On April 25, 2018, the central transfer conference of the "Cloud and Crowd Challenge" project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will take place inFrankfurt am Main. The focus is on the question of how the effects of digitalization on the world of work and society can be successfully shaped. A particular focus of this event, which is being coordinated by the Department of Information Systems at the University of Kassel in cooperation with IG Metall and Ver.di, is on crowdworking platforms. Top-class speakers from society, business and science have been recruited for this event.

"Digitalization is currently changing the way we work, live and communicate with each other," says Prof. Dr Jan Marco Leimeister, Head of the Department of Information Systems and Director of the Scientific Centre for IT Design (ITeG) at the University of Kassel. "As Europe's largest economy and the fourth largest economy in the world, Germany must ensure that it does not fall behind economies such as the USA, China or Japan in this area," says Leimeister. "Crowd mechanisms are increasingly finding their way into internal company processes and play an important role in shaping new forms of digital work," says Dr. Christoph Peters, research group and project leader at the Department of Information Systems at the University of Kassel.

The project "Challenge Cloud and Crowd - Shaping new organizational concepts for services in a sustainable way", funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), is intensively examining the effects of this digitalization on the economy and society. One focus is on the new organization of work via crowdworking platforms. These are intermediaries on which organizations such as companies can advertise work via an open call to a large number of potential workers. The project consortium includes the Institute for Social Science Research Munich, the University of Kassel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, IG Metall, ver.di and andrena objects AG.

Which key digital trends are currently influencing the economy and society? What conditions are necessary to ensure that Germany remains 'fit' for the digital age? How can we ensure that people continue to have 'good work' in the future? And what will the working world of the future look like? These and other questions will be discussed with the following speakers, among others:

- Christiane Benner, Second Chairwoman of IG Metall

- Monika Brandl, Chairwoman of the Trade Union Council Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft ver.di

- Anna Kopp, Head of IT Microsoft Germany and Re-gional Office Lead Munich HQ

- Mirjam Pütz, Managing Director, Chief Digital Office Deut-sche Bank

- Bastian Unterberg, Chief Executive Officer Crowdworking platform Jovoto

- Prof. Melissa Valentine, PhD, Co-Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization (WTO), Stanford University

Participants will also have the opportunity to get involved in three workshops focusing on the perspectives of companies, platforms and crowdworkers. This event is part of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research's (BMBF) Year of Science 2018 and will take place on

Wednesday, April 25, 2018 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In Frankfurt am Main, IG Metall, Wilhelm-Leuschner-Straße 79

The invitation to this event including the program can be found in the attachment. Representatives of the press are cordially invited to this event (registration required by e-mail to volkmar.mrass@uni-kassel.de).

Enclosed you will find the program of this event as well as the complete press release.

Your discussion partners:

Volkmar Mrass

Research Associate

University of Kassel / ITeG

Department of Information Systems

(Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister)

Pfannkuchstraße 1, 34121 Kassel

E-mail: volkmar.mrass@uni-kassel.de

Phone: +49 561 804 - 6066

Dr. Jutta Witte

Journalist office Surpress GbR

Appenbergstrasse 11

72072 Tübingen

Phone: +49 7472 9487769

E-mail: jmlwitte@aol.com