Electronic Information and Communication
I have, for more than 20 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 (in collaboration with physicists,
chemists, and computer
scientists in Germany). This IuK Initiative was founded
in 1994 and I became its first speaker.
I have been involved in electronic information and
communication ever since in several functions. For
instance, I have been IuK-Beauftragter of the DMV, and I
had various 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 which has the purpose to formulate
general policies of the IMU concerning information and
communication and to organize cooperative projects. I
would like to draw the attention, in particular, to
CEIC's initial "Recommendations on Information and
Communication" which were 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 headed the Telota Initiative of the Berlin-Brandenburgische
Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW) from 2002 to
2011 (Telota is an acronym for "The electronic
life of the academy"),
and currently I am active in the "Interdisziplinäre
Arbeitsgruppe" of BBAW "Future of Scientific
Communication".