Computers in the Human Context

Over 300 billion a year is now spent worldwide on computer communications hardware and software. Yet the human, organizational and social factors shaping this far-reaching revolution have scarcely been analysed and are little understood. Our technical knowledge about computers is not matched by a knowledge of their social consequences and possibilities. The contributors to this volume have come together to help rectify this imbalance with a reappraisal of the information technology revolution. They are able to show that many companies and organizations are not using computers effectively and therefore much of the huge expenditure on IT is being wasted. While it is clear from the studies reported here that the economic payoff from IT has been slow in coming, the euphoria that greeted the arrival of the microchip in the 1970s has also been displaced by a more critical assessment of the social benefits of computerization.
Successive authors in this volume debunk popular notions such as "artificial intelligence", the "electronic cottage", "teledemocracy" and "post-industrial society", while others describe the growing ethical problems of the IT revolution, like computer crime, workplace surveillance, intellectual property rights and government control of information. Tom Forester's book is a development of his earlier anthologies and is a statement of the increasing awareness that what decides the success or failure of computer systems in all contexts is the "human factor".