Foreword

Our purpose in the 16th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI 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.

Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI) are being increasingly related to each other in almost every scientific discipline 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 WMSCI 2012 as a multi-conference where participants may focus on one area, or on one discipline, while allowing them the possibility of attending conferences 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.

WMSCI 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, along with its essential characteristic of emphasizing 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.

In the specific case of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI), the 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, theory and practice, for:

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

These IIIS objectives have directed the organizational efforts of yearly WMSCI/ISAS conferences since 1995.

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

1. the 493 members of the Program Committee from 71 countries;
2. the 574 additional reviewers, from 65 countries, for their double-blind peer reviews; and
3. the 248 reviewers, from 60 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 1348 reviews made by 822 reviewers (who made at least one review) contributed to the quality achieved in WMSCI 2012. This means an average of 5.22 reviews per submission (258 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 WMSCI 2012, about 258 papers/abstracts were submitted. These pre-conference proceedings include about 98 papers that were accepted for presentation from 35 countries. I extend our thanks to the invited sessions’ 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 WMSCI 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 invited sessions and special track organizers, as well as to the co-editors of these proceedings, for the hard work, energy and eagerness they displayed 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.

Our gratitude to Professors Bela H. Banathy, Stafford Beer, George Klir, Karl Pribram, Paul A. Jensen, and Gheorghe Benga who dignified our past WMSCI conferences by being their Honorary Presidents. Special thanks to Dr. C. Dale Zinn and Professor Jorge Baralt for co-chairing WMSCI 2012 Program Committee and to professors Andrés Tremante and Belkis Sánchez for co-chairing the Organizing Committee. We also extend our gratitude 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.

Many thanks to Drs. Dale Zinn, Jorge Baralt, Hsing-Wei Chu, Andrés Tremante, Friedrich Welsch, Thierry Lefevre, José Vicente Carrasquero, Angel Oropeza, and Freddy Malpica for chairing and supporting the organization of conferences and/or special tracks in the context of, or collocated with, WMSCI 2012. We also wish to thank all the authors for the quality of their papers, and the Program Committee members and the additional reviewers for their time and their contributions in the respective reviewing processes.

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.

 

Professor Nagib C. Callaos
WMSCI 2012 General Chair