Foreword: Listening Proceedings of ASC Conference 2011

The main section of this issue of Cybernetics and Human Knowing presents papers from the American Society for Cybernetics' (ASC) conference on the theme of 'Listening' held in Richmond, Indiana, August 9 to 15, 2011. This part of the issue has been edited by Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, who won the Heinz von Foerster prize at our 2011 conference, and Ranulph Glanville, president of the ASC. This collaboration in itself shows something of the spirit of the ASC and of our conference: the young and the old working together, learning to listen together, in order to pass on the knowledge and the skills of cybernetics. Also at the conference we heard a presentation by the winner of the previous Heinz von Foerster prize, Robert Helland.