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Information
Society: Governance, Ethics and Social Consequences
Date:
22-23rd May, 2006
Institute of Computer Sciences, University of Namur, Belgium.
Dr
Penny Duquenoy and Dr
Carlisle George and members
of the ALERT research Group (Computing Science), and IFIP
Working Group 9.2 (Computers and Social Accountability, Penny
as Chair), recently attended a two-day conference organised
in honour of Professor
Jacques Berleur by the University of Namur and IFIP Working
Group 9.2.
This
two-day conference brought together European dignitaries to
give their perspectives – philosophical, legal, economic,
technical, cultural and ethical – on the legitimacy
of Internet control. The event recognised the work Professor
Berleur conducted for more than 30 years, and his achievements
in promoting social and ethical issues in the field of Computing
Science both within the University, and in IFIP (International
Federation of Information Processing) as a founding member
of IFIP’s Technical Committee on Social Responsibility
(TC9), Working Group 9.2 (Social Accountability) and the Special
Interest Group 9.2.2 (Taskforce on Ethics). Jacques is still
fully involved with all of these groups, and currently Chair
of the Programme Committee for the IFIP Human Choice and Computers
Conference (HCC7) to be held in Slovenia this September, which
is dedicated to the memory of Rob Kling who founded the field
of Social Informatics.
The
first day took a largely theoretical approach – with
presentations from key persons such as Stefano Rodota (Former
Data Protection Commissioner, Italy); Yves Poullet (Law Faculty,
CRID, University of Namur); Richard Delmas (European Commission,
Administrator of the DG Information Society and Chief of the
GAC secretariat, Belgium); Prof. Klaus Brunnstein (Professor
for Informatics, Hamburg University, and President of IFIP),
amongst others. The organisers were particularly pleased to
welcome Prof. Deborah Johnson from the University of Virginia,
USA – author of arguably the most widely used textbooks
on Computer Ethics (now in 3rd Edition), and member of IFIP
SIG9.2.2.
The
second day saw a change of gear towards a more practical approach
to the social consequences of Information Technology by asking
“Is there a gap between theory and practice?”
Following an introduction to the day by Dr Penny Duquenoy
(as Chair of WG 9.2), Prof. Johnson gave her experiences of
“Ethics in Practice” by describing the incorporation
of social and ethical consequences of IT into student projects,
and the social awareness this raised with students. Examples
of other awareness-raising initiatives were given by Dr. Bern
Martens (Catholic University College Leuven) who teaches computer
ethics at the trainee teacher level, and Dr. Les Neal of the
British Computer Society (and member of their Ethics Expert
Panel) describing the introduction of the professional issues
courses within the accreditation procedures of the BCS. The
presentations ended with a view on how these issues can be
attended to through policy initiatives (Dr. Vasileios Laopodis,
formerly DG Information Society and Media).
These
presentations were followed by an afternoon of workshops addressing
practical ways of engendering a social and ethical awareness
of ICT at the level of education, policy makers, industry
and consumers. Finally, Prof. Berleur and Dr Penny Duquenoy
took the stage to give their verdicts on “how IFIP’s
work can link theory and practice”. At the end of the
day’s proceedings Penny thanked Jacques on behalf of
WG9.2 for providing the foundation that enabled others to
work in this field, and for his inspiration and warmth.
Details
of the event can be found at: www.info.fundp.ac.be/informationsociety/
Prof. Jacques Berleur (far right), and from left: Dr. Carlisle
George, Dr. Penny Duquenoy (Chair IFIP WG9.2), and Prof. Klaus
Brunnstein (President IFIP).
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