Introduction to the Proceedings of the is4si-2017 Summit of the International Society for the Study of Information on Digitalisation for a Sustainable Society: Embodied, Embedded, Networked, Empowered through Information, Computation & Cognition! Gothenburg, Sweden, 12–16 June 2017 ^†

The International Summit is4si-2017, Digitalisation for a Sustainable Society: Embodied, Embedded, Networked, Empowered through Information, Computation & Cognition, was held 12–16 June 2017 at Chalmers University of Technology Conference Center in Gothenburg, Sweden. The summit was organized by the International Society for the Study of Information in collaboration with the Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg.

The event was cosponsored by the Swedish Research Council FORMAS and the Chalmers University of Technology Area of Advance in Information and Communication Technology with number of journals offering open access, free of charge special issues. For more information about the details see http://is4si-2017.org/. The sponsors did not affect the design of the conference or its content.

IS4SI 2017 Summit featured 4 main conferences, 4 symposia presenting the state of the art research, 4 workshops providing forum for discussions, critical thinking and knowledge co-creation; 14 expert panels addressing selection of most challenging topics in a dialogue with the audience, important for the development of scientific, technological, cultural, philosophical and social aspects of interdisciplinary information studies and finally artistic programme related to algorithms and generative models in music and dance choreography.

Gothenburg summit 2017 is part of a series of conferences, which are periodically convened, the oldest one since 1994. Since its constitution, the International Society for Study of Information (IS4SI) organizes a biennial summit gathering researchers all over the world who work on research in information science, its philosophy, technology and culture and related fields of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies of information.

The foregoing summit was held in Vienna 2015 and the next is planned at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2019. Prior to Vienna summit there was a conference in Moscow in 2013. At the conference held in Beijing in 2010 the foundations of the Society in its present form were built.

Each summit of the International Society for Study of Information addresses a specific complex of issues, as we are trying to orient focus of variety of communities under umbrella of the society, towards a common theme and try to discuss and exchange thoughts across disciplinary borders. The previous meeting in Vienna in 2015 went under the motto Information Society at the crossroads, while in 2013, in Moscow, the topic was Perspectives of Information in Global Education as a new Approach for the 21st century. 2010 conference in Beijing was devoted to Philosophy of Information and Information Science. At that occasion, variety of loosely bound associations of research communities founded officially the International Society for Study of Information. However, history of associations between diverse communities and individual scholars within study of information is much older than that. Foundations of Information Science, one of the core communities of is4si, held its first conference in Madrid, Spain, as early as 1994 —thus more than 20 years ago.

Gothenburg summit included the following four conferences that have been up to now held on periodical basis:

• The Seventh International Conference on the Foundations of Information Science (FIS), this time addressing: Structure, Dynamics, Complexity in the Informational Nature
• The Third International Conference on Philosophy of Information (ICPI), in 2017 focused on: Information Philosophy: The Philosophical Foundations of the Information Era
• The Sixth conference Difference that Makes a Difference (DTMD) – this year held in a workshop format under the title: Information, Narrative and Rhetoric: Exploring Meaning in a Digitalised Society
• The International Forum on Ecological Methodology in Information Studies (IFEIS) focused on The Problem of Reductionism in Information Studies

Under the same overarching theme DIGITALISATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY: Embodied, Embedded, Networked, Empowered through Information, Computation & Cognition! the summit also presented the contributions from symposia and workshops that are covered by present proceedings.

Symposia:

• Theoretical Information Studies
• Doctoral Symposium
• Morphological Computing and Cognitive Agency
• Cognitive Distributed Computing and its Impact on IT (Information Technology) as We Know It

Workshops:

• Habits and Rituals
• Transhumanism – The Proper Guide to a Posthuman Condition or a Dangerous Idea?
• Digital Netizens at the Crossroads of Sharing and Privatising
• Possibility and Actuality: Towards a Manifesto on Evolutionary Systems

The whole summit was to a high extent self-organized. Conferences, Symposia and Workshops as well as panels were lead by their own organizers who conducted peer review process, planned the schedule and took care of session chairing and other practical details.

I would like to thank all of the organizers for their fine and dedicated work as well as all participants for their valuable contributions – presentations and numerous animated discussions that made Gothenburg summit such an inspiring and invigorating event.