Developing a Socially Responsible Information Technology Environment

Since the dawn of the computer age it seems that the pace of development of information technology has continued to increase and that this pace of development shows no sign of slowing down. Computers are now a feature of everyday life, evident in the workplace, in our leisure activities and even controlling such equipment as washing machines and cookers. Recently however society has moved from the computing age to the information technology age (Castells 1996) and this has brought about significant developments for society. Information technology is now in process of transforming society to such an extent that it will soon become unrecognizable from the society in which many present adults grew up in. This transformation of society has potentially significant implications for all members of that society (Crowther & Rayman Bacchus 2004) and as such the role of information technology in shaping of that society has become a policy issues and needs to be addressed by every government to consider the role of that technology and the relationship between corporations and individuals as mediated through that technology. In developing a policy for the treatment of information technology in society therefore it is important that two issues are addressed and policies developed to deal with these issues. These two issues are: • What shape will that future society have and what role will individual members of society have within it? • Who will shape that future society and determine how and where the technology will be used, and for whose benefit?