Digital Responsibility : why it matters for a desirable, trustworthy and sustainable digital society

Jean-Henry Morin is associate professor of Information Systems at University of Geneva, Institute of Information Service Science. He holds a PhD and an MSc in Information Systems from University of Geneva. He is the Director of the bachelor program in Information Systems and Service Science and president of ThinkServices, a Geneva based think(do)tank on Service Science and Innovation, where ThinkData.ch was designed. He was a professor at Korea University Business School, invited professor at Yonsei School of Business and invited researcher at Fasoo.com in South Korea. In 2001 He was a cofounder of a Geneva based company specializing in corporate performance management solutions. His primary research and practice interest is in information security with a particular focus on Digital Rights Management (DRM) in the enterprise sector. His work on Exception Management in DRM environments has been transferred to the industry in partnership with Fasoo.com. His work is within the research area of Digital Responsibility where he works on blockchain technology, cloud computing, Internet of Things, privacy, data protection, transparency, information risk compliance and governance. His keen interest in Design Thinking as a skill served as a basis for ThinkServices and the creation of an academic FabLab at University of Geneva (https://faclab.ch). He is the author of a book on digital responsibility (Editions Fyp, 2014) where he argues the value of informed trust and transparency as the basis of an emerging principle of Co-Compliance (collaborative compliance) and has published in international journals and conferences.

Every day we witness the progress of technology innovations as a constant flow of “nudges” to all aspects of our society. As we try to cope with these challenges and opportunities, in a more or less successful way, we increasingly face new responsibilities. These go way beyond pure technical issues and involve all disciplines. The Digital Transition requires to rethink beyond traditional approaches what it means to design a desirable, trustworthy and sustainable digital society. In this talk, we address some of the key issues behind Digital Responsibility, why it matters, who is concerned and how we should collectively address it based on some promising principles, technologies and paradigm evolutions. A recently completed research project addressing the impact of blockchain technology on audit and control professions will illustrate this in the Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) area. Finally a call for action will be discussed.