"Computing For, By and With Humanity"

ABSTRACT:

As increasingly sophisticated computing evolves to solve problems in
new domains, so Human Computer Interaction (HCI), the science of making
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) usable (easy for people to operate) and useful
(relevant to the situation of its use), faces new challenges. One of
these challenges focuses on the need to develop theories and methods
that capture this evolving relationship between computing and humanity. I break this relationship into two parts: how can we understand and improve the production of these increasingly sophisticated and complex computational artifacts, and how can we understand their consumption,
the processes by which end-users adopt, customize, and reject these
technologies. It is not just production and consumption but the ongoing
interplay between the two that is at the center of computing for, with,
and by humanity. In this talk, I will describe how I came to Computing
for Humanity, and what I think it might be. I will also offer two
themes for Computing for Humanity research, a reconsideration of the
relationship between local and global and an examination of values.

BIO:

Rebecca E. Grinter (Beki) is an Associate Professor of Interactive
Computing in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of
Technology. Her primary research interests lie at the intersection of
computing and humanity, exploring the human-centered problems of
technology production and consumption. Her research has been published
in Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work,
Software Engineering, Security, and Networking conferences. Before
joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, she was a Member of Technical
Staff at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies (and briefly AT&T
Bell Laboratories), and a Member of Research Staff in the Computer
Science Laboratory of Xerox PARC. She holds a Ph.D. & M.S. in
Information and Computer Science from the University of California,
Irvine, and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of
Leeds.