Technology Assessment of Information and Communication Technologies

Abstract

Technology Assessment (TA) has taken up the field of Information Science and Technology (IST) as a subject of study from the 1970s on. Nowadays, this field is of central relevance to TA in a triple respect: (a) as research field per se, e.g. with regard to impact dimensions such as privacy, data protection, increasing use of autonomous agents, safety and security, sustainable development, intellectual property rights, regulation, societal vulnerability, et cetera. It is (b) also of major and even increasing importance by entering and influencing other fields of technology, e.g. energy supply, military, robotics, logistics, nanotechnology, cognitive science, neuroscience, et cetera. Finally (c), several new services made available by IST developments are of high utility in TA practice of scientific projects and policy advice, e.g. in the fields of e-participation. This article provides an overview of TA with respect to its origin, its development, and its current situation in general, followed by a more specific consideration of TA themes and activities in the IST field.