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Welcome to Special Interest Group on Humane Computing (SIG HUMANE)


Humane Computing is a matter of great importance, interest and concern and a significant area of research. The objective is to develop excellence in thought, research and action in the field of humane computing thereby enabling empowerment, environmental sustainability, inclusive growth, promotion of ethical values for improving human life.

Great Thinkers and philosophers in the second half of Twentieth Century like Karl Popper and Fritzof Capra have propounded that every technology is a social engineering that has to stand the test of time in society. Technology as it is today and computing as a part of it, blunts our own human mental capacity. Ethics is lame without science, but science is blind without ethics.

We also need to see that computers do not make humans into robots and destroy their individuality and freshness and originality of thought. What we need to prevent is regimented research. In fact computers should be human friendly and human savvy, rather than people being forced to be computer savvy. Computing should be sensitive to needs of old, infirm, illiterate, non-urban, women, economically weaker sections and the like.

Humane Computing is an attempt to promote ethics empowerment, empathy, equality, environmental sustainability thereby bridging the digital divide.

Since it involves coming together and study of humans as well as computers, it involves technical as well as soft subjects and diverse disciplines ranging from computing technology to soft disciplines like sociology, psychology, education, medicine, behavioral science and communication theory.

A number of international and national events have focused on these issues across the world but primarily there is a need to focus specifically on the subject of humane computing.

There is an increasing need to crystallize the thought in India and take leadership and grow beyond the realms of human computing to humane computing. The SIG on Humane Computing of the Computer Society of India is primarily aimed at achieving this.

Objectives

 The primary aim of SIG Humane Computing is to focus on this subject of great public and social interest. 

  • To create awareness and develop resources to support and grow the subject of Humane Computing
  • To promote research in the field in India by providing platform for interaction, exchange of ideas, mentoring and impetus to training and education.
  • To promote interdisciplinary dialogue on the subject for betterment of humanity through humane computing.
  • Organize lectures, seminars, conferences, workshops for benefit of computer professionals and experts, students and public.

Activities

The activities will be aimed to follow and develop the objectives listed above and will begin with interaction, dialogue and creation of awareness through conferences and publications (electronic and or print) to spread the concept and promote it. This will also provide the necessary platform for interaction between thinkers, professionals, industry academia and public on the subject.

The focus areas covered by the SIG include:

  • Humane Computing
  • Empowerment, Ethics, Empathy in Computing
  • Computers in Medicine for Humane patient care and communications.
  • Privacy, Individuality, Independence & Computing
  • Computers in education and research.
  • Computers and their impact on Society and Culture
  • Computers and Women – Gender Issues in computing.
  • Environmental Sustainability in Computing.

Convener of SIG – HUMANE

Dr. Vishnu Kanhere,

e-mail:  vkanhere@gmail.com