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Global Focus on Knowledge 2010: Between the Net and Reality — The Digital Shift of Intelligence and the Future of the Internet Society

The Internet is the most familiar media for many people today. The Internet has already established a dominant position in the daily lives of young people as they receive and exchange every type of information through the Internet. The Internet markedly differs from traditional media in the following areas. First, the various communication formats appearing in web spaces are backed by advanced search and visualization technologies, blogging and video streaming systems, and highly sophisticated software. Moreover, information exchanged on the Internet includes not only entertainment content but also a considerable amount of intellectual content, such as encyclopedias and specialized archives or blogs by intellectuals, which has been in the domain of university libraries or classrooms up to now. On top of that, the Internet easily crosses national borders. In contrast to newspapers and television, which are basically media of their country of origin, information on the Internet stimulates communication across borders and with a global reach.

With these above-mentioned features of the Internet and our own familiarity with them in mind, the lectures in the Global Focus on Knowledge Lecture Series this time focusing on “information” will at first provide an overview of various approaches taken for the development of the Internet, from computer science to archival science and social informatics. The overall title for this series is “Between the Net and Reality.” At the same time, perspectives will also be offered on what kind of language processing and VR technology support the Internet and web spaces, and how these technologies cross domains both inside and outside the Internet and permeate our society. The lectures will also look at how this cyber world of new intelligence and experiences created by these new technologies is transforming our existing behavior patterns and law and social order. And an underlying theme throughout this series of lectures will be how today’s advanced information technology will change language and experience, historical awareness, and human behavior in the 21st century.