Electronic Information and Communication

I have, for more than 15 years, spent quite some time on issues of electronic information and communication. This started while I was the President of the German Mathematical Society (DMV) and when I directed a nationwide program to supply Internet access to the desktop of mathematicians and to provide links to electronic information about mathematics such as the database MATH of the Zentralblatt für Mathematik

The IuK Initiative of German Scientific Societies grew out of this project together with collaboration with physicists, chemists, and computer scientists in Germany. This IuK Initiative was founded in 1995 and I became its first speaker. I have been involved in this IuK Initiative ever since in several functions.

I have held several positions in this area for the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung. I have been IuK-Beauftragter, and I have been involved in several functions in the special interest group for information and communication of the DMV.

I have been a member of the Committee on Electronic Information and Communication (CEIC) of the International Mathematical Union (IMU) from 1998 to 2006.

CEIC has the purpose to formulate general policies of the IMU concerning information and communication and to organize cooperative projects such as the Electronic (EWDM) and Federal World Directory of Mathematicians (FWDM), the World Digital Mathematical Library (WDML), etc. Detailed information about the work of CEIC can be found here. I would like to draw the attention, in particular, to CEIC's initial "Recommendations on Information and Communication" which was approved by the Executive Committee and the General Assembly of the International Mathematical Union in 2002, and CEIC's further recommendations on Digital Mathematical Library.

I have been involved in the initiative Telota of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW).