[Sigia-l] Computer scientists and engineers thinking about user acceptance and social adoption?

[Laurie Gray]

Too good to be true?
See for yourself on Slashdot entitled Privacy is a Biological
Imperative: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/13/1313257&from=rss

Laurie

"As a lead-in to an article in the August 2007 issue, Scientific
American recently published an interview with Carnegie Mellon computer
scientist Latanya Sweeney regarding the trade-offs between security
and privacy. Dr. Sweeney provides a refreshing counter-point to Sun
Microsystems CEO, Scott McNealy's 'famous quip', 'Privacy is dead. Get
over it.' She advocates the idea that privacy is not primarily a
political expediency, but rather a biological one. Suggesting that
technological design doesn't have to take a 'soup OR salad' approach,
she calls for changes in the way present and future computer
scientists are trained. Dr. Sweeney is quoted as saying, 'I think if
we are successful in producing a new breed of engineers and computer
scientists, society will really benefit. The whole
technology-dialectics thing is really aiming at how you should go
about teaching engineers and computer scientists to think about user
acceptance and social adoption [and also that they] have to think
about barriers to technology [from the beginning].'"