Social informatics: russian scientific school and future research directions

The paper describes the history of formation, present state, and prospects of development of Social Informatics as a current trend in science and education. The paper shows distinctive features of the Russian scientific school of Social Informatics and its priority in formation and development of this direction. The paper defines perspective directions of research in the conditions of formation of the Global Information Society. The paper explains the necessity of a broader consideration of Social Informatics in education and research training.