Workshop: Confronting and Mitigating the Negative Broader Impacts of Computing

本次研讨会旨在提高计算研究界理解、预测和交流其贡献的积极和消极影响的能力。它还旨在确定激励研究的最有效手段，使负面影响最小化。在当前关于新信息技术对人类的影响的公开辩论的背景下，主要的计算机科学专业组织已经开始讨论如何找到方法来弯曲计算创新的弧线，减少负面影响，增加积极影响。这次研讨会的目的是成为一个更广泛的影响催化剂，使许多受资助的计算项目对美国和世界产生更广泛的积极影响。本次研讨会有三个共同的目标：(1)确定使用研究评估过程来面对和减轻计算研究的负面影响的最有效方法；(2)确定可以有效面对和减轻这些负面影响的其他方法；(3)通过设想活动和研究议程的发展提高我们理解和预测计算研究影响的能力。研讨会的成果，包括文章、技术资源和其他工件，将与更广泛的社区共享，为研究发展提供正式的框架，但也非正式地帮助计算社区的成员通过提供关于如何思考一个人的研究的影响的教育来表达更好的更广泛的影响陈述。研讨会的参与者将包括计算机研究人员和新技术社会影响方面的专家。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This workshop seeks to produce transformative improvements in the computing research community's ability to understand, predict, and communicate the impacts of its contributions, both positive and negative. It also aims to identify the most effective means of incentivizing research that minimizes negative impact. In the context of current public debates about the human consequences of new information technologies, major computer science professional organizations have begun discussing how to find ways to bend the arc of computing innovation towards fewer negative impacts and more positive impacts. This workshop aims to be a broader impacts catalyst, rendering the broader impacts of many funded computing projects substantially more positive for the United States and the world than they would have been otherwise. This workshop has three co-equal objectives: (1) Determine the most effective approaches for using the research evaluation process to confront and mitigate the negative impacts of computing research, (2) determine additional approaches that can be effective in confronting and mitigating these negative impacts, and (3) improve our capacity to understand and predict computing research impact through visioning activities and the development of a research agenda. Workshop results, including articles, technical resources, and other artifacts, will be shared with the wider community, providing a formal framework for research development, but also informally helping members of the computing community articulate better broader impacts statements by providing education about how to think about the impacts of one's research. Workshop participants will be comprised of both computing researchers and experts on the societal impacts of new technologies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.