Computing and Social Welfare: Minimizing societal harm from digital transformation while preserving the benefits of innovation in online businesses

Social Welfare Computing is an emerging discipline that seeks to direct technology to cause minimum societal disruption, and in particular seeks to minimize the harm caused directly by technology itself. This is markedly different from the better-understood uses of technology to create value or to address existing social needs. Innovative technologies that are widely adopted created significant value for their users; otherwise, they would not be widely adopted. Often the companies that create them obtain new sources of wealth and power, which inevitably lead to new forms of abuse of power and new forms of societal disruption. Societal disruption in turn requires social adaptation, including new regulations to influence the behavior of firms and to define and to protect the rights of individuals in the changed society. The governance of online business models is complex because regulators must meet the conflicting objectives of different segments of society, and because regulators must avoid imposing restrictions that stifle innovation. Social Welfare Computing seeks to guide social adaptation, combining insights from disciplines as varied as anthropology, business strategy, economics, strategic planning, and law.