Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Encyclopedia
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) is a global organization promoting the responsible use of computer technology. CPSR was incorporated in 1983 (following discussions and organizing that began in 1981). It educates policymakers and the public on a wide range of issues. CPSR has incubated numerous projects such as Privaterra, the Public Sphere Project, EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values in the information age...

), the 21st Century Project, the Civil Society Project, and the CFP (Computers, Freedom and Privacy) Conference. Originally founded by U.S. computer scientists at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 and Xerox PARC, CPSR now has members in over 30 countries on six continents. CPSR is a non-profit 501.c.3 organization registered in California.

When CPSR was first established it was concerned solely about the use of computers in warfare. This initially was focused on the Strategic Computing Initiative
Strategic Computing Initiative
The United States government's Strategic Computing Initiative funded research into advanced computer hardware and artificial intelligence from 1983 to 1993...

, a US Defense project to use artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...

 in military systems, but added opposition to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) shortly after the program was announced. The Boston chapter helped organize a debate related to the software reliability of SDI systems which drew national attention ("Software Seen as Obstacle in Developing 'Star Wars', Philip M. Boffey, (New York Times, September 16, 1986) to these issues. Later, workplace issues, privacy, and community network
Community network
Community network is a term used broadly to indicate the use of networking technologies by, and for, a local community. Free-nets and civic networks indicate roughly the same range of projects and services, whereas community technology centers and telecentres generally indicate a physical facility...

s were added to CPSR's agenda.

CPSR was originally a chapter-based organization and had chapters in Palo Alto, Boston, Seattle, Austin, Washington, DC, Portland (Oregon) and other US locations as well as a variety of international chapters including Peru and Spain. The chapters often developed innovative projects including a slide show about the dangers of launch on warning (Boston chapter) and the Seattle Community Network (Seattle chapter).

CPSR sponsored two conferences: the Participatory Design Conferences which is held biennially (the most recent, the 11th is being held in Sydney, Australia) and the Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing (DIAC) symposium series which was launched in 1987 in Seattle. The DIAC symposia have been convened roughly every other year since that time (most recently in October , 2010 in Prato Italy in conjunction with the Community Information Research Network (CIRN) annual conference. Four books (Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing; Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community; Community Practice in the Network Society; and Shaping the Network Society) and two special sections in the Communications of the ACM
Communications of the ACM
Communications of the ACM is the flagship monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery . First published in 1957, CACM is sent to all ACM members, currently numbering about 80,000. The articles are intended for readers with backgrounds in all areas of computer science and information...

 ("Social Responsibility" and "Social Computing") resulted from the DIAC symposia.

CPSR awards the Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility
Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility
The Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility was established in 1987 in honor of Norbert Wiener to recognize contributions by computer professionals to socially responsible use of computers...

. Some notable recipients include David Parnas
David Parnas
David Lorge Parnas is a Canadian early pioneer of software engineering, who developed the concept of information hiding in modular programming, which is an important element of object-oriented programming today. He is also noted for his advocacy of precise documentation.- Biography :Parnas earned...

, Joseph Weizenbaum
Joseph Weizenbaum
Joseph Weizenbaum was a German-American author and professor emeritus of computer science at MIT.-Life and career:...

, Kristen Nygaard
Kristen Nygaard
Kristen Nygaard was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer and politician. He was born in Oslo and died of a heart attack in 2002.-Object-oriented programming:...

, Barbara Simons
Barbara Simons
Barbara Simons is a computer scientist and past president of the Association for Computing Machinery . She has held various technical, administrative, and public policy positions with the ACM since the early 1990s ; she is founder and former Chair of USACM, the ACM U.S. Public Policy Committee...

, Antonia Stone
Antonia Stone
Antonia "Toni" Stone created the United States' first community technology centers. In 1980, Toni Stone set up Playing to Win . Playing to Win, a nonprofit organization dedicated to countering inequities in computer access. PTW looked to serve inmates and ex-offenders by teaching them computer...

, Peter Neumann
Peter Neumann
Peter Neumann may refer to:*Peter Neumann , Canadian football player*Peter G. Neumann, computer scientist*Peter M. Neumann, OBE, British mathematician*Peter Neumann , Director of ICSR...

, Marc Rotenberg
Marc Rotenberg
Marc Rotenberg is President and Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC. He teaches Information Privacy Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and testifies frequently before Congress on emerging privacy and civil liberties issues, such as access to...

, Mitch Kapor
Mitch Kapor
Mitchell David Kapor is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3. He is also a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and was the first chair of the Mozilla Foundation...

, and Douglas Engelbart
Douglas Engelbart
Douglas Carl Engelbart is an American inventor, and an early computer and internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on the challenges of human-computer interaction, resulting in the invention of the computer mouse, and the development of hypertext, networked computers, and precursors to GUIs...

.

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