FYI...
>From: Francis Heylighen <fheyligh@vub.ac.be>
>Subject: Short report on the Global Brain Workshop
>Sender: owner-gbrain@listserv.vub.ac.be
>Reply-To: gbrain@listserv.vub.ac.be
>
>The following is an excerpt from the latest issue of the Principia
>Cybernetica Newsletter that I sent out. Apologies if you get this more
>than once.
>
>Francis
>
>
>GLOBAL BRAIN WORKSHOP
>
>The Global Brain workshop (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Conf/GB-0.html) in
>Brussels (July 3-5), the first ever international meeting, on this topic
>was quite succesful. Some 20 talks were given by members of the Global
>Brain Group, invited speakers, and contributors whose abstract was
>selected by the organizing committee. Each of the three days was concluded
>by an extensive discussion session.
>
>Moreover, we had some remote participants, interacting virtually from the
>US. Luis Rocha, a PCP associate, followed the first two days via videos of
>the presentations that had been made available on a private website, and
>then presented his talk via webcast, commenting on some of the ideas
>presented previously. Kirstie Bellman and Chris Landauer gave a short
>demonstration of the interactive possibilities of MUDs (text-based virtual
>environments). Some photos and videotaped comments from participants are
>available at http://www.comdig.de/Conf/GB0/
>
>The topics and approaches discussed were wide-ranging, from the emotional
>values that should govern the Global Brain (GB), to the use of collective
>intelligence for forecasting of stock prices, and the possibilities of
>direct brain-machine interfaces. (The page
>http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Conf/GB-0-abs.html lists the abstracts of all
>talks that were presented, and full papers or slide presentations for most
>of them.) This experience shows that there is still quite some work to do
>to focus GB-related thinking, and integrate the various approaches. On the
>other hand, the workshop succeeded in creating a real enthusiasm for
>further discussion and collaboration, showing that there really is a GB
>community emerging.
>
>As a result of the workshop, a new mailing list was created for
>participants to discuss issues, together with an experimental web-based
>discussion system (developed by PCP assistant editor Alex Riegler). Our
>plans are to further develop an extensive GB-website, with all papers and
>other results presented at the workshop, together with some interactive
>demonstration systems for discussion and self-organization of ideas.
>
>The complete workshop was registered on video by volunteers: Margeret
>Heath, Sascha Ignjatovic and Gottfried Mayer (who also presented a
>paper). These video recordings are now being edited, and will be made
>public on the web and on CD-ROM. Margeret Heath is also preparing a
>transcript of all discussions, on the basis of which she will be
>developing a knowledge map of the main concepts and issues. Other
>volunteers were responsible for the computing infrastructure: Corinne
>Ciechanow and Didier Durlinger, and for the practical issues of food:
>Michael Pleumeekers.
>
>Although a few things still didn't work out quite as planned (the drinks
>for the reception that didn't arrive, and a lecture room and restaurant
>that were adapted to the reigning heat wave), it can be safely said that
>without all this volunteer effort, the workshop would have been a much
>less pleasant experience: so, a big thank you to all of them.
>
>PHD DEFENSE
>
>After a number of delays and extensive discussions of various technical
>points, the PhD thesis of assistant editor Johan Bollen was finally
>submitted to the examination committee of the Faculty of Psychology of the
>Free University of Brussels in June. The title of the thesis is "A
>cognitive model of adaptive web design and navigation". It proposes and
>tests a theory of how people navigate the web, together with a number of
>algorithms, inspired by neural mechanisms, that would allow the web to
>adapt to its users, thus helping them to find the information they are
>looking for in a more intelligent and intuitive way. The full text is
>available at http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~jbollen/diss_index.html
>
>The private defense took place on July 6, the first day after the
>workshop. The PhD committee, which included PCP editors Francis Heylighen
>and Cliff Joslyn, was unanimous in its appreciation for Johan's
>achievements, and impressed by his mastery of the subject. The official,
>public defense (which is basically a formality) is planned for Oct. 23.
>--
>
>_________________________________________________________________________
>Dr. Francis Heylighen <fheyligh@vub.ac.be> -- Center "Leo Apostel"
>Free University of Brussels, Krijgskundestr. 33, 1160 Brussels, Belgium
>tel +32-2-6442677; fax +32-2-6440744; http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
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