Bits of Change, a la Catsy

[jason]

Ex-Lemmingworks. ##.

Wish I could go to CUSEC 2007: Canadian University Software Engineering Conference

Michelle Levesque
Google Corporate Speaker
http://www.google.com/

Bits of Change
How can software be political? Which components of software make a political statement: is it this function call over here, or is it that while loop over there?

In certain parts of the world today, governments read private e-mail and arrest people based on these random sweeps. New software allows them to do so with amazing efficiency. That software was written by someone like you.

Politics, law and ethics are becoming increasingly intertwined with software engineering. These changes are having drastic consequences in the field of software design; the future of our industry will depend on the the next generation of software engineers and the choices that you make.

Comments

yep, particuarly with.......

[dracschick.livejournal.com]

search engines and network software. Then, there can be some invasion of privacy issues. Also, there always is the question of how much freedom to give up so that we feel 'safe'.

Re: yep, particuarly with.......

[complicittheory.livejournal.com]

catsy's my old research assistant... and we've had many intresting experiences with those issues. :)