International Human Choice and Computers: Conference Retrospect and Prospect.

Summary chapter from the proceedings of the IFIP Human Choice and Computers Conference in Vienna, April 1974. Trade unionists, social scientists, and computer technologists in turn were dismayed to be regarded as tools of management in using computers dehumanizingly. The consensus was that sociotechnical problems, including computer systems, must be solved in ways that include community, national, and especially workers' interests; humanistic needs must take precedence over technological and economic considerations. Eight seminar discussions are summarized in terms of management, unions, democracy, education, humanization of work, privacy (hard to define), multinational systems, and social acceptability of systems. Extensive input for a proposed Computer Bill of Rights includes statements that individuals and groups should have the right to information in usable form at reasonable expense, and man has a fundamental right to an interesting and challenging job; occupational boredom and frustration should be compensable at law like physical injury. The list of speakers and topics is appended. 38 pp.