Media Releases
Cyberspace crime and the meaning of ‘information’ headline international gathering of information professionals
January 31, 2012
TORONTO, ON – Cyberspace expert and University of Toronto Professor, Ron Deibert, and University of California, Berkeley Professor, Geoffrey Nunberg, are keynote speakers for the iConference 2012 being held in Toronto, Ontario from February 7 to 10.
Prof. Deibert’s will focus on how cyberspace has changed from an open and free exchange of ideas to a paranoid underworld of cyber crime. He will share what must be done to prepare for this ‘Coming Perfect Storm in Cyberspace’.
Prof. Nunberg will discuss a history of the word ‘information’ and how we assume the “stuff sitting on our hard drives is the same stuff that constitutes the basis of life.” Nunberg wonders if “‘information’ is the first principle of postmodernity, or is this all just a colossal play on words.”
Other presentations range from network surveillance, to digital humanities, ICTs in organizations, to network surveillance, and social media & elections in Canada.
Media are welcome to cover the conference sessions and keynote addresses, and one-on-one interviews can be arranged.
iConference 2012
The Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, will host nearly 450 international scholars and researchers from a consortium of 33 Information Schools (iSchools) including the University of Michigan, University of Washington, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of California, Los Angeles.
Participants will gather at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre Hotel for the 7th iConference, an annual gathering of a broad spectrum of scholars and researchers from around the world who share a common concern about critical information issues in contemporary society.
Conference Chair and Faculty of Information Professor, Jens-Erik Mai, says this is the right place to host such a large gathering. “Since Toronto was Canada’s first iSchool, and the city has been at the forefront as early adopters of the information field, we are proud to host it this year.”
The iConference pushes the boundaries of information studies, explores core concepts and ideas, and creates new technological and conceptual configurations—all situated in interdisciplinary discourses.
About the Keynote Speakers
Ron Deibert is professor of Political Science and director of the Canada Centre for Global Security studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. He is also director of the Citizen Lab where he researches the convergence of internet, global security, and human rights. To learn more about Deibert: http://deibert.citizenlab.org/bio/
Geoffrey Nunberg is an adjunct full professor at the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley. He writes on the social and cultural effects of new technologies, including semantics and pragmatics, information access, multilingualism and language policy, and the cultural implications of digital technologies. To learn more about Nunberg: http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/
Presented by the ischools caucus, the iConference 2012 is supported by Microsoft Research and the National Science Foundation, as well as Emerald Group Publishing and Morgan & Claypool Publishers.
For the full conference schedule, please visit: http://www.ischools.org/images/bannerimage/Program_v15.pdf
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For more information:
Kathleen O’Brien
Communications Officer
Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Tel. 416–978-7184
kathleen.obrien@utoronto.ca