Some of my work addresses how to design and evaluate the impacts of technologies for knowledge discovery. Examples include:

Data mining and counter-terrorism — Since 9/11, much of my work in technology assessment has focused on data mining and counter-terrorism. Much of that work is summarized in a talk I gave at the National Academies in December 2002. A accessible and balanced account of the history and issues can be found in Safe: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World, a book published in 2005 by HarperCollins. In late 2001, I was quoted in an NPR story and an U.S. News and World Report article on data mining for counter-terrorism. My testimony before the Pentagon's Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee was quoted in Federal Computer Week. See News for details on all three stories. Finally, in a paper delivered at KDD 2003, two of my students and I provided a prospective technical assessment of systems for "information awareness," including systems for counter-terrorism.

Architecture and evaluation of knowledge discovery systems — Systems for knowledge discovery have a wide variety of applications in government, business, and science. The design of such systems, and the data to which they are applied, can have a profound effect on their social, political, and institutional impacts. I have a long-standing interest in the design of systems for knowledge discovery, the topic of a talk at a symposium sponsored by the Central Ohio Chapter of the ACM. Foster Provost and I presented several tutorials on evaluation methods for KDD systems. In addition, my laboratory is experimenting with a variety of architectures for relational knowledge discovery. Many of our current ideas are exemplified by our Proximity software environment.

AI technologies for the detection of money laundering — In 1995, I coauthored one of the first major technology assessments of data mining technologies (Information Technologies for the Control of Money Laundering) while serving as an analyst at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Subsequently, I have consulted for several federal and international agencies regarding the technical capabilities and potential impacts of data mining technologies.

Other — I have conducted technology assessments in a few areas other than computer science, including a study on quantifying the environmental externalities of electricity generating technologies, a study on designing products and services to reduce their environmental impact, and an analysis quantifying the effects of smoke detector laws on fire losses in the United States.

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