Vision and Mission

Founded in 1985 under the auspices of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia, the Cooperative Computing & Communication Laboratory (C-LAB) is a joint research and development laboratory operated by Atos and the University of Paderborn.

C-LAB's vision is based on the fundamental premise that the gargantuan challenges thrown up by the transition to a future information society can only be met through global cooperation and intensive linking of theory and practice. This is why, under one roof, staff from the university and from industry cooperate closely on joint projects within a common research and development organization together with international partners. In doing so, C-LAB concentrates on those innovative subject areas in which cooperation is expected to bear particular fruit for the partners and their general well-being.
"Cooperative computing & communication" is C-LAB's general field of operation. This field covers computer applications and computer technologies ("Computing"), and computer-assisted communication ("Communication").

C-LAB assumes that in the next ten years, especially the penetration of new computer and communication technologies will pose a major technological and social challenge.

An important task here is to mould these new computer and communication technologies into a genuine instrument of cooperation ("Cooperative") for people in general, that is, to make them "user-friendly". Other key tasks include those in which the ability of different systems and system components to cooperate with each other for the benefit of user-friendliness is of particular importance. In the melting pot of computer and communication technology, the ability to process and present multimedia and spatial information successfully is an important criterion. Ideas can be conveyed in a much more effective and attractive way if different human senses are brought into play on a broad scale. This will produce new forms of communication and working structures, which in turn will open up new options for us to operate in time and space. There is, however, an inherent danger that human conduct will be misled either consciously or unconsciously.