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.