Socially responsible digitalization: The ITeG turns 20 years old

Information technology is turning the world upside down: it brings with it challenges and dangers, but also individual and social opportunities, and it lays the foundation for social and economic innovations. With the aim of enabling these innovations and at the same time operating within a framework of values and social responsibility, the Scientific Center for Information Technology Design (ITeG) at the University of Kassel has been involved in the scientific and public debate for 20 years. Now it is celebrating its anniversary.

A man with AR glasses at a workbench. — The ITeG is also conducting research into digitalization in industrial production. An AR system is being tested here.

The ITeG was founded in 2005 as the result of a research project that brought together the fields of communications technology, technology law and business informatics. The subsequent decision to create a permanent structure to measure the emerging digital world was far-sighted.

Since then, the - now twelve - ITeG departments have been researching the design of socially desirable information technology from a socio-technical perspective. Two keywords are key: acceptance and acceptability. Acceptability refers to the empirically ascertainable willingness of users to use the IT application under investigation. Acceptability refers to the compatibility of the predicted effects of IT with democratically negotiated values and norms.

Timon Gremmels, Hessian Minister for Science and Research, Art and Culture, explained: "A social discourse on new technologies is important in order to develop an awareness of opportunities and risks. The ITeG has been doing outstanding work in this area for 20 years, which we as the state of Hesse actively support - for example with our LOEWE research funding program: In the currently funded DyNaMo focus area, the ITeG is researching the question of how artificial intelligence can ensure safe and sustainable mobility in the city. I would like to congratulate them on their anniversary."

The President of the University of Kassel, Prof. Dr. Ute Clement, also offered her congratulations: "The ITeG Science Center is helping to raise the profile of the university - in a field that suits the University of Kassel well. The University of Kassel aims to conduct research that is relevant to society. It was therefore with conviction that the Presidential Board decided to extend the Center only a year ago."

Prof. Dr. Gerd Stumme, Managing Director of the ITeG, added: "We see a central challenge for the future in preserving the self-determination of users in the digital society while at the same time continuously developing data-driven digital technologies and leveraging their potential. We combine this - for example in the analysis and design of hybrid rating platforms - with a critical examination of the understanding of what central concepts such as privacy, self-determination and democracy actually mean."

The ITeG is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a public conference: The event on 8 October 2025 at the Campus Center will bring current issues of digitalization in science, practice and society to the fore. Researchers will provide current insights into the three ITeG research lines Shaping a Sustainable Digital Future, Privacy and Self-Determination and Artificial and Hybrid Intelligence. The event is open to the public.

The entire program at:
www.uni-kassel.de/forschung/iteg/iteg20-tagung.html

What does this mean in summary?

IT design that operates within the framework of democratic values and norms is of central importance to society.
The ITeG at the University of Kassel has been researching socially acceptable IT design for 20 years.
The ITeG is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a public conference