Foreword

Informatics and Cybernetics (communication and control) are having an increasing impact on societies and in the globalization process that is integrating them. Societies are trying to regulate this impact, and adapt it to their respective cultural infra-structures. Societies and cultures are in reciprocal co-adaptations with Information and Communication Technologies. Synergic relationships might emerge in this co-adaptation process by means of positive and negative feedback loops, as well as feedforward ones. This would make the whole larger than the sum of its parts, generating emergent properties in the parts involved as well as in the whole coming forth. The academic, private, and public sectors are integrating their activities; multi-disciplinary groups and inter-disciplinary teams are being formed, and collaborative research and development projects are being organized in order to facilitate and adequately orient the design and implementation of the feedback and the feedforward loops, and potentially generating synergic relationships. This phenomenon persuaded the Organizing Committee to organize the 6th International Multi-Conference on Society, Cybernetics and Informatics (IMSCI 2012) in a multi-disciplinary context along with other collocated events. Consequently, participants may focus on one discipline, while allowing them the possibility of attending conferences from other disciplines. This systemic approach stimulates cross-fertilization among different disciplines, inspiring scholars, originating new hypothesis, supporting production of innovations and generating analogical thinking.

IMSCI 2012 was organized and sponsored by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics (IIIS, www.iiis.org), member of the International Federation of Systems Research (IFSR). The IIIS is a multi-disciplinary organization for inter-disciplinary communication and integration, which includes about 4500 members. Consequently, a main purpose of the IIIS is to foster knowledge integration processes, interdisciplinary communication, and integration of academic activities. Based on 1) the transdisciplinartity of the systemic approach and its emphasis on relationships and integrating processes, and 2) the multi-disciplinary support of cybernetics’ and informatics’ concepts, notions, theories, technologies, and tools, the IIIS has been organizing multi-disciplinary conferences as a platform for fostering inter-disciplinary communication and knowledge integration processes.

Multi-disciplinary conferences are organized by the IIIS as support for both intra- and inter-disciplinary communication. Processes of intra-disciplinary communication are mainly achieved via traditional paper presentations in corresponding disciplines, while conversational sessions, regarding trans- and inter-disciplinary topics, are among the means used for inter-disciplinary communication. Intra- and inter-disciplinary communications might generate co-regulative cybernetic loops, via negative feedback, and synergic relationships, via positive feedback loops, in which both kinds of communications could increase their respective effectiveness. Figure 1 shows at least two cybernetic loops if intra- and inter-disciplinary are adequately related. A necessary condition for the effectiveness of Inter-disciplinary communication is an adequate level of variety regarding the participating disciplines. Analogical thinking and learning processes of disciplinarians depend on it; which in turn are potential sources of the creative tension required for cross-fertilization among disciplines and the generations of new hypothesis. An extended presentation regarding this issue can be found at www.iiis.org/MainPupose.

One of the main purposes of IMSCI 2012 is to bring together academics, professionals, and managers from the private and the public sectors, in order to share ideas, results of research, and innovative services or products, in a multi-disciplinary and multi-sector forum.

Educational technologies, socio-economic organizations, and socio-political processes are essential domains among those involved in the evolving co-adaptation and co-transformation between societies and cultures on the one hand, and between informatics and cybernetics (communication and control) on the other hand. Consequently, the main conference in the context of the IMSCI 2012 Multi-Conference is the 10th International Conference on Education and Information Systems, Technologies and Applications: EISTA 2012

The relationship between education/training and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is quickly intensifying and sometimes appears in unexpected forms and in combination with original ideas, innovative tools, methodologies, and synergies. Accordingly, the primary purpose of the 10th International Conference on Education and Information Systems, Technologies and Applications (EISTA 2012) has been to bring together researchers and practitioners from both areas together to support the emerging bridge between education/training and the ICT communities.

In the context of EISTA 2012, practitioners and consultants were invited to present case studies and innovative solutions. Corporations were invited to present education/training information systems and software-based solutions. Teachers and professors were invited to present case studies, specifically developed information systems, and innovative ideas and designs. Educational scientists and technologists were invited to present research or position papers on the impact and the future possibilities of ICT in educational systems, training processes, and methodologies. Managers of educational organizations and training consultants were invited to present problems that might be solved by ICT or solutions that might be improved by different approaches and designs in ICT.

EISTA 2012 provides a forum for the presentation of solutions and problems in the application of ICT in the fields of education/training. Authors of the papers included in the proceedings provided diverse answers to the following questions:

• What is the impact of ICT in education and training?
• How are ICTs affecting and improving education and training? What networks and models are emerging?
• How are universities, schools, corporations and other educational/training organizations making use of ICT?
• What electronic tools are there to facilitate e-learning, distance education and co-operative training?

On behalf of the Organizing Committees, I extend our heartfelt thanks to:

1. the 135 members of the Program Committees (28 members of the IMSCI 2011’s PC and 107 members of the PCs related to the conferences and special tracks in the context of IMSCI 2011) from 35 countries;
2. the 232 additional reviewers, from 54 countries, for their double-blind peer reviews; and
3. the 109 reviewers, from 43 countries, for their efforts in making the non-blind peer reviews. (Some reviewers supported both: non-blind and double-blind reviewing for different submissions)

A total of 573 reviews made by 341 reviewers (who made at least one review) contributed to the quality achieved in IMSCI 2012. This means an average of 7.25 reviews per submission (75 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 also 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 IMSCI 2012, about 79 papers/abstracts were submitted. These pre-conference proceedings include about 45 papers, from 22 countries, that were accepted for presentation. I extend our thanks to the invited sessions and special tracks organizers for collecting, reviewing, and selecting the papers that will be presented in their respective sessions. 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 IMSCI 2012 is summarized in the following table, along with the other collocated conferences:

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
WMSCI 2012	258	822	1348	1.64	5.22	98	37.98%
IMSCI 2012	79	341	573	1.68	7.25	45	56.96%
IMETI 2012	88	388	705	1.82	8.01	35	39.77%
CISCI 2012	188	629	1283	2.04	6.82	61	32.45%
TOTAL	613	2180	3909	1.79	6.38	153	38.99%

We also extend our gratitude to the co-editors of these proceedings for the hard work, energy and eagerness they shown preparing their respective sessions. 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, and as Honorary President of WMSCI 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.

We also express our immense gratitude to Professors Freddy Malpica, Friedrich Welsch, Jorge Baralt, Angel Oropeza, José Ferrer, Andrés Tremante, and José Vicente Carrasquero for chairing or co-chairing the respective Program Committees and/or Organizing Committees. We also extend our gratitude to Professor Belkis Sánchez, for her relentless support in the organizing process.

We also extend our sincere gratefulness to Drs. Ranulph Glanville, Thomas Marlowe, Ruth Bergman, Karl H. Müller, Shigehiro Hashimoto, T. Grandon Gill, Marta White Szabo, Jeremy Horne, Mario Norbis, Susu Nousala, Richard Segall, Kathy Kovacs Burns, Rahul Bedi, Darshan Deseai, and Heidi Hahn for accepting to address the audience of the General Joint Plenary Sessions with keynote conferences.

We extend our gratitude as well to María Sánchez, Juan Manuel Pineda, Leonisol Callaos, Dalia Sánchez, Keyla Guédez, Nidimar Díaz, Bebzabeth García, Marcela Briceño, Cindi Padilla, Louis Barnes, Sean Barnes, José Aponte, Abrahan Marín, Yulaime Padilla, and Freddy Callaos for their knowledgeable effort in supporting the organizational process producing the hard copy and CD versions of the proceedings, developing and maintaining the software supporting the interactions of the authors with the reviewing process and the Organizing Committee, as well as for their support in the help desk and in the promotional process.

 

Professors Andrés Tremante and Nagib Callaos,
IMSCI 2012 General Co-Chairs