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Special Talk


 
			     SPECIAL TALK
		   User Autonomy and System Design
			on Thursday, 8 August
		    3:00 p.m., Cordura Hall, Room
			    Batya Friedman

Consider a recent workstation design which comes from a leading
computer hardware and networking company in the United States.  The
workstation was designed to support speech input and multimedia, and
thus included a built-in microphone.  Nothing strange here.  Except
that the microphone automatically recorded audio information whenever
the workstation was on. Such a system provides no ready means for
networked users to control audio "eavesdropping".  This example begins
to highlight the importance for users to have control over the
technology they use, and it points to the larger issue of user
autonomy.  By autonomy Professor Friedman means something like the
capability to act on the basis of one's own decisions, and to be
guided by one's own reasons, desires, and goals.  By most accounts,
autonomy is fundamental to human flourishing, and grounds a conception
of what it means to be a moral agent.

Thus, in this talk Professor Friedman discusses the relationship
between user autonomy and computer system design. 

She has four overarching goals: (1) to provide a definition and
rationale for user autonomy in relation to computer systems; (2) to
describe a framework for understanding how user autonomy can be
promoted or undermined through the design of computer systems; (3) to
point to design processes and techniques for protecting user autonomy
in the design of future computer systems; and (4) to consider
justifiable limitations on user autonomy.


Batya Friedman is the editor of tentatively entitled work, _People,
Computers, and Design_ to be published by CSLI Publications