Weizenbaum Institute

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Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute
Category: Research institute
Consist: since 2017
Facility location: Berlin
Type of research: interdisciplinary and problem-oriented basic research
Basic funding: 50 million euros: 2017 to 2022
Management: Herbert Zech (legal scholar)
Homepage: https://weizenbaum-institut.de/

The Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute was founded in Berlin in 2017. It is a joint project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research . The association includes: the Free University of Berlin , the Humboldt University of Berlin , the Technical University of Berlin , the University of the Arts Berlin , the University of Potsdam , the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) and the Berlin Science Center for Social Research (WZB ) as coordinator.

The task of the institute, named after the computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum , is to examine current social changes in connection with digitization and to develop future political and economic options for action. The institute is to conduct independent and interdisciplinary research into digital change ( digital revolution , digital divide , digital transformation ) including legal , ethical and economic issues.

The overarching question of the institute is: "How can the goals of individual and social self-determination be realized in a world characterized by digitally mediated transformation and delimitation processes and what framework conditions and resources are necessary for their realization?"

history

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research under Johanna Wanka announced the winners of the competition to found the German Internet Institute on May 23, 2017. The consortium of the universities FU Berlin , HU Berlin , TU Berlin , UdK Berlin , University of Potsdam as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems and the Berlin Science Center for Social Research (WZB) as coordinator have been involved in a two-stage competitive process that has been running since September 2015 enforced. Over the next five years, the institute will have around 50 million euros in funding to build it up.

An international jury of experts chaired by the Austrian Viktor Mayer-Schönberger from the British Oxford Internet Institute (OII, founded 2001) assessed the applicants. After an initial selection process, five candidates remained. In addition to the application from Berlin, these were the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover , the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Ruhr University in Bochum .

When the institute started work in September 2017, it was renamed “Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute”.

In April 2019, the founding board of directors, consisting of Martin Emmer , Axel Metzger and Ina Schieferdecker , was adopted and a new board of directors was established under the direction of Herbert Zech .

Fields of work

The research of the institute comprises 6 areas with a total of 20 research groups:

Work, innovation and value creation

FG 1: Work in highly automated, digital-hybrid processes.
FG 2: Production possibilities of the maker culture.
Unit 3: Working and cooperating in the sharing economy .

Contract and responsibility in digital markets

Unit 4: Data as a means of payment.
FG 5: Data-based business model innovation.
Unit 6: Responsibility and the Internet of Things .

Knowledge, education and social inequality

Unit 7: Education and further training in the digital society.
Unit 8: Inequality and digital sovereignty .
Unit 9: Digital Technologies and Wellbeing.
Unit 10: Digital Integration.
Unit 11: Digitization of Scientific Value Creation.

Democracy, Participation and the Public

Unit 12: Democracy and Digitization.
Unit 13: Digital Citizenship.
Unit 14: News, Campaigns and the Rationality of Public Discourse.
Unit 15: Digitization and the Transnational Public.

Governance and standard setting

FG 16: Shifts in standard setting.
FG 17: Trust in distributed environments.
FG 18: Quantification and social regulation.

Technology change

Unit 19: Digitization and Networked Security.
Unit 20: Criticality of AI-based systems

In addition to the 6 fields of work, there are 3 accompanying cross-sectional formats that focus on overarching questions of ethics and the political shaping of the relationship between technology and society:

financing

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is providing the institute with 50 million euros by 2022.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The German Internet Institute begins its work | WZB. Retrieved August 14, 2018 .
  2. ↑ The institute. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  3. ↑ The institute. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  4. ^ Research. In: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. Retrieved May 11, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Press release: 051/2017 - The German Internet Institute is being built in Berlin. In: bmbf.de . May 23, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017 .
  6. ↑ New Directory begins its work. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Factsheet. In: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. Retrieved May 11, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Work, innovation and value creation. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Contract and responsibility in digital markets. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Knowledge, Education and Social Inequality. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Democracy, Participation and the Public. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Governance and standardization. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Technology change. Retrieved May 19, 2019 .