Our vision when we created the Center for the Information Society in 2003 was to understand the effects of information technology on people so as to improve their work and lives.

Since the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) is interdisciplinary, we saw the Center as bringing together social science and information science researchers to study the emerging global, information society. Our research would translate into policy recommendations, educational interventions and outreach activities to aid people in positions to make decisions.

We assume that information technology development occurs not in a vacuum but in a context, a human context. We also assume that by applying our collective skills, we can understand the ways in which individuals, groups, institutions and societies develop, use and are affected by information technologies in their homes, their work and their communities.

Sometimes the effects of information technology are intentional as in the creation of an IT labor force to stimulate economic development or the installation of a wireless telecommunications infrastructure to support mobile information access needs during a crisis.

Sometimes, however, the effects are unintentional.

When the unintentional effects are positive, new and unanticipated opportunities emerge to leverage information technology for economic and societal benefit. This is what has happened as lay people have gained more control over their health care through increased access to information over the Web.

But the unintentional effects also can be negative such as the under-representation of certain groups from full participation in the IT work force as is the case at present for women, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans. Another case: the unauthorized release of personal information collected through the Internet.

The following pages offer insight into the accomplishments, expertise and range of research interests of our faculty members. It also presents the methods we bring to the study of the information society, methods that include field work, surveys, secondary-data analysis, experiments and modeling.

Research awards to the IST faculty in the Center for the Information Society continue to grow-evidence that the research described herein is valuable, practical and future-looking as we move further into the information society.