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The World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) – Organisation Mondiale pour la Systémique et la Cybernétique (OMSC), is an association of individuals and organisations devoted to systems and cybernetics.

WOSC and the journal Kybernetes were founded in 1969 by Professor Jakob Rose (van der Zouwen and Geyer, 2009), who was its President until 1987. Dr. Norbert Wiener (Rudall, 1994) is the President in Memoriam, which grants WOSC to present the golden Norbert wiener medal to distinguished Cyberneticians and Systems thinkers. In 1987, the role of the president was passed to Professor Stafford Beer (Leonard, 2015) until his death in August 2002. Professor Robert Vallée took over and was WOSC’s President until his death in 2017 (Vallée, 2012).

In the spring of 2004, WOSC was restructured, and Dr. Alex Andrew (UK) became Director-General, with Professor Robert Vallée (France) as President. At the Fifteenth Congress, in Nanjing in 2011, Alex Andrew stood down as Director-General and has been replaced in that capacity by Professor Raul Espejo

On the 1st of January 2017, Professor Robert Vallée passed away. Following the procedures agreed at WOSC 2017 in Rome, Professor Raul Espejo became the new President and Dr. Igor Perko took over the role as the Director-General. An Advisory Board to the President was formed at the same time.

 

On 25.11.2025, the WOSC leadership was transfered to 2 co-directors general: prof. Alfonso Reyes, dr. Francesco Caputo, and dr. Igor Perko.

 

References

LEONARD, A. 2015. Stafford Beer and the legacy of Cybersyn: seeing around corners. Kybernetes, 44, 926-934. https://doi.org/10.1108/k-02-2015-0045

RUDALL, B. H. 1994. A TRIBUTE TO WIENER,NORBERT. Kybernetes, 23, 5-7.

VALLÉE, R. 2012. From Professor Robert Vallee, President of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) Dedication. Kybernetes, 41, 11-11.

VAN DER ZOUWEN, J. & GEYER, R. F. 2009. John Rose and the early years of sociocybernetics. Kybernetes, 38, 61-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920910930268

What is WOSC

The World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics
(WOSC)
is an association of individuals and organisations devoted to systems and cybernetics.

Purposes

•To promote and foster global and local collaboration of parties interested in Systems and Cybernetics, aiming at the inclusion of representatives from all parts of the world.

•To co-operate with other organisations in matters related to Systems Thinking and Cybernetics.

•To organise triennial congresses in different parts of the world

•To make apparent the effectiveness of methods of Systems thinking and Cybernetics in all areas of social systems and management, modern technology and the sciences in general

•To promote educational programs devoted to the distribution of knowledge and information of Systems and Cybernetics.

Activities

Every three years WOSC organises a world Congress in different parts of the WORLD. It invites Systems thinkers and Cybernetcians to exchange their experiences. Before and after the congress a series o pre- and post- congress activities is performed.

Teodora Ivanuša

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Anita Hrast

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Milan Zorman

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O nas

Kdo smo

Slovensko društvo za sistemsko raziskovanje je prostovoljno, strokovno in neprofitno združenje raziskovalcev, strokovnjakov, praktikov in posameznikov, ki jih povezuje zanimanje za sistemsko in kibernetsko razmišljanje ter razumevanje kompleksnih pojavov in procesov.

Področja

V društvu združujemo raziskovalce teorij sistemov, kibernetike in iz njiju izpeljanih pristopov, kot so teorije inoviranja, organizacijskega razvoja, poslovna kibernetika ter druge sorodne znanstvene in praktične zvrsti. Poleg raziskovalcev vključujemo tudi posameznike in praktike, ki sistemsko razmišljanje uporabljajo v svojem delovanju, odločanju in vsakodnevni praksi.

Naše poslanstvo

Naše temeljno poslanstvo je spodbujanje in pospeševanje raziskovanja ter uporabe teorije in prakse sistemskega in kibernetskega razmišljanja, delovanja in obnašanja (TS&K). Pri tem izhajamo iz prepričanja, da je bistvo sistemskega pristopa celovitost in poglobljena obravnava zapletenih in zelo zapletenih pojavov, ki jih ni mogoče razumeti skozi posamezne izolirane dele, temveč skozi njihove medsebojne povezave in dinamiko.

Sistemski pristopi in sprejemanje kompleksnosti

Poseben poudarek dajemo ustvarjalnemu sodelovanju, zlasti med-disciplinarnemu povezovanju, saj verjamemo, da lahko le z združevanjem različnih znanj in pogledov razvijamo kakovostne raziskave ter učinkovite rešitve za kompleksne izzive sodobnega sveta. S tem spodbujamo tudi prenos znanja med raziskovalnim okoljem, prakso in širšo družbo.

Interdisciplinarnost

Društvo si prizadeva ustvarjati prostor, kjer se prepletajo ideje, izkušnje in znanje ter kjer nastajajo nove sinteze sistemskega razumevanja. S svojim delovanjem želimo prispevati k razvoju znanosti, krepitvi interdisciplinarnega sodelovanja ter boljšemu razumevanju in obvladovanju kompleksnih sistemov v naravi, družbi in gospodarstvu.

Naša vizija

SDSR želi postati globalno priznano središče odličnosti, ki bo spodbujalo transformativni
napredek na področju sistemskih raziskav in spodbujalo interdisciplinarno sodelovanje. Z
gojenjem dinamičnega ekosistema, ki uspeva na področju inovacij in izmenjave znanja, želi
združenje Slovenijo postaviti v ospredje vrhunskih raziskav na področju kompleksnih
sistemov, analize omrežij in optimizacije.

Strategija društva

Image by Clint Adair

Povezovanje

Cilj društva je povezati raziskovalce, strokovnjake in organizacije, ki se ukvarjajo z raziskovanjem sistemov, z organizacijo
konferenc, seminarjev, delavnic in spletnih platform. S tem spodbuja mreženje, izmenjavo informacij in oblikovanje
interdisciplinarnih skupin.

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Omogočanje

Za premagovanje omejitev virov in vrzeli v znanju in spretnostih društvo zagotavlja različne mehanizme omogočanja.
Ponuja raziskovalne štipendije, dostop do znanstvene in strokovne literature s področij sistemov, specializiranih orodij in
programe usposabljanja za krepitev moči raziskovalcev. S tem članom zagotavlja potrebna sredstva za izvajanje
visokokakovostnih sistemskih raziskav.

Image by Rohit Choudhari

Učinek

Končni cilj je s sistemskimi raziskavami doseči dejanski učinek. Društvo spodbuja skupne projekte, ki obravnavajo pereče 
družbene izzive, osebne in družbene odgovornosti 

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Sistemsko razmišljanje me je naučilo, da vse, kar oddamo v svet – misel, besedo, dejanje – po povratni zanki najde pot nazaj k nam in k drugim, zato z vsakim odzivom tiho uravnavamo ravnovesje celote. Ker sem hkrati opazovalka in del sistema, ki ga opazujem, vem, da ne moremo spremeniti vzorca od zunaj, temveč le tako, da spremenimo svoj del zanke – in prav v tem je naša najgloblja moč in modrost.

Tadeja Jere Jakulin

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Igor Perko

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Po O-data-Map (2026) je zasl. prof. ddr. Matjaž MULEJ (teorija sistemov in inovacij, družbena odgovornost) vplival na 645 skupin v 70 državah; po ScholarGPS (2025) spada v 0,25% svoje stroke na svetu; ima preko 3.300 citiranj (Academia, 2024), preko 114.000 branj z vseh celin (ResearchGate, 2024), 15 semestrov dela na tujih univerzah, blizu 2.500 tekstov (okoli 100 teamskih knjig) v blizu 50 državah, je član 3 mednarodnih akademij znanosti; okoli 500 krat je svetovalno sodeloval s prakso. Mentor 26 doktorjem in 62 magistrom.

Matjaž Mulej

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Vojko Potočan

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Teodora Ivanuša

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Anita Hrast

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Milan Zorman

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Members of the boards

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Igor Perko is an assistant professor at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Economics and Business, Slovenia. He is appointed as a director-general in World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) and co-editor of Kybernetes, an JCR indexed scientific journal.

He is connecting the use of systems thinking, cybernetics, big data, predictive and prescriptive analytics, to provide value added in business, non-profit organisations and people. Lately, he is opening the issues of CyberSystemic interactions and Hybrid reality.

He is passionately involved in joining active people and organisations in the systems thinking and Cybernetics community through his activities WOSC.

More can be found Here   

Igor Perko

Francesco Caputo

Francesco Caputo Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Management, and Institutions (DEMI), University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy. He is member of Scientific Board of Reald Summer School (University of Reald Vlore - Albania) and President of ASVSA, Association for research on Viable Systems.

He is member of the Editorial Boards of several international journals and he serves as reviewers for several Italian and international journals. He is the author of more than 100 publications among books, papers, conference proceeding, and abstract and his main research interests include but they are not limited to complexity, knowledge management, and systems thinking. He can be contacted at the following email: francesco.caputo2@unina.it

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Alfonso Reyes is a physicist and a systems engineer from Los Andes University. He has a MSc in Computer Science (University of Maryland), a PhD in Management Cybernetics (University of Humberside, UK) and postdoctoral studies in Organizational Learning (University of Lincoln, UK). He has worked for the last thirty years in addressing organizational problems in the public sector, especially in the administration of justice and the promotion of local development through the capabilities approach. He has been an international consultant for the Interamerican Development Bank and the Agency for International Development (USA) in applying management cybernetics to the public sector in Colombia, Paraguay and Perú.

Alfonso Reyes

Raul Espejo

Raúl Espejo is President of the World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC) and Director of Syncho Research, UK. He is academician of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (IASCYS) and Past Professor of Systems and Cybernetics at the University of Lincoln, UK.  

His research is in organisational cybernetics and systems.  From 1971 to 1973 he was operations director of the CYBERSYN project - the project of the Chilean Government for the management of the industrial economy, under the scientific direction of Professor Stafford Beer.

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The President and co-directors

The Board of directors

Prof.    Alejandro     Ochoa
Prof.    Angela    Espinosa
Prof.    Claudia    Westermann
Prof.    François    Dubois
Prof.    Jon    Walker
Prof.    José    Perez Rios
Dr.    Louis    Klein
Prof.    Marialuisa    Saviano
Prof.    Milan    Zorman
Prof.    Peter    Kawalek
Dr.    Sandro    Schlindwein
Prof.    Tadeja    Jere Jakulin 
prof.    Yingjie    Yang

The Advisory Board

Dr.    Allenna    Leonard
Mr.    German    Bula Escobar
Prof.    Markus    Schwaninger
Prof.    Ray    Ison
Prof.    Stuart     Umpleby
Prof.    Clas-Otto    Wene
prof.    Liu    Sifeng           
Prof. Emer.    Matjaž    Mulej
Prof.    Sergio    Barile
Prof.    Vladimir    Lepskiy

Team Members

Tadeja Jere Jakulin

Sistemsko razmišljanje me je naučilo, da vse, kar oddamo v svet – misel, besedo, dejanje – po povratni zanki najde pot nazaj k nam in k drugim, zato z vsakim odzivom tiho uravnavamo ravnovesje celote. Ker sem hkrati opazovalka in del sistema, ki ga opazujem, vem, da ne moremo spremeniti vzorca od zunaj, temveč le tako, da spremenimo svoj del zanke – in prav v tem je naša najgloblja moč in modrost.

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Matjaž Mulej

Po O-data-Map (2026) je zasl. prof. ddr. Matjaž MULEJ (teorija sistemov in inovacij, družbena odgovornost) vplival na 645 skupin v 70 državah; po ScholarGPS (2025) spada v 0,25% svoje stroke na svetu; ima preko 3.300 citiranj (Academia, 2024), preko 114.000 branj z vseh celin (ResearchGate, 2024), 15 semestrov dela na tujih univerzah, blizu 2.500 tekstov (okoli 100 teamskih knjig) v blizu 50 državah, je član 3 mednarodnih akademij znanosti; okoli 500 krat je svetovalno sodeloval s prakso. Mentor 26 doktorjem in 62 magistrom.

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Igor Perko

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Vojko Potočan

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Communications between Systems and Cybernetics associations

Past WOSC Congresses

19th WOSC Congress, Oxford 2024

WOSC distinguished Professor Dr Raul Espejo with the Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold Medal

Accepted abstracts are published in the WOSC 19th Congress 2024 book of abstracts

Published the book: Shaping Collaborative Ecosystems for Tomorrow
Edited by Igor Perko; Raul Espejo; Alfonso Reyes
Special issue CyberSystemic examinations of collaborative ecosystems in Kybernetes
Special issue in the Journal of Knowledge Management
Special feature in Systems


18th WOSC Congress, Online, September 2021
The Congress took place in Online, 27-30. September 2021. It was co-organised by the Russian Academy of Sciences.
WOSC 2021 related papers were submitted to the following journals.
•    WOSC 2021 Congress book  Perko, Espejo, Lepskiy,  and Novikov
•    Kybernetes  47 (2) On social responsibility, reflexivity and development of cybernetics edited by Igor Perko and Vladimir LepskiyI
•    Systems research and behavioural science 
•    Sustainability Francesco Caputo        
•    Advances in Systems Science and Applications    Mikhail Goubko
•    Systemist    Frank Stowell
•    Economic Strategies   Aleksander Ageev
•    Philosophy questions Vladimir Lepskiy


17th WOSC Congress, Rome, January 2017
The Congress took place in Rome, 25-27. January 2017. It was co-organised by the University of Rome – La Sapienza and Association for research on Viable Systems (ASVSA).
The proceedings of the Congress were published in the book: Cybernetics and Systems: Social and Business Decisions edited by Sergio Barile, Raul Espejo, Igor Perko, Marialuisa Saviano.
WOSC 2017 related papers were submitted to the following journals.
•    Kybernetes with the special issue Cyber-systemic thinking for a smart society
•    Futures. The journal of policy, planning and futures studies with the special issue Futures of Society: The Interactions Revolution
•    Sustainability Science with the special issue  People, Technology and Governance for Sustainability: the contribution of Systems and Cyber-systemic thinking
•    Journal of Knowledge Management
•    Journal of Management and Governance


16th WOSC Congress, Ibague October 2014
The Congress “Our Self-organising World: from Disruption to Reparation” took place in Colombia from the 15th to the 17th of October 2014.
WOSC distinguished Professor Dr Humberto Maturana with the Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold Medal

15th WOSC Congress, Nanjing, China, September 2011
The successful congress was held in Nanjing, People’s Republic of China, during September 15-18, 2011, jointly with the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Grey Systems and Intelligent Services, with local arrangements admirably seen to by Professor Sifeng Liu and his team. The interesting location was the campus of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, on the site of a former Ming Palace when Nanjing was the capital of China. A report on the meeting, and in due course selected papers, will appear in Kybernetes.
At the close of the Congress, an award was made to Professor Julong Deng, the originator of Grey Systems Theory, of Honorary Fellowship of WOSC. He belongs to the Department of Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
Also awarded were the Kybernetes prize for the Outstanding Paper of the Congress, and three for Highly Commended papers. The Outstanding Paper award was for the paper:
o    “Elements of the Parametrical Regulation Theory of the National Economy Evolution Based on Computable General Equilibrium Models” by Abdykappar A. Ashimov, Bahyt T. Sultanov, Zheksenbek M. Adilov, Yuriy V. Borovskiy, Nikolay Yu. Borovskiy, and Askar A. Ashimov, of the Department of Parametrical Regulation of the Kazakh National Technical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The three Highly Commended papers were as follows:
o    “Novel DGM model of systematic main variable trend forecasting based on interval grey number sequence” by Naiming Xie, of the College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics , 29 Yudao St., Nanjing.
o    “P-Moment Stability of Impulsive Stochastic Differential Systems and Its Application in Grey Stochastic Delay Systems” by Chunhua Su,Dang Luo, of the College of Mathematics and Information Science, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang, 464000, P.R. China.
o    “Worst-case Absolute Regret based Solution Algorithms for Optimization Problems with Interval Uncertainty” by Jerzy Jozefczyk and Marcin Siepak, of the Institute of Informatics, Wrocław University of Technology, Wrocław, Poland.
Selected papers from this Congress have been published in Kybernetes: Vol 41 No 3/4 with contributions by Jose Perez Rios et al, Alfonso Reyes, German Bula, Raul Espejo and Markus Schwaninger , and also in Vol 41 No 5/6 and Vol 41 No 7/8, both edited by Prof. Sifeng Liu,  local organiser of the Congress.


14th WOSC Congress, Wrocław, Poland, September 2008
The 14th International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics was held in Wroclaw, Poland on September 9–12, 2008. The event was hosted by the Institute of Information Science and Engineering at the Wroclaw University of Technology.
Full reports of the Congress were published in Kyberentes Vol. 38 Nos 1/2, 2009, pp. 257-70.
Kybernetes Research Award (outstanding paper):
o    Dorota Bors and Marek Majewski. “On the controllability to the interval of the system governed by a hyperbolic equation”.
Kybernetes Research Awards (highly commended paper):
o    Pasqual Francesc Esteve-Calvo and Miguel Lloret-Climent. “Turbulences as an example of disorder in systems-linkage”.
o    Gonçalo Furtado. “Gordon Past Exchanges between cybernetics and architecture and the envisioning of the informational environment”.
o    Gary Boyd and Wojciech Jaworski. “Effective learning and efficient production through modelling, simulation and three types of conversation”.
Organising committee awards (best presentations by young scientists):
o    Jernej Belak for the presentation of the paper “Life cycle stage and enterprise ethical climate case of Slovenian enterprises” by Jernej Belak, Matjaz Mulej.
o    Gintautas Narvydas for the presentation of the paper “Expert guided autonomous, mobile robot learning” by Gintautas Narvydas, Vidas Raudonis, Rimvydas Simutis.
o    Anna Pakshina for the presentation of the paper “The research of the young genius’s phenomenon”.
o    Julia Pakshina for the presentation of the paper “The scientific predictions of Vladimir Odoevsky and web-technologies”.
Three post-congress publications have been released which contain extended and updated versions of the papers presented during the Congress:
o    Knowledge-Based Intelligent System Advancements: Systemic and Cybernetic Approaches, J. Józefczyk, D. Orski, Eds., Information Science Reference (IGI Global), Hershey, New York 2011 (with Foreword by R. Vallée)
o    Kybernetes, Vol. 38 issue 7/8, 2009
o    Systems Science, vol. 35, No. 1, 2009


13th WOSC Congress, Maribor, Slovenija, July 2005
The Thirteenth International WOSC Congress was held in Maribor, Slovenia, during July 6-10, 2005. The local organiser was Professor Matjaž Mulej of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Maribor (joint author of the paper: “How to restore Bertalanffian systems thinking”, Kybernetes, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 48-61, 2004)
The 6th International Conference of Sociocybernetics, organised by the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics (RC51) of the International Sociological Association was an independent part of the WOSC Congress. Details of the combined event can be found at http://epfip.uni-mb.si/wosc&isa.htm.
A report on the Congress by Prof. Robert Vallée appears in Kybernetes vol. 35, 2006, no. 1/2, pp. 230-233. It includes the text of his address to the meeting, as well as one delivered on behalf of Prof. John Rose, Honorary Director and founder of WOSC, who was unable to be present. It also includes a brief message from Dr. Alex Andrew, Director-General, who was also unable to be present, and an address by Prof. Brian Rudall, Vice-President of WOSC and Director of the Norbert Wiener Institute, and Editor-in Chief of Kybernetes.
Selected papers from the Congress will appear in Kybernetes.


12th WOSC Congress, Pittsburgh, March 2002
The Twelfth International WOSC Congress was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during March 24-26, 2002, as a joint event with the Fourth Workshop of The International Institute for General Systems Studies. Details can be found here of the IIGSS.
Reports on the meeting can be found in Kybernetes, vol. 31, no. 7/8, 2002, pp. 1156-1168, and selected papers have appeared in vol. 31, no. 9/10, 2002 and vol. 32, no. 5/6, 2003. A short report has appeared in Industrial Robot, Volume 29, Number 4, 2002, pp.322-323, and a very short one in Robotica, vol. 20, part 5, 2002, p. 573.
In addition to the above-mentioned selected papers, special issues of Kybernetes have been devoted to topics that received particular attention in the Congress, including vol. 32, no. 7/8, 2003, on “Some new theories about space and time”, vol. 33, no. 2, 2004, on “Grey systems theory and applications” and vol. 33, no. 5/6, 2004, on “Reconstructability analysis”.


11th WOSC Congress, London, August 1999
The Eleventh Congress was held in Brunel University, Uxbridge (West London), Middlesex, United Kingdom, during 23-27 August 1999. A selection of papers from it appear in issues of Kybernetes vol. 29(2000). Details of the Proceedings published in book form, and additional notes on certain papers, can be found at: Eleventh Congress, 1999


10th WOSC Congress, Bucharest, August 1996
A Special Issue of Kybernetes, comprising nos. 6 and 7 of vol. 26, 1997, contains 16 papers from the Sociocybernetics section organised by Dr Felix Geyer of the Netherlands Universities’ Centre for Co-ordination of Research in Social Sciences. It also has, as the Editorial Preface (Prof. B.H. Rudall) on pp. 632-633, a brief report on the Congress as a whole. An earlier report by B.H. Rudall appeared in Kybernetes vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 84-90, and on the General Assembly of the Directorate on the same occasion, on pp. 90-91.


9th WOSC Congress, New Delhi, January 1993
The Proceedings are published as: Recent Advances in Cybernetics and Systems, ed. A Ghosal and P.N. Murthy, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1993, ISBN 0-07-46119-X.
A report on the meeting appears in the News, Conferences and Technical Reports section of Kybernetes. It includes contributions from B.H. Rudall and R. Vallée. It is in Kybernetes vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 60-66, 1993.
The Presidential Address to the Congress is published as: World in Torment: A Time Whose Idea Must Come, by Stafford Beer, Kybernetes vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 15-43, 1993.


8th WOSC Congress, New York City, 1990
The Proceedings are published as “Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems”, ed. C.N. Manikopoulis, The New Jersey Institute of Technology Press, Newark, 1990. They give a selection of communications and others may be found in “The Cybernetics of Complex Systems”, ed. F. Geyer, Intersystems Publications. There is a report by B.H. Rudall in Kybernetes, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 61-63.


7th WOSC Congress, Imperial College, London, Sept. 1987
The Proceedings are published (2 vols.) in Cybernetics and Systems: The Way Ahead, ed. J. Rose, Thales Publications, Lytham St Annes, England, 1987. ISBN 0-9506151-1-0 for set of 2 volumes; 0-9506151-2-9 for vol. 1; 0-9506151-3-7 for vol. 2. Also report by R. Vallée in Kybernetes, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 55-56.

6th WOSC Congress, Paris, September 1984
The Proceedings are published (2 vols) in 6ème Congrès International de Cybernétique et de Systémique {6th International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems}, published by AFCET, Paris. ISBN 2-903-677-01-8. Also reports by R. Vallée and B.H. Rudall in Kybernetes, vol. 14, pp. 51-53.


5th WOSC Congress, Mexico City, 1981


4th WOSC Congress, Amsterdam, 1978
The Proceedings are published as Current Topics in Cybernetics and Systems, ed. J. Rose, WOGSC, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1978, ISBN 3-540-08977-2, 0-387-08977-2.


3rd WOSC Congress, Bucharest, 1975
The Proceedings are published in Modern Trends in Cybernetics and Systems, ed. J. Rose & C. Bilciu, Editura Technica, Bucharest and Springer, New York, 1977


2nd WOSC Congress, Oxford, 1972


1st WOSC Congress, London, September 1969
The Proceedings are published (3 vols.) in Progress of Cybernetics, ed. J. Rose, Gordon & Breach, London, 1970, Library of Congress catalog card number 73-111944, ISBN 0-677-143109

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Cybernetics & Systems Thinking Distinctions and Awards

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). By the same time it was published by Hermann et Cie in Paris, France (1949). 

 This book was the beginning of cybernetics as a transdiscipline. The term control is a loaded one and the term communication needs much clarification. Wiener’s book encapsulated the outcome of discussions about feedback loops and circular causality in self-regulating systems.

The name comes from the Greek for steersman (the equivalent in Latin is gubernator), a term that Plato used to describe the art of steering ships; much later, in the nineteenth century, the French scientist Ampere, used it in reference to the science of government. In the second edition of his book, Wiener added a few chapters showing the relevance of cybernetics to learning, artificial intelligence, adaptation and language.

Today feedback mechanisms are ubiquitous; they happen whenever part of the output of a system returns as its input, which is thereby changed. This is the case of a normal heating system and any servo-mechanism ranging from missiles to robots. It is also the case of complex systems, which depend on memory to learn; feedback is happening when input information is affected by the output of the previous observation. As for communication we understand it as coordination of actions, going beyond making sure that the message has been received; only when we manage to produce coordinated actions we can claim that communication has been achieved.

Wiener’s book arose from his collaboration with Warren McCulloch and others. McCulloch was acknowledged by Stafford Beer and many others as their mentor. After his death 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. More info can be found on the  Wikipedia page.
 

 Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold Medal

Norbert Wiener gold medal Awardees

N. Ceausescu (1978)

T.C. Helvey (1981)

S. Beer (1984)

J. Rose (1987)

R. Vallée (1990)

H. von Foerster (1995)

B.H. Rudall (1996)

I. Prigogine (1999)

C. Pert (2000)

Alex Andrew (2009)

Humberto Maturana (2014)

Matjaž Mulej (2019)

Raul Espejo (2024)

 

Honorary Fellowships

WOSC has established a limited number of Honorary Fellowships for eminent scientists in the fields of cybernetics, systems, computers and related disciplines. The following have accepted the WOSC invitation:

Professor Julong Deng ( P.R. of China)

D. Gabor, Nobel Laureate (UK)(In Memoriam)

B.D. Josephson, Nobel Laureate (UK)

L. Pauling, Nobel Laureate (USA)(In M.)

I. Prigogine, Nobel Laureate (Belgium)(In M.)

H.A. Simon, Nobel Laureate (USA)

Evelyne Andreewsky (France)

A.M. Andrew, Reading (UK)

A. Balevski, Bulgarian Acad. Sci. (Bulgaria)

S. Beer, Manchester Business School (UK)(In M.)

J. Bigelow, Princeton Inst. Adv. Stud. (USA)

Zdislaw Bubnicki (Poland)(In M.)

C. Chagas, Vatican Acad. Sci. (Brazil)

A. Danzin, I.N.R.I.A. (France)

D. Drimer, Ecol. Univ. Bucharest (Romania)

R. Ericson, Soc. Gen. Syst. Res. (USA)

R. Espejo, Univ. Lincolnshire (UK)

F.H. George, Brunel Univ. (UK)(In M.)

F. Geyer, Centre Co-ord. Res. Soc. Sci. (Netherlands)

A. Ghosal, SOMAC (India) 

Hermann Haken, Stuttgart (Germany)

T.C. Helvey, Univ. Tenn. (USA)(In M.)

C. Hammer, Sperry-Univac (USA)(In M.)

Jerzy Józefczyk, Wrocław (Poland)

Kozesnik, Cze.-Slo. Acad. Sci. (In M.)

L. Kumar, Goverm. of India (India)

M. Manescu, Acad. Econ. Stud. (Romania)(In M.)

M.D. Mesarovic, West. Res. Univ. (USA)

Matjaz Mulej, Maribor (Slovenia)

M. Nalecz, Pol. Acad. Sci. (Poland)

E. Nicolau, Polytch. Inst. Bucharest (Romania)(In M.)

J.D. Palmer, IEEE (USA)

S. Ramo, T.R.W. Inc. (USA)

B.H. Rudall, U. North Wales (UK)

J.G. Santesmases, A.E.I.A. (Spain)(In M.)

Sifeng Liu (P.R. of China)

Yi Lin (USA)

M. Valentinuzzi, Inst. Cyber. (Argentina)

R. Vallée, Univ. Paris-Nord. (France)

Sir G. Vickers (UK)(In M.)

L.A. Zadeh, Univ. Cal. (USA)

J. v.d. Zouwen, F. Univ. Am. (Netherlands)

WOSC membership
 

A member of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics contributes with his knowledge, experience and cooperation to the development and application of systems and cybernetic thinking, action and behavior.

A WOSC ember of the society primarily:

* participates in the study and application of theories of systems, cybernetics and related fields;
* contributes to the development of a comprehensive, creative, collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to complex phenomena, processes and problems;
* participates in congresses, symposia, consultations, seminars, lectures and other forms of professional education;
* participates in the exchange of knowledge and experience between members and with related organizations;
* participates, to the best of his ability, in the research, professional, educational, publishing and other activities of the society;
* contributes to the development of professional ethics, professional codes and principles in the field of theories of systems and cybernetics;
* supports the operation of the society and the implementation of its purposes and goals;
* acts in accordance with the statute, decisions of the bodies of the society and the principles of professional and responsible cooperation;

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