History

The Difference That Makes a Difference series of conferences/workshops aimed at precisely that and have brought together participants from a wide geographic and disciplinary background to present their perspectives and, importantly, to engage in dialogue with people from people from different backgrounds. Over time, the emphasis of the group has shifted from a perspective which might be characterised as broadly scientific positivism (even while grappling with the role of people in the nature of information) to a much more active, participatory and critical engagement with information. This led to the renaming of the group from the Difference that Makes a Difference (DTMD) group, to the Critical Information Studies (CIS) group.

CIS Inaugural Lecture

“Learning from Luther: 95 Theses about Technology” by Professor John Naughton (Cambridge University)

In this talk, John Naughton will reflect on four decades spent trying to improve the public understanding of technology, arguing with Internet companies and culminating with some ideas borrowed from Martin Luther.

Thursday 3 May 2018, 12.30pm-2.00pm (Lunch at 12.00pm), Meeting Room 1, Michael Young Building, Walton Hall, The Open University. [Please note the change of venue]

The talk will be accessible remotely online. Email us for more information in this regard.

This keynote talk launches the recently formed Critical Information Studies (CIS) research group within the School of Computing and Communications at The Open University.

Biography: John Naughton

John Naughton is Emeritus Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the OU. He is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) at Cambridge, where he is co-Director of the Leverhulme-funded ‘Conspiracy and Democracy’ project. With David Runciman, he was co-Director of CRASSH’s ‘Technology and Democracy’ project which has recently concluded. He is also the Observer’s Technology columnist. He was a member of the Systems Group in what was originally the OU’s Faculty of Technology (now Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) from 1972 until 2011. After leaving the OU he served as Vice-President of Wolfson College, Cambridge from 2011-2015 and is currently Director of the college’s Press Fellowship Programme. His most recent book — From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: what you really need to know about the Internet — is published by Quercus.

DTMD past events

The following events were run as part of the Difference That Makes a Difference (DTMD) workshop/conference series:

• The Difference that Makes a Difference 2017, an international workshop, run as part of the International Society for Information Studies 2017 summit in Gothenburg Sweden. It focused on Narrative and Rhetoric.
• The Difference that Makes a Difference 2015, an international workshop on 5th June 2015, run as part of the International Society for Information Studies 2015 summit at the Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien), 3 - 7 June 2015. It focused on Information and values: ethics, spirituality and religion.
• Workshop on Information at Images of Europe: Past, Present, Future (ISSEI 14) in Porto, 4–8 August 2014
• The Difference that Makes a Difference 2013, an international conference held 8-10 April 2013 in Milton Keynes, UK. Main session titles were: Information and Space; Information and Time; Information and Identity; What is information?; Synthesis and Art.
• The Difference that Makes a Difference 2011, an international conference held 7-9 September 2011 in Milton Keynes, UK. Main session titles were: What is information?; Understanding with information; Engaging with information; The impact of information.
• The Nature of Information, held on 8 October 2007 in Milton Keynes, UK. Main session titles were: Historical and systems perspectives; Information handling, ‘Hard’ information.