University computing as a political process

Abstract

The various activities engaged in by those involved in computing can be looked upon from a number of perspectives. A choice of psychological, economic, geographic, political, or other perspectives may be made either on largely heuristic grounds or on grounds more closely tied to serious argument concerning the proper conduct of the activity under discussion. The choice of perspective embodied in this paper was made largely on the latter grounds. The basic argument is that, for many purposes, computing should be looked upon as a political process. If it were looked upon in this way, many things might be done otherwise, and the changes would be decidedly for the better.