IFIP-WG9.2 Aims and Scope

Aims

• helping to make computer professionals and systems designers and others aware of the social consequences of their work,
• developing criteria to determine how well the public is served when it comes into contact with computerized systems,
• enabling and encouraging designers and users of computer systems to make a human choice, i.e., a choice which takes into account human needs and wishes.

Scope

Those aspects of computers which affect the public interest. Among these are:

• ethical issues arising out of the use of computers,
• the freedom of access to information, as well as the right to privacy and to the protection of sensitive data,
• shifts in the balance of power arising out of the use of computers,
• the effects of computers in public and private organisations,
• education of the public about computers, and of computer professionals about the effects of their work.

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Insitut d'Informatique - 04/30/98