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Dear colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure that this year Professor Derrick de Kerckhove has agreed to give the inaugural speech for the new academic year. His inquisitive nature, capacity for observation, reflection and analysis of the times in which we are living connect magnificently, far beyond his renowned prestige and personal and academic career, with the nature and ambitions of the UOC, an open, innovative institution that is aware of the signs of the times and which has the capacity to imagine and to act, with a team of professionals that comprises qualified and committed individuals.

Professor de Kerckhove invites us to reflect on the influence of technology throughout history on the modification of language, on the cognitive abilities of individuals. He analyses a set of key concepts from the digital world which, as a university that was founded at the core of the knowledge society, are by no means alien to us: virtuality, connectivity, convergence, ubiquity, hypertinence, mobility, transparency… He presents the role of networks in relation to emerging digital personalities and he puts on the table certain possible effects on our identity and privacy. In short, he examines "some of the conditions that have made the whole of our connections possible" with the aim of discerning current trends and models.

The UOC is a university of connections: it establishes links between people, between people and learning possibilities, between learning and new knowledge. This lecture by Professor de Kerckhove - on a new subject, new concepts, full of new words - is highly suggestive and I am sure that it will open the door on to a rich and stimulating debate that will lead us to new approaches and new ideas.

I invite you read it and to participate in the debate.

Warm regards,

Gabriel Ferraté