The profession and the world

Professionals have a responsibility to use their skills and experience where relevant to judge the nature and reality of problems facing their community and to promote and support solutions to those problems. This responsibility distinguishes professionals from people who ply a trade. The paper considers how a computing professional's skills and experience are particularly relevant to the community. We can apply traditional systems analysis to the global problems we encounter, and digital technology has undoubted potential for supporting good solutions to many of these problems. How a systems analyst will look professionally at the world's purpose will depend on who she sees as having the problem. As the employee of a client, the systems analyst will take a materialist approach. But as a professional primarily responsible to the community, that same systems analyst will take a demotic approach.