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Ladenburg :
Summary (English)
The Discourse "Ubiquitous Computing"
Organiser: Friedemann Mattern, ETH Zurich
A discourse on the subject of "Ubiquitous
Computing" was held for the first time on the 9th and
10th February in Ladenburg. Half of the twenty-eight participants
came from the field of computer science, other areas represented were
jurisprudence, social sciences, philosophy, economics and cultural
studies.
By the term "Ubiquitous Computing",
created in 1988 by Mark Weiser, Chief Technologist at the of XEROX Palo Alto
Research Centre, the omnipresence of innumerable small microprocessors is
understood, which can be invisibly installed in any everyday objects,
communicating with one another via radio. Equipped with sensors, these
microscopically small computers can capture the environment of the object in
which they are implanted (or with which they are even fused into one) and
provide them with information processing and communication abilities. This
possibility gives objects an entirely new, additional quality – they
"know", for example, their location, which other objects are in their
vicinity and what happened to them in the past.
From a
technical viewpoint, visions of an extensive computerization and networking of
almost anything in everyday life actually seem feasible within the next few
years. Since completely new applicatons are opened by such "smart
objects", the vision of ubiquitous computing could also be economically
successful, so that information processing capacity and information services
will perhaps ultimately be as ubiquitous as, for example, electricity today:
readily available and – from a present point of view – capable of seemingly
magical things.
Several conceivable future scenarios
were presented in the discourse and, to some extent, lively and controversially
discussed. For example, if a vehicle always knows precisely where it is
situated and can offer this information at any time to all other neighbouring
vehicles, then many collisions would basically be avoidable. The potential of
future "wearable computers" and "smart clothes" is also
interesting. As a personal technology, always kept on one’s person or even
worn, this enables not only the replacement of present common portable aids,
such as mobile phones or address books, but could be used as "IT
prostheses" for the expansion of human perception and information
processing capacity.
The realisation of such visions
would certainly have enormous economic and social consequences (which was the
central theme of the talk "Social and Economic Dimension"), and also
provokes ethical and legal arguments. The problem of data protection and
privacy is immediately presented with the introduction of a vast number of
microsensors into the environment which can pass on their data via Internet at
will, (e.g. identified people or recognised objects which are tagged either
optically, chemically or electronically). For this reason, two of the
discourse’s talks devoted their attention to the themes "Protection of
Privacy and Omnipresence" and "Private Sphere despite or even due to
Ubiquitous Computing".
Further short talk themes dealt with the technical infrastructure of ubiquitous computing, the computerization of the environment, the utilization of artificial intelligence technologies and agent systems, and the cultural relevance of the emerging technical development.
The necessity for an interdisciplinary discussion on the
subject was not only apparent when considering possible technological effects.
It became clear that even dealing with invisible computers presents a challenge
for such disparate disciplines as computer science, media science and design.
If technology steps into the background, then objects of the real world must
serve as an interface to the information world. This was impressively
demonstrated during the evening banquet by H.-W. Gellersen who, by merely
touching business cards (which were prepared with so-called "radio
tags"), conjured up the homepage of the person specified on a nearby PC.
The diversity of the short talks and the lively
discussions was very positively assessed by the participants. The discourse
brought together people interested in the subject from various disciplines in
German speaking regions for the first time. Discussions were held at the end
which widely reflected what had been heard and discussed. If the
"networking of all things" should have an even greater effect on us
all than Internet today with its worldwide networking of all computers,
political questions also ultimately arise: Are we essentially defenceless
against the situation or can, for example, classical European values be
consciously brought into this development?
Most of the participants got the impression that we are at
the beginning of an exciting development. Consequently, a resumption of the
discourse or even an in-depth discussion on the subject beyond individual
disciplines seems very promising!
Participants: Dr. Natascha Adamowsky (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin),
Prof. Dr. Alfred Büllesbach (DaimlerChrysler AG), Prof. Dr. Barbara
Dauner-Lieb (Fernuniversität Hagen), Prof. Dr. Meinolf Dierkes
(Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin), Prof. Dr. Rainer Dietrich
(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Hermann Engesser (Springer-Verlag), Dr.
Hans-Werner Gellersen (Universität Karlsruhe), Dr. Ralf-Guido Herrtwich
(DaimlerChrysler AG), Prof. Dr. Bernd Holznagel (Universität
Münster), Dr. Jörg Klein (Gottlieb Daimler- und Karl Benz-Stiftung),
Prof. Dr. Klaus Mainzer (Universität Augsburg), Prof. Dr. Friedemann
Mattern (ETH Zürich), Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser (TU Darmstadt),
Prof. Dr. Günter Müller (Universität Freiburg), Prof. Dr.
Jürgen Nehmer (Universität Kaiserslautern), Prof. Dr. Andreas
Pfitzmann (TU Dresden), Dr. Joachim Posegga (Deutsche Telekom AG), Prof.
Gisbert Frhr. zu Putlitz (Universität Heidelberg), Dr. Kai Rannenberg
(Microsoft Research), Prof. Dr. Kurt Rothermel (Universität Stuttgart),
Dr.-Ing Diethard Schade (Akademie f. Technikfolgenabschätzung), Prof. Dr.
Alexander Schill (TU Dresden), Dr. Detlef Schoder (Universität Freiburg),
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ralf Steinmetz (TU Darmstadt), Dr.Dr. Norbert Streitz (GMD),
Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Wolfgang Wahlster (DFKI / Universität des Saarlandes),
PD Dr. Peter Welzel (Universität Augsburg), Prof. Dr. Lars Wolf
(Universität Karlsruhe).
Further information on
the Ladenburger Diskurs "Ubiquitous Computing" (copies of
presentation slides) and bibliographical data, texts and other information on
the subject can be found on the website
https://www.inf.ethz.ch/vs/events/UCdiskurs1.html
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