Digitalisation

„The world is undergoing a digital transformation. We need answers to fundamental questions about digitalisation. The WWTF connects our community – and not just with money!“

Prof. Gerti Kappel, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at the Vienna University of Technology

Digital Humanism

Digital Humanism is a joint initiative from actors in science, politics, business and civil society, committed to making technological development human-centered, according to the motto: we can and want to actively shape the world we live in, while we still have the opportunity to do so - "we can choose anything ... as long as we can still choose anything." We want to continue living in a civilization based on the rule of law, fundamental and human rights, the social market economy and fact-based free discourse.

The starting point for Digital Humanism in Vienna is based on preliminary work by the WWTF (2019 study) and the "Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism", which you can read and sign here.

In 2020, WWTF launched its first major call for projects in the field of Digital Humanism, calling for computer scientist and researchers from the humanities and social sciences to work together interdisciplinarily on questions of digitization. Click here to see further WWTF funding activities and explore more resources on Digital Humanism.

Recent WWTF Projects

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Young people against hate speech

Young people, in particular, are often confronted with "hate speech". Digital platforms often react by deleting, blocking and banning. “Digital moral courage” in online discourse is seen as a promising means and alternative model for reducing hate speech. The goal of the project from Ulrike Zartler's team is to strengthen this new form of moral courage.

Improving augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) has become an integral part of our smartphones. The team of Hannes Kaufmann deals with novel guidance systems in large and complex buildings, where it is important to present users with meaningful virtual content that is overlaid with real objects. The concepts and methods they have developed may be applied in the near future in various areas, such as AR navigation.

Talking charts

Whether in the daily newspaper, in online media, or in professional journals, visualizations are often used to make data more understandable. In daily topics ranging from COVID-19 to the climate crisis, diagrams and charts have become a ubiquitous means of communicating important messages. The team of Laura Kösten explores human comprehension and sheds light on how creators and viewers alike understand messages (and apparently conveyed content), engage with and finally decode them.