Introduction

Information technology provides a new environment for advanced learning, research and communication. The modes of production and management of knowledge that caracterized the age of the printed book and the nation-state academic institution are becoming increasingly obsolete. The political economy that still regulates access to the resources needed for an individual or a group to achieve intellectual empowerment now starts to yield to a different model of knowledge accessibility and appropriation. The wide and unregulated distribution of information creates a new context and a new challenge for the dynamic and long-term development of
semiotics.

The Cyber Semiotics Institute already provides advanced courses online that are universally accessible and affords the possibility of direct interactions with the instructors. The Open Semiotics Resource Center will now foster the Digital Semiotics Encyclopedia, a reference work that will offer in-depth articles on a variety of topics relevant to the advancement of knowledge in domains involving the processes of information-sharing, behavior-copying and sense-making and their evolution and transformation. DSE will also cover aspects of the semiotic intellectual tradition that presently cannot be found in the available reference works in print, or which now require reassessment in view of the new contexts and perspectives brought about by exciting developments in the natural and social sciences. The rich Asian philosophical traditions and contemporary contributions to the advancement of semiotics will be the focus of a large set of articles. Models, systems and theories and their sociological and historical backgrounds will also be prominently featured among the DSE articles. The selective bibliographies that will accompany the encyclopedia articles will be regularly updated.

This collective work will be constructed as a searchable database. It will progressively grow over a period of five years under the close monitoring of a distinguished Advisory Board and through the collaborative efforts of an international and multidisciplinary Editorial Team. All articles will be peer-reviewed. The editorial structure of DSE will soon be published on this page.