Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society

The Alexander von Humboldt Institut for Internet und Society (HIIG) researches topics about internet and society since its founding in 2011. Its goal is to foster a better understanding of the social, cultural, economical and technical dimension of digitalisation. Jeanette Hofmann, Ingolf Pernice, Björn Scheuermann, Wolfgang Schulz and Thomas Schildhauer make up the Research Directorate.[1]

The Institute was founded as an integrated cooperations partner by the organisations Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Universität der Künste Berlin, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung and Hans-Bredow-Institut for media research in Hamburg.

HIIG, along with the Oxford Internet Institute, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and other institutes, founded the Global Network of Internet & Society Research Centers (NoC). The HIIG also initiated the European Hub of the NoC.

Founding

The Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Universität der Künste Berlin as well as the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung  make up the founders of HIIG. Working with the Hans-Bredow-Institut for media research in Hamburg as a fourth partner, the research institute HIIG aims to bring together leading researchers and stakeholders from all levels of society in order to research topics in relation to the internet. In the foreground are topics about innovation, regulation, as well as the fields of information law, media law and constitutional law. The founding goal of HIIG was to better understand the changes digitalisation causes in society.[2]

Funding

The founding of the institute was made possible by a €4.5 million grant from Google; Google donated a further €4.5 million in 2014.[3][4] Other sponsors include BMBF, BMWi, DFG, innogy Stiftung, VolkswagenStiftung, dwerft-Bündnis des BMBF, Cisco and KPMG.

Founding directors and governance

The four founding directors are Ingold Pernice (Ingolf Pernice (Humboldt-Universität), Thomas Schildhauer (Universität der Künste) and Jeanette Hofmann (Wissenschaftszentrum) as well as Wolfgang Schulz (Hans-Bredow-Institut).[5] The scientific independence is maintained institute's research agenda and content-related orientation developed by the research directors, who are also conducting research in further prestigious academic institutions. Furthermore, the “funding structure and the research work are separated by a division into the non-profit research organisation HIIG gGmbH and non-profit financing organisations GFI gGmbH and Foundation for Internet and Society.” An independent research team, along with the controlling committee of the scientific advisory board, determines the goals and contents of research projects. The institute began working in October 2011.[6] The founding of the institute occurred in March 2012. Currently the Stiftung Internet und Gesellschaft is a stakeholder of HIIG.

Research Programs – Research Topics

The research programs of HIIG is based on three central questions:

  • The development of the digital society: what relevant concepts and theoretical approaches are there?
  • The relationship between actors, data and infrastructure in a digital society: what are key factors of change?
  • The knowledge dimension: can new patterns of research and knowledge transfer be observed in the digital age?[7]

Selected research projects include: Opening Science, Social Media Governance, Empirical Copyright Research, Global Privacy Governance.[8]

Structure and members

Stakeholders of HIIG is the Stifting Internet und Gesellschaft which consists of a foundation council and an executive committee[9]. HIIG is led by five directors. Post-docs, doctoral candidates, associate researchers, guest researchers and scientific employes research at HIIG. The Management is led by Karina Preiß since the founding of HIIG[9].

Events and science communication

The Digital Salon has been held once a month at the institute since 2012 and is broadcast live in cooperation with Cooperative Berlin. In addition, HIIG organises scientific conferences, such as AoIR 2016 of the Association of Internet Researchers, workshops, talks and lecture series. In a series of events launched in 2017, HIIG together with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) invited “European thinkers” to share their thoughts on the digital society and thus gain a better understanding of comprehensive transformation processes.[10]

HIIG develops various formats for the exchange between science, politics, business and civil society. In addition to numerous events and workshops, HIIG offers a platform for knowledge transfer through the Digital Society Blog[11] and the podcast Exploring Digital Spheres.[12]

References
  1. "Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft", Wikipedia (in German), 2019-06-08, retrieved 2019-08-06
  2. Jens Brambusch: Google forscht. In: Financial Times Deutschland. 19. Juli 2011, S. 23.
  3. "Financing". HIIG. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  4. "Google's Academic Influence in Europe". Google Transparency Project. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  5. Joachim Fahrun: Die Netz-Szene wird akademisch.
  6. Jens Brambusch: Google forscht. In: Financial Times Deutschland. 19. Juli 2011, S. 23.
  7. "Forschung am HIIG", Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft (in German), retrieved 2017-06-13
  8. "Forschungsprojekte", Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft (in German), retrieved 2017-06-13
  9. "Organisation". HIIG. Retrieved 2019-11-13.
  10. "Redenreihe: Making Sense of the Digital Society". HIIG.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  11. "Digital Society Blog". HIIG.de. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  12. "Exploring digital spheres – a podcast by HIIG". HIIG.de. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
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