20 Years of ETHICOMP: A Celebration

Conference title: 20 Years of ETHICOMP: A Celebration

De Montfort University, Leicester, UK

Monday to Wednesday, 07.-09. September 2015

In 1995 the first ETHICOMP conference was held in Leicester, England, organised by Terry Bynum and Simon Rogerson. Its purpose was to provide a forum to discuss ethical issues around computers. Twenty years later we are meeting again in Leicester to continue this conversation. The changes in information and communication technology (ICT) during these 20 years have been dramatic. While computers used to be bulky and easily identifiable machines, we now have small smart devices, the internet quickly developed and has changed significantly, and ICT now pervades all walks of life, from the way we work and communicate to study, undertake childcare and choose partners. As a consequence many of the concerns of 1995 have deepened and many new ones have arisen.

During ETHICOMP 2015, we will review ethical and social issues raised by contemporary computing and look at ways of identifying and addressing them in the future. "The conference aims to be practically relevant and bring together the various communities involved in the development, implementation, and use of computing and reflection on these in their various guises. The conference is based on the belief that the ETHICOMP community, together with other associations and groups, needs to work together to enable the benefits of computing to prevail, while rendering its downsides and ethical ambiguities visible and more subject to public debate than is the case today.