Foreword

Our purpose in The 3rd International Multi-Conference on Complexity, Informatics and Cybernetics (IMCIC 2012) is to provide, in these increasingly related areas, a multi-disciplinary forum, to foster interdisciplinary communication among the participants, and to support the sharing process of diverse perspectives of the same transdisciplinary concepts and principles. Complexity, Cybernetics and Informatics are being increasingly related to each other in almost every scientific discipline, engineering area, and human activity. Their common transdisciplinarity characterizes and communicates them, generating strong relations among them and with other disciplines. They work together to create a whole new way of thinking and practice. This phenomenon persuaded the Organizing Committee to structure IMCIC 2012 as a multi-conference where participants may focus on one area, or on one discipline, while allowing them the possibility of attending events from other areas or disciplines. This systemic approach stimulates cross-fertilization among different disciplines, inspiring scholars, originating new hypothesis, supporting production of innovations and generating analogies; which is, after all, one of the very basic principles of the systems’ movement and a fundamental aim in cybernetics.

IMCIC 2012 was organized and sponsored by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics (IIIS), member of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR). IIIS is an organization dedicated to contribute to the development of the Systems Approach, Cybernetics, and Informatics potential, using both: knowledge and experience, thinking and action, for the:

1. identification of synergetic relationships among Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, and between them and society;
2. promotion of contacts among the different academic areas, through the transdisciplinarity of the systems approach;
3. identification and implementation of communication channels among the different professions;
4. supply of communication links between the academic and professional worlds, as well as between them and the business world, both public and private, political and cultural;
5. stimulus for the creation of integrative arrangements at different levels of society, as well as at the family and personal levels;
6. promotion of transdisciplinary research, both on theoretical issues and on applications to concrete problems.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I extend our heartfelt thanks to the Program Committee’s members, to the 230 reviewers, from 81 countries, who made the double-blinded reviews, and to the 231 reviewers, from 47 countries, who made the non-blind reviews. (Some reviewers supported both: non-blind and double-blind reviewing for different submissions). A total of 1028 reviews made by 461 reviewers (who made at least one review) contributed to the quality achieved in IMCIC 2012. This means an average of 5.01 reviews per submission (205 submissions were received). Each registered author had access, via the conference web site, to the reviews that recommended the acceptance of their respective submissions. Each registered author could get information about: 1) the average of the reviewers evaluations according to 8 criteria, and the average of a global evaluation of his/her submission; and 2) the comments and the constructive feedback made by the reviewers, who recommended the acceptance of his/her submission, so the author would be able to improve the final version of the paper.

In the organizational process of IMCIC 2012, about 205 papers/abstracts were submitted. These pre-conference proceedings include about 68 papers, from 22 countries, that were accepted for presentation. The submissions were reviewed as carefully as time permitted; it is expected that most of them will appear in a more polished and complete form in scientific journals. This information about IMCIC 2012 is summarized in the following table, along with the other collocated events:

Conference	# of submissions received	# of reviewers that made at least one review	# of reviews made	Average of reviews per reviewer	Average of reviews per submission	# of papers included in the proceedings	% of submissions included in the proceedings
IMCIC 2012	205	461	1028	2.23	5.01	68	33.17%
ICSIT 2012	171	389	720	1.85	4.21	65	38.01%
CICIC 2012	65	193	357	1.84	5.49	20	30.17%
TOTAL	441	1043	2105	2.02	4.77	153	34.69%

We also extend our gratitude to the co-editors of these proceedings, for the hard work, energy and eagerness they displayed in their respective activities. We express our intense gratitude to Professor William Lesso for his wise and opportune tutoring, for his eternal energy, integrity, and continuous support and advice, as the Program Committee Chair of past conferences, organized by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics, and as Honorary President of IMCIC 2012, as well as for being a very caring old friend and intellectual father to many of us. We also extend our gratitude to Professor Belkis Sánchez, who brilliantly managed the organizing process.

Special thanks to Dr. C. Dale Zinn and Professor José Ferrer for co-chairing IMCIC 2012 Program Committee, to Professors Jorge Baralt, Hsing-Wei Chu, and Michael J. Savoie for their General Co-chairmanship, and to Professor Belkis Sánchez for chairing its Organizing Committee. We also wish to thank all the authors for the quality of their papers, and to the 461 reviewers for the great job they did making the 1028 reviews that supported the acceptance process. We also extend our gratitude to María Sánchez, Juan Manuel Pineda, Leonisol Callaos, Dalia Sánchez, Keyla Guédez, Nidimar Díaz, Bebzabeth García, Marcela Briceño, Freddy Callaos, Abrahan Marin, Sean Barnes, Louis Barnes, José Aponte, Cindy Padilla, and Yulaime Padilla for their knowledgeable effort in supporting the organizational process and for producing the hard copy and CD versions of the proceedings.

 

Professor Nagib C. Callaos
IMCIC 2012 General Co-Chair