E-Media Professor s Technology Article Wins International Award for Excellence

Technology is changing the social fabric of cities in Central Europe and pushing them into a new cultural renaissance, according to University of Cincinnati Electronic Media Professor

Peter DePietro

. His research into this renaissance was praised by the

Technology, Knowledge & Society Research Network

, which recently awarded DePietro an International Award for Excellence for Volume 12 of The Technology Collection for his article “

Tech in Europe: Cultural Reboot

.”

The

International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society

offers the annual award for newly published research or thinking that has been recognized to be outstanding by members of the Technology, Knowledge & Society Research Network. DePietro's winning article was selected from the ten highest-ranked articles that emerged from the peer preview process. Published in the peer-reviewed

Journal of Technologies in Society

, DePietro’s research compares Europe’s “cultural reboot” of today to the existential movements of the past.

“German existentialist

Friedrich Nietzsche

advocated for cultural rebirth in Europe,” DePietro wrote. “Europe is experiencing such a rebirth with digital media: creating artistic and social cultures that are wildly interesting and progressive and have technology integrated in them.”

His article argues that Vienna is a “hotbed” of innovative applications of digital media in art. Vienna is creating a new kind of “digital modernism” by creating things that are “different, weird and strange.” DePietro also states that Berlin is poised to become a leader in digital media in Europe by integrating it into art, commerce, education and lifestyle.

“Digital media is bringing together high society and bohemianism, in an effort to create a new economy,” DePietro wrote.

The professor has taught within the E-Media Division at UC’s

College-Conservatory of Music

since January 2009 and is the founding Director of Digital Innovation Lab: A New Media and Technology Incubator. He’s taught courses at UC that focus on social media, new media, interactive media, electronic game design and development, and digital storytelling and innovation.

“In my career as a scholar, tech artist, digital media leader and teacher, I have known innovation to be the all-important foundation of significant new work,” he said. “Innovation is authentic. Innovators are makers.”

DePietro is especially attuned to the effects of innovative digital media and interactive technologies on culture. He previously served as the founding Director of Digital and New Media for the Clinton Foundation in New York and the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. DePietro analyzed new technologies and implemented those that best communicated former President Bill Clinton’s post-Washington message, and led a team in the design and development of new media platforms to support Clinton's initiatives, among other responsibilities. His team's work won an international award.

DePietro is also the author of the book

Transforming Education with New Media

, published by Peter Lang International Publishers. He is Associate Editor of the

International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society,

and his research on new media and emerging technologies has been published internationally in academic journals, as well as the mainstream press.

For more information on DePietro’s research, visit

http://www.depietro.com/

.  

About the Technology Collection:

The Technology Collection has an acceptance rate of 58 percent and a circulation of over 64,000. This collection explores innovative theories and practices relating technology to society. The collection is cross-disciplinary in its scope, offering a meeting point for technologists with a concern for the social and social scientists with a concern for the technological. The focus is primarily, but not exclusively, on information and communications technologies. Established in 2005 and currently publishing its 13th volume, The Technology Collection is indexed by EBSCO, the Australian Research Council, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Cabell’s, Genamics Journal Seek and Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory. This collection offers both personal and institutional subscriptions and is published electronically and in print. For more information, please visit

www.cgnetworks.org/journals/slr

.

About Common Ground Research Networks:

The Technology Collection contains four among the 70 scholarly journals published by Common Ground Research Networks. Common Ground, which was founded in 1984, seeks to take the pivotal ideas and challenges at play within established disciplines and create spaces for interaction that cut horizontally across legacy knowledge structures. As a result, in addition to providing a space for publication within its catalog of journals and their associated book imprints, Common Ground encourages researchers and practitioners to meet at the annual academic conferences that it organizes around the world and then connect and share their work virtually using Scholar, Common Ground’s innovative social knowledge software. For more information, please visit

www.cgnetworks.org

.