Social Informatics: 30 Years of Development of Russian Scientific School

The article deals with the history of the formation, current state and prospects for the development of social informatics as a current direction in science and education in Russia. The article offers mainly a personal view of the author, who has been involved in shaping social informatics in Russia for the last three decades. The article presents the distinctive features of the Russian scientific school of social informatics and its priorities in the formation of this field. The main directions of research in the field of social informatics in Russia in the context of the formation of the global information society are determined. Particular emphasis is placed on the interdisciplinary nature of many issues related to social informatics and their systematic study. Finally, the article summarizes the current necessity for the deep study of issues related to social informatics, e.g., information inequality, information crime, cyberbullies, manipulation of consciousness, virtualization of society, information wars, information poverty, information culture, and using computers to analyse social phenomena such as communication via social media. It is important not only in the area of scientific research but also in the system of secondary and higher education and training of scholars.