As part of the rollout of the 2020 Computing Research Associations (CRA) Quadrennial Papers, the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is pleased to publish the third group of papers around the “Socio-Technical Computing” theme. The Quadrennial Papers are intended to help inform the computing research community and those who craft science policy about opportunities in computing research to help address national priorities. As part of CCC’s contribution, in addition to the previous themes of Broad Computer Science and Core Computer Science from previous weeks, one more set of Quadrennial Papers will be released next week organized around the theme of Artificial Intelligence.
The intersection of computing technologies and society is the focus of today’s Quadrennial Paper release. Though computing research breakthroughs and innovations bring great potential benefits, these papers highlight a call for an increased understanding of how to avoid the myriad ways these technologies can also go wrong. From algorithmic mischief and disinformation, to the privacy cost of big data, these papers highlight challenges that need to be addressed if we are to move computing research in a more socially-responsible direction. Brief descriptions, author details, and links to the Quadrennial Papers released today are included below.
An Agenda for Disinformation Research
Authors: Nadya Bliss (Arizona State University), Elizabeth Bradley (University of Colorado, Boulder), Joshua Garland (Santa Fe Institute), Filippo Menczer (Indiana University), Scott Ruston (Arizona State University), Kate Starbird (University of Washington), Chris Wiggins (Columbia University)
This paper describes a multi-disciplinary research agenda incorporating disinformation detection, education, measurements of impact, and a new common research infrastructure to combat disinformation and its effects upon the US and the world.
Modernizing Data Control: Making Personal Digital Data Mutually Beneficial for Citizens and Industry
Authors: Sujata Banerjee (VMware Research), Yiling Chen (Harvard University), Kobbi Nissim (Georgetown University), David Parkes (Harvard University), Katie Siek (Indiana University Bloomington), and Lauren Wilcox (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Via the Internet and IoT systems, there is an increasing amount of data being collected on individuals every day. This paper dives into the big questions related to this phenomenon, such as who owns the data, the implications for using, controlling, and quantifying the data, and, most importantly, how to best protect citizens’ privacy.
Today, CRA also released three papers in the Diversity and Education theme, organized by CRA’s Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP) and Committee on Education (CRA-E), that address “people” issues in computing. The three papers describe issues around and make recommendations to improve the production of domestic PhDs, the need to establish pathways for post-graduates in non-computing disciplines to obtain computing skills, and new approaches for diversifying the computing workforce through graduate education.
For a complete list and brief descriptions of upcoming releases, check the CRA Quadrennial Papers page. All the CCC-contributed papers can also be found on the CCC-led White Papers page.
