The 52nd Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

July 13-18, 2008

ISSS2008: Systems that Make a Difference

Location: University of Wisconsin, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street, Madison, Wisconsin

Paper deadline: May 10, 2008

The title for this conference borrows from Gregory Bateson’s definition of information as “a difference that makes a difference.” The question for systems researchers and practitioners is, “what difference are we making?”

For more information see the Madison 2008 main page, and the Madison 2008 Conference Announcement

Confirmed Plenary Guest Speakers

• Timothy F. H. Allen, President-elect, ISSS (2009) and Professor, Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin
• Steve Carpenter, Professor, Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin
• Manfred Drack, Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science, Vienna, Austria
• Jon Foley, Professor, Department of Sustainability and Global Environment, University of Wisconsin
• David L. Hawk, Dean of the School of Management and Faculty in the New Jersey School of Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Doug McDavid, Executive Research Consultant, Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA
• Bobby Milstein, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Syndemics Prevention Network
• Bill Rouse, Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with a joint appointment in the College of Computing. Also, Fellow, International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) 2006 and recipient of the IBM Faculty Award in 2005 and 2006
• David Schwartz, Professor, Chemistry and Genetics, University of Wisconsin
• David Waltner-Toews, Professor, Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph and founding president of the Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health
• Jennifer Wilby, Director of the Centre for Systems Studies and faculty member in Management Systems at the University of Hull, UK

If you were unable to attend the 51st Annual Meeting of the ISSS, the Tokyo 2007 Retrospective includes digests, photographs, presentations, and downloadable MP3 audio.

For reference, the original conference pages have been retained.

The ISSS World web site is one of the places where members convene, but it doesn't have to be the only place!

For those who use Facebook, you can follow this link to the Systems Science group, or just search for "Systems Science" and add yourself.

We'll be less formal over there, for anyone who wants to leave exchange ideas or have discussions.  This is an experiment in alternative forms of communication, for anyone that wants to try it out.

David Ing, VP of Communications and Systems Education.

The 50th Annual Conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, was held in Sonoma, California, USA from July 9 to 14, 2006. The Sonoma 2006 Retrospective includes materials released publically, for individuals who were unable to attend the conference.

The original conference pages have been preserved as a reference.

The ISSS logo has evolved from the original integral symbol, chosen by the founders to represent the society's primary interest in integration and synthesis, which is what makes the ISSS such a unique and distinctive organization.