contact

Information Society Research Institute

Address: H-1111 Budapest

Stoczek street 2-4.

St. building I/108.

Telephone: +36 1 463-2526
 

Telefax: +36 1 463-2547

rab.arpad@ittk.hu

impresszum

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This website reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

NEWS ARCHIVE

Nora Varga joins the management team of NETIS

25th August 2008

Nora Varga, former colleague of NETIS partner, Janos Selye University, Komarno, has joined NETIS management team as financial coordinator. Nora is also responsible for project proposals in ITTK, the mother institute of NETIS.

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Project prolongation

6th August 2008

After the second annual monitoring visit of the Leonardo Office in July, NETIS project applied for a 2-month-long prolongation to the Office (until end of December 2008). The prolongation will be accepted until the end of September if a detailed workplan is prepared after the Bologna meeting. Behind the prolongation there are some mangement problems due to the leave of Erika Kurucz (financial coordinator of NETIS), and delays in Course Book and Textbook preparation.

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Erika Kurucz, project financial coordinator left NETIS

1st July 2008

Erika Kurucz, who was in charge of project financial management, has left the NETIS team at the end of June. Erika left ITTK after two-and-a-half-year of joint fruitful work. Erika was responsible for project proposals, and financial coordination of the NETIS project. ITTK plans to find the right person who can replace Erika, until this, Arpad Rab, senior researcher and project manager of ITTK will work in NETIS.
We thank the work of Erika, it was pleasure to work with her and we regret that she cannot stay until the end of our project. We wish her good luck in her new position.

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English edition of Course Book on CD/DVD of Hungarian PC World

30th May 2008.

CD/DVD of the latest issue (05/2008) of Hungarian PC World "publishes" the English edition of NETIS Course book (Information society: from theory to the political practice). Next to the full PDF version, course book is also available in separated chapters. A picture from the PC World, introducing the DVD-version:

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Exported Moodle chapters in English
2nd May 2008.
The English chapters of NETIS Moodle now are available for anybody to import and implement in an independent Moodle system. NETIS course book on information society is “free of use” in Moodle version. Each chapter forms a ZIP and contains the text of the given chapter in English, tests, glossary, questionnaires etc. The ZIPs are available at an independent site as well but we plan put them under the official project site soon. We ask the downloaders to contact and inform us where and how can they succeed to implement an own version from NETIS.

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Review of NETIS Course Book is published in Hungarian Information Society Quarterly

4th April 2008.

Review of NETIS Course Book is published in Hungarian Information Society Quarterly The 2008/1 issue of the Hungarian Information Society Quarterly (Információs Társadalom folyóirat) has been published just recently. The Quarterly contains a book review on NETIS project Course Book in Hungarian. The 8-page-long review by Emoke Mihaly gives a short overview on the book and has its critics as well. With the permission of the Quarterly the review is also available here or can be read in the printed edition of the Quarterly (the Quarterly is available at the bigger newspaper stands all over Hungary in the next three months).

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NETIS course for social workers - presentation of results

20th March 2008.

Teaching materials of NETIS were used in Szocinfo adult teaching project by Infonia Foundation in Hungary. The Szocinfo project had its formal final conference today, where Robert Pinter held a presentation on results of information society class. A 6-week-long blended learning training was organized by Szocinfo based on NETIS Course Book and Moodle in September-November 2007. The slides are available in Hungarian here.

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The English version of the Information Society course book is available now

 12th March 2008.

 The printed English version course book of NETIS on Information Society has been published this week. The book includes the same chapters as the Hungarian edition, contains the most current and popular themes related to the emerging Information Society (e.g. technology and society, network theory, eInclusion, eGovernment, digital culture, eLearning etc.) The Greek edition of the book will be available later this year. Book chapters are also available in NETIS Moodle (free registration is necessary) and here in PDF.

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Textbook in progress: first papers have arrived (results of Call for Papers)

6th February 2008

NETIS announced successfully its Call for Papers last year. The first papers have arrived as we passed the deadline for full papers. Recently we have seven papers from Hungary deal with:

• e-learning (in Hungarian)

• social networking sites (in Hungarian)

• digital divide and information networks,

• digital inequalities (in Hungarian)

• internet neutrality and file sharing in Hungary,

• regulation of online gambling in Hungary,

• ICT diffusion in West-Transdanubium.

NETIS team has started the peer review of these papers. We are still waiting for final papers from England, Greece, Hungary and Italy.

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NETIS at the Networked Learning Conference

5th February 2008

NETIS organizes a symposium at the Sixth International Conference on Networked Learning (5th-6th May 2008), Halkidiki, Greece. The symposium contains four papers and focuses on experiences of our project, i.e. teaching information society in traditional and networked learning in four European countries. The results introduced in the symposium are based on the work of the NETIS consortium. Symposium members are all representatives from institutes participating in NETIS. Presenters will introduce the NETIS project in general (Robert Pinter), present the findings from the student's (Chris Sadler and Tarmo Kalvet) and teachers perspective (Istvan Bessenyei and Veronika Stoffa) and finally summarise the experiences of the project regarding multicultural diversity in networked learning (Kerstin Siakas).

For more details on the presentations in the symposium see: http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/abstracts/113_Pinter.htm

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Final English edition of course book chapters in PDF

30th January 2008

NETIS team has finalised the English edition of its course book. Chapters are available in PDF (main texts, conclusions, revision questions, bibliography, further readings and key terms). NETIS also refreshed the texts in Moodle.
Content of the book:

• Preaface – by Robert Pinter
• Towards getting to know information society – by Robert Pinter
• Information Society – what is it exactly? (The meaning, history and conceptual framework of an expression) – by Laszlo Z. Karvalics
• Technology and society in the information age – by Attila Kincsei
• Social networks and the network society – by Bence Kollanyi, Szilard Molnar and Levente Szekely
• Use of space in the information society age – by Bence Kollanyi
• Innovation and competitiveness in the information society – by Marton Holczer
• Introduction to the legal regulation of information society – by Eva Simon
• The information strategy of the European Union – by Lilla Juhasz
• eGovernment in the European Union – by Szilard Molnar
• e-Inclusion in the Information Society – by Elisa Mancinelli
• Digital culture – Digitalised culture and culture created on a digital platform – by Arpad Rab
• Learning and Teaching in the Information Society. eLearning 2.0 and Connectivism – by Istvan Bessenyei
• Popular buzzwords, supernarratives and metanarratives for development: What does the term “information society” mean? – by Robert Pinter

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The second NETIS newsletter is available

28th November 2007.

The NETIS team has finished the second issue of the project's newsletter.

Newsletter of the NET-IS project, 2nd issue (pdf)

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Results of Call for Papers (CfP)
26th November 2007.
Hence the NETIS has received the last abstract five days ago, and we have passed the main deadline, we have summarised the results of our CfP. We have received 19 abstracts, from four countries and from 15 persons. There are abstracts not only from gradual students, but from PhD students and even young researchers as well. The Call for Papers was successful, and we will contact of every participants in the next several days. The idea for the future work is that, that every student may have a tutor who helps in his/her research. We try to find a tutor for the students within NETIS or outside the NETIS network if necessary. More
 

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Article published: "The Estonian Information Society Developments since the 1990s"

26th November 2007.
Since the 1990s Estonia has made remarkable successes in information society development. The current article describes achievements in key fields and discusses the main factors that have made such developments possible. It asserts that the major factors that have affected as well as contributed to the evolution of information society in Estonia include the economic factors, active role of the public sector, technological competency, and socio-cultural factors. More details
For the whole report, see Tarmo Kalvet (2007), "The Estonian Information Society Developments Since the 1990s." PRAXIS Working Paper 29/2007.

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Greek segmentation report is ready

09th November 2007.

This report summarizes the results from the researchers/teachers segmentation interviews carried out by Kerstin Siakas in Greece, June 2007.
The Greek segmentation report show that the emphasis of the books is influenced by the background of the authors. Usually information society books are written either from social science or from information systems viewpoint. In the NETIS case the authors seems to be multidisciplinary and multicultural, which is likely to bridge the gap in viewpoints from the different disciplines and cultures. As a result this is likely to embrace a wider target group, including students both from social and economical study programmes to IT students. The role of the teacher is highlighted by the interviewees. Teacher will start with an overview of the information society and then put emphasis on different issues according to the audience. The blended learning methodology provided by NETIS is likely to give good course outcome, first because the teacher can highlight topics and concern suitable to the targeted students and secondly because the e-learning platform provides hand-on exercises. Simultaneously the e-leaning platform is a part of the information society and can be an excellent proactive experience if utilised well in the form of creation of social computing exercises, such as blogs, discussion groups, chats, teleconferencing etc.

The report on the Greek segmentation interview results (pdf)

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Course Book on CD/DVD of Hungarian PC World

08th November 2007.

CD/DVD of the newest issue (11/2007) of Hungarian PC World contains the Hungarian edition of NETIS Course book (Information society: from theory to the political practice). Next to the full PDF version, course book is also available in separated chapters, and Moodle ZIP (you need to upload this version to a Moodle system to work with). A picture from the PC World, introducing the DVD-version:

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The report on the Estonian segmentation interview results is available

05th November 2007.

The report summarizes the results from the researchers/teachers segmentation interviews carried out by Tarmo Kalvet in Estonia, July-August 2007. The general conclusion regarding the information society research and teaching in Estonia was that it is very limited, occasional and fragmented between different universities and departments. Information society topics, considering their important role, should be given more prominent place in curricula. Although books regarding information society are available in Estonia, more accessible additional materials might be useful. The themes going to be covered by the Course Book were generally welcomed by experts interviewed. Analysis of how some countries are doing better in ICT economy, others in eGovernment, etc. would provide an interesting analysis.Blended learning was suggested as the main teaching method. Moodle as e-learning environment is very popular in Estonia among teachers as well as students (having conventional lectures supported with moodle is currently standard solution at some universities in Estonia).

Report on the Estonian segmentation interview results (pdf)

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The report on the Hungarian segmentation interview results and the first NETIS newsletter are available

30th October 2007.

This report summarizes the results from the researchers/teachers segmentation interviews carried out by ISRI team between May and August 2007 in Hungary. Summing up the results in Hungary, it can be claimed that those teaching and researching information society generally like the Course Book in progress, although, similarly to other fundamental issues in the discipline, emphasis falls on different areas according to individual interest. It draws attention to the fact that researching information society is in the early stages; while the Course Book serves as an important initiative.

The NETIS team has also finished the first issue of the project's newsletter.

Report on the Hungarian segmentation interview results (pdf)

Newsletter of the NET-IS project, 1st issue (pdf)

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Book launches in Hungary

29th October 2007.

NETIS has organised the book launches of its Course Book in Hungary: Sopron (11th October), Budapest (16th October), Slovakia (18th October)

On 16th October at the book launch of the “Information Society – from the theory to the political practise” we were welcoming the authors:  István Bessenyei, Márton Holczer, Bence Kollányi, Szilárd Molnár, Árpád Rab and Levente Székely. The book was presented by the editor of the volume, Robert Pinter (BME-ITTK). For more see the blog. Pictures from the events here. The presentation of István Bessenyei.

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Call for papers

24th October 2007.

As part of the project we invite papers which address any aspect of Information Society. Papers will appear in our electronic textbook and the best will be translated and published in Information Society related journals. Details

NETIS blog up and running

25th September 2007.

The project team has just started its blog, which is for dissemination purposes, and also for communication, interaction and joint thinking. The blog is a community one, which means that members of NETIS project will regularly publish their posts on project activities (e.g. teaching , research) and information society (news, stories, questions in the given countries).

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The Hungarian version of the Information Society course book is available now

17th September 2007.

A new course book on Information Society has been published recently in the framework of the Leonardo NETIS project. The book includes the most current and popular themes related to the emerging Information Society, such as eInclusion, eGovernment, network society, digital culture, etc.The co-authors of the book are prominent experts of the topics.The Greek and English version of the book will be available soon. Free pdf download here. 

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Student segmentation survey report is available

20th June 2007.

The report summarizes the results from the student segmentation survey carried out by the NET-IS network between January and March 2007 in Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia and United Kingdom. The survey aimed at *assessing students’ needs* and *attitudes* toward an Information Society course and its materials (e.g. course textbook).

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2nd project meeting is over

20. May 2007.

The second NETIS meeting was held in Budapest, 14-16 May, 2007.  First day Robert Pinter, the professional coordinator of the project, presented the striking outcomes stemming from the Segmentation survey and the consequences as regards the participating countries. The leaders planned the second steps of the segmentation: the interviews with lecturers. They also discussed the present state and the more developed structure of the course book and the text book. Second day the participants dealt with the questions of E-learning transformations and issues on test teaching. The last day served for clarifying organisational and management issues in order to promote the more effective implementation of the project.

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Triggering the student’s survey

05. January 2007.

 The Segmentation Workpackage has been started with a student’s questionnaire, and data gathering will be finished until mid-February. The planned analysis will be ready in March 2007. The questionnaires are available now both in Hungarian and English versions. Students are involved from Great Britain, Greece, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

The survey aims to assess student’s needs and attitudes towards an information society course and its materials (e.g. course textbook). The questionnaires are available here:

English version: http://www.ittk.hu/survey/index.php?sid=2

Hungarian version: http://www.ittk.hu/survey/index.php?sid=1

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Introduction to Information Society Course Book

18. December 2006

 Preparation of introductory Information Society course book has been started in December 2006 and will be finished until summer 2007. The course book is the main material of test teaching and e-learning courses in several European countries, starting at September 2007. The preliminary structure of the course book is available at Teaching materials.

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Kick-off meeting

22. November 2006

The NET-IS project was launched on the 1st of November, 2006. We held a kick-off meeting between 17-19 November, 2006 in Budapest. The meeting was led by the BUTE-ITTK and had a twofold focus: to develop a common understanding on the project and to start thes common work by discussing the work-plan in details. Except two organisations all the partners were present at the meeting. The next meeting is scheduled in April, 2007, in Bologna.