Citation
Vallee, R. (1999), "World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics", Kybernetes, Vol. 28 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1999.06728bab.002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics
World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC)
Eleventh International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems, in memoriam: Professor Frank H. George (23-27 August 1999 Brunel University, West London, UK)
Congress noticeboard
1. Kybernetes Research Award
An innovative award which challenges contributors to the Congress and in particular, young scientists, who are currently undertaking research in cybernetics and systems.
It will be awarded to the Congress contributor(s) of a presented paper judged by a panel, chaired by the WOSC Director-General, to be outstanding.
The award will be for £250 in cash together with a subscription (worth up to £3,000) to Kybernetes.
The award winning contribution will be published in this journal.
The award is sponsored by MCB University Press, the publishers of Kybernetes, the official publication of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC).
2. Deadlines for the receipt of abstracts/abridged papers
Intending contributors who have already submitted abstracts (by 15 January 1999) have to forward copies of their abridged papers to the WOSC Secretariat by 15 May 1999.
3. Information about travel/accommodation/fees
Information about travel, accommodation and all Congress fees is to be circulated in the near future by the WOSC Secretariat.
4. Section meetings
Information about section meetings organised by chairpersons should be forwarded to this Congress noticeboard for display.
5. Research into the millennium
The session organised by the Norbert Wiener Institute on "Research into the millennium" will concentrate on the interaction and means of communicating research and developments worldwide. While the appointed panel will discuss these great challenges, a "question and answer" session will also be held. Intending participants of this session are invited to contact Professor Rudall about its content and also to submit in advance any important questions that should be addressed by the panel. (Contact address/e-mail is given on the cover pages of this journal.)
6. Congress Website
Details of the 11th WOSC Congress may be obtained on the Internet at the address:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/alexandrew/cngrs99.htm or by going to the standard WOSC address:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/alexandrew/wosc.htm and following a link.
7. Congress correspondence
Readers are reminded that all correspondence concerning the congress should be sent directly to the WOSC Secretariat:
Professor R. Vallée, Director-General, World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, 2 rue de Vouillé, 75015 Paris, France. Tel and Fax: +33 1 45 33 62 46.
World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics news
News from the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC)
1. 15th International Congress on Cybernetics, Namur, Belgium 24-28 August 1998
The Director-General Professor Robert Vallée was the President of the 15th International Congress on Cybernetics, held at Namur in the summer of 1998; he also gave the opening lecture. It is hoped that the texts of the proceedings will be published.
A symposium to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Wiener's Cybernetics was also held. Professor P.R. Masani, a well-known contributor to this journal, contributed a paper: "Norbert Wiener's book Cybernetics and the prospects of a new era of human slavery".
2. Anniversary of the publication of Wiener's Cybernetics 50th anniversary in Russia
Dr Alex M. Andrew is representing WOSC at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Wiener's Cybernetics.
A full report will be included in later issues of this volume.
WOSC has also sent a special greeting to the organisers of the Moscow celebration.
The organiser of the Norbert Wiener celebration academician Vadim Stefanuk, Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vice-Chair of the Council of Russian Association for Artificial Intelligence has been sent the following text by the Director-General of WOSC, Robert Vallée:
On behalf of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, I wish a great success to the celebration, by the Russian Association for Artificial Intelligence and the Polytechnic Museum of Moscow, of the 50th anniversary of the publication in Russia of Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics.
The first edition of Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine was printed in July and August 1948, by Jouve et Cie for Editions Hermann (Paris) which published it in September 1948, the copyright belonging to the Technical Press (Cambridge, MA).
M. Freymann, responsible at that time for Editions Hermann, had convinced Wiener, in 1946, when he was in Paris on his way to Nancy for a Congress on Harmonic Analysis, to write a book for "actualités scientifiques et industrielles" of Editions Hermann. It was this book which was to become the famous Cybernetics.
Robert ValléeProfessor émérite de L'Université Paris-Nord Directeur général de la WOSC, Paris le 14 Novembre 1998
3. Las Palmas International Conference Wiener's Cybernetics: 50 years of evolution
This Congress, organised by Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz and Università di Napoli, was held, from 8-11 February 1999, in Casa de Colon, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands), Spain.
The general aim was to revisit the contents of Wiener's book on cybernetics and to expose the evolution of the subjects of its different chapters.
For more informaion contact: Prof. Roberto Moreno-Diaz. Fax: +34 928 458 785 or Prof. Franz Pichler. Fax: + 43 732 2468893.
A report on the proceedings which was attended by members of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics will appear in later issues of this volume.