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The first world conference Human Choice and Computers was held in 1974 (April 1-5), in Vienna. The initiative came from Heinz Zemanek, President of IFIP (1971-1974), at the time President also of IBM Austria. He was supported by Fred Margulies, Secretary of IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) who was mainly leading the reflection of Unions on the computerization in the working life. The success of HCC1 was such that IFIP-TC9 has always considered it as a founding event, if not its birthplace. It is not here the place of narrating the history of TC9, but as reported by Heinz Zemanek himself, the recognition of TC9 as a technical committee within IFIP needed to overcome the opposition of the Russian Academy of Science, which for convenience preferred to consider “Computer Science” as neutral, as it can still be found anachronously in the IFIP Statutes: “IFIP does not take any account of the political, social or economic aspects of its Member organizations because IFIP is totally dedicated to the transfer of scientific and technical information and experience” (art. 1). TC9 came to birth in 1976, two years after HCC1. Its creation was fortunate: having a technical committee reflecting on the issues raised by the nascent Information Technology was a blessing. Kelly Gotlieb (CDN) was the first TC9 Chair, and organized with Fred Margulies HCC2 , which took place in Baden (Austria) in 1979 (June 4-8). It was the first attempt to clarify the field of “Computers and Society”. In the Proceedings, Abbe Mowshowitz attempted to list the main social issues in computing. The third world conference HCC3 was held in Stockholm from 2 to 5 September 1985. “Comparative Worldwide National Computer Policies” was its main theme, trying to go further in the way the different nations were approaching the policies of ICT in different domains, such as working life, public policies, culture, etc.. TC9 was chaired at that time by H. Sackman. HCC4 took place from 6 to 12 June 1990 in Dublin. It was prepared by TC9, under the chairmanship of Klaus Brunnstein, and the European FAST Programme led by Riccardo Petrella. The concept of Technology Assessment applied to the field of Information Technology was surely the first attempt to federate the main reflection on social aspects of science in the field of ICT. The fifth world conference on HCC - HCC5 - was organised in Geneva (August 25-28, 1998) with the help of Silvio Munari and the HEC of the University of Lausanne. It was the first time that TC9 faced the role of ICT in the issue of globalization. Pertti Järvinen was the TC9 Chair. HCC6 was in Montreal as a track of the 17th IFIP World Computer Congress. The main theme was one of the scope of TC9 as stated in its Aims and Scope: “Issues of Choice and Quality of Life in the Information Society.” Klaus Brunnstein and Jacques Berleur, TC9 Chair, were at the root of that worldwide initiative, organizing also the IFIP-WG9.2 Namur Award Ceremony in honour of Deborah Hurley, Director of the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project. HCC7, the 7th conference on Human choice and computers was held in Maribor ((Slovenia) on September 21-23, 2006. This International Conference wanted to be in remembrance of Rob Kling (August 1944 - May 2003). Social Informatics was the term chosen by Rob Kling How is the human being and its societal environment kept in the centre of the building up of a system and of the - How to build up an "Information Society for All" [UNESCO, 2002], [eEurope, 2002] when developing our more and more complex ICT (Information and Communication Technology) systems? The conference included analyses of the impacts, policies, system concepts, and methodologies related to information technologies and changes in society and culture. "Some of the key information technologies include computers and telecommunications; the sites of social change include home life, workplaces, schools, communities and diverse organizations, as well as new social forms in cyberspace." [Information Society, An International Journal] Participants from all continents gathered at the conference, with speakers coming from 17 different countries. Work was underway in six plenary sessions, five tracks on nine sessions and two panel discussions. The conference participants met the Mayor of Maribor at the mayor's reception in the old city hall and were also taken on a little trip, where they had a taste of the local culinary delights and enjoyed the company of a student folklore group. A separate part of the conference was the Student forum on Fair Globalisation and ICT, based on the syntegration method and created by our Danish colleagues from CBS, which also took place at the Habakuk Convention Centre. HCC Conferences Proceedings
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