Foreword
There is no doubt that the modern societies or, better, the modern society as a
whole, has to cope with an extremely interesting and, at the same time, equally
critical social phenomenon of change. Although both social change and the mana-
gement of change are not unknown in the history of human civilization and not
outside the experience of the human race, this specific case has nevertheless the
characteristics of a very difficult, serious and urgent problem as concerns both the
present and the future of human societies.
It is obvious that the reference here is to the sudden, unexpected, extremely ra-
pid and unbelievably wide and deep penetration of the so called Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) in almost every aspect and side of the mo-
dern human life. The quality of this change, i.e. the creation of a parallel digital
environment for human day-to-day activities (e-banking, e-learning etc.) and the
quantity of this change, expressed in terms of speed, size, areas of influence and
magnitude of power, make this case of change unique in the history of human-
kind and, at the same time, its management by the modern societies extremely
difficult.
We should take into account that an enormous amount of changes, bringing forth
a lot of new and hitherto unknown things, activities, capabilities, possibilities,
media etc., took place almost within a single human generation. We should, thus,
admit that the society and especially the scientific society must react both in time
and with the broader possible view of the whole situation, if we are to cope ef-
fectively with this modern kind of the «genie of Aladdin». And, fortunately, this
is obviously the case, if we take into account the extensive number of scientific
activities (conferences, workshops, publications etc.), organized, taking place all
over the world and covering every aspect of the problem at hand.
The workshop entitled
‘Surveillance in Academia’
, organized by the Ionian Uni-
versity, Department of Archive and Library Sciences, in collaboration with LiSS
(Living in Surveillance Societies Programme), is a very good example of such a
scientific reaction and approach, which tries not only to handle the unavoidable
technicalities of a new environment, but, at the same time, to address very im-
portant aspects of the whole situation, aspects having to do with attitudes, ethi-
cal and moral issues, established practices etc. The table of contents of this vo-
lume is characteristic from this point of view. In this concern, however, it should
be stressed that this workshop is not a single event. It is in fact a part in a series
