ARMS-D-Request@MIT-MC.ARPA (Moderator) (10/28/85)
Arms-Discussion Digest Monday, October 28, 1985 8:00AM
Volume 5, Issue 7
Today's Topics:
This is the Last Issue of Backlog!!
Social Impacts of Computing: Graduate Study at UC-Irvine
SDI debate
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Received: from UCI-ICSA by MIT-MC.ARPA 26 Sep 85 16:24:59 EDT
Date: 26 Sep 1985 0912-PDT
From: Rob-Kling <Kling%UCI-20B@UCI-ICSA>
Subject: Social Impacts of Computing: Graduate Study at UC-Irvine
To: arms-d@MIT-MC
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CORPS
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Graduate Education in
Computing, Organizations, Policy, and Society
at the University of California, Irvine
This graduate concentration at the University of California,
Irvine provides an opportunity for scholars and students to
investigate the social dimensions of computerization in a setting
which supports reflective and sustained inquiry.
The primary educational opportunities are PhD concentrations in
the Department of Information and Computer Science (ICS) and MS and
PhD concentrations in the Graduate School of Management (GSM).
Students in each concentration can specialize in studying the social
dimensions of computing.
The faculty at Irvine have been active in this area, with many
interdisciplinary projects, since the early 1970's. The faculty and
students in the CORPS have approached them with methods drawn from the
social sciences.
The CORPS concentration focuses upon four related areas of
inquiry:
1. Examining the social consequences of different kinds of
computerization on social life in organizations and in the larger
society.
2. Examining the social dimensions of the work and organizational
worlds in which computer technologies are developed, marketed,
disseminated, deployed, and sustained.
3. Evaluating the effectiveness of strategies for managing the
deployment and use of computer-based technologies.
4. Evaluating and proposing public policies which facilitate the
development and use of computing in pro-social ways.
Studies of these questions have focussed on complex information
systems, computer-based modelling, decision-support systems, the
myriad forms of office automation, electronic funds transfer systems,
expert systems, instructional computing, personal computers, automated
command and control systems, and computing at home. The questions
vary from study to study. They have included questions about the
effectiveness of these technologies, effective ways to manage them,
the social choices that they open or close off, the kind of social and
cultural life that develops around them, their political consequences,
and their social carrying costs.
CORPS studies at Irvine have a distinctive orientation -
(i) in focussing on both public and private sectors,
(ii) in examining computerization in public life as well as within
organizations,
(iii) by examining advanced and common computer-based technologies "in
vivo" in ordinary settings, and
(iv) by employing analytical methods drawn from the social sciences.
Organizational Arrangements and Admissions for CORPS
The CORPS concentration is a special track within the normal
graduate degree programs of ICS and GSM. Admission requirements for
this concentration are the same as for students who apply for a PhD in
ICS or an MS or PhD in GSM. Students with varying backgrounds are
encouraged to apply for the PhD programs if they show strong research
promise.
The seven primary faculty in the CORPS concentration hold
appointments in the Department of Information and Computer Science and
the Graduate School of Management. Additional faculty in the School
of Social Sciences, and the program on Social Ecology, have
collaborated in research or have taught key courses for CORPS
students. Our research is administered through an interdisciplinary
research institute at UCI which is part of the Graduate Division, the
Public Policy Research Organization.
Students who wish additional information about the CORPS concentration
should write to:
Professor Rob Kling (Kling@uci-icsa)
Department of Information and Computer Science
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, Ca. 92717
714-856-5955 or 856-7548
or to:
Professor Kenneth Kraemer (Kraemer@uci-icsa)
Graduate School of Management
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, Ca. 92717
714-856-5246
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Date: 30 Sep 1985 13:16-EST
Subject: SDI debate
To: genrad!mit-eddie!mit-mc!arms-d@mit-eddie
Message-Id: <496948575/lkk@teddy>
Computer technology plays an ever-increasing role in the arms race.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (`Star Wars') is a leading example
of a military system in which almost complete reliance will be placed
on computerized decision making. The feasibility and desirability of
this system are currently undergoing serious public debate.
On Monday, the 21st of October, at 8:00 pm in M.I.T.'s Kresge Auditorium, the
M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science and Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility are co-sponsoring a public forum designed to raise many of the
technical issues surrounding the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
Professor Michael Dertouzos, Director of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer
Science, will moderate a debate on the feasibility of software development
for the SDI project. Dr. Danny Cohen (Director of the Systems Division at
the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute and
Chairman of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization panel on Computing
in Support of Battle Management (SDIO/CSBM)) and Professor Charles Seitz
(Professor of Computer Science, California Institute of Technology and
member, SDIO/CSBM)) will speak in favor of the SDI proposal. Professor
David Parnas (Lansdowne Professor of Computer Science, University of
Victoria, Canada) and Professor Joseph Weizenbaum (Professor of Computer
Science, Massachussetts Institute of Technology) will take the position that
such a software development project is infeasible.
Professor Parnas' resignation from the SDIO/CSBM panel in June of
this year, and the set of memos he wrote discussing the infeasibility
of the SDI project attracted extensive press coverage in June of this
year.
CPSR will be holding a reception for the speakers at La Groceria (853
Main Street in Cambridge) between 6:30 and 7:30. Please join us for
dinner and an opportunity to meet some of the panelists. The $25 per
plate donation will help us cover expenses for this forum and related
projects. Please RSVP to Mark Vilain at (617) 648-4325.
Earlier that afternoon, the M.I.T. Technology and Culture Seminar
will sponsor a talk by Dr. James Ionson, Director of the Office of
Innovative Science and Technology for the SDIO. After Dr. Ionson
describes the general research goals of SDI, two M.I.T. professors
will respond with varying views on why they have chosen to accept or
refuse funding for research from the SDIO. A student representative
will report on student reaction to Star Wars projects on campus.
This talk will be held at MIT in building 9, room 150 at 4:00 p.m.
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End of Arms-Discussion Digest
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