Informatics and IT, in general, provide the necessary infrastructure to keep the world running (home office, distant learning, communications, information sharing, etc.). Imagine our world without IT – it would not work. Besides, Informatics is also essential in current coronavirus related research, e.g., in pharmaceutics, in forecasting virus spread, or evaluating economic measures.

Digital Transformation of Society

What is more, the coronavirus has almost wholly moved us into the online world within a few days only. We are experiencing a real-life experiment: the digital transformation of our society. This situation raises several issues related to our topic of Digital Humanism, the intricate relationship between Informatics and society. At the event, we want to discuss this accelerated transformation in its political, ethical, and social dimensions. Still, we also want to review the contribution of Informatics to managing the corona crisis, discuss the current urgent privacy issues, look at the impact on society and politics, and what it means to be a digital human in and post COVID-19 times.

Program

Introduction and Moderation

Hannes Werthner (TU Wien)

Digital Human

Edward A. Lee (Univ. Berkeley): The New Urgency of Digital Humanism As We Become Digital Humans 

Informatics Managing the Corona Crisis

Lynda Hardman (CWI, Amsterdam): Moderation and Comment

Niki Popper (TU Wien): Real Time Simulation Based Decision Support in Health Care Systems – the COVID-19 Crisis

Andrea Ganna (FIMM – Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland): COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, How to Enable Data Sharing Across 120 Studies and 600 Researchers

Challenges: Privacy, Society

Erich Prem (eutema & TU Wien, Austria): Moderation and Comment

Walter Hötzendorfer (Research Institute – Digital Human Rights Center ): Digital Humanism through Privacy by Design and Architecture: The Case of the Corona Apps

Clara Neppel (IEEE): Privacy, and the Choice Between Surveillance and Citizen Empowerment

Amy Mahn (NIST, USA): Cybersecurity Considerations for Telework

Joshua Franco (Amnesty Tech): Human Rights Online: Where are We and Where Will Pandemic Response Take Us?

ICT and Politics

George Metakides (President of Digital Enlightenment Forum, Visiting Professor, University of Southampton): New Policy Directions for European Digital Sovereignty

End of event

Format: Each speaker talks 15 to 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes Q & A.

Technical setting: The workshop will be held as a video conference. The number of participants is limited to 80 (first come, first served), therefore we ask you to pre-register at https://www.informatik.tuwien.ac.at/dighum/registration-dighum-covid-19/

The event will also be live streamed on YouTube.

The workshop is supported by and co-organized with the Digital Enlightenment Forum Brussels, IEEE, Informatics Europe, WWTF, and the Faculty of Informatics, TU Wien.

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