Mission of the online conference

Organizing international “intelligent communications networks” (R. Collins); new interdisciplinary project teams and “invisible colleges” (groups of scholars and practitioners dealing with the most pressing problems of social communications and contemporary digital network society); contributing to the progress of the world scientific and educational community and its ability to rise above any political contexts with an awareness of their contextual transient nature. 

HISTORICAL REFERENCE

The main organizer of the International Transdisciplinary Research and Practice Online Conference Connect-Universum is Tomsk State University (TSU) represented by the TSU Department of Social Communications.

Tomsk is a Siberian city with more than 400 years of history, the university capital of Russia; it is listed among the hundred world’s best student cities according to the QS agency (Quacquarelli Symonds).

The Connect-Universum Online Conference has almost a 20-year long history; over the years, the Conference has changed its status from interregional (2004) to all-Russian (2006, 2009), and, finally, international (since 2012). In 2018, representatives of universities from 14 countries participated in the Conference. The theme of the Conference has been changing with the time as well. However, they have always focused on the issues of social communication and the digital network society, and the key word in the title has always been “universum” (borrowed from the Latin ūniversum, summa rerum “the world as a whole” or “all things”).  The concept of “universum” with regard to social communications, and the digital network society as a whole, means that there are many “dimensions” of these phenomena, which implies studying them through various scientific disciplines. And, vice versa, the intersection and complementarity of various research paradigms (philosophical, social, humanitarian, natural, scientific, and techno-scientific) makes it possible to create a multidimensional transdisciplinary picture of the modern social communicative reality and digital network society.

Another key word in the title of the Conference is “connect”, which is very relevant to social communication in the digital age. “Connect” is an indication of a new (online) format of the Conference, whose participants can connect and communicate with each other, being in different parts of the planet. Finally, the title “Connect-Universum” has gradually become one of the brands of Tomsk State University.

In 2020, the Connect-Universum Conference is part of the V International University Cities Forum. The Forum has become an international platform for joint work of government bodies, company leaders and researchers from leading universities, representatives of IT-business and social entrepreneurs. The aim of the Forum is to come up with a concept for the development of university cities in different regions of the world.