Thirty years of Kybernetes

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (2001), "Thirty years of Kybernetes", Kybernetes, Vol. 30 No. 9/10. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2001.06730iaa.001

Thirty years of Kybernetes

Thirty years of Kybernetes

Keywords: Cybernetics, Systems

This Special Issue has been compiled to mark 30 years of the publication of Kybernetes: The International Journal of Systems & Cybernetics.

The Journal not only is a major contributor to the literature but also has during this period been chosen as the official publication of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC), which is a federation of national associations and institutions devoted to systems and cybernetics.

The founding editor, Professor J. Rose (Plate 1) decided that cybernetics and systems lacked a forum for the exchange of knowledge and information. With great foresight he set about forming a world organisation (now called WOSC), arranging congresses, seminars and meetings and publishing books that were relevant to these fields. From these activities the need for a journal that allowed both readers and contributors to communicate research, development and ideas, naturally arose. Kybernetes was founded and immediately became the only world-class publication in systems and cybernetics currently available.

Plate 1 The Founding Editor of Kybernetes - Professor J. Rose

We would wish to send our best wishes and thanks to all those who have supported Kybernetes from these fledgling years to its present maturity. We will continue in our future volumes to publish contributions that we believe are of the highest quality and will complement those included in the Journal over the last decades.

We are, of course, deeply indebted to Dr Rose and we have reminded ourselves on each of our anniversaries of our good fortune in having such an untiring enthusiast, who was prepared to devote over 30 years to the advance of systems and cybernetics.

Whilst the aims of this Journal have not changed over the years, cybernetics and systems, as one would expect, has been transformed and is still growing from strength to strength. Over this time the Journal has contained some of the most important articles and papers contributed by some of the world's most distinguished scientists. Who, we can ask, would have predicted in 1971 when Volume 1 was published, that it would at some future date contain ten issues of traditional paper format as well as being part of a comprehensive multiple access information service, based on Internet Online Publishing?

Congratulations on the 30th anniversary of this Journal have been received from all corners of the globe. We are indeed most grateful for this response and are flattered by the encouraging comments made about the high standards that have been maintained and the prestigious position it has attained in the cybernetics and systems communities. Many of these sentiments are expressed in the papers that have been published here, whilst others have sent individual greetings. Obviously not all can be published in this Special Issue, but we do thank all who have sent communications and papers. We would wish, however, to include some of the messages we have received in this preface. They include:

The President, Professor Stafford Beer and the Director-General, Professor Robert Vallée of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, have sent their 30th birthday congratulations on behalf of the Directorate and the federated institutions and organisations that constitute WOSC.

Professor Yoshikazu, Chairman of the Japan Institute of Systems (JSR) Research, writes:

It is a great pleasure to be able to congratulate you on the 30th anniversary of the birth of Kybernetes. As Information Technology spreads world-wide the production processes and other factors of life environment are revolutionalized, giving human life unfathomable influence. As the information technology is now utilized everywhere, the foresight of Norbert Wiener who worked out cybernetics, is again amazing. In the twenty-first century the harmony between the human and his products is ever more important and the protection of nature and the environment is necessary for the peaceful development of the human race. It is hoped that the idea and technics of cybernetics will provide a great contribution to the achievement of our ideal. Now I realize again that the splendid periodical Kybernetes is providing help to our real world and I wish for further development of the publication. Finally, I want to express recognition of the hard work of Professor Brian Rudall.

Professor Dr Abdul Raouf, the Pro-Rector of the Ghulam Isqaq Khan (GIK). Institute of Engineering Science & Technology, Topi, Pakistan, e-mailed:

As a member of the Advisory Board of Kybernetes for more than a quarter of a century I have seen the journal grow and grow at an admirable pace. It is in fact one of the few journals of repute that deal with topics of a multidisciplinary nature. To have a journal which has an admirable standing among the world's scientific community is extremely satisfying for all concerned with it. I find every issue of the journal better in content and quality than the previous one. The present Editor-in-Chief and his team deserve congratulations and I feel honoured to congratulate him the members of the Advisory Board and the publishers on completing 30 years of Kybernetes. I would also like to congratulate Professor Rose, the founding editor of the journal for taking a timely initiative in starting it.

Academician Professor Manea Manescu (Romania), whose invited paper is also published in this issue, writes:

I sincerely congratulate you on the 30th anniversary and wish to send my sincere esteem and respects for the valuable scientific works published by this prestigious journal.

From the USA, the distinguished Professor of Systems Science, at Binghamton George J. Klir, says in his invited paper, included in this Special Issue:

Writing for the 30th issue of Kybernetes is for me a special way of recognising the important role that Kybernetes has played over the last three decades in the areas of cybernetics and systems research.

From Switzerland, Professor Mansour of the Institute of Automatic Control at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich has emailed:

I would like to congratulate the editor-in-chief, the editors and MCB University Press on the successful work during 30 years. My best wishes for the future, as the area covered by the journal shall be always extremely important.

From India we have received the congratulations of Professor A. Ghosal of Systems and Cybernetics in Management (SCIMA), Professor D. Dutta Majumder and Dr Prasun K. Roy (Indian Statistical Institute and the Institute of Cybernetics Systems & Information, Calcutta, India), who have their invited papers included in our special birthday issue.

Scientists from the People's Republic of China have supported Kybernetes from its beginnings and we are pleased to receive the congratulations of Professor Han-Fu Chen (Institute of Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing) and Professors Xuemou Wu, Xiangjun Feng and Dinghe Guo, whose invited papers appear here.

Many more of these congratulatory messages are included in the invited contributions contained in this commemorative issue, which, together with some of the regular journal sections, mark the publication of Volume 30. Over 30 years the Journal has remained the world's authoritative voice of cybernetics and systems and it will continue to serve these communities into the new millennium. It has added new features and responded positively to the technological advances of the age and has reflected new cybernetic and systems thinking. This could not be better illustrated than by the publication of its Millennium Issues Parts I-III (700pp.), which heralded Kybernetes commitment to research and development in these fields into the twenty-first century.

B.H. RudallEditor-in-Chief