On the role of cross-disciplinary research and SSE in addressing the challenges of the digitalization of society

Paper in proceeding, 2015

Digitalization of society has increased its pace during the last decade. With the introduction of modern technologies (e.g.~smartphones) the amount and types of information has increased bringing in both new opportunities and new challenges. In this paper we review the main opportunities and challenges stemming from the heavy use of digital technologies in society. We outline the needs for applying SSE principles and cross-disciplinary research for adequately addressing the challenges of digitalized society. Our position is that without taking a social view for system development and cross-disciplinary research we can only address partial problems related to the digitalization and that by integrating domain-specific disciplines (e.g.~financing) with the technology related ones (e.g.~software engineering) we could develop holistic solutions for the challenges identified in this paper.