German Informatics Society (GI), which will focus on the dimensions of shaping a digitized society. The different lectures usually start on Wednesdays at 5:00 pm. The venue is the conference room of the ITeG (Room 0420, Pfannkuchstraße 1, 34121 Kassel). Topics and abstracts for the lectures can be found below.

28.10.2015	Prof. Dr. Gerrit Hornung, Universität Kassel "Datenschutz im vernetzten Auto"
	Data protection in the connected car. Today, modern motor vehicles are already computers on wheels. The built-in IT and access to the internet increasingly serve not only driving safety and comfort, but all kinds of other purposes. Much of the data collected by today's already more than 100 sensors has an economic value and therefore generates covetousness among manufacturers, suppliers and new service providers. The lecture explores the question of who is entitled to this data and how the right to informational self-determination of the occupants can be effectively protected.
25.11.2015	Prof. Dr. Eva Hornecker, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar "Shared interactions beyond the desktop: how new interface types can support sociable user experiences"
	Shareability refers to how a system, interface or device engages a group of collocated, co-present users in shared interactions around the same content or object. Shareablility is supported via entry points that draw people in and invite engagement, and access points that enable users to join in. The new interface technologies of tangible, gestural, and physcial computing have been shown to have the potential to support shared interactions if designed according to these design principles. In my talk I will discuss the principle of shareability and present examples from my research that reveal how novel interface designs can support group interactions, including the generation of shared encounters between strangers in public situations, for example in museums and public spaces.
09.12.2015	Prof. Dr. Martin Mauve, Universität Düsseldorf "Per Mausklick Politik gestalten – mit Online-Partizipation zu mehr Bürgerbeteiligung?"
	Shaping politics by mouse click - towards more citizen participation with online participation?. The conflicts over "Stuttgart 21" and the failure of the school reform in Hamburg are examples of citizens' demands for greater participation. They show that affected people often actively expect participation that exceeds regular elections. The internet offers the possibility to realise such participation in the form of online participation. In this lecture, the opportunities and challenges of online participation will be presented based on concrete case studies.
20.01.2016	Prof. Dr. Alexander Benlian, Technische Universität Darmstadt "Crowdfunding als wissenschaftlicher Mikrokosmos zur Untersuchung ökonomisch-organisatorischer Phänomene – Ausgewählte empirische Analysen"
	Crowdfunding as a scientific microcosm for the study of economic-organisational phenomena - Selected empirical analyses. Crowdfunding has become increasingly popular in recent years as a multi-sided platform that brings together those seeking funding and investors, and is said to herald a digital paradigm shift in finance. In the meantime, more than 30 billion dollars are transacted worldwide on a wide variety of crowdfunding platforms - with a strong upward trend. As a scientific "microcosm", crowdfunding is particularly suitable for the study of temporally dynamic phenomena, as numerous real data on a wealth of campaigns and investor decisions can be collected on a daily basis and evaluated using longitudinal or panel data analyses. The lecture first introduces the principles of crowdfunding and then reports the results of selected individual studies on economic-organisational issues in the environment of different crowdfunding platforms.
10.02.2016	Prof. Dr. Monika Büscher, University of Lancaster "Social Collective Intelligence in Crises"
	As software is becoming ‘everyware’, it is embedded not only in the rhythms of everyday life, but also in the disruptions of the exceptional. Greater vulnerabilities ill-equip societies for an increase in extreme weather and political conflicts in a 21st ‘Century of disasters’. However, people also enact a hopeful digital urbanism at this juncture. With 6.8 billion mobile subscribers worldwide and double-digit growth, they have become generators of big data, documenting their lives in intimate detail, and they engage in practices of social collective intelligence, which can be highly valuable during crises. The most commonly encountered stories of such innovative use of IT in crises celebrate its potential to increase the efficiency of disaster response. But there are also critical voices, highlighting detrimental effects of surveillance, ‘qualculation’ or automation, and the noise and rumours a rising from social media. This presentation is motivated by the fact that such binary framings are incapable of opening up the ambiguities of socio-technical transformations for adequate analysis. To study the disruptive dynamics of digital urbanism in crises, I have joined design teams who produce ICT architectures for more interoperability and information sharing in disaster response. This presentation discusses examples and new approaches to responsible interdisciplinary social research and innovation.