| First
Female Chair of IFIP Computers and Social Accountability Working
Group
February
2004
At
a recent meeting of the International Federation for Information
Processing working group on Computers and Social Accountability
(WG9.2), Dr
Penny Duquenoy (Senior Lecturer, School of Computing
Science) was elected Chair.
Penny
joined the Working Group whilst pursuing her PhD at Middlesex
(1998), and has been an active member since that time. She
will be relinquishing the role of Secretary of the group (held
for the last 3 years) to take the Chair.
IFIP was established in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO
to represent the national computer societies (such as the
British Computer Society in the UK), with the principal aims
to "foster international cooperation, stimulate research
and development, encourage education and disseminate information".
It's mission is to "be the leading, truly international,
nonpolitical organization that encourages and assists in the
development, exploitation and application of IT for the benefit
for all people". The Working Groups, together with the
Special Interest Groups, provide a forum for the discussion
of topics that are the preoccupation of professionals in the
field of computing today.
Over the past year the Working Group on Computers and Social
Accountability has collaborated on the following projects:
- The
Second International Summer School of IFIP WG9.2 "Risks
and Challenges of the Network Society" (in cooperation
with WG9.6: Security, Karlstad University, Sweden, and HumanIT)
- World
Information Technology Forum 2003 (WITFOR): Commission 8
- "Social and Ethical Aspects".
Penny was actively involved in both events (Programme Committee,
and Rapporteur, respectively).
In
addition, WG9.2 presents a bi-annual award for "an outstanding
contribution to the awareness of social implications of information
and communication technology". In January, WG9.2 were
pleased to personally present the award to Professor Ian Witten,
of Waikato University, New Zealand for his work on Digital
Libraries. Professor Witten has long had links with the School
of Computing Science as an Associate Professor. It was an
additional honour to welcome the Ambassador for New Zealand
to the Award Ceremony.
Professor
Norman Revell, Dean of School of Computing Science emphasised
the status and importance of IFIP Technical Committees and
Working Groups:
"IFIP
is the only truly international body representing all parts
of the IT community. It has a long pedigree going back to
the 1960s.
Much
of its business is conducted through its working groups and
technical committees which operate across national boundaries
and organization sectors.
The
output of these groups and committees has done much to shape
established practice and will continue to do so. In particular
Governments and large IT companies are influenced by IFIP
in setting their own strategic agendas.
It
is a great honor for Penny to be appointed."
Publications resulting from the association with IFIP WG9.2:
Jacques
Berleur, Penny Duquenoy and Diane Whitehouse
(Eds.) Ethics and the Governance of the Internet, IFIP-SIG9.2.2,
September 1999, IFIP Press, Laxenburg - Austria.
Penny
Duquenoy and Diane Whitehouse, (2000). "The
process of ethics", in Computers and Networks in the
Age of Globalization, Leif Block Rasmussen, Colin Beardon,
Silvio Munari (Eds.). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Forthcoming:
Penny Duquenoy, Jan Holvast, Simone Fischer-Heubner,
Albin Zuccato (Eds.) "Risks and Challenges in the Network
Society", Proceedings of the IFIP Summer School, Karlstad,
Sweden, August 2003. Forthcoming.
Penny
Duquenoy (2003) "Models for Internet Ethics"
in "Risks and Challenges in the Network Society",
Proceedings of the IFIP Summer School, Karlstad, Sweden, August
2003. Forthcoming.
Penny
Duquenoy and Vijay Masurkar (2003) "Surrounded
by intelligence …" in "Risks and Challenges
in the Network Society", Proceedings of the IFIP Summer
School, Karlstad, Sweden, August 2003. Forthcoming.
Jan
Holvast, Duquenoy P., Whitehouse, D. "The
Information Society and its Consequences: lessons from the
past" in Perspectives and Policies on ICT in Society,
published by IFIP TC9. Forthcoming.
February
2004
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