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Introduction and overview: Global information ethics
Abstract
This is an introduction to a set of papers on Computer Ethics from the conference ETHICOMP95. Taken as a whole, the collection
of papers provides arguments and concepts to launch a new development in computer ethics: ‘Global Information Ethics’. A rationale
for globalization is provided, as well as some early efforts which move in that direction.
... In suggesting a way forward to help us consider ethics in the global age of information (and indeed, given the plethora of ethical systems available from which to draw), scholars have postulated the usefulness of a "Global Information Ethics" (GIE). An international code of ethics shared by societies around the world (Bynum & Rogerson, 1996) that recognises the fundamental informational nature of interaction to which computers give rise. Such an ethics approaches the issues of planetary unification, ontological shift, and the informational and technological changes of our current circumstances. ...
Presenting the challenges that face digital age citizens as philosophical, as opposed to technological, this paper explores the underpinning structure of digital civics through an overview of its four foundational pillars and their informing scholarship. Through this framework and the literature that supports it, a set of five key concepts are identified as a useful guide for developing digital civics initiatives, including policy and educational interventions. In closing, this work urges the further exploration of the conceptual underpinnings of digital civics to improve future formulations of digital civics and digital citizenship endeavours.
... Although deliberative web-forums are often understood as an answer to the crisis of the representative democracy, many studies question if the Internet really fosters global democracy or that it easily may become a tool for control and manipulation of the masses by some powerful actors in governments or corporations (Bynum & Rogerson, 2004;Pellizzoni, 2012). ...
... . Bynum and Rogerson (1996) explained when discussing information ethics, it is essential to understand the depth and breadth of the subject along with how to establish realistic ethical guidelines that are above all effective in helping to realize a democratic and empowering technology rather than an enslaving or debilitating one p. ...
RESUMO O avanço das tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC) gera a oportunidade de novas formas de conhecer e fazer, muitas vezes ultrapassando a capacidade dos humanos de acompanhar as mudanças. Essa disparidade entre pessoas e tecnologia aparece na aplicação da ética aos espaços digitais, particularmente no campo de ambientes de aprendizado eletrônico. Estados recentes mostram como padrões éticos aplicados em espaços físicos estão sendo utilizados também em ambientes digitais, mas esta utilização não dá conta dos desafios do aprendizado eletrônico, incluindo as percepções de fraude, ou os “cola”, e das responsabilidades vitais de pesquisadores online. Este artigo explora o campo do comportamento ético relacionado aos ambientes de aprendizado eletrônico. Especificamente, foca na problemática da desonestidade acadêmica entre estudantes, além das obrigações dos professores de ensinar e de conduzir os estudos de forma a obedecer padrões éticos. O artigo conclui com a discussão das implicações da priorização e da integridade na ética digital.
Palavras-chave: Ética Digital; E-Aprendizado; Responsabilidade Ética; Ensino da Ética.
ABSTRACT The advancement of information communication technology (ICT) brings with it the opportunity for new ways of knowing and doing, oftentimes outpacing the capacity for humans to keep up with those changes. This disparity between people and technology is apparent in the application of ethics in digital spaces, especially in the realm of e-learning environments. Recent studies show that ethical standards employed in physical spaces are being utilized in digital spaces as well, but this application fails to account for the challenges that e-learning presents, including perceptions of cheating and the vital responsibilities of online researchers. This paper explores issues in ethical behavior related to e-learning environments. Specifically, cheating and academic dishonesty among students is explored in addition to instructors’ obligations to teach and conduct research in a manner that abide by ethical standards. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of prioritization and integrity in digital ethics.
Keywords: Digital Ethics; E-Learning; Ethical Responsibilities; Teaching Ethics.
... Although we have questioned notions like information society and knowledge society, it has become clear in the present study that many issues related to the massive deployment of IT merit attention. It is certainly true what has been stated in [55]: ...
The article argues that Information Ethics (IE) can provide a successful approach for coping with the challenges posed by our increasingly globalized reality. After a brief review of some of the most fundamental transformations brought about by the phenomenon of globalization, the article distinguishes between two ways of understanding Global Information Ethics, as an ethics of global communication or as a global-information ethics. It is then argued that cross-cultural, successful interactions among micro and macro agents call for a high level of successful communication, that the latter requires a shared ontology friendly towards the implementation of moral actions, and that this is provided by IE. There follows a brief account of IE and of the ontic trust, the hypothetical pact between all agents and patients presupposed by IE.
The purpose of this paper is to explore how national and organizational diversities have effects on an individual’s information ethical decision makings. More importantly, this research investigates the impact of cultural difference on individual’s information ethical decision makings in the context of specific circumstances. To examine the relationship between users’ cultural backgrounds and their decision making related with information ethical situations, this study applied two specific scenarios which represent national and organizational cultural settings. Based on extensive open-ended paper-based interviews from 84 information system users, this study found out that users’ decision making on information ethical situation is influenced significantly from their nationality as well as organizational policies. In addition, this study also uncovered out that users’ decision makings regarding information privacy invading situation are varies based on users nationality. While most of European respondents value more on individual information, Korean users yield their personal privacy to an organizational benefits. According to our research results, organizations have more influence on Koreans’ decision making in information ethics comparing with Europeans. In other words, the foreign information system users, especially European, put more value on their privacy and individual information than on the organization’s protocol. Therefore, this research provides evidences that cultural background plays a significant role on affecting information ethical decision making and users’ information ethical decision are differentiated by their ethical standards as well as cultural differences. When users make information ethical decision, Koreans consider their organizations as well as organizational culture as a priority; however, Europeans consider their personal ethical standards more than organization’s situation. Since there is no research empirically examined the role of cultural differences on information ethics, this study has significant contributions on both of academia and industries as an first empirical research on cultural background and information ethics. Frist, this study represented the direction of reflecting Korean and Asian perspective regarding studies of information ethics instead of focusing on Western. Second, it helps managers to understand information ethic policy and make a rational decisions based on understandings on cultural difference. It also provide opportunities of emphasizing the importance of recognizing the information ethics and considering cultural difference on information ethic recognition and global information society.
The article argues that Information Ethics (IE) can provide a successful approach for coping with the challenges posed by our increasingly globalized reality. After a brief review of some of the most fundamental transformations brought about by the phenomenon of globalization, the article distinguishes between two ways of understanding Global Information Ethics, as an ethics of global communication or as a global-information ethics. It is then argued that cross-cultural, successful interactions among micro and macro agents call for a high level of successful communication, that the latter requires a shared ontology friendly towards the implementation of moral actions, and that this is provided by IE. There follows a brief account of IE and of the ontic trust, the hypothetical pact between all agents and patients presupposed by IE.
This chapter aims to understand the perceptions of employee information ethics using a company within the Environmental Protection Science Park in the southern part of Taiwan. The two purposes of this research are (1) to understand the environments of employees who understand information ethics, and (2) to clarify variables regarding information ethics which could provide a framework for policy controlling information ethics for businesses related to information technology (IT). The findings of this study show respondents understand the concept of unethical or illegal use of IT. All respondents perceived unauthorized behaviors, such as illegal downloads and reading other IT accounts without permission as unethical behaviors.
The author agrees with James Moor that computer technology, because it is ‘logically malleable’, is bringing about a genuine
social revolution. Moor compares the computer revolution to the ‘industrial revolution’ of the late 18th and the 19th centuries;
but it is argued here that a better comparison is with the ‘printing press revolution’ that occurred two centuries before
that. Just as the major ethical theories of Bentham and Kant were developed in response to the printing press revolution,
so a new ethical theory is likely to emerge from computer ethics in response to the computer revolution. The newly emerging
field of information ethics, therefore, is much more important than even its founders and advocates believe.
A distinction is made between moral indoctrination and instruction in ethics. It is argued that the legitimate and important
field of computer ethics should not be permitted to become mere moral indoctrination. Computer ethics is an academic field
in its own right with unique ethical issues that would not have existed if computer technology had not been invented. Several
example issues are presented to illustrate this point. The failure to find satisfactory non-computer analogies testifies to
the uniqueness of computer ethics. Lack of an effective analogy forces us to discover new moral values, formulate new moral
principles, develop new policies, and find new ways to think about the issues presented to us. For all of these reasons, the
kind of issues presented deserve to be addressed separately from others that might at first appear similar. At the very least,
they have been so transformed by computing technology that their altered form demands special attention.
An Aristotelian approach to understanding and teaching business ethics is presented and defended. The newly emerging field
of computer ethics is also defined in an Aristotelian fashion, and an argument is made that this new field should be called
“information ethics”. It is argued that values have their roots in the life and practices of a community; therefore, morality
cannot be taught by training for a special way of reasoning. Transmission of values and norms occurs through socialization
— the process by which an individual absorbs not only values but also the whole way of life of his or her community. It follows
that business ethics and information ethics can be considered kinds of socialization into a profession: role learning and
acquiring a new self-identification. This way of understanding fields of applied ethics is especially important for their
proper development in Central-Eastern Europe because of endemic factors which are the result of recent political developments
there.
Starter Kit on Teaching Computer Ethics
- Walter Maner