The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has opened the German Internet Institute in Berlin under the name " Weizenbaum Institute for a Connected Society".
Around 100 scientists will work at the Institute on the societal changes brought about by digitization. They will favour a multidisciplinary perspective, with computer scientists, designers, but also sociologists and economists. Research will focus on "how to guarantee sovereignty in a connected global society".
The twenty interdisciplinary research groups will be oriented towards digital practices and uses.
An important aspect will be to translate the issues around these new technologies into a language that is understandable and usable by politicians, in particular parliamentarians. Each group will be able to obtain up to four PhD students and post-docs in support.
The first research groups will begin their work in November.
The Institute is funded by the Federal Ministry of Higher Education and Research (BMBF), which is providing 50 million euros for five years.
A research laboratory on digital uses in Montreal
For its part, the Université du Québec à Montréal will soon open a research laboratory on digital uses in context (LUNEC). The LUNEC will offer, among other things, new methodological tools that will allow the production and analysis of dense or enriched data(thick data), in the context of research projects using digital data.Lunec relies on the UQAM Research Chair on the uses of digital technologies and the mutations of communication, created in 2015.
Références :
Sources
- 1. The Weizenbaum Institute website
- 2. Berlin Social Science Center: Das deutsche internet Institut nimmt seine Arbeit auf", 21/09/2017, WZB press release -
- 3. French Embassy in Germany: Opening of the Weizenbaum Institute "for a connected society" in Berlin
- 4. UQAM Research Chair on the uses of digital technologies and changes in communication
- 5. Initial work to build LUNEC will begin as early as fall 2017
