Social, Supply-Chain, Administrative, Business, Commerce, Political networks: a multi-discipline perspective (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 12182)

The information society is shaped by an increasing presence of networks in various manifestations, most notably computer networks, supply-chain networks, and social networks. Online networks nowadays connect people all around the world at day and night, and allow to communicate and to work collaboratively and efficiently. What has been a commodity in the private as well as in the enterprise sectors independently for quite some time now is currently growing together an increasing pace. As a consequence, the time has come for the relevant sciences, including computer science, information systems, social sciences, economics, communication sciences, and others, to give up their traditional "silo-style" thinking and enter into borderless dialogue and interaction. The purpose of this Perspectives Workshop has been to play an enabling role in this future dialogue, to review where we stand today, and to outline directions in which we urgently need to move, in terms of both research and teaching, but also in terms of funding. This report summarizes the discussions of the workshop and their findings.