The Social Dimension of Sustainability in Requirements Engineering

Nowadays mobile phones and smartphones are common not only in mega cities in developed countries but also in rural areas in emerging and developing countries. Technological progress will enable more and more people from different socio-cultural backgrounds and with different needs to use software services with up-to-date technical devices. End users are increasingly expecting to use software services in their "own way". They expect to customize the functionality, contribute to the content, and share information with others. The requirements of users differ drastically depending on the socio-cultural context. This is why we must raise the following questions: What is the impact of a society or an economy on software and vice versa? Do we need new approaches in requirements engineering to deal with the social dimension of sustainability? In this paper we aim to bringing forth a discussion about social sustainable software.