Seminar: Google, Friend or Enemy, Herman Mauer, Graz University of Technology (11/12/2008)

The School of Accountancy and the Department of Information Technology Management would like to invite you to the following seminar by Dr. Herman Mauer, of the Graz Univeristy of Technology.

Google - Friend or enemy?

In this presentation I show how all-powerful Google has become, how it starts to influence all aspects of society, far beyond just privacy issues. Google, on the one hand, is an excellent and imaginative company, yet does not know itself how to act in certain tempting situations. Google, on the other hand, is becoming a threat to economy and culture on a scale much larger than is usually recognized. Some aspects of Web 2.0 influencing the development are also discussed.

Vita

Dr. Herman Maurer is professor at the Graz University of Technology since 1978, Dean of Studies 2000-2004 and First Dean of the new School for Computer Science of Graz University of Technology 2004-2007. In addition, director of the Research Institute for Applied Information Processing of the Austrian Computer Society 1983-1998; Chairperson of the Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media since 1988, director of the Institute for Hypermedia Systems of JOANNEUM RESEARCH 1987-2006, co-founder and chairman of the board of Hyperwave AG Munich 1997-2005, vice-chairman of same company since then; founder and scientific advisor of the first research center on Knowledge Management in Austria. Maurer is author of twenty books, more than 600 contributions in various publications, Editor-in-Chief of 'Journal of Universal Computer Science', Co-Editor of 'Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching' and member of over a dozen Editorial Boards. He is chairperson of steering committees and member of program committees of numerous international conferences. Founder of the Conference series ED-MEDIA and WebNet/ eLearn and of the conference I-KNOW. His main research and project areas are: Networked multimedia/hypermedia systems; electronic publishing and applications to university life, exhibitions and museums, Web based learning environments; languages and their applications, data structures and their efficient use, telematic services, computer networks, computer supported new media, dynamic symbolic language, social implications of computers, techniques to fight against plagiarism, and computers in Science Fiction.