A Chat with Moira de Roche, Chair of International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) IP3 and Dr. David Kreps, International Federation for Information Processing's (IFIP) Technical Committee 9 on ICT and Society

This week, Stephen Ibaraki has an exclusive interview with Moira de Roche and Dr. David Kreps.

Moira de Roche is an independent consultant. She is the Chair of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) IP3, and a member of the IFIP board. Moira was awarded the IFIP Silver Core in 2016.

Moira worked on the IFIP Ethics Task & Finish Group. This team, using the ACM Code of Ethics as a starting point, drafted a Code that is suitable for use by any IFIP member society. The code has been published electronically and will come out in book form in September 2021.

Moira is an accomplished speaker and has presented at conferences around the world and in South Africa, on diverse subjects including Technology & Learning, IT Leadership, Professionalism, Trust & the Duty of Care in Digital, as well as people-related issues with Industry 4.0. She has attended and presented at the World Summit for Information Society since 2012. She is often quoted in the South African press in articles on Education and Learning.

A Past-President of IITPSA (Institute of IT Professionals South Africa) Moira is a Professional Member and Fellow and serves as a Non-executive Director. She received the IITPSA Distinguished Service in ICT Award in 2009. She is currently chair of the IITSA Social and Ethics committee.

Moira is a Councillor for the South African National Museum, which is in Bloemfontein. She also serves on the board committee: IT, Marketing & Core Business.

She is a member of ACM and the South African Institute of Directors.

Because she is passionate about Professionalism, it follows that Moira is also passionate about Ethics – which she considers the cornerstone of Professionalism.

Dr David Kreps is a trans-disciplinary academic based in the Business Information Systems department of the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway. Combining philosophy with a background in the arts, cultural theory, and sociology, to address a critical perspective on systems theory, David is a critical philosopher of Information Systems – the trans-disciplinary space where computing, the social, and the nature of our relationship with reality intersect. For decades David has been an 'early adopter', pioneering thinker and commentator, with a fascination for technology and its impact upon society. A web developer since 1995, (making probably the first Arts Centre Website in the UK) he did his PhD thesis on Cyborgism, and has become an expert in Technology Ethics, Web Accessibility, and explorer into the philosophy of Virtuality and Cultural Identity in the Socially Networked society.

David is Chair of the International Federation for Information Processing's (IFIP) Technical Committee 9 on ICT and Society, and a member of the IFIP Board. He was Chair, from 2013 to 2018, of the IFIP WG 9.5 on Virtuality and Society. David is holder of the prestigious IFIP Silver Core Award, for "significant achievements of the recipient that are important from the point of view of the mission and goals of IFIP."

David brings a background in the arts and sociology to his work in information systems. As Arts Centre Director for Tamworth Borough Council, and then Portsmouth City Council, in the 1990s, and as Chair of Arts Council funded Kaos Theatre UK, and Horse and Bamboo Theatre Company, David has gained invaluable experience in leading a wide range of arts projects. As a code technician, he made websites for not-for-profit organisations from 1995 to 2019 through micro-enterprise fourquarters, and provided CSS and Accessibility expertise to many other Web Developers through Training courses and seminars over a period of some 15 years.

Alongside his arts management, web development, and business interests, building on a Bachelors in Theatre and Arts Management, David undertook a part-time Masters in Cultural Theory during the mid 90s, specialising in Cybersociety, and between 1998 and 2003 undertook extensive research in this field, culminating in the award in January 2004 of a PhD for his doctoral thesis on Cyborgs. He has since undertaken, part-time, a PG Certificate in Academic Practice, and, with the Open University, a Masters in Philosophy.

David was Director of Information Systems, Organisations and Society Research Centre (ISOS) at University Salford, Greater Manchester, 2009-12, and Associate Dean Research and Innovation, Salford Business School, 2019-2020.

His books include Understanding Digital Events: Bergson, Whitehead, and Experiencing the Digital (Routledge); Against Nature: The Metaphysics of Information Systems (Routledge); Bergson, Complexity and Creative Emergence (Palgrave); Gramsci and Foucault: A Reassessment (Routledge); Human-Centric Computing in a Data Driven Society (Springer); This Changes Everything: ICT and Climate Change – What Can We Do? (Springer); and Technology and Intimacy: Choice or Coercion (Springer).

TO WATCH THE VIDEO INTERVIEW, CLICK ON THIS MP4 file link