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WORLDCOMP'10 Invited Lecture - Dr. Ziga Turk
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Past Communication Revolutions Changed Civilizations: What to expect from the current one?
Dr. Ziga Turk Professor, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, Secretary General, Reflection Group on the Future of Europe, Brussels, EU Former minister, Growth in the Government of Slovenia & national Lisbon Strategy Coordinator during the Slovenian presidency of the EU. www.zturk.com www.reflectionGroup.eu Date: July 12, 2010 Time: 06:00pm - 07:00pm Location: Ballroom 7 |
Humans are social beings. Communication is an essential element for
socialization of persons, for building everyting, from a family, local
community, a business a state or an entire civilization. Throughout
history, changes in communication tools and technologies had an impact
on society, economy and on how states were governed. If access to
communication tools was limited and available to few, it empowered the
top layers, the centers, the emperors. Without communication tools and
information storage most decision making has to be confined to a few
people around the powerful individual.
Democratization of communication technology empowered the masses
and enabled that more people could be relied upon in decision making.
Based on his research of the history of design communication, the author
claims that the last communication revolution in the past was the
availability of inexpensive paper that ignited the renaissance and,
together with movable type, provided the basis for the European dominance
in science, technology, economy and military. Paper is instrumental to
the type of democracy that we have. Internet democratized electronic
communication and has invited even more people into knowledge processes.
Never before had so many people had
access to so much information, knowledge, computing power and other
empowered smart people. Never before was the percentage of knowledgeable
people not working for the government so big. This is bound to have an
impact on have societies are governed. The issue will be, how to make use
of all those empowered individuals outside of the government to public good.
Ziga Turk is professor of design communication at the University of
Ljubljana and Secretary General of the Reflection Group on the Future of
Europe (the "Gonzales wise men group") in Brussels. He was a minister for
Growth in the Government of Slovenia and national Lisbon Strategy
Coordinator during the Slovenian presidency of the EU. Dr. Turk was a
visiting professor or lecturer in Stockholm, Zagreb, Istanbul, Dublin and
Cork. He has written over 120 scientific papers on the topic of the use of
information and communication technology in construction, on representing
design information, on design communication, open access scientific
communication and on philosophical foundations of CAD. Since 1994 he was
taking part in the Framework research projects, two larger ones he also
coordinated. In the early 1990s he did pioneering work in Web search engines
(evolving into CNET's shareware.com) and in the introduction of the Web to
the construction industry.
