handbook of computer ethics chapter 27

Book Review Chapter 27: Intercultural Information Ethics”

By Rafael Capurro

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599

Quote:

“Do not harm, help where you can”

This is the basic moral principle. This means that we should help other people. The will is in us. Even though there is a moral principle, still it is our own decision to help or harm other people. This just gives an opinion to what we will do.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn what intercultural information ethics is. I want to know how people were affected because of the new information technology.

Review:

Intercultural information ethics focuses on the impact of information technology to the different cultures of different countries. This chapter wants to know if it has also impact the way people believe in a certain country because of the availability of information technology.

The first debate is about the moral philosophy about cognitive and non cognitive with the true claims. Cognitive means the ability for a person to learn new knowledge and ideas. It is said that human cognition has a truth value if it is free from emotions. A person should not based his ideas, actions and his plans to his emotion, but only to his mind. This is a wrong idea since no emotion is free. We always encounter that we cannot free ourselves from our emotions. There is a relation between the reason and our emotions.

According to Martin Heidegger, moods is not only a private feeling, we are the ones disclosing it for public. We don’t want to show to public the way we cry and our sadness. The way we feel certain object does not separate us from ourselves. It is part of being us. Eugene Gendlin also argues that Heidegger idea about mood is “interactional” rather than “intraphysic”. He also believed that mood is with relation to understanding. The way we understand certain things will result to our unique moods. For example, a student passed the exam. That means he understood it in a good way. Thus, he would be happy for that thing.

Intercultural information ethics does not only focuses on the impact of ICT on our different cultures, but also deals with moral issues, media issues and etc. These issues are gender issue, digital divide, mobile phones, privacy, government issues and etc.

What I’ve learned:

I learned that there are three different perspectives such as Internet for social and political development, internet for economic development and internet for cultural development. Internet for political means that internet can be used in order to take in politics like the Obama’s fund in the internet. Many people said that he won in the latest election because of his highest campaign by way of asking people to donate for him because he don’t have much money to campaign and be known by everyone. Internet for economic development means the country is becoming more technologized that’s why many other countries are amazed. The best example of this is Japan; the country is developing because of the new technologies that they are developing. Thus, it helped the company to flourish and be known by everyone. Internet for cultural means that the way we believe certain issues are enriching. From a conservative way, we are adapting western culture which is not bad because we are learning others way of life. This was evident when we have many social medias that capable of connecting to our friends. Thus, we learned that we want to socialize with other people even the people who were strangers.

Integrative questions:

1) What is Antonio Damasio is saying?

2) What is a phenomenological approach?

3) What is problematization according to Michael Foucault?

4) What is IIE?

5) What is the critical role of IIE?

handbook of computer ethics chapter 26

Book Review Chapter 26: “The Digital Divide: A Perspective

For the future”

By MARIA CANELLOPOULOU-BOTTIS and KENNETH EINAR HIMMA

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599

Quote:

“It is noncontroversial that it is morally good for affluent persons or nations to help impoverished persons or nations, but there is considerable disagreement about whether affluent persons and nations are morally obligated….”

Since we can’t control the problem about poverty, I think the best we could do is to help many poor people to access information technologies. They might possess the skills that an IT is looking for. We must give them their opportunity to have an experience with this kind of information. This also does not mean that we are required to help, but it is morally good if we help other people to reach the information that they wanted and needed.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn what digital divide is. I want to know how will I contribute in helping other people in accessing information. I want also to know if it is my obligation as a student or not to help them and let them realized that it is important in their lives.

Review:

This chapter focuses on the status of life of people. We all know that there is an increasing number of people who are suffering especially nowadays that there are financial crisis going on different countries. Poverty is always a big problem which hinders one person not to have what other people have. They can’t afford to buy an item that they will need in their life. Instead of buying an item, they consider that the important thing is food and their health. Poor people are discriminated and denying them that there is an essential part to human. We have no control that many people are dying because of poverty.

The title of this chapter is “the digital divide”. This means that there is a gap in distributing of resources which must be available to all the people. This digital divide does not mean that there is a gap between the rich and the poor. Obviously, poor people don’t have much access to information technologies. They might even know what is it all about because of that poverty issue. There is also a gap in having the required skills needed in information technologies. Some prefer to chose medicine rather than information technologies. Also, some poor countries don’t have much access to internet. There are many gaps that this digital divide is taking to considerations.

It is said in this chapter that the problem is not with the local poverty that we cannot solve, but the moral importance of digital divide that must be addressed in order to diminished the inequalities between the rich and the poor. I also believed that it is right. Not all people are well informed by the available resources. Only the rich has been given access to it. Thus, they will become richer. Since the poor does not know the importance of this information technology, they are not given the opportunity to become also rich.

What I’ve learned:

I learned that there is a gap in the information. The problem is not all people can access information in the internet because of poverty. They can’t afford to know information technologies since they are focusing on how to survive each day. They are also lack of training that requires a person to know the basic knowledge in computer in order for them to use and operate by themselves.

I found out that the poor country does not have internet access. I am lucky to know how to operate computer and internet that is a problem by many people. Even though Philippines is considered as small and poor country, there is a good speed internet access which allows people to know information they have been wanted. Poverty is always the reason why many people do not know information technologies. In order to solve this kind of problem, they must access it. But the problem is how they can access it, if they can’t afford it. I think this will be the biggest problem in morality since information technologies is not only limited to people, but also focusing on equality to all the people.

Integrative questions:

1) Is there a gap accessing to information?

2) What is the reason why people are not informed?

3) Are all counties have internet access

4) What is the moral basis for the ideas that the various digital divides should be eliminated?

5) What can an affluent people can do in order for this digital divide to be eliminated?

handbook of CE Chapter 25

Book Review Chapter 25: “The Gender Agenda in Computer Ethics”

By Alison Adam

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Quote:

“Numbers cannot replace theoretical, conceptual explanations”

This means that numbers are more precise than scientific explanations. Even though there is no explanation of the concept, still numbers can be the evidence that a person wants to know.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn what are the gender issues regarding computer ethics. I also expect that there is no problem in genders issue because of its untraditional way. Also, I want to know the different opinions of great people regarding this kind of issue.

Review:

Gender has been always the issue in our society. Before, there are gender issues that is arising even here in Philippines, when Spanish invades our country, males are only the ones who have the access in the information by going to school. There are many limits when it comes to females. Females are only in their respective house, cleaning, cooking and etc. Second gender issue is about homosexuals. It was believed before that it is a sin if you are homosexuals. Many priest before considered gay as immoral and must be condemned. When 20^th century came, these gender issues were diminished and many people proved that it is not in their gender that their intellectual and skills must be based. Many ladies nowadays are also in the high position which they can perform their own skills. Also, gays are now welcomed in this society for them also to proved to each other that they have talents and skills to help the economy of the country. When new information technology came, I have seen that it does not only embraced the new technology but also all the people without any problem regarding gender issue. Everyone can access to information, not only limited to rich people and there is no bias when it comes to accessing in information.

This chapter addresses what gender issues are considered in computer ethics by way of discussing feminist ethics. Feminist’s ethics includes the morality and virtue of women. Care ethics is the center of approaches toward feminist ethics. It is said that men have a well-developed moral sense and women do not have. While, some would also say that women are more focusing in strengthening their relationship with people. The feminist approach involves in caring, mothering and relationship. Gililigan’s pint of view is that the standard of morality is based on men and not women. There are two different moral values of men and women. According to her, women tend to value caring in their relationship and responsibilities, while men tends to value ethics of fairness by complying to the rules and regulations of the community.

What I’ve learned:

According to this chapter, I learned that in some of their surveys the result is women are more ethical than men regarding to computer ethics. But also this chapter also said that some of their surveys results like the In a Different Voices by Gilligan that female tends to be ethical in caring their families and responsibilities, while men considered themselves as ethical in complying to the rules and regulations. This chapter wants to know if there are differences in gender in morality. They want to know that if female are more ethical to male or not. According to what I find out, women are interested in computer ethics than men. Also, females are more users than the men.

Integrative questions:

1) What is Gilligan’s In a Different Voice was trying to convey?

2) What is Khazanchi’s aim?

3) What is Kreie and Cronan’s attitudinal model?

4) What is a quantitative research methodology?

5) What is a qualitative research methodology?

handbook of CE Chapter 24

Book Review Chapter 24”Censorship and Access to Expression”

By Kay Mathiesen

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Quote:

“It is only in the context of free access to the full range of “alternative views that we can engage in deliberation on what to believe, value and do”

This quote comes from Cohen. We are lucky to have free access in the internet. It allows us to know the different opinions of people. With that, we are also analyzing what some people have said and not only believed to what we know but also what others had said. Because of universal ideas, it also helps us to have the ideas of all the people.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn to what extent is censorship. I want to know if it is morally right to censor information that prevents human rights to know that exact information that the speaker wants to convey in his speech.

Review:

This chapter is about censorship and access to expression. Censor means prevented or condemns to be seen by anyone. In medias such as tv advertisement, sometimes there are censors in order for the people not to see the real thing. Censorship limits access to an express by blurring our images or sounds that would be seen by people.

There are three fundamental interests in freedom of speech. First is the interest in expression. It means that there is a direct interest in knowing the thoughts, attitudes and feelings on a particular subject. By talking to other people, it promotes access to the information. This can be a relationship between the writer and the reader. A writer conveys a message to his reader through writing novels, books and etc. Second is interest in deliberation. This means that there is an interest to analyze, revise and have a deeper meaning to the information. This will gain us more knowledge on what we have found out and we understand it. This also requires the opinions and arguments of people to have a good result answer. Last is interest in information. This means that our interest is securing reliable information with having one aim or aspirations. If we don’t have an access to information, we will not be able to fulfill our aims. I believed that because of accessing in information, we are becoming intelligent and knowledgeable to the aspects in our lives. We have determined plans that we also considering because of the information we have learned and assess.

This chapter also points out that the goal of freedom of expression focuses o n allowing communication of the people. When there are forums that ask for our opinions, sometimes we also tries to say our opinions or ideas because it is our expression to a certain subject.

What I’ve learned:

I learned that the goal of freedom of expressions in not about the speaker spoke, but the reader who are able to communicate. There is also freedom to speak when it comes to the speaker. Speaker and Writer wants to convey their ideas, thoughts to their readers that is why they are writing, speaking and doing it. But the main goal is for the people to communicate. I believed that if people would talk, they will also learn information from other people. Thus, we will gain more knowledge in interacting with different people especially the differences of culture. It is about protecting the rights for the public to be informed of such happening or news in their country not protecting the writers to write their own article. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to express our own ideas, thoughts to other people. If this information will be censored, then there is no freedom or liberty because it interferes to what we are saying. Thus, censoring is against freedom of speech.

Integrative questions:

1) What is Cohen’s definition of the interest in expression?

2) What is the goal of freedom of expression?

3) What are the three fundamental interests in expressions?

4) What is censorship according to this chapter?

5) What is Carson’s idea about censorship?

Handbook of CE Chapter 23

Book Review Chapter 23 “Intellectual Property: Legal and Moral

Challenges of Online File Sharing”

By Richard A. Spinello

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Quote:

“Taking property without permission is wrong. Recorded music is property. Taking recorded music without permission is therefore wrong as well.”

People are fond of using peer to peer networks in order to share some files especially music. The problem is if it is wrong because we don’t asked for any permission.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn more about plagiarism. I want to know what considerations they have regarding plagiarisms. Also, I want to know what consequences that a person might get in plagiarizing certain information. Also, I want to know if they have strongly imposed rules regarding this kind of problem in the internet.

Review:

This chapter is about online file sharing. First it discusses peer-to-peer networks. Because of the advancement of technology, it allows the people to share digital files over network such as micro torrent, limewire and etc. A person can share his music with his online friends in a faster way. Also, if some files are broken, we can find other people who have the file that we are looking for.

Second question that it arises is file sharing is just only sharing or theft? With web, all the people can copy a file without any permission which is considered as stealing. According to this, there is nothing wrong to use peer to peer networks for sharing a copyrighted material.

Barslow and his supports argue that there should be an exclusive property right in cyberspace. Some people agreed in this kind of argument, but others do not like his reasons. According to Copyright act, an infringer is anyone who violates the right of the copyright that includes the right to make copies without any permission.

It is said in this chapter that sharing copyrighted files is morally acceptable because the concept of sharing is totally good since we are not selfish in keeping our copyright files. There is also an issue regarding if distributing music is wrong taking considerations that it has no permission to the owner. The essence of having an authorized is so that you can use it physically as a kind of work. Theft is said to be misuse of the words. Stealing is considered if there is publishing or using of that material without any consent. It is also said that downloading a music online is acceptable if he used it for personal used and not for his business.

What I’ve learned:

I learned that in some aspects of sharing are bad, but some aspects are good. We thought that sharing is always in the good side, but this chapter says that there is a way for this sharing to be considered as bad thing. One example is a person sharing his malicious materials to a young boy through peer to peer network. Even though, he does not know that the boy is still young, still there is accountability part in the one who is sending that file. We must consider what we are sharing that we intended to share to everyone else.

Integrative questions:

1) In what extent is sharing is considered as not commonly good?

2) What is Barlows idea about intellectual property?

3) Is sharing copyright files a morally wrong considering that there is no permission?

4) What is David Lange’s idea about sharing?

5) What is labor-based approach?

Handbook of CE Chapter 22

Book Review Chapter 22 “The Matter of Plagiarism: What, Why, and If

By John Snapper

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Quote:

“The right of placing its will in any and every thing, which thing is thereby mine”

This means that a person has the right to own his work which is his own. A person which is the author of his work can do whatever he like and even destroying his art.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn more about plagiarism. I want to know what considerations they have regarding plagiarisms. Also, I want to know what consequences that a person might get in plagiarizing certain information. Also, I want to know if they have strongly imposed rules regarding this kind of problem in the internet.

Review:

Chapter 22 is about plagiarism. First, plagiarism means copying of information without recognizing the author or the writer of the article. We always get information from the internet without even citing the one who wrote it. Also, plagiarism is considered as offensive to the part of the writer because we never seek for his approval regarding in getting or using his information. Plagiarism is considered also stealing because it is getting the ideas of people in the net without saying that you only borrowed it. We should avoid committing mistakes of plagiarizing since it is illegal. If we want to copy, we must make sure that we must seek first their approval and to document it. If we forgot to state our source, then we can be sued by the author of the source we have got.

The difference between the issue of authorization is different from the issue of documentation. Failure of authorizing is considered as theft because we are not recognizing the copyright that the author is paying just for the sake of publishing his paper. That case, we can be filed a lawsuit. While, the failure of documentation is not recognizing that there is a person who wrote. This is some students are having trouble because sometimes they got information in the internet. Since it is free, they likely to copy all the information and pasting it in their papers without citing their source. But this two are considered as a kind of plagiarism.

Open source software can be distribute without any formal authorization since it is free. Some also considered it as nonproprietary software. But it is more exact to say that the authors of open source does not demand formal authorization, but there is a valid copyright. We as the user of the open source must follow the rules and regulations in the copied source.

What I’ve learned:

I learned that file sharing enhances the value of copyright of the music. We should allow people to plagiarize in order for the copyright to be strengthened. Also, in order for people not to plagiarize, we should offer them cheaper price. For example, an original movie that costs P1000.00. Only little people will buy that kind of movie because it was offered at high price. One of the reasons why people demanded to file share is because of the cheap costs that they were ready to pay. I think we cannot stop file sharing because many people are using it.

Integrative questions:

1) Is authorizing a property is a natural right or moral right?

2) What is the primary proponent of open source software?

3) Is file sharing considered as illegal thing?

4) Does the author of the work have the right to ask compensation for his user?

5) What is a free software foundation?

Handbook of CE Chapter 21

Book Review Chapter 21 “Email Spam”

By KEITH W. MILLER and JAMES H. MOOR

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Quote:

““If spam lost its luster, the Internet might become more usable again”

There is a problem with many spams that are also affecting the way we surf the internet. People like me afraid to open messages which come from an unknown person because it might be a spam. I don’t want that just for the sake of my curiosity, I would let my computer broke. I also believed that if spam would end, the way we use internet will again be useful.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn more about email spamming. Also, I want to know why many people are doing email spamming and what will they get from it. I want to know how the Google and Yahoo knows that the message is spam because sometimes I have seen that there are spam folders in my account that means that the messages are spams.

Review:

Chapter 21 is about email spamming and what constitutes an email spam. First, it is said that for a person to know that it is a spam, the emails are not commercial in nature and the number of identical messages that are spent are considered as spams. One of the reason why many people does not like spam is because it creates 80% of email traffic, instead of finding out who’s the person writes an email at you, you always received spams that are not important. Some legislatives finds it hard to write a law against this problem –email spam because of how important is this in the net. According to this chapter, people are thinking that spam is irrelevant in emailing. I also think that it is irrelevant and nor a major problems that the ethics should not be concerned. In this chapter, it tackles the consequences of having email spams.

The history of spam starts from a telegram that sent in 1904. Many people before does not know what is spam since it was never used during that time. MUD (Multi-user Dungeons) had used spams in order to make a strategy in order to flood their interface so that many people would visit their site. Since this happened, they named it as spam because of repetitive messages that caught attention. The largest spam happened in newsgroups. Two lawyers tried to solicit business through using identical messages that can be considered as spams. They have used immigration lottery even though it is not true just for the sake to caught attention to people.

The difference of email and spam is the content. Email is a short message, while spam has some advertisement that was stated in the message. What’s worse in spamming is sometimes it has attached virus. Thus, if one person tried to open the spam message, he would face the problem of having his hard drive shuts down. Another way to distinguish a spam is just to look the people he has been sent. If he sends it to many people, some email company considered it spam due to their mass emailing.

What I’ve learned:

I learned that the way to consider it as a spam is if it has many identical spams. That is why Google recognized easily that a message is spam or not. Another way is if the email violates the law. Spam is considered as illegal if it has false misleading information. I think blocking the user is also helpful so that a person and the Google as well recognize the people who are spamming.

I learned that the ethics of do nothing is important. In this chapter, it says that in order for the spammers to stop is to do nothing or let them get tired. We must be intelligent enough to distinguish which is a real spam from a real email. We should first examine this do nothing approach so that we can solve the issues about email spamming. Reducing spamming can help internet because it is said that spams creates email traffics in the internet. If people would get angry because of many spams in the internet, they may consider lessening their time doing surfing in the internet. That is why we must reduce spamming.

Integrative questions:

1) What is the consequence of receiving spam?

2) What is a do nothing approach?

3) What does the antispam measure?

4) What is the difference between blacklists and white list?

5) What is the ethics suggestion regarding to reduce spam?

Handbook of CE Chapter 20

Book Review Chapter 20 “Information Overload”

By DAVID M. LEVY

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Quote:

““Our contemporary problem is not lack of knowledge or information. This is the ‘information overload’ problem.”

I chose this quote because this is very unique idea. I also believed that nowadays there is no lack of knowledge. Everything is in the internet, but the problem is what the relevant ones are so that I could focus on. There is much information that is not relevant which left us with a problem of distress because of numerous information.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn if information will be overload. If information will be full, what will the people do in order to keep the information? I think the last option is to delete or destroy the irrelevant information in the web.

Review:

This chapter is about information overload. Information overload means too much of information in the web. With Google and Wikipedia, they helped the people to filter the relevant information through the number of visits from irrelevant ones. Thus, it makes us more organize and manageable in gather information such as doing some research. There are many questions that need to be answered in this chapter but sometimes there is no answer in some questions. The problem of information overload is the experience of distress in a problematic situation.

There are three stages in a human information processing. First is reception. It means that information is received. For example, a person receives information through his email. There can be no effort when it comes to person opening his email account, when it compares to a person researching a certain subject that has relevant sources. I for instance had a hard time in knowing a certain subject if it has different relevant sources. Second stage is process. This means that the person is beginning to absorb, interpret and understand the information that was given to him. For example, a person who is reading his email from a friend. Third stage is action. This means that a person takes some action in response to what he read. A possible example of this is a person after reading his email, he immediately delete it.

Some people would say that they are suffering from information overload. That means that they had absorbed many information and they felt that they have no space for a new information that they will be hearing. A person cannot handle too much information in a given period of time that is why some have a hard time in learning for 10 hours.

What I’ve learned:

I learned that even though there are information that is on the web, still there are problems left. The problem is information overload. I want to stress out that Aristotle’s idea about happiness is true in this chapter. He said that happiness lies on the mean or middle of lacking and excess which is I think is exactly true. Before, when there is no internet like this, there is a lack of information that one person is perceiving. But now, the problem is there is overloading of information in the internet which makes too stress for people to see. People like me were overwhelmed because of information that is showing in the internet.

Integrative questions:

1) What information overload means?

2) What actions can government do to solver information overload?

3) What are the consequences of information overload?

4) What was Simon’s view about information overloading?

5) Explain “more-fater-better” philosophy

handbook of CE Chapter 19

Book Review Chapter 19 “Regulation and Governance of the Internet”

By JOHN WECKERT and YESLAM AL-SAGGAF

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Quote:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontier”

This is Article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights. I also believed that blocking of websites is a violation of human rights. No one should manipulate and block websites which gives us freedom.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn who are responsible in regulating or monitoring suspicious websites in the internet. I want to know how effective they can regulate. Also, I want to know if there are countries that are supporting or blocking websites which has suspicious contents.

Review:

Chapter 19 talks about the issues in regulating internet effectively. The issues are who will be the one should be in charge and what areas in the internet should governed. Some suggest that there should be a universal authority in the internet which is WGIG. WGIG means working group on internet Governance. But also some would argue that there is a need for cooperation between nations. It is said that to have good governance, there should be one body that has the control of standards, but the body who has the control of the contents would be the national level. This governance and controlling is important and primary concern in the society because of people who are misbehaving and using internet for bad use.

One question that this chapter wants to answer is “Can content on the Internet be regulated effectively?”. If it cannot be, then it should not be considered as practical issue. Since we all know that even though a group of people would monitor the contents in the internet, still there is no assurance that there would have no malicious websites in the net. The contents in the internet are can be monitor, but in my opinion it would not be effectively done.

The second problem is the extent to which the technology can allow effective regulation. Some says that regulating of contents is not possible, but I think there are other strategies that they can block the content in the internet. One way is through ISP; they can block web pages and ftp files with the use of proxy servers. In other countries, they blocked websites even though it is not malicious like multiply, but in the Philippines, I can say that they don’t block any web sites which is for me is good because there is freedom in choosing sites that an individual would like.

What I’ve learned:

I learned that in some other countries like Saudi Arabia, they are very strict in terms of regulating their websites. I only know that there is a way in order for a group of people to regulate certain websites that coming across their country. In Saudi Arabia, they block websites that has pornographic materials which I think is good but I think if that will be regulated in the Philippines, I think many people would protests since we are democratic country. Also, blocking internet will take effect to the students since everybody is dependent on the use of internet to get information they wanted and also study certain areas like anatomy and all the fields of science. I think blocking of websites is also against with the definition of internet. I believed that the use of internet is to write, edit, view all the sites freely without any needed permission. I am fortunate to be born in Philippines because they are not strict when it comes to blocking websites. Also, I have heard that we have faster speed when it compares to other countries.

Integrative questions:

1) Who are the ones that would be likely to regulate the contents in the internet?

2) Is it right to regulate contents in the internet?

3) Is it effective in regulating contents in the internet?

4) What are the disadvantages if the nation would block malicious websites?

What are the laws that support blocking of websites?

Handbook of CE Chapter 18

Book Review Chapter 18 “A Practical Mechanism for Ethical Risk

Assessment—A SoDIS Inspection”

By DON GOTTERBARN, TONY CLEAR, and CHOON-TUCK KWAN

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: Not Applicable

Quote:

“Stakeholders are also those to whom the developer owes an obligation.”

I agree with this quote because the stakeholder will be the people who will be affected by the information system that the developer is doing. Thus, it is the developer obligation to follow the conditions of the stakeholder.

Learning Expectation:

I expect that I will learn what this chapter is addressing to people especially students like me. Also, I want to have a background in this kind of Ethical Risk.

Review:

This chapter talks about the continued problems occurring that evolves creating risk assessment. These risks are systematic and start in establishing the context, identifying risks, analyzing risks, evaluating risks that would lead to minimize the losses and maximize opportunities. The context that was stated in that process refers to the organizational structure of one’s firm. This is the area to which the risk analyst must focus on. Second is analyzing the risk. This relates to negative impact to those people who will be affected and the project itself. Third step is analyzing the risk. After identifying the risk, they must give each priority level and what areas they will prioritize. Fourth is evaluating the risk. They need to consider the information system if they have negative ethical impacts to people. Last is to treat the risk. Treating the risk is sometimes said minimizing the risk because sometimes we have no control of what will happen to our system.

This chapter also discusses about the obligation of the developer. According to this chapter, the developer does not have obligations to the stakeholders if they are affected unethically with these information systems. For example, a candidate for president does not win because the information system is not user-friendly, still this book says that this developer does not have obligation to stakeholders because of software failure. Even the person is affected; still it is not included in generic concept of software failure. It is said that the system may be successful if the developer has the budget and meet on the deadline, but they were failed because they failed to make conditions. So, it is the fault of the person who is requesting. They must first make conditions and set requirements in order to have a good result of information system.

What I’ve learned:

This is my first time to hear about SoDIS. SoDis means software development impact statement. It is used to identify negative impacts of the proposed system and do necessary actions to lessen the risk or impact. There are stated system goals and set of list that is included in SoDIS because it would be used as its primary input. The goal of this approach is to identify the ways in which the stakeholder may not be affected in a negative way and to prevent the problems that will happen in the information system. This relates to ethics because this encourages the developer to think of the stakeholders who will be affected with the kind of system and how they can help to mediate the risk. This is good because unknowingly it really helps the developer to think as an ethical person who has concerns with his fellow humans.

Integrative questions:

1) What is the SoDIS approach?

2) What does SoDIS indentifying relating to information system?

3) What are the basic four steps of SoDIS process?

4) What are Gert 10 basic moral rules?

5) How important does SoDIS approach to a developer and stakeholders?