WOSC

Professor John Rose, founder of WOSC and of the journal Kybernetes, died on Friday 3rd August 2007. He had had a fall and was in a convalescent home, but seemed to be making a good recovery, and playing chess with other residents. However, he then developed pneumonia with complications. His son Paul, who is a professor in Pennsylvania State University, flew to England and made arrangements and the funeral was on Monday 6th August.

A short obituary is attached. A more comprehensive one will appear later.

For details, see the Call for Papers

A leaflet announcing the Congress has been prepared, with pictures of Wrocław, and can be seen by clicking Page 1 and Page 2. However, the website should be watched for updating on progress.

New Feature

This website has in the past been rather static except when Congresses were imminent. It is hoped to change this by the introduction of a Current Issues page. There will be no attempt to compete with existing sources of information such as the admirable website of the UK Cybernetics Society maintained by Nick Green, and the discussion list associated with the American Cybernetics Society, with details at: CybCom, and our journal Kybernetes. There will be, however, matters of special interest to associates of WOSC, and the website will allow faster dissemination than in the journal. I (Alex Andrew) would be glad to be informed about matters to be included. To transfer to the new page, click on: Current Issues

Foundation of the Organisation

The World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC), or Organisation Mondiale pour la Systémique et la Cybernétique (OMSC), is a federation of national associations and institutions devoted to systems or cybernetics, with English, French and Russian as official languages. It was founded in 1969 by Professor J. Rose, who was Director-General until 1987, when this role passed to Professor Robert Vallée and John Rose became Honorary Director of the organisation.

Dr Norbert Wiener is the President in Memoriam. Professor Stafford Beer was the President until his death in August 2002. Accounts of observances of his demise, as well as those of Professor Heinz von Foerster shortly afterwards, are given at Stafford Beer / Heinz von Foerster.

WOSC Secretariat

More details about the work of WOSC can be obtained from:

WOSC Secretariat, Dr Alex Andrew, Director-General,

95 Finch Road, Earley, Reading RG6 7JX, UK

Telephone and FAX: +44 118 9269328

or from Professor R. Vallée, President,

2 rue de Vouillé, 75015 Paris, FRANCE

Telephone and FAX: +33 1 45.33.62.46

Board of Directors

From the spring of 2004, WOSC has been restructured, and the Director-General is now Dr Alex Andrew (UK), with Professor Robert Vallée (France) as President.

The Director-General is asssisted by a Board of Directors in promoting systems theory and cybernetics in the 37 countries that are involved. A list of Directors is given on the People page.

Communication between Countries

There are 34 societies or institutions affiliated, belonging to 22 nations, but there are 37 nations involved (among other things because they have members on the Liaison Committee). Communication is achieved among them mainly through the exchange of information at meetings, congresses and through official publications. Kybernetes is the official journal of WOSC. It was begun in 1972 and since 1988 has been published by MCB University Press. Congresses have been held every three years since the first in London in 1969. Subsequent events have been in Oxford (1972), Bucharest (1975), Amsterdam (1978), Mexico City (1981), Paris (1984), London (1987), New York (1990), New Delhi (1993), again Bucharest (1996). again London (1999), and Pittsburgh (2001).. For further details see Journal and Congresses pages.

Norbert Wiener Institute

When the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (then called World Organisation of General Systems and Cybernetics) was founded by Professor John Rose in 1969 it was intended that an Institute of Cybernetics would also be established.

In honour of Dr Norbert Wiener and to mark the centenary of his birth the Institute has been renamed the Norbert Wiener Institute. Approval for the change was unanimously agreed by the WOSC Assembly at its meeting in New Delhi in 1993. The Director of the Institute is Professor B.H. Rudall.

The Institute will supplement the work of the Secretariat by allowing the interaction of individuals ands national organisations to be continuous, and not based solely on triennial congress meetings. It was at first thought that individuals could only cooperate in their activities if they worked together in one central building. Subsequent developments have allowed this view to be revised and the Institute will consist of a number of sub-centres situated throughout the world and linked by modern communications technology.

Honorary Fellowships

WOSC has established a limited number of Honorary Fellowships for eminent scientists in the fields of cybernetics, systems, computers and related disciplines. For a list, see the "People" page.

Origins

The formal birth of the subject of Cybernetics was the publication in 1948 of the book Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener, with the subtitle: "Communication and Control in the Animal and the Machine" (published by Wiley, New York). The ideas arose from collaboration of Wiener with Warren McCulloch and others including Walter Pitts. After the death of Warren McCulloch in 1969, his wife compiled a set of "Collected Works" which unfortunately has not been widely distributed because of the financial failure of the publisher. A Contents list can be seen here.

The picture of Warren McCulloch is from the cover of the book: Brain Processes, Theories and Models: An International Conference in Honor of W.S. McCulloch 25 years after His Death, edited by R. Moreno-Diaz and J. Mira-Mira, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1996

Another major contributor to the field, and a friend of Warren McCulloch, was Donald MacKay and a list of references to his early work is attached.

Internal links to other pages:

Congresses
Institute
Journal
People
Related Sites
Robotics Sites
Stafford Beer / Heinz von Foerster
Alex Andrew Home Page
Current

Prof. Bubnicky obit