Donald Gotterbarn

• Professor Emeritus at East Tennessee State University

Repeated ethical violations ends with membership revocation and ban.

Data Analytics needs to have ethical standards. There are numerous examples of why this is so, and the paper cites four particularly egregious ones. The paper offers both reasons why such standards are currently missing or inadequate, and how they might best be introduced, or refined. Some Codes of Ethics, such as the Software Engineering Code of E...

This special session will involve three related components. It will begin with a history of the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (the Code), its evolving presence in the computing curriculum guidelines over time, and its documented use outside of academe. This will lead into an overview of the major changes to the Code that occurred in t...

In developing a semi-automated decision support system using cutting-edge visual technologies to aid police intelligence analysts (the VALCRI project) it was recognised that addressing ethical, privacy and legal issues would need to be considered from the start. From the beginning, experts in these fields were embedded in the project and externally...

Purpose This short viewpoint is a response to a lead paper on professional ethics in the information age. This paper aims to draw upon the authors’ experience of professional bodies such as the ACM over many years. Points of agreement and disagreement are highlighted with the aim of promoting wider debate. Design/methodology/approach An analysis...

We describe the process of changing and the changes being suggested for the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. In addition to addressing the technical and ethical basis for the proposed changes, we identify suggestions that commenters made in response to the first draft. We invite feedback on the proposed changes and on the suggestions th...

We describe the process of changing and the changes being suggested for the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. In addition to addressing the technical and ethical basis for the proposed changes, we identify suggestions that commenters made in response to the first draft. We invite feedback on the proposed changes and on the suggestions th...

The Association for Computing Machinery's Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE) has been charged to execute three major projects over the next two years: updating ACM's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, revising the enforcement procedures for the Code, and developing new media to promote integrity in the profession. We cannot do this alone...

Like most significant changes in technology, Cloud Computing and Big Data along with their associated analytic techniques are claimed to provide us with new insights unattainable by any previous knowledge techniques. It is believed that the quantity of virtual data now available requires new knowledge production strategies. Although they have yield...

Celebrating achievements is an important social ritual. Tracks and themes at conferences such as ETHICOMP 2015 provide opportunities for the careful discussion of challenges facing society in terms of information and communication technology (ICT). This topic provides the underpinning rationale to the body of papers presented throughout the entire...

In support of ACM's and the IEEE's commitment to professionalism, the ACM Committee on Professional Ethics, a technical co-sponsor of this conference, is presenting a workshop designed to help faculty provide students with tools to better understand and to better resolve their ethical challenges as professionals. This workshop will have a special f...

Just about a year ago, John Impagliazzo asked if I'd be willing to form a task group to put together a report on the future of this magazine. I suspect he asked me for a couple of reasons. First, because I've been involved with Inroads for several years ...

EduBits, your quarterly roundup of ACM educational activities, focuses on education policy and the way it affects the K--12 educational space. Cameron Wilson, Director of Public Policy for ACM, gives us a glimpse into the challenges of improving CS education ...

Rapidly developing social media technology has made obsolete many corporate computer use policies. New types of policies need to be developed which address the blurring of the distinction between corporate and personal computing. The gradual change in whose smart technology is used, and how it is used in the service of employers needs to be control...

Many elements in current social media have led to the technological devolving of the concept of truth. It is argued that some of these problems can be mitigated by the application of moral "Rules".

Welcome to the third installment of EduBits, your quarterly pipeline to new and exciting happenings in the world of ACM education. Starting with this March issue of ACM Inroads, we are introducing a new thread that will highlight principal educational ...

In recent months, there has been considerable discussion about the value of computing as an academic discipline and the value of computing studies in furthering one's career. Kevin Carey (2010) recently wrote an article showing how a student who took ...

People have falsely regarded the computing working environment as dedicated to the confines of a building with availability of electricity, high-speed info-structure, and the latest computer technology. In reality, there are many computing have-nots ...

Overview - in the March 2010 Inroads, Steve Cooper and Steve Cunningham presented an editorial arguing for "Teaching computer science in context" (Cooper and Cunningham 2010). Context is the use of a consistent application or domain area, which effectively ...

There is a significant and previously unidentified ethics problem with many e-games; many of them are designed in such a way that they encourage and train game players to follow a narrow and dangerous model of decision making. It is argued that extending this model of decision making beyond an e-game’s virtual reality has significant negative socie...

From time to time a movement arises that promises to save the world, or at least to make it vastly better. The extraordinary achievements of digital computing make it a locus of such movements today. Yet we should be wary; when movements fail they provoke ...

It's difficult to fully address all our professional obligations as software engineers. Our training focuses on avoiding technical failures, but unfortunately our systems sometimes have unintended consequences. We need to develop products to avoid unintended negative impacts on society, people, and the environment. Professional responsibility requi...

Video games are ethically controversial. Some video games are effective training tools for learning various skills and approaches to problem-solving, but some video games are notorious for promoting discriminatory and barbaric behavior. We consider such ethical pros and cons of video games, but we also present a more fundamental ethical issue about...

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been with us for many years and in the past ten years there has been a growing interest in something called “ICT Governance” as a means of reducing information system disasters. There have been national organizations formed, professional organizations have organized sub-committees to address ICT Go...

Computing professionals face ethical conflicts. A true professional faces these challenges intelligently and analytically. Professional practice consists of both technical knowledge and the skillful application of that knowledge guided by ethical standards. Computing professionals, like other professionals, must reason through tradeoffs between tec...

Introduction Evolving Practices for Risk Assessment Sodis Audit Process Sodis Inspection Model The Sodis and UK Electronic Voting Requirements Research Project Applying the Process to Outsourced Requirements Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix A: Mapping of Concerns Identified in the UK Electronic Voting Project to the Requirements Stipulated in th...

Classical engineering is based on solid scientific and mathematical foundations, but neither the science, nor the mathematics, is simply borrowed from the scientists or the mathematicians. Engineers develop their own formulations of the relevant science ...

The myth of "the more neurons, the better learning" is commonly held in artificial intelligence personnel. The side effect of having too many neurons may not be easily observed unless some active measurements and analyses are taken. In this study, I ...

This article introduces the SoDIS process to identify ethical and social risks from software development in the context of designing software for the New Zealand Maori culture. In reviewing the SoDIS analysis for this project, the tensions between two cultures are explored with emphasis on the (in)compatibility between a Maori worldview and the val...

Many of us are from a generation when video games were wholesome and character building and the games did not reward, murder, torture, or theft. Those early games like Pong morphed into Wii's Family Table Tennis and Major League Eating which can be played even while seated in a retirement home. The widespread use of video-games in education, traini...

This article introduces the SoDIS process to identify ethical and social risks from software development in the context of designing software for the New Zealand Maori culture. In reviewing the SoDIS analysis for this project, the tensions between two cultures are explored with emphasis on the (in)compatibility between a Maori worldview and the val...

This paper uses examples of realistic, ethically-charged decisions that computing professionals face, and explore how the the software engineering code of ethics is useful in making wise and creative decisions. We illustrate the ethical impacts of choice of software process model, architecture, and design patterns using real world examples includin...

NOTES AND DISCUSSIONS HUME'S DEFINITIONS OF CAUSE: SKEPTICISM WITH REGARD TO LESHER'S TWO SENSES 99 Professor James Lesher, in a recent article (this lournal, XI, 3[July, 1973]), has pur- portedly resolved the dispute about Hume's two definitions of cause. Not only does he claim that all previous treatments of this problem are wrong, but he also ar...

In July I was fortunate to attend a Computer Ethics Conference in San Diego. One of the speakers referred to the concept of the 'Tragedy of the Commons'. I realized that a variation concept unfortunately models the ways we use and develop the internet.

Ethical decision support procedures have an underlying difficulty in that they do not clearly distinguish the varying impacts of the constituent features of the examined ethical situation. The failure to recognize these features and their varying impacts leads to two critical problems; the risk of removing positive ethical elements as well as negat...

In this paper, we discuss the deficiencies of normal form definitions based on Functional Dependency and introduce a new normal form concept based on Functional Independency. Functional Independency has not been systematically investigated while there is a very strong theoretical foundation for the study of Functional Dependency in relational datab...

Over the last 20 years the ICT industry has seen many developments and changes, such as faster and smaller computers, many new digital devices, the convergence of this digital technology, the internet, and operational aspects such as outsourcing. Governments and professional societies have discussed the issues related to these changes in the media,...

All professional organizations that have a publication component should have a strongly articulated position against plagiarism. Such a position has a solid foundation in common understandings of ethical principles including the encouragement of honesty and the discouragement of stealing. Having a strong, ethical position against plagiarism is diff...

It is generally foolish to predict the future but in this case the odds are with me. This article was written in July 2006 but it will be early December 2006 before it is in print. In the USA a 'mid-term election' was completed in November (three months after this article was written) and I presume most of the recounts from that election should be...

In 2005 October, ACM issued a new policy and procedures on plagiarism. At SIGCSE 2006, a Birds-of-a-feather (Bof) session had taken place on plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Prior to the Bof, it was amazing to listen to the professorial ramblings about plagiarism such as "I had a student who plagiarized from the course textbook", "I had a student wh...

As medicine has advanced, it has become more dependent on the use of technology in many different ways. The uses of that technology can have significant implications for researchers, medical staff or patients. In the development of medical software there are a significant implications for researchers, medical staff and patients. This potential risk...

A one-semester course cannot adequately cover the software development process and still provide meaningful project experience. We have developed and implemented a tightly- coupled two-semester undergraduate course which presents, in a spiral form, theory and practice, product and process. Coordinating the increase in depth of the lectures as topic...

This article introduces the SoDIS process to identify ethical and social risks from software development in the context of designing software for the New Zealand Maori culture. In reviewing the SoDIS analysis for this project, the tensions between two cultures are explored with emphasis on the (in)compatibility between a Maori worldview and the val...

Recently I heard a consultant in the South Pacific discuss a product for developing better software. Later investigation, unfortunately, showed that he had not discussed some of this product's obvious and potentially harmful defects. As I thought about this incident, I was struck by how much harm a lack of candor about a product's failings can do t...

Limiting the focus of risk analysis to quantifiable factors and using a narrow understanding of the scope of a software project are major contributors to significant software failures. A Software Development Impact Statement (SoDIS) process is presented which extends the concept of software risk in three ways; --it moves beyond the limited approach...

This paper illustrates how to use the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice [1,2] in three case studies suitable for computer science instruction. This code of ethics was approved by both the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society in 1998. Since then, the code has been translated into seven mo...

students key processes and techniques for software development. In this paper, issues related to teaching students how to manage risks in software projects are profiled. The concepts and process for implementing Software Development Impact Statements (SoDIS) are outlined; with its supporting CASE tool the "SoDIS Project Auditor" being described. Di...

The principles of good software development are improving. We have better answers today about how to develop more effective software then we did yesterday. We may not have complete answers about how to produce quality software but we are getting closer. Two significant advances in the past few years are the Unified Modeling Language (UML), both the...

There are several difficulties we face when showing our students key processes and techniques for software development. In this paper, issues related to teaching students how to manage risks in software projects are profiled. The concepts and process for implementing Software Development Impact Statements (SoDIS) are outlined; with its supporting C...

The Centre for Information Technology Research (CITRUS) launched in 2002 had the goal of encouraging collaborative research that is industry and community linked, at regional and national levels within the NACCQ sector. The research programme into Software Development Impact Statements being conducted by the Software Engineering Practice Improvemen...

This article focuses on a "Methods of Teaching Computer Science in the High School" course (abbreviated MTCS). It presents the rationale and need for the course, and suggests optional course frameworks and implementations that are not limited to a particular ...

Students frequently relegate risk analysis to the later stages of development-testing their code. The precoding risks they may address involve accurate requirements elicitation and cohesive system design. They fail to see their professional obligations to address broader impacts of the system both for the client and for society. They see requiremen...

The present paper describes the process of changing the curriculum of the computer science degree in the college of science of the UAE University. This process was initiated to keep up with the fast pace of development in the computer science discipline. ...

Open source software is making a large impact on many aspects of society including the business community, the computing industry, the entertainment industry and higher education. The computer science education community has been quiet about issues of open source versus closed source and the role of open source code in the advancement of informatio...

A narrow approach to risk analysis and understanding the scope of a software project has contributed to significant software failures. A process is presented which expands the technical concept of software risk to include social, professional, and ethical risks that lead to software failure. Using an expanded risk analysis will enlarge the project...

Software engineering ethics can be approached from three directions: ( 1 ) it can describe the activity of software engineers making practical choices that affect other people in significant ways; ( 2 ) it can be used to describe a collection of principles, guidelines, or ethical imperatives that guide or legislative action; and ( 3 ) it can be use...

Open source software is making a large impact on many aspects of society including the business community, the computing industry, the entertainment industry and higher education. The computer science education community has been quiet about issues of open source versus closed source and the role of open source code in the advancement of informatio...

In this paper we explore how the software engineering research community is currently dealing with the ethical issues that some empirical research presents. We discuss how the immaturity of the software engineering discipline is reflected in an approach ...

We illustrate with colorful algorithmic problems two solution processes that embed three primary computer science problem-solving approaches. The first, Top-Down approach is rather naturally invoked for formulating elegant, though inefficient divide-and-conquer ...

Many problems in software development can be traced to a narrow understanding of professional responsibility. The author examines ways in which software developers have tried to avoid accepting responsibility for their work. After cataloguing various types of responsibility avoidance, the author introduces an expanded concept of positive responsibi...

The Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, intended as a standard for teaching and practicing software engineering, documents the ethical and professional obligations of software engineers. The code should instruct practitioners about the standards society expects them to meet, about what their peers strive for, and about wh...

Any software project goes through three distinct phases: an initial phase where the feasibility of the project is examined, a requirements phase that lays out the overall structure and function of the project, and a detailed phase that lays out the plans for building the software. Each of these phases has its peculiar risks. A narrow approach to ri...

Process considerations are a central part of the material for a software engineering course; they are also central to accomplishing full-lifecycle, team-based systems development projects in such a course. This paper discusses the ways in which we have ...

Defining software requirements is a difficult and complex process. It is best characterised as a joint learning process in which shared understandings evolve through dynamic interactions between clients and developers. The inherent difficulties in this complex process are exacerbated in outsourced software development projects. In this paper we rev...

The two best known parsing algorithms are LR and LL parsing respectively. These algorithms are explained extensively in the vast literature on compiler construction and formal language theory. In almost any textbook, LR and LL are regarded as two distinct ...

For several years I have been reviewing submissions for SIGCSE conferences and, unfortunately, recommending rejection of the majority of the submissions. While some undoubtedly deserved the recommendation, others described work that is potentially interesting ...

Many computing people call themselves professionals without the necessary validation or credentials that other professional groups possess. Perhaps computing needs greater maturity to develop standards of best practices. Even defining the meaning of a computing profession may be difficult. The article explores perspectives on these and related issu...