Meta-Modelling Kindness

Kindness is a psycho-social phenomenon that is also recognized as an important pro-social behaviour. The use of digital technology provides opportunities to promote kindness in various ways, such as in social media campaigns and online communities. In principle, software engineers are well positioned to develop automated systems that can facilitate software-mediated kindness. However, in practice, incorporating kindness concerns explicitly in the development and use of software systems is challenging: kindness is highly context dependent, affected by a range of factors such as intentions and opportunity.