Information/Communications Rights as a New Environmentalism?

This paper was originally presented at the Workshop on Social Informatics: Extending the Contributions of Professor Rob Kling to the Analysis of Computerization Movements, March 11-12, 2005, Beckman Center of the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering, University of California at Irvine, and has been selected to appear in an edited book, Computerization Movements and Technology Diffusion, to be published by MIT Press.The primary aim of this paper is to investigate the potential for a greater alignment among these CMs, drawing specifically on the core precepts of environmentalism as conventionally understood. It will do this mainly by exploring the similarities (and differences) between the nascent information rights movement, as reflected in the public statements of prominent North American, European and international IRCM (information rights-oriented computerization movement) advocacy organizations, and the much more fully developed environmental movement. In keeping with the social informatics ideals, it strives to examine “new social phenomena that emerge as people use ICTs” and thereby achieve a “better understanding of the design, use, configuration, and/or consequences of ICTs such that they are more workable for people in organizations and society.”Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) - Initiative on the New Economy Public Outreach Grant; Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN)