sociable

What's right is right, and
The wrong is not, but where's the
Line to be drawn at?

Informatics is that weird school at IU that sort of houses the Computer Science department (which, I have been informed, is actually no longer a department, but instead just a... well, there's not a word for it, but it's still slightly separate from Informatics), and they have some neat projects.  I went to a talk yesterday by one of their professors, and she is in social informatics: a field which deals mainly with the ethics of pervasive computing and computers/data in general.

One of her focii is using computers in the homes of the elderly and what sorts of data should be transmitted to caregivers of those living alone.  One system that she helped build tracked a number of things, including bathroom habits, kitchen/eating activity, etc.  It also included a board that could be used to switch the system off--which would show to caregivers as "off"--and one to pause the system, which is much more controversial in that caregivers would be sent average data rather than notified that the system was indeed off.  It was designed to only function in pause mode or off mode for a set amount of time (1hr for pause and 2hrs for off were the test values), but it brought up interesting questions.

She also talked about a project that would theoretically be in conjunction with RPS (Residential Programs and Services... essentially the food and dorm people at IU) that would allow students to track the food they bought and how many calories and grams of fat and things they were consuming.  But who else should have access to that data?  Their parents, if they are paying for the plan?  Healthcare providers, if they think that poor eating habits correlate strongly to poor health?

There were a few other things she discussed, and her talk was really interesting, but I actually have to finish up some math homework that's due in an hour.  Ugh.

add-on: Did you hear about the German anti-AIDS campaign featuring Hitler having sex?  They are trying to show AIDS as a mass-murderer... kinda freaks me out.  I gotta say that I'd be discouraged, though.