Portale di Ateneo - En.Unibs.it

The course offers a historical introduction to the development of information technology, briefly reviewing its evolution in the functional sense (development of information systems) and technology (computer development). Central is the attention for its 'interdisciplinary' character.
Some basic notions are introduced on the functioning of the computer and the Internet, as well as on the processing of legal information, with this some hints on the basic concepts are introduced to help students to carry out independent research on databases (at least in the University databases).
Alongside the technological part, some ethical issues (political and juridical), raised by the social pervasiveness of informatics, are introduced in the course, paying attention to current issues (protection of freedom of speech, privacy, piracy, biotechnology). By tackling these aspects, we introduce some historical notions, related to social control and surveillance, as well as notions such as that of 'information society'. In this path, therefore, due to the pervasiveness of technology, a reflection is sought in various directions: from the possible effects of the technological society on the functioning of democracy, to original issues from the interdependence between computer science and other disciplines (such as genetics and biology), to discuss the difficulties that arise in terms of their regulation.