Social, Legal, Economic and Cultural Perspectives Opportunities

Samuel Trosow (leader), Elaine Toms (co-leader)

Research conducted in the SocLeg theme focuses on the need to recognize that the technologies and practices of new media, games, graphics and animation do not exist in a vacuum. Technological innovations in these areas create opportunities, tensions, and challenges in all aspects of our lives and are interrelated with their social, cultural, economic, political and legal contexts. An overarching objective of the research is to ask hard questions about how the fruits of the research generated throughout the GRAND project will be relevant and beneficial to Canadians in all walks of life, as well as how policymakers could best adopt legal and regulatory processes towards these ends.

Information and communications technologies can have profound, and often unsettling effects in areas such as education, teaching and learning, health and fitness, business and commerce, sustainability and the environment, art and culture, entertainment, and in the law. In all of these fields, digitalization has serious implications for: the continued viability of established business models about nature and security of employment for those who work in these areas, and for the security and privacy of the end-users of information systems. In all of these areas, information and communications technologies are challenging us to rethink how we understand the roles of intellectual property, jurisdictional boundaries, and other legal concepts.

Education and Learning

New media, graphics, and animation are changing educational process by providing new mechanisms for knowledge discovery and presentation, both in traditional institutional settings and for independent, life-long learners. These advances are accompanied by the need for changes in educational practices and processes to insure that everyone involved in the educational process -- teachers, students, administrators, researchers, parents, and librarians -- are able to take full advantage of the new learning opportunities enabled by new media in an equitable manner. some of the projects concerned with education, teaching, and learning include assessment methodologies (EOVW), pedagogical design and interactive media (DIGLT), next generation information appliances (NGAIA), and shared displays (SHRDSP).

Intellectual Property

Rapid technological changes are forcing a rethinking in our understanding of the roles of copyright, patents, trademarks and other forms intellectual property. Open source and transnational co-development and deployment raise issues of what constitutes ownership and where jurisdictional boundaries lie. The intellectual property policy arena is where some of the strongest challenges and most acute tensions in the digital environment are becoming are becoming evident.

Privacy and Security

Privacy and security are increasingly implicated by emerging information and communication technologies which have the potential to capture personal information about users of information systems and enable other forms of surveillance. Given Canada's strong regulatory regime in the area personal privacy protections, it is important for new systems to be designed with privacy and security issues in mind. Such privacy enhancing Technologies (PETS) need to be considered at all stages of the design process. These issues will be addressed by the Usable Privacy and Security in Online Environments (PRIVNM) project.

Business and Commerce

Digital networks and the new interconnectivity is creating new business models and markets, but at the expense of traditional notions of trust, reputation, and accountability. Fundamental changes in banking and retail practices are transforming not only how commerce is conducted, but also expectations of privacy and confidentiality that cannot always be aligned. Emerging information and communications technologies are challenging established business models, notably in the software, entertainment and publishing industries.

Sustainability and the Environment

The Human-Centered Technologies for Sustainable Living (HCTSL) project will seek to provide residents with better information tools and interfaces for making decisions about energy use, guidelines on the design and location of particular displays and control systems in the home, and validated processes for incorporating occupant energy awareness into new home design and existing home retrofits.

Arts and Culture

The rapid infusion of new information and communications technologies are transforming the traditional relationships between producers and consumers of cultural goods, and between producers/creators and consumers/users. In addition, the creation, ownership and distribution of cultural products is creating special challenges for the traditional copyright system.

Health and Fitness

New applications in graphics, animation, and new media are enabling patient-centered approaches to healthcare that promote prevention-based strategies. These strategies are enabled by access to rich media information derived from evidencebased medical research and publicly available health information resources. Moreover, healthcare professionals increasingly rely on information technology for training (HLTHSIM), including immersive surgical simulation environments, as well as for managing patient care in a variety of settings including the home as well as traditional institutions. Projects concerned with medicine, health, and fitness include: Confronting Pain: Redefining Mobility (CPRM), and Accessibility (INCLUDE).

Labor and the Workplace

Digitalization is creating fundamental shifts in the organization of work processes and in the workplace itself. Thus, the implications and tensions of emerging digital labour need to be better addressed in practice and policy. While new digital technologies may define the workplace in terms of greater surveillance and control, at the same time, new possibilities for greater collaboration are enabled from digital innovation. The Digital Labour: Authors, Institutions and the New Media (DIGILAB) project will address these issues, initially in the domains of the game production, music production, education, and libraries.

A consistent thread running through all of these interconnected areas are concerns with accessibility for all of society (DINS), and the need for the legal and social systems and its institutions and infrastructures to keep up with the rapid pace of technological, social, cultural and economic changes that are increasingly evident. An overarching objective of the research in this theme will be to generate information which is relevant to policy-makers and stakeholders in the policy process as they grapple with these challenges.