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PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTEENTH INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE
The possibilities of ethical ICT
ETHICOMP 2013*
University of Southern Denmark, Kolding Campus,
Denmark
12 to 14 June 2013
EDITED BY
TERRELL WARD BYNUM
WILLIAM FLEISHMAN
ANNE GERDES
GITTE MØLDRUP NIELSEN
SIMON ROGERSON
University of Southern Denmark
De Montfort University
Southern Connecticut State University
East Tennessee State University
* ETHICOMP is a trademark of De Montfort University
ii
iii
Title
The possibilities of ethical ICT
Edited by
Terrell Ward Bynum, William Fleishman,
Anne Gerdes, Gitte Møldrup Nielsen and
Simon Rogerson
ISBN
978-87-92646-72-9
Local
Kolding, UK
Date
2013
Publisher
Print & Sign University of Southern
Denmark
Copyright © 2013
collection of papers as proceedings University of Sothern Denmark
individual papers authors of the papers
Papers could subsequently appear in the ETHICOMP electronic journal
No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of the information contained in the text or
illustrations. The opinions expressed in the papers are not necessarily those of the
editors or the publisher
iv
CONFERENCE DIRECTORS
Terrell Ward Bynum, Southern Connecticut State University, USA
Anne Gerdes University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
William Fleischman Villanova University, USA
Gitte Møldrup Nielsen, it-vest, networking universities, Denmark
Simon Rogerson, De Montfort University, UK
PROGRAMME COMMITTEE
Alison Adam, Sheffield University, UK
Mario Arias-Oliva, University of Rovira and
Virgili, Spain
Andrew Bissett, Sheffield Hallam University,
UK
Terrell Ward Bynum, Southern Connecticut
State University, USA
Göran Collste, Linköping University, Sweden
Penny Duquenoy, Middlesex University, UK
N Ben Fairweather, De Montfort University,
UK
William Fleischman, Villanova University,
USA
Anne Gerdes, University of Southern
Denmark, Denmark
Krystyna Gorniak-Kocikowska, Southern
Connecticut State University, USA
Donald Gotterbarn, East Tennessee State
University, USA
Fran Grodzinsky, Sacred Heart University,
USA
David Sanford Horner, University of Brighton,
UK
Jeroen van den Hoven, Delft University of
Technology, The Netherlands
Chuck Huff, St Olaf College, USA
Suzy Jagger, Roehampton University, UK
Thessa Jensen, University of Aalborg,
Denmark
Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos, Uppsala
University, Sweden
Shalini Kesar, Southern Utah University, USA
Kai Kimppa, University of Turku, Finland
Paul B. de Laat, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen,
The Netherlands
Peter Lauritsen, University of Aarhus,
Denmark
Antonio Marturano, Sacred Heart Catholic
University of Rome, Italy
Keith Miller, University of Illinois at
Springfield, USA
Kiyoshi Murata, Meiji University, Japan
Peter Øhrstrøm, University of Aalborg,
Denmark
Ugo Pagallo, University of Turin, Italy
Nancy Pouloudi, Athens University of
Economics & Business, Greece
Simon Rogerson, De Montfort University, UK
Bernd Stahl, De Montfort University, UK
Stanislaw Szejko, Polish-Japanese Institute of
Information Technology, Poland
Teresa Torres Coronas, University of Rovira
and Virgili, Spain
Richard Volkman, Southern Connecticut State
University, USA
John Weckert, Charles Sturt University,
Australia
ADMINISTRATION
Niels Hassø Andersen, University of Southern
Denmark, Denmark
Hanne Pihl Bjerre, University of Southern
Denmark, Denmark
Søren Borgstrøm, University of Southern
Denmark, Denmark
Elsebeth Krogh Frausing, Udvikling Fyn A/S,
Denmark
Rune Nørgaard Jørgensen, University of
Southern Denmark, Denmark
Pernille Dahl Kragh, University of Southern
Denmark, Denmark
Nadja Froda Skriver Kristiansen, University of
Southern Denmark, Denmark
Christian Behrendt Juulsen Hansen, University
of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Ann Rithaphorn, University of Southern
Denmark, Denmark
Kirsten Rudbeck, Udvikling Fyn A/S,
Denmark
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SUPPORTED BY
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS)
International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT)
University of Southern Denmark
The Danish Council for Independent Research, Humanities
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES
Android Ethics
by
Henrik Scharfe
Professor of Information Science
Aalborg University, Denmark
The Death of Big Brother - Surveillance as an Accomplishment
by
Peter Lauritsen
Associate Professor
Aarhus University, Denmark
From Ethics of the Eye to Ethics of the Hand: Outline of a Paradigm Change from
Hermeneutics to Phenomenology in the Discourse of Ethics and ICT
by
Ellen Christiansen
Professor in Participatory Design.
Aalborg University, Denmark
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
Simon Rogerson 1
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES 5
ANDROID ETHICS 5
Henrik Scharfe 5
THE DEATH OF BIG BROTHER - SURVEILLANCE AS AN ACCOMPLISHMENT 5
Peter Lauritsen 5
FROM ETHICS OF THE EYE TO ETHICS OF THE HAND: OUTLINE OF A PARADIGM CHANGE
FROM HERMENEUTICS TO PHENOMENOLOGY IN THE DISCOURSE OF ETHICS AND ICT 5
Ellen Christiansen 5
THE CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL EDUCATION IN THE INFORMATION AGE 6
A. A. Adams 6
A FRAMEWORK FOR ELECTRONIC BUSINESS ETHICS: A COMPARISON STUDY BETWEEN
THE UK AND EGYPT 14
Gomaa Agag and Ibrahim Elbeltagi 14
ELEARING EVOLUTION: NEW CONCEPTS ON ICT & LEARNING 25
Mario Arias-Oliva and Juan Carlos Yáñez-Luna 25
DESIGNING “OPEN EDUCATION”: HOW DOES THE ICT-BASED SYSTEM FUNCTION AS A NEW
MEDIUM OF PARTICIPATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY? 33
Ryoko Asai 33
ICT SUPPORTED CRISIS COMMUNICATION AND DIALOG 37
Ryoko Asai and Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos 37
HOW TO RESPECT PRIVACY OF ENERGY CONSUMERS WHILE IMPLEMENTING SMART
METERING SYSTEMS 42
Barbara Begier 42
BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION PRACTICES:IDENTITY AS CONVENTION 50
Maren Behrensen 50
VALUE-BASED DESIGN – AN APPROPRIATE STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING NEW
TECHNOLOGIES 60
Hanne Pihl Bjerre 60
AN
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH DESIGN
FOR
ANALYZING INFORMATION DIVERSITY
IN
TWITTER FOR DUTCH AND TURKISH USERS
65
Engin Bozdag and Qi
Gao
65
TOWARDS A GOOD INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SOCIETY: BUILDING A TREE OF
ACTIONS 73
Gunilla Bradley and Diane Whitehouse 73
A STATUS REPORT ON DANISH E-GOVERNMENT 76
Christian Bruhn 76
ON THE ROLE OF ETHICS IN PERSUASIVE DESIGN 85
Sandra Burri Gram-Hansen and Lasse Burri Gram-Hansen 85
FACING FACISM, UNIQUE BIOMETRIC IDENTIFIERS AND DATA TOTALITARIANISM: SOCIO-
TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS 92
Alberto Cammozzo 92
IS/IT ETHICAL ISSUES AS A CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: REVISITING STRATEGIC
BUSINESS PLANNING UNDER THE LENS OF IS/IT ETHICAL PREOCCUPATIONS 100
Anne Chartier and Bernard Plante 100
MORAL REASONING IN E-LEARNING GENERATIONS: FROM 1.0 TO 4.0 110
Gonçalo Jorge Morais Costa, Nuno Sotero Alves Silva and Tiago Filipe Rodrigues Fonseca 110
DEVELOPING ROBUST CAD CURRICULUM BY APPLYING BLENDED LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT AND TECHNOLOGY 118
Richard Cozzens 118
vii
INFORMAL COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICES IN FORMAL SETTINGS: FACEBOOK AS MEDIATOR
BETWEEN CONTEXTS 128
Nina Bonderup Dohn and Niels Bonderup Dohn 128
APPLICATION OF FLORIDI’S INFORMATION ETHICS MODEL IN HIGHER EDUCATION:
IMPROVING INFORMATIONAL ABILITIES IN A FIRST YEAR EXPERIENCE CLASS 135
Marsha Driscoll and Tammy Bobrowsky 135
ETHICOMP IN LATIN AMERICA 142
William M. Fleischman 142
TOR AND THE DARKNET: RESEARCHING THE WORLD OF HIDDEN SERVICES 150
Catherine Flick and Runa A. Sandvik 150
“SURGERIOUS TWEEZERS”: EXPLORING DOCTORS’ PERCEPTION! 157
Tiago Filipe Rodrigues Fonseca, Gonçalo Jorge Morais Costa and Nuno Sotero Alves Silva 157
PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS ON A MORAL TURING TEST 167
Anne Gerdes and Peter Øhrstrøm 167
POWER ETHICS: THE MASSIVE DATA CENTER 175
David Gleason 175
A NEW FRONTIER IN ICT ETHICS: ROBOTIC CAREGIVERS 177
Krystyna Górniak-Kocikowska 177
SOCIAL AND COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES FOR AGILE SOFTWARE TEAMS 186
Peggy Gregory and Katie Taylor 186
HELLO “SMARTER” WEB MARKETING, GOODBYE SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION. REALLY? 192
Frances S. Grodzinsky, Andra Gumbus and Stephen Lilley 192
AUTOMATED DECEPTIONS, BENEVOLENT AND OTHERWISE 199
Frances Grodzinsky, Keith Miller and Marty J. Wolf 199
INFORMATION WARFARE - ARE WE ALREADY AT WAR? 207
Olli I. Heimo and Kai K. Kimppa 207
RESPONSIBILITY IN ACQUIRING CRITICAL GOVERNMENTAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS:
WHOSE FAULT IS FAILURE? 213
Olli I. Heimo, Jani S. S. Koskinen and Kai K. Kimppa 213
COMPUTING FUTURES: MIRACLES, PROPHECY AND PREDICTION 218
David Sanford Horner 218
ETHICAL ASSESSMENT OF GUARDIAN ANGELS TECHNOLOGY SCENARIOS 224
Veikko Ikonen, Eija Kaasinen, Päivi Heikkilä, Barbara Simpson and Andrea Leu 224
A MULTIMEDIA LEARNING TOOL TO DEVELOP ETHICAL AWARENESS 235
Suzy Jagger 235
THE ETHICS OF USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN DISCUSSED BY THE TERMS OF APATHY,
SYMPATHY, AND EMPATHY 242
Thessa Jensen and Peter Vistisen 242
A DISCUSSION OF ETHICS IN WEB BASED KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 247
Jesper Jensen 247
CURBING THE RHETORIC: HOW WEB 2.0 FURTHER OBFUSCATES THE LEGAL LIMITS OF
PROHIBITED SPEECH 253
Ville Kainu and Toni Värttö 253
DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF IT PROFESSIONALS – ENGAGING IT STUDENTS IN
THE PRACTICE OF IT PROFESSIONAL ETHICS 261
Terence N Keefe and Lynn Cinderey 261
RETHINKING EDUCATION: STEM BECOMES A STEAM PROJECT 268
Shalini Kesar 268
USING TRIPLE LOOP LEARNING IN CONTEXT OF MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
SECURITY 274
Shalini Kesar 274
FROM SEAFARING PROFESSIONALS TO IT PROFESSIONALS 281
Kai Kimppa and Norberto Patrignani 281
PROBLEMS IN THE USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING 282
Hiroshi Koga 282
viii
MISSED CHANCES AND WRONG CHOICES IN PATIENT INFORMATION? AN ETHICAL
EVALUATION OF THE FINNISH IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EU DATABASE DIRECTIVE 288
Jani Koskinen and Ville Kainu 288
DEMOCRACY, HUMAN FALLIBILITY, AND ICT 295
Mikael Laaksoharju and Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos 295
HOW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOL INFLUENCES THE STUDENTS’ DEMOCRATIC
COMPREHENSION 302
Else Lauridsen 302
MARKETING THE INFORMATION SOCIETY: SUSTAINABILITY, SPEED AND TECHNOMASS 310
Thomas Taro Lennerfors 310
ETHICAL DELAY IN EMERGING ICT 316
Richard Lucas 316
USING WIKI TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM 324
Gunver Majgaard 324
CO-OPERATION AND ETHICAL PROBLEMS IN SOFTWARE INDUSTRIES: THE CASES OF
VIETNAM AND NEPAL 331
Michiko Matsushita 331
PRIVACY, RISK AND PERSONAL HEALTH MONITORING 340
Brent Mittelstadt, N. Ben Fairweather, Neil McBride and Mark Shaw 340
ETHICAL CONCERNS IN USABILITY TESTING INVOLVING OLDER ADULTS 352
Margrethe H. Møller 352
FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES: AN ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE DRIVE FOR INNOVATION AND
THE INTERNET OF THINGS 360
Denise Oram 360
E-GOVERNANCE RISK IN JAPAN: EXACERBATION OF DISCRIMINATIVE STRUCTURE BUILT IN
THE FAMILY REGISTRATION SYSTEM 362
Yohko Orito, Kiyoshi Murata and Chung Ah Young 362
SURVEILLANCE-BASED MIGRATION CONTROL AND A SUBSTANTIAL FREEDOM OF
MOVEMENT 371
Elin Palm 371
THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS: CLOUD COMPUTING 377
Norberto Patrignani and Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos 377
SLOW TECH: TOWARDS GOOD, CLEAN AND FAIR ICT 384
Norberto Patrignani and Diane Whitehouse 384
HOW TO DESIGN SOFTWARE TAILORED TO THE STAKEHOLDERS’ NEEDS? 391
d Sara H. Wilford 391
WORKING ETHICALLY IN PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH WITH CHILDREN 400
Janet C. Read, Peggy Gregory, Gavin Sim and Matthew Horton 400
DIGITAL DISABILITY DIVIDE IN INFORMATION SOCIETY: THE CASE OF IMPAIRMENTS 405
Neeraj Sachdeva, Anne-Marie Tuikka and Reima Suomi 405
APPLYING CONTEXTUAL INTEGRITY TO THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
TRACKING 413
Rath Kanha Sar and Yeslam Al-Saggaf 413
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND OLD CULTURES: HOW ICT IS SHAPING AND GETTING SHAPED BY
THE INDIAN SOCIETY? 419
Raghubir Sharan , Mahesh Mehendale and Abhay Karandikar 419
COMPUTER GAMES IN EDUCATION: CONFLICTS AND OVERLAPS! 425
Nuno Sotero Alves da Silva, Gonçalo Jorge Morais da Costa, Piotr Pawlak and Tiago Filipe Rodrigues da
Fonseca 425
EVALUATING RESEARCH QUALITY IN TECHNOLOGY ETHICS 435
Bernd Carsten Stahl, Catherine Flick and Richard Hall 435
TO MAKE SODIS CLOSER TO THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS 441
Stan Szejko and Sara Wilford 441
TO BEAR THE UNBEARABLE: COLLEGE-LEVEL INFORMATION ETHICS EDUCATION
INCORPORATING DISCUSSIONS OF ETHICAL DILEMMAS 450
Takeo Tatsumi, Yoshiaki Nakano, Noriaki Kusumoto, Joji Maeno and Yasunari Harada 450
ix
RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION A TECHNOLOGICAL FIX? A CRITICAL REVIEW
OF MOTIVATIONS BEHIND RRI. 457
Job Timmermans 457
ON THE GLOCALIZED NETIZEN 465
Jin Tong 465
DIGITAL COMPETENCES AND ENTREPRENEURIAL SELF-EFFICACY AMONG GRADUATE
STUDENTS 470
Teresa Torres-Coronas, María-Arántzazu Vidal-Blasco, Mario Arias-Oliva, and Ricard Monclús-Guitart, 470
CHALLENGES IN ENTERING APPLICATION MARKETS AMONG SOFTWARE PRODUCERS IN
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 478
Anne-Marie Tuikka, Sami Hyrynsalmi, Kai K. Kimppa and Arho Suominen 478
TRANSPARENCY AS A CORE VALUE IN GOOGLE SEARCH 488
Katrine Juel Vang 488
ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF GOOGLE’S KNOWLEDGE GRAPH 490
Katrine Juel Vang 490
HOW TO RESIST THE HYPERMORALIST TEMPTATION IN COMPUTER ETHICS 496
Richard Volkman 496
PRIVACY, THE THEORY OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTION AND TECHNOLOGY 502
Kirsten Wahlstrom and N Ben Fairweather 502
AUSTRALIA AND DATA RETENTION 511
Matthew J. Warren and Shona Leitch 511
PRINTABLE GUNS IS AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME 518
Danny Weston and Catherine Flick 518
MATURITY, ETHICS AND THE IS PROFESSIONAL (DOES AGE MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO
ETHICAL ISSUE AWARENESS?) 524
Sara H. Wilford and Kutoma Wakunuma 524
AN ANALYSIS OF HIGHER EDUCATION USING FLORIDI’S INFORMATION ETHICS 531
Marty J. Wolf, Colleen Greer, Marsha Driscoll, Siri Anderson and Tammy Bobrowsky 531
LEARNING COMPUTER ETHICS AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WITH TABLETOP ROLE-
PLAYING GAMES 539
Katerina Zdravkova 539
INDEX OF AUTHORS 548
1
INTRODUCTION
Simon Rogerson
1. ETHICOMP conference series
At ETHICOMP 2011, co-founders, Professor Simon Rogerson and Professor Terry Bynum announced
that ETHICOMP 2013 would be the last conference they would lead and that they would hand the
conference series over to the next generation. This introduction of the ETHICOMP 2013 conference
proceedings is an opportunity to discuss the ETHICOMP conference series and its importance
worldwide.
1.1 Overview
ETHICOMP was conceived by Simon Rogerson and Terry Bynum in 1994. The purpose of the series
is to provide an inclusive forum for discussing the ethical and social issues associated with the
development and application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). At that time
virtually all activity in the field was being done in the USA. There was little interest in Europe and
certainly no forum for discussion. The first conference was ETHICOMP 95 which was held in April
1995 at De Montfort University. It was a great success with scholars coming from across the world to
participate. It was clear from this first conference and subsequent early ones that there was a need for
such a forum and a great enthusiasm to help build something very special.
It must be remembered that ETHICOMP is a European-based conference series designed to bring
together those from around the world who are interested in the ethical and social issues surrounding
ICT. After the first decade it was decided that we should occasionally reach out beyond Europe and
hold events in countries where no forums existed or where there had been little engagement with the
ETHICOMP community. It is for this reason that ETHICOMP has been held in Japan and
ETHICOMP Working conference events have been held in China and Argentina. It is why
ETHICOMP has never been held in USA as there are many forums existing in the USA. In Australia,
AICE was set up and still continues it has its own conference series which is coordinated by several
who participate in ETHICOMP. It would be potentially damaging of this initiative to hold
ETHICOMP in Australia.
Since its inception, conferences have been held about every 18 months. There have been twelve
conferences; ETHICOMP 95 (De Montfort University, Leicester, UK), ETHICOMP 96 (Universidad
Pontificia de Salamanca, Madrid, Spain), ETHICOMP 98 (Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The
Netherlands), ETHICOMP 99 (LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome, Italy), ETHICOMP 2001
(Technical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland), ETHICOMP 2002 (Universidade Lusiada, Lisbon,
Portugal), ETHICOMP 2004 (University of the Aegean, Syros, Greece), ETHICOMP 2005
(Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden), ETHICOMP 2007 (Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan),
ETHICOMP 2008 (University of Pavia, Mantua, Italy), ETHICOMP 2010 (Universitat Rovira i
Virgili, Tarragona, Spain) and ETHICOMP 2011 (Sheffield Hallam University). Delegates and
speakers from all continents have attended. There have been three ETHICOMP working conferences
in 2007 (Yunnan University, Kunming, China), in 2011 (incorporated as a workshop in CACIC-2011,
Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Argentina) and in 2012 (incorporated as a workshop in
CACIC-2012, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina),
Over 1000 papers have been presented at ETHICOMP events with most of the leading researchers in
computer ethics as well as new researchers and many doctoral students presenting papers.
ETHICOMP is now an internationally recognised conference series. Many academics return to
ETHICOMP conferences on a regular basis. With the establishment of a community, ETHICOMP is
in many senses owned by that community.
2
1.2 Influence
The conference series has fostered much international collaboration and resulted in exciting new ideas
being presented at ETHICOMP by newly formed author partnerships. Indeed the series has been
instrumental in creating a truly international critical mass of scholars concerned with the ethical and
social issues of ICT.
Indicative of this is the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT) formed
in 2000 and now associated with the series. The electronic ETHICOMP Journal was launched in 2004
to further the work of the conference series and enable those in the field of computer ethics to gain
access to the rich resource of papers from the ETHICOMP conference series. Papers from the
conference series appeared in the occasional editions of the electronic journal. Finally, the refereed
Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society (JICES) conceived in 2003 and now
published by Emerald since 2007 provides an outlet for published research from the ETHICOMP
and citation database.
Within Europe many academics from within the ETHICOMP community are involved in
Framework programmes. Worldwide there is a similar picture of funded collaborative research for
scholars within the ETHICOMP community.
1.3 Trademark
There have been a number of approaches during the early years to influence ETHICOMP by third
parties this seems to be because the community started to grow and others saw the potential. In order
to protect the ETHICOMP community and what it stood for, ETHICOMP was registered as a
trademark of De Montfort University. This means that DMU has to authorise usage of the name
ETHICOMP and as such the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility has in practice a
safeguarding role for the community.
1.4 Principles
The conference series is founded on some core principles
ETHICOMP is a broad based conference series which address the social and ethical
perspectives of ICT and converging technologies
It is inclusive providing a forum for those with diverse opinions to share and debate issues in
a collegiate atmosphere. Dialogue is fundamental.
It is multidisciplinary. This means that both single discipline and multidiscipline papers are
presented at the conferences. The community is receptive of these differing perspectives
It is culturally diverse. Delegates have come from all continents and presented papers from
many cultural perspectives
It is supportive of academic growth.
o New scholars/researchers are encouraged to present papers, all of which are within
the main programme rather than in a separate stream. This promotes inclusivity and
collegiality.
1.5 Call for papers
In line with encouraging academic growth and widening access to this area the call for papers is based
on the submission of extended abstracts of around 1000 words. Papers are reviewed and accepted on
this basis. Whilst the quality of papers inevitably varies there are great advantages to this approach.
First many scholars have come to the conference as they enter the field for the first time. Their ideas
3
are sometimes not well formulated but they are encouraged by the community. Many have submitted
high quality papers at later ETHICOMP conferences which have subsequently been published in
refereed journals. Secondly, scholars have the freedom to explore new avenues without worrying
about the rigours of a full paper. This has led to new research perspectives and in some cases this has
led to research funding to explore t
bring an extra stimulation to the programme. ETHICOMP has been instrumental in creating and
sustaining an Ethics and ICT movement. The call for papers strategy adopted is a key element of this.
1.6 Programme
The programme will usually fill three days of four streams. Sessions are of two, three or four papers.
Presentations are restricted to 15minutes to allow plenty of time for questions. Sessions are chaired by
attending delegates who are invited in advance. Opportunity to chair sessions is given to new
scholars/researchers. There are usually two keynote sessions on day one and day two. Keynotes are
invited who will give a different view to the conference papers. Often local keynote speakers are
chosen to raise awareness and recognise cultural/political/social diversity. The last afternoon is set
aside for conference dialogue. The question time format has worked well with questions being
submitted by delegates to a panel drawn from the ETHICOMP community.
There have been suggestions that research students should have their own stream. This has been
rejected because it is felt including research students in the main programme provides them with
greater experience and feedback within a very supportive environment. These young scholars are the
future and as such must be nurtured.
1.7 The future of ETHICOMP
It is our hope that what has been achieved so far will be built upon and that the unique ETHICOMP
community that exists will continue to flourish in a collegiate, supportive, collaborative, inclusive and
open manner. There are many within the community who subscribe to the ETHICOMP principles,
represent existing and new generations, and are multidiscipline. To those friends we hand over
ETHICOMP with our warmest best wishes and look forward to its on-going success under your
leadership and participation.
2. ETHICOMP 2013
The overall theme for the
explore, from a range of perspectives, the complex and often interrelated ethical and social issues
surrounding pervasive ICT. In order to do this there are two broad themes for the conference
2.1 PROCESS
Process concerns the activities of ICT professionals when undertaking research, development and
service/product delivery. The aim is for professionals to be virtuous in Aristotelian terms. In other
words a professional knows that an action is the right thing to do in the circumstances and does it for
the right motive. For example, cutting profit so that more development time can be spent on making
systems more accessible to those with limited ability, such as dexterity, is a virtuous action if it helps
to overcome social exclusion. Four typical areas that can be explored under this theme are:
Education and Training: e.g. e-learning; learning for life; digital tutors; robot learning; the
nature and content of ethically sensitive ICT education and training
Design: e.g. value driven; participative
Governance: e.g. internet; closed networks; clouds
4
Conduct: e.g. professionals, users
Education and training has two perspectives. Firstly, together these provide the tools and
understanding for professionals to willingly undertake acceptable practice. Secondly, the nature of the
process of education and training is crucial in that it sets the benchmark for those aspiring to enter the
world of ICT. Design and governance addresses the process of developing ICT in the former and the
process of ensuring acceptable policy is operation systems in the latter. Finally conduct explicitly
defines and examines the processes those involved in ICT adopt.
2.2 PRODUCT
Product concerns the outcome of professional ICT endeavor and the potential impact of these products
on people, society and the environment. Four typical areas that can be explored under this theme are:
Application Areas and Impacts: e.g. social space; work place; environmental impacts and
safeguards; health
Emerging Technologies: e.g. robotics; nano technology; welfare technology, artificial
companions
Embedded ethical values
Technological Integrity
The ethics focus of the product perspective is technological integrity from, for example, a Kantian or
utilitarian perspective. This can be addressed by embedding ethics within ICT products themselves.
-
a person must ask to be informed of future service offerings rather than having to request explicitly
not to receive such information by default. They might be more complex, for example, whereby a
non-human agent in telecare is programmed with defined ethical principles so that it will only
instigate actions which are deemed to be societally acceptable. It is the growing application areas of
ICT and the emerging technologies which present increasingly complex ethical issues that need to be
effectively addressed so that ICT product are acceptable
2.3 The conference
These proceedings contain the papers presented at the conference. Papers are published in alphabetical
authors from 18 countries around the world. It is an important contribution to our understanding of
ethical ICT.
ETHICOMP is not just about the written papers. It is about dialogue, collegiality and friendship. The
conference directors and programme committee thank you in your roles as authors, session chairs and
delegates for making ETHICOMP 2013 a reality. We hope you will enjoy the conference and will be
inspired to continue to contribute to this vital area. With ETHICOMP entering a new era there is a
great opportunity for you all to shape the future of ethical ICT in both process and product.
5
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES
ANDROID ETHICS
Henrik Scharfe
The advent of more full-fledged androids in society, calls for a thorough reconsideration of robo-
ethics, as well as IT-ethics in general. The main challenge in this regard is how expectations towards
and performance by super realistic humanoid robots may converge in a future where understanding
and reasoning is totally conditioned by our relationship with machines.
Henrik Scharfe is Professor of Information Science and Director of Center for Computer-mediated
Epistemology at Aalborg University in Denmark. His research challenges the boundary between man
and machine in the field of Human Centered Robotics a combination of HRI and bio-mimetics. He
often talks about the Android Reality, the societal condition he envisions where humans and androids
live and work side by side. He is also known as a TED speaker and 2012 TIME100 honoree.
THE DEATH OF BIG BROTHER - SURVEILLANCE AS AN
ACCOMPLISHMENT
Peter Lauritsen
Peter Lauritsen has in many years worked on Science & Technology Studies (STS), ethnographic
research and humanistic health research. He is the co-founder and current director of the Centre for
STS Studies and co-author of the first Danish introduction to STS. In recent years, he has conducted
research on surveillance, and in 2011 he published the book Big Brother 2.0. Peter Lauritsen is
which is the first research project in
Denmark to investigate the implications of the enhanced use of surveillance technologies.
FROM ETHICS OF THE EYE TO ETHICS OF THE HAND:
OUTLINE OF A PARADIGM CHANGE FROM
HERMENEUTICS TO PHENOMENOLOGY IN THE
DISCOURSE OF ETHICS AND ICT
Ellen Christiansen
Ellen Christiansen has since 1985 studied design and implementation of digital technologies in
professional work settings from a learning perspective, most prominently in Police investigation.
labour inspection. In recent years her empirical research has concentrated on sustainable design and
end user innovation in the home. She is currently head of eLearningLab, http://www.ell.aau.dk/, at
Dept. of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University, where she is Professor in
Participatory Design.
6
THE CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL EDUCATION IN THE
INFORMATION AGE
A. A. Adams
Abstract
Digital technology has already created significant change in Higher Education (HE) over the last thirty
years. The changes in the technological infrastructure are still increasing their pace, however, and the
organisational structures of HE institutions may struggle to cope with the changing demands of
students, employers, governments and their own staff. Alterations in the very minds of their students
now growing up in a ubiquitously computational and networked world, the demise of the possibility of
the closed book examination (and anyway its increasing irrelevance to the needs of both the individual
as persona and as worker) and the rise of MOOCs (and other OPen Educational Resources) pose
significant challenges to a sector which has grown enormously in the space of just one or two
generations and which is still struggling in many ways to cope with a shift to mass rather than elite
higher educational practises.
Keywords
Higher Education, Digital Education, MOOCs
1. Introduction: The State of Higher Education (HE)
Digital technology has created significant disruption in many areas of life. Like previous technological
changes, it has undermined or even destroyed certain things while opening up new possibilities for
work, leisure, education and love. Content producers and distributors in text, graphic and audio-visual
fields have been subjected to significant disruption of their ways of working and their revenue
streams. Until recently, Higher Education (HE) has so far seen only the foothills of this disruption,
with a gradual evolution towards electronic provision of learning materials, an exploration of
enhanced learner-learner communications and learner-educator communications, development of
interactive computer-aided learning materials, and computer-aided production of academic assessment
work which is then graded by an educator. The scale and pace of disruption appears to be approaching
the threshold of the ability of the higher education system to absorb these disruptions in a calm
evolutionary manner, however, with some particular areas of concern emerging: the validity of
qualifications based upon assessment methods which can no longer be relied upon to be the actual
student's own activity; the cost of in-person tuition for a mass HE system outstripping the financial
benefits available for a significant proportion of the graduates combined with a tendency to place
more of the burden of payment onto the graduate instead of being funded by general taxation; the
emergence of massively open online courses provided by institutions with the best reputations
potentially undermining the raison d'être of schools with lower reputations.
Within the space of two generations HE has, in the developed world, shifted from being the privilege
of the elite to a mass system, although in most countries still a minority pursuit (just under half in the
US and the UK, for example, but over half in Canada, Japan and Korea source: OECD (2012), all
tertiary education which includes further education as well as HE). In contrast, the developing world
has generally seen very limited expansion. This expansion has often, though not always or
everywhere, included a shift of the burden of funding from the state to the individual, and has also
seen a rise in for-profit HE institutions.
OECD (2012) reported that between 2000 and 2009, spending in the vast majority (18 of 25) of
OECD countries on higher education shifted from society to the individual. Williams (2012) provides
clear evidence that in the US state of California this shift was primarily a result of the 2007 financial
crisis and the resulting drop in state support for higher education. The UK's coalition government has
justified its shift of the burden of the costs of HE (according to OECD (2012) now one of the highest
in the group at 70% individual) by appealing to the need for public spending austerity, although this
7
argument has been challenged by many on the grounds that no actual savings on current expenditure
by the government will be seen for more than five years (if ever, since any reductions in public
expenditure actually depend on the level of repayment of the new loans which are in turn dependent
on average graduate salaries).
The emergence of affordable individual computer technology in the 80s and the growth of computer
networking in the 90s Presented significant challenges to universities in both financial resources and
staff capabilities, as well as providing a new set of subjects and topics for teaching and research.. As
McCluskey & Winter (2012) report, the emergence of data analysis tools also applied to universities
themselves and in some places this has been put to excellent use to identify students at risk of
dropping out and provide them with extra support or encouragement (including warnings about lack of
engagement leading to failure) and to identify good and poor pedagogical practices, hopefully
replacing the latter with the former over time. In other institutions and at other times, however, this
data analysis has been used by a growing managerial class to undermine academic freedom
(individually and across the board in teaching and in research). The emergence of broadband Internet
as a core communication technology (and the more recent development of mobile broadband Internet
and the highly mobile mini-computers disingenuously called smart-phones) may well be the straws
ng to evolve with
the implications of prior changes in technology and society.
First, the relationships between learning, training, education, qualification and employment are
presented. As universities in the developed world have seen enrolments massively increase (usually,
their graduates will undertake have diversified (including many which did not exist a generation ago)
universities have been pressured to become more focussed on graduate job skills and employability
than on pure intellectual enquiry.
Next, the evolution of the role of educators and librarians is examined to consider their change from
providers of scarce information to guides to finding and using the right information from amongst the
abundance available.
Third, the question of assessment and qualifications is considered, and in particular the difficulties
presented by external pressures on qualification versus the educational utility of assessment and the
validity of assessments for qualification in an age where isolated examination is impossible,
technology for cheating appears ascendant over technology for detection and the extrinsic benefits of
qualification appear to students to outweigh the intrinsic benefits of gaining a real education.
Finally, the structure of higher education and its relationship to social justice, employment and
personal fulfilment is considered, alongside the possibilities for existing and new approaches and
institutions to co-exist and for both to thrive. The likelihood of a significant number of institutional
collapses (already seen in Korea and beginning to appear in Japan) and the consequences of allowing
such failures to emerge instead of being managed are also presented.
This paper focusses entirely on the issue of Higher Education. The research and other activities of HE
institutions, sometimes equally effected by digital technology (for example the debate about open
access to the scholarly and scientific literature) are not addressed.
2. The Multiple Facets of the Idea of a University
Universities are seen by many different stakeholders in education as having a wide variety of purposes
and ideal mechanisms. Governments may see universities as threats to the social order (many
revolutions in the twentieth century have featured or even been started by students) but may also see
them as mechanisms to directly hold down youth unemployment figures while improving the
employability of their graduates and therefore as indirect wealth generators. Government also
typically expect universities to engage with the broader economy in multiple ways, from creating
spin-off companies and licensing inventions to training the next generation of knowledge workers
(including the vast majority of civil servants, medics, nurses, engineers, social workers, lawyers etc.).
Students may see university as simply the next stage in their schooling, as the expected standard
8
pathway where for some groups a university education is seen as an expectation rather than simply an
option.
McCluskey & Winter (2012) give a highly US-centric treatment of many of the themes of this article.
Their conception of the digital university draws many lessons from their experience of both non-profit
and for-profit HE in the US, and is at times quite insightful about some of the challenges of, for
example, digital data about student outcomes from courses and how they are used (or ignored) in
various types of institution and by various stakeholders (students, academics, politicians, parents of
students, alumni, employers, civil servants). However, their conception of curriculum design is rooted
in US liberal arts, and is so far removed from UK practices of deep single-subject degree courses as to
be of little use as a map for evolution of their approaches. They also dismiss the issue of increasing
plagiarism, contract cheating and assessed work-sharing amongst students
The concept of a higher education as an end in itself and as a preparation for gainful employment (and
whether such employment should make direct or only indirect use of the specific skills of a degree
course) have exercised academics and politicians since at least the 1850s (Newman, 1852). These days
many employers regard a degree as simply a shibboleth to ensure certain general character traits
(Attwood, 2010). Others such as providers of medical care, however, rely strongly upon the training
of their recruits as proof of their basic competence in areas with potentially life-and-death
consequences for failure.
3. Educators and Librarians: From Information Scarcity to Information
Abundance
In regards to their role in teaching, universities by the mid-twentieth century acted as both keepers of
knowledge and conduits to access it. This knowledge was held primarily in two forms: the written
records kept in libraries and the expertise kept in the heads of its staff (both academics and librarians).
Access to the libraries was and is sometimes partly or mostly open to members of the public, primarily
in person but also through the inter-library loan (ILL) scheme (Chudnov, 2001) where holdings in
other libraries may be accessed via a local one (usually for a fee and including one or both of a loan of
a physical object or a no-return-expected photocopy). Access to both local and remote (ILL) holdings
varied depending on the policy of the library: some material, particularly physically fragile materials,
could only be accessed by a select few even within the University. At the other end of the scale some
university libraries would offer limited borrowing rights to local citizens, and in-person use of some
resources by anyone (unless they had previously been personally banned). In addition to the materials,
the knowledge of librarians about what material they had (partly itself held as accessible meta-data
first in the form of card catalogues and then electronically in databases and partly as the skills of
librarians) represented another significant resource. From 1967, university (and other) libraries around
the world began cooperating in making their digital catalogues jointly interoperable through the
WorldCat run by the non-profit Open Computer Library Centre, Incorporated (WorldCat, n.d.).
Access to the expertise of library staff is often restricted to, or prioritised for, members of the
university (staff and students). Academic staff expertise lies partly in knowing where to find specific
knowledge, a shared expertise with library staff. In addition, academic staff also have (or are supposed
to have) other forms of skills in applying knowledge and have the ability to impart those skills to
students. The form of that knowledge varies radically between disciplines, though Bloom et al. (1956)
presented a taxonomy of academic skill types which provides a useful categorisation, including
concepts such as application (applying a method to a well-stated problem), synthesis (creating a new
method from combinations of others) and evaluation (judging the appropriateness of a method for
solving a problem or a solution to a problem emerging from the application of a method). Students
attending a university became (very junior) members of that university and in doing so gained an
opportunity to use the resources made available to them, including the library, the expertise of the
librarians and the proffered teaching of the academic staff. This teaching includes a variety of
elements, with variation depending on the subject as well as on the approach of the university but
includes:
9
lectures: primarily one-to-many delivery of information in audio form with some visual
assistance;
educator-created explanatory material (primarily text and visual material);
educator-selected explanatory material;
meta-data pointing to recommended sources for specific information;
seminars: interaction audio exchange of information between lecturers and students often
including formal peer learning between students, i.e. one-to-many and many-to-many
interactive learning with guidance from the educator;
exercises in applying the skills of the course;
grading of student-completed exercises;
feedback on student-completed exercises.
Howard-Jones (2009) and Small et al. (2009) , among many others present compelling evidence that
in both teenagers and older adults (and almost certainly all other ages as well) there are significant
general brain changes associated with significant use of the Internet. Cull (2011), among other issues,
summarises recent research on the impact of online sources of information on the reading habits of
ndergraduates to professors seeking information from written sources).
This research points to developing habits in all ages and levels of research-reader to skim material
or breadth of
an idea through argument, counter-argument and supporting material). There are regular complaints
by academics in the columns of the self-reflective magazines1 for HE such as the Times Higher
Education Magazine and the Chronicle of Higher Education that modern students are unwilling or
even unable to approach reading lists of the size and complexity of yesteryear (Brabazon, 2011), that
they will reference a Wikipedia article rather than the primary research that Wikipedia itself claims as
it's justificatory sources (Grove, 2012), see Wikipedia's own self-reflective articles):
Notability: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability
Verifiability: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability
No Original Research: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research
What Wikipedia is Not: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not
and similar complaints about the information-seeking and interpretation habits of modern students.
Not all academics are equally dismissive of these new approaches, as Grove (2011) reported, with
some academics seeking to embrace Wikipedia as a useful academic resource (but seeking to put it in
a suitably academic context for the students).
The pace of change introduced by the shift from 1990 where few subjects other than computer science
and high energy physics had electronic versions of scholarly articles at all, to 2013 where there is so
much information that the dominant skill is seeing the trees amongst the wood rather than seeing the
wood made up from the trees. This is less than one generation and today's academic workforce is
primarily still made up of those for whom their primary information tasks as students themselves, and
in their academic training beyond, were about deep digestion of the smaller number of relevant pieces
available. Their students are more used to an abundance of information and their strategies are
primarily about keeping the time spent internalising the information to a minimum and building an
internal index link to where to find it.
It is becoming increasingly unclear as to whether the ingrained practices of traditional HE noted above
can still fit the needs of modern learners as learners or fit them for the workplace they will find upon
graduation (if they even graduate). On the other hand, the new models of online HE (including
massive open online courses [MOOCs], for-profit online colleges and distance education courses in
developing countries (Liyanagunawardena, 2012)) are emerging very quickly, but evaluation of their
quality and validity for learners seeking education and qualification, for employers seeking filters for
10
recruitment, for governments seeking qualification for licensed occupations, is difficult because of
their newness and the still fast pace of change within them.
4. Education, Qualification and Assessment
As previously presented (Adams, 2011) the new technologies of mobile, networked and (soon)
wearable computing are challenging many of the assumptions about how educational progress can be
assessed. The Internet, just as it allows a seller of an obscure item to find a buyer perhaps half the
world away, or sharers of obscure interests to find enough others to form a vibrant network, puts
unscrupulous students together with unscrupulous brokers and providers of bespoke coursework
completion services. Everything from essays to computer programs and even entire Masters
dissertations are offered for bespoke cheating, though as with many areas of a grey economy the
claimed and actual quality of such purchased material may or may not match up to its claims (Baty,
2005). Such issues gave weight to those critical of coursework heavy assessments who claimed that
unseen exams were the gold standard and should be used as the primary, perhaps only, standard
assessment format. However, mobile networked computers have already shown that such exams can
no longer be assumed to be taking place in an isolated situation (Yomiuri Shimbun, 2011). Given the
changes in neural development that the abundance of information and the ubiquity of networked
information technology are creating, it is also becoming doubtful whether such artificial test
conditions are actually relevant to the purposes of the assessment anyway. No serious programmer
develops computer code by trying to write it out longhand on paper. Instead they make full use of
integrated development environments with help files, syntax checkers, library browsers and many
other tools to help them, including access to their own prior work and sample code from others.
Software engineering indeed teaches about the benefits of code re-use as a core element of its
curriculum. Working lawyers and legal researchers do not rely on their brains to remember all the
details of statute law or precedential decision. Instead, they used to rely on printed texts and indexes,
but now rely heavily on database searches in free (legal information institutes) or subscription (such as
LexisNexis) systems. Employers also constantly stress that in general they are more interested in team
players than lone wolves as recruits, so requiring students to sit exams in isolation from their peers
also seems unrelated to their likely workplace.
On the other hand the benefits of qualifying for a degree are substantial in terms of access to careers
which are either or both financially and intellectually rewarding. It is the individual financial rewards
in particular that have underpinned the justification from HE institutions raising tuition fees in the US
and from governments shifting the cost of tuition from society onto students in Australia and the UK.
In a world where it is practically impossible to distinguish the work of a skilled fraudster from a
dedicated student, particularly in the middle-rank, in assessments, it was suggested in (Adams, 2011)
that universities must focus instead back on offering an education, in which the purpose of formative
assessments remains as it always has been (focussed on developing the skills of students by practising
the skills of the discipline) while summative assessments are used to inform students and educators of
students' suitability to progress to the next stage, not in a sense of a barrier to progression but in the
sense that without the underlying skills of pre-requisites further advanced education is generally
inaccessible to the student. However, digital technology has recently thrown a further curveball into
this mix in the shape of MOOCs.
Since MIT announced their OpenCourseWare (OCW) project in 2001 (Goldberg, 2001), there has
been significant attention paid to questions of Open Educational Resources where educators and
experts (and sometimes crackpots and incompetents) make learning material available online for free,
usually under a permissive copyright license (frequently some version of Creative Commons). In
2007, the University of Manitoba announced that from 2008 it would be offering a course designed to
be taken online by large numbers of students. Registration and engagement in the course would be
free, although it would not carry academic credits and assessment of any assigned work would be
carried out only where feasible to be done automatically by computer or voluntarily by fellow
students. Since that announcement, the concept of MOOCs has somewhat exploded and to some
extent eclipsed the OCW approach. Unlike OCW material, MOOCs are typically offered without copy
11
and reuse rights students signing up for the course have no more rights to the material than students
ever do to the learning materials they are provided in a normal educational setting: they may make use
of them for their own learning but not pass them to others, nor reuse them as the platform for
becoming educators themselves.
Something of a bandwagon emerged in 2011 with the launch of MOOCs by institutions such as
Stanford University. In 2012 two competing platforms and organisational bodies to support MOOCs
were launched in the US: Coursera based at Stanford and EdX (originally called MITx but renamed
when Harvard joined as co-sponsor). Coursera is a for-profit organisation and EdX a non-profit. The
UK's Open University, which had already entered the OCW field with OpenLearn in 2006, launched a
UK-based MOOCs platform and organisation (as a wholly-owned for-profit subsidiary of the non-
profit Open University) in 2013. One UK universities had already signed up to run MOOCs on
Coursera, and both Coursera and EdX have other European and Asian partners, although as of writing
FutureLearn included only UK partners.
So far, MOOCs have been successful in attracting students to register, but have struggled in getting
students to complete the course. They have also struggled to identify clear business models for
funding their ongoing operations, though some are moving towards fees for credit-bearing registration
such as the University of Texas system (Matthews, 2012). The Open University's Vice-Chancellor
(Corbyn, 2012). In combination with the doubts raised by ubiquitous networked communications and
mobile computing/communications devices detailed above, this prediction seems persuasive. Despite
prophecies of doom due to Napster and its successor sharing sites, the recorded music business has not
recording
companies have been through tough times. It is likely that HE would see similar results to a Napster
moment. Cosy expectations that the future will be very much like the past may be rudely shown false.
In the resulting disruption, it is likely that both positive and negative consequences for society will
emerge.
5. Higher Education, Privilege and Social Justice
Is education a privilege or a right? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has it as a right and
suggest that it should be free (i.e. zero cost, although only requiring that it be free at the elementary
level the suggestion is that it should be funded by society not the individual leaner).
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and
fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional
education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible
to all on the basis of merit.
Once one has achieved a certain level of education, however, this is sometimes regarded as creating
privilege, even amongst those of otherwise oppressed groups (in Europe and the US: female, race
other than white, homosexual or bisexual, etc.). This is not an uncontroversial view. What is close to
undeniable is that a higher education is more easily and freely available to those with other privileged
states in their society (males, white people, able bodied people, heterosexuals) and that this is one of
the reasons for continued dominance and perpetuation of privilege by and for those groups. What
changes might the disruptions to HE systems detailed above make in this privileged and privileging
system?
Rising university tuition fees in the US (in all sectors public, private non-profit and private for-
profit) and the shift to loan-based systems in the UK and Australia are claimed to reduce the
possibility of university education for those from the lowest socio-economic groups. However, HEPI
in the UK found no significant evidence of a drop in the number of young people from such
backgrounds when the fees payable by students jumped from around 3.5k to
2012 (Thompson and Bekhradnia, 2012), nor did it find an impact on course choice or university
12
location choice (i.e. whether to attend only a local university and continue living with parents or move
to a university further away). This perhaps reflects a success of the UK government's work in stressing
the income-contingency repayment nature of the UK student tuition loan system, where repayments
are only due beyond an income threshold higher than the parental income of the students concerned.
Although recent changes in funding regime in the UK have had no apparent negative impact on the
HE opportunities of those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, there remains a significant divide
in both participation at all, and in the prestige of the institution attended, likelihood of completion of
course, depending on socio-economic class measures (see the website of the Higher Education
Statistics Agency [HESA]: www.hesa.ac.uk for detailed figures). In the US, there are similar
concerns, particularly over the rising costs to students of full first degrees at both state and private HE
institutions.
The fees and the privileges that attendance at high prestige institutions brings may or may not survive
the Napster moment of MOOCs
6. Conclusions
If cheating on educational assessments becomes rife, as seems possible, then HE institutions face
problems at both ends of their system. If they cannot rely on exam results at the end of school (A-
levels in the UK, SATs in the US, entrance examinations in Japan) then institutions which seek to
admit students with high ability will find it difficult, or perhaps impossible, to distinguish the students
they are seeking. In addition, such cheating will also most probably undermine the confidence of
employers in valuing the educational assessments of universities, removing the financial benefit of
having the degree qualification. Employers will instead be forced to find other ways of recruiting staff
with the skills they need, evaluating them on-the-job. Even employers may find it difficult to ensure
that their employees actually have the skills they claim, as demonstrated by the recent story of a
Verizon worker who had successfully outsourced his own computer programming job to China for
several years, and been regularly evaluated as one of their top coders (Kim, 2013). He was only
caught due to irregular Internet access usage being noted by the firm's security staff (having given
direct access to the company's VPN to his contractors).
At the same time as their qualification processes are being undermined, universities are faced with
competition for their educational services from free online offerings of MOOCs, using peer learning
as a core replacement for teacher/learner interaction within a course designed by an academic at a high
brand university. If businesses come to accept the undertaking of such courses as sufficient to warrant
access through the initial recruitment filters, then mid-level universities and perhaps local community
colleges may well suffer from sufficient loss of enrolment to undermine their institutional existence.
The benefits of in-person contact with the academics, and other factors such as endowment funding
which in some cases negates the necessity of charging fees to students at all and can in many other
cases reduce fees sufficiently to allow institutional continuity, are likely to see the high prestige
universities survive and continue to offer their expertise via MOOCs. The economies of scale they
thus achieve might even allow them to charge sufficiently modest fees for enrolment and even some
form of limited
with no deep pocket of endowments, no the prestige to tap governments for subsidies and no prestige
to attract large numbers of students to their MOOCs, from whom a percentage might pay for the rest,
they may be facing a bleak future.
HE is in for some interesting times over the next two decades as networked communication
infrastructures expand via Moore's Law and overtake the information guardianship of academics in
teaching and librarianship.
References
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13
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14
A FRAMEWORK FOR ELECTRONIC BUSINESS ETHICS: A
COMPARISON STUDY BETWEEN THE UK AND EGYPT
Gomaa Agag and Ibrahim Elbeltagi
Abstract
The rapid spread of e-commerce has created tremendous opportunities for economic efficiency and
customer choice. Use of the global Internet computer network for e-commerce activities provides
some advantages to the consumers on their daily life. On the other hand Internet represents a new
environment for unethical behaviour. This study investigates the effect of online retailing ethics on
customer satisfaction through marketing strategy and transaction cost theory. As well as examining
the difference regarding the e-retailing ethics framework among a B2B and B2C in the UK and Egypt.
Also, the moderating role of confidence benefits and buying frequency between e-retailing ethics and
customer satisfaction. The research model was developed based on the literature review. The results:
Ethical problems like security, privacy, reliability, non-deception and corporate social responsibility
on Internet are core issues that limit the growth of online retailing. Implications for theory and
management have been discussed.
Keywords
Business ethics, online retailing ethics, confidence benefits, buying frequency, customer satisfaction,
Relationship marketing strategy and transaction cost theory.
1. Introduction
The internet has come as a strong alternative way of physical retailing. The overall users of the
internet worldwide reached 7 billion in 2012, up from 420 million in 2000 and 1 billion in 2005
(Internet world stats, 2012). The World Wide Web (WWW) users have been multiplying so rapidly
and have widely spread into all walks of life. The use of the Internet is no longer limited to those
computer nerds who do it for fun or curiosity. It has opened up tremendous business opportunities for
by (Kalakota and Whinston, 1996), has become
the most important trend for doing business in the 21st century. Two prominent examples are the
purchasing. In Japan, hundreds of million U.S. dollars have been invested in setting up networks for
promoting electronic commerce.
During the previous two decades, while the overall users of the internet have increased with great
speed (Internet world stats, 2012), many traditional retailers of some industries have introduced
business processes based on the internet (Pavlou and Gefen, 2004).
and avoiding the ethical rules demolishes the relationships based between organizations and customers
(Fisher et al., 1999:157). If the companies that use web sites in order to perform electronic commerce
do not restrict to some of the ethical standards, they will produce bad results like a bad reputation and
a lack of trust that might cause losing the whole business (Schneider, 2006:328). Ethical attitudes
make the customer satisfied and helps make an organization successful (Fisher et al., 1999:157). So,
various strategic marketing decisions should have the ethical factor, while unethical companies begin
to lose their customers rapidly. In this study, we take a first step into the analysis of the influence of
online retailing ethics on customer satisfaction from the view point of internal and external ethics, as
well as the moderating role of confidence benefits and buying frequency on customer satisfaction.
This study focuses on online shopping sites. The study will not deal with other Internet sites -such as
online newspapers, portals, free down-load sites, customer-to-customer sites such as eBay or job sites-
that exist for purposes other than online shopping and that are advertiser supported.
15
This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses theoretical background of Business ethics,
online retailing ethics, confidence benefits, buying frequency, customer satisfaction, relationship
marketing strategy and transaction cost theory. Section 3 presents the proposed research model.
Section 4, the methodology of the study is described. Finally, the conclusion and the contribution of
the study
2. Literature review
2.1 Business ethics
Business ethics', defined in most simple terms, is the application of ethical principles to business.
(Gaski, 1999), stated that the moral philosophy of Aristotle r
values which might guide behaviour (Sherwin, 1983). Subjects such as medical ethics, and even legal
ethics, are conceptually simpler to grasp, because they deal with particular, well-defined professions.
"Business" is a rather more ambiguous word. One might wonder what it is in particular that ethics is
being applied to.
The academic subject of business ethics could be said to focus on a number of levels. At its broadest
level, it is concerned with the justification of economic systems. Questions about the ethics of
capitalism might be raised, for example, or the consideration of whether profit can ever arise from
behaviour defined as ethical. At the next level it is concerned with the structures and norms within a
specific system, for example the laws and regulations which guide the activity of different parts of the
system. Further attention is given to the main feature of these systems namely, corporations,
focusing on their structures, activities and responsibilities. Finally, there has been much discussion of
the moral responsibilities and rights of individuals within those corporations. As corporations have
expanded their operations overseas, especially into less developed countries, a large part of the
business ethics literature has focused on issues arising from this. Commonly discussed issues relate to
different cultures and moral values and the need for and possibility of universal codes of conduct.
We can conclude that business ethics is two things; first, ethics refers to well-based standards of right
and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to
ethical standards.
2.2 Online retailing ethics
The online retail market is growing rapidly, especially in the UK, and now covers a large assortment
of products and services. Throughout this period e-retailers have had to ensure they offer consumers
appropriate customer service and a pleasant online shopping experience, including the order
fulfillment process. Wholesale and retail trade contributed 11.3% of total Gross Value Added in the
UK economy in 2011. The retail industry, however, is subject to a number of pressures. These include
changes in shopping habits and the decline of consumer confidence. In 2011, 2.9 million people were
employed in the retail sector, accounting for 10.3% of employment. 1.1 million People were employed
in the wholesale sector, accounting for 4.0% of all employment (Department for Communities and
Local Government, 2012).
On the other hand, Egypt is the largest market in the Arab world. A population of more than 84
million citizens makes Egypt a lucrative market in the Middle East. About 42% of the population is
under the age of twenty (Cairo Festival City hopes to capitalize on Egyptian retail sector, 2008).
million people. Egypt Retail Report w from EGP147.80bn
(US$27.22bn) in 2010 to EGP208.37bn (US$38.37bn) by 2014 (Egypt Retail Report Q4
2010).According to the Al-Futtaim Group, there will be an increase in per capita income by 7.2%)
between 2007-2014. This will lead to an increase in demand for luxury products and necessitates more
modern retail technology. This shift will attract the attention of international brands for the Egyptian
capita, is predicted to rise by 63.9% to U.S. $4,463.
16
The ethics of online retail practices is an understudied phenomenon in general (Palmer, 2005; Sama
continue to rise (Kimery and McCord, 2006). As previously discussed, the topic of online retailing is
still an under-researched area. In what follows, we summarize the results of the empirical studies that
specifically address ethical issues related to marketing on the Internet (please see table 1). Table1
summarises prior studies on ethical issues and shows subject areas, purposes, factors, and results, the
ethical issues in electronic commerce especially online retailing has not yet been fully examined. This
study on B2B and B2C ethics can be used to understand the ethical issues which can confront the
customer and retailers as well as its effect on customer satisfaction as well. Based on the prior studies
this study will focus on some ethical issues in E-commerce such as (Privacy, Security, Non-deception,
Fulfilment/reliability, Social responsibility). Roman, (2007) pointed out that there is a positive
relationship between e-retailers ethics (Privacy, Security, Non-deception, and reliability) and customer
satisfaction. And Yoo and D
an important Role in their satisfaction. Further evidence from Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) revealed
that fulfilment/reliability was positively related to consumer satisfaction. While researchers have
considered the impact of CSR by innumerable number of factors, including word of mouth, customer
-store, and brand
identification, very few studies have considered the relationship between customer satisfaction and
CSR. Luo and Bhattacharya (2006) investigated Fortune 500 companies, concluded a direct link
between CSR and customer satisfaction. Their study concludes that customer satisfaction is mediated
by the relationship between CSR and firm market value. That is, the incorporation of the customer
satisfaction construct diminished to non-significance as the effect of CSR on market value. (Fisher et
al., 1999:157). Found that ethical attitudes also create customer satisfaction and it is a key factor that
helps organizations to have long-term success. According to Lagace et al. (1991), a salesperson should
not disclose false information to influence a customer. Once the customer learns the truth, their trust
and satisfaction will be lost. On the contrary, if the salesperson provides correct information, then the
customer will feel more satisfied with the service and the trust and satisfaction will be followed by
word-of-mouth recommendations. Therefore, it is clear that the positive ethical sales behaviour will
decrease the transaction costs that result from false information and thus have a positive effect on
customer satisfaction.
Table 1 Ethical issues related E-commerce ethics.
Study
Area
Purpose
Factors
Results
Culanan (1993)
E-commerce
To examine ethical issues
of consumer privacy on
the Internet
Data sharing,
trespassing loss of
anonymity, direct
marketing, unintended
use of data
Data sharing,
trespassing, loss of
anonymity, direct
marketing,
unintended use of
data. Privacy
Caudill and
Murphy (2000)
E-commerce
To examine both
historical and conceptual
analyses of privacy
Privacy, security, trust
Privacy, security and
trust. Growth of E-
Commerce
Bart et al.,
(2001)
E-commerce
To develop a conceptual
model that links web site
and consumers
characteristics, online
trust, and behavioural
intent.
Privacy, security,
fulfilment
Privacy, security, and
fulfilment. Consumer
trust towards the
website
Gauzenet and
Ranchhod
(2001)
E-commerce
To develop a model of
ethical interactivity with
consumers.
Notice, Choice, Contact,
Security, Access
Notice, choice,
contact, security, and
access. Ethical
interactivity
17
Study
Area
Purpose
Factors
Results
Fraanzak et al.,
(2001)
E-commerce
To explore issues
surrounding the
protection of consumer
privacy
Privacy, Cookies
Cookies. Privacy
Maury and
Kleiner (2002)
Online
retailing
To investigate ethical
issues in electronic
commerce.
Privacy, Intellectual
property
privacy, and
intellectual property.
Growth of E-
commerce
Menestret et al
(2002)
E-commerce
To present a case and its
development up to the
decision of yahoo.
privacy
E-ethics.Media crisis
Sama and Shoaf
(2002)
E-commerce
To examine the advent of
the web as a critical
media tool in the
promotion and sale
goods and services to
consumers.
Privacy
Privacy. Consumer
welfare
Beltramini
(2003)
E-commerce
To provide a brief
overview of the
application of the “FTC”
lesser known unfairness
doctrine as a potential
frame work for better
understanding emerging
privacy and e-commerce
issues.
Privacy, Trust
Unfairness doctrine.
Protecting consumer
privacy
Beltramini
(2003)
E-commerce
To investigate the
relative importance of
three types of web site
attributes : privacy,
security, and trust
Privacy, Security, Trust
Privacy, security, and
trust. Willingness to
give private
information.
Mukherjee.and
Nath.(2003)
Online
retailing
To develop a model of
trust in online
relationship banking.
Shared value,
Communication,
Opportunistic
behaviour, Trust,
Commitment
Shared value,
communication, and
opportunistic
behaviour. Trust.
Commitment
Siplor et al
(2004)
E-commerce
To examine ethical issues
of consumer privacy on
the internet.
Loss of anonymity, Data
sharing, Direct
marketing, Unintended
use of data
Loss of anonymity,
data sharing, direct
marketing, and
unintended use of
data. Privacy
Palmer (2005)
E-commerce
To examine some
practices associated with
marketing on the
internet.
Pop-ups, Cookies, Spam
Pop-ups, cookies,
and spam. Privacy. E-
commerce
18
Study
Area
Purpose
Factors
Results
Pollach (2005)
E-commerce
To examine privacy
policies from a linguistic
angle to determine
whether the language of
these documents is
adequate communicating
data-handling practices
in a manner that enables
informed consent on the
part of the user.
Privacy,
Trustworthiness
Privacy and
trustworthiness.
Privacy policies.
Mitigate unethical
data handling
practices.
Roman (2007)
Online
retailing
To develop a reliable and
valid scale to measure
consumer’s perceptions
regarding online retailing
ethics.
Privacy, Security, Non-
deception,
Fulfilment/reliability
Privacy, security,
non-deception, and
reliability. Customer
satisfaction and trust
Roman and
Cuestas (2008)
Online
retailing
To examine the
consumer’s perceptions
regarding online retailing
ethics.
Privacy, Security, Non-
deception, Reliability
Consumer Internet
expertise. Privacy,
security, non-
deception, and
reliability. Customer
word of mouth
Limbu., et al
(2011)
Online
retailing
To examine the effects of
consumer’s perceptions
concerning the ethics of
online retailers on web
site satisfaction and
loyalty.
Privacy, Security, Non-
deception, Reliability
Privacy, security,
non-deception, and
reliability. Customer
loyalty
Nardal and Shin
(2011)
Online
retailing
To measure the
perceptions of
consumers regarding the
online retailing ethics.
Privacy, Security, Non-
deception, Reliability
Privacy, security,
non-deception, and
reliability. Customer
satisfaction
Senthikumar.,
et al (2011)
Electronic
banking
To explore the
perception of the
customer on corporate
social responsibility in
banking service.
Corporate social
responsibility
CSR. Customer
satisfaction
Shahazi. et al
(2011)
E-commerce
To examine the factors
influencing consumer’s
perceptions of online
shopping.
Privacy, Reliability
Privacy and
reliability. Shopping
online
Yam B and
Limbu (2012)
Online
retailing
To examine the effects of
consumers' perception of
online retailers' ethical
behaviour on consumer
purchase and revisit
intentions.
Perceived Ethics, Trust
Perceived ethics.
Consumerisms’ trust
and attitudes.
Purchase and revisit
intentions
From the literature in table 1 it is clear that no study in online shopping ethics has applied the
transaction cost theory. Consequently, the understanding of transaction cost theory application to
online shopping ethics is not comprehensive. We take a first step into the application of transaction
cost theory in online retailing ethics. Second, existing online shopping ethics studies combine privacy
19
and security concepts into one dimension (Parasuraman et al., 2005; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003;
Yang et al., 2004). For example, Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003, p. 193), who developed the etailQ
privacy of shared information. In this study we distinguish between privacy and security. Third there
is no study examined the effect of external ethics (corporate social responsibility) on customer
satisfaction through the perceived confidence benefits. In this study we take a first step into examining
the effect of corporate social responsibility on customer satisfaction to enhance our understanding for
this area.
In short, prior research has identified privacy and security as the most important ethical concerns of
Internet consumers. This study will focus on privacy, security, reliability, non-deception, and social
responsibility. The ethics of online retailers is a multidimensional construct composed of five
dimensions: security, privacy, non-deception, reliability and corporate social responsibility. Security
ons about the security of the online transaction (i.e., the safety of the
payment methods) along with the protection of financial information from unauthorized access.
ividually
identifiable information on the Internet. Fulfilment/reliability is related to the accurate display and
description of a product so that what consumers receive is what they thought they ordered, as well as
the delivery of the right product within the frame promised., non-deception refers to the extent to
which the consumer believes that the online retailer does not use deceptive or manipulative practices
ses on
deceiving itself. Finally, social responsibility is a liability or ethical responsibility towards society as
well- the socio-economic view.
2.3 Customer-perceived confidence benefits
Gwinner et al. (1998) developed three types of relational benefits, including confidence benefits,
social benefits, and special treatment benefits. Among these, confidence benefits are the most critical
factor in the service encounter. Some researchers have pointed out that confidence benefits, stemming
describe the risk reduction in the process of transactions (Morgan and Hunt 1994). In addition,
consumers prefer choice reduction (Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995); and confidence benefits may be
earned by facilitating decision-making and simplifying the choice-making process (Gwinner et al.,
1998).
This study is mainly from the customer perspective, based on the theory of transaction cost, to
investigate the confidence benefits which customers perceive from the elimination of opportunistic
behaviour and reduction of the anxiety caused by uncertainty, and the effects of these benefits on the
customer relationship. According to Gwinner et al. (1998), confidence benefits are feasible for high-
contact, customized, and personal service sectors. In this study we examine the role of perceived
confidence benefits as a mediator between online retailing ethics and customer satisfaction. According
to the study of Gwinner et al. (1998) on relational benefits, customers will feel satisfied and develop
loyalty if they perceive benefits from the service encounter
2.4 Buying frequency
The frequency dimension has received limited attention in the TCA literature. Prior researchers have
been largely unsuccessful in confirming the positive association between transaction frequency and
hierarchical governance structure or transaction costs (Rindfleisch & Heide 1997). For instance,
Pilling et al. (1994) has found frequency is unrelated to transaction costs. Some researchers have
considered frequency as a dichotomous phenomenon (one-time versus recurring transactions) and
thereby control for frequency by examining only recurring exchanges (John & Weitz 1988; Klein,
Frazier & Roth 1990; Rindfleisch & Heide 1997).
20
Noordewier et al. (1990) defines frequency as the frequency of order issued by the buyer in its study
of industrial supplier and buyer relationship. In a similar study, Pilling et al. (1994) defines frequency
as the volume of transactions processed.
In this study, the buying frequency refers to how often the consumers turn to the online channel for
purchase. Recurrent transactions enable consumers to gain knowledge and experience which have the
effect of mitigating the perceived transaction costs. Previous study by Teo and Yu (2005) has found a
negative relationship between buying frequency and perceived transaction cost. If consumers have
high online buying frequency, they are likely to continue adopting the online channel for purchase,
reason being their knowledge and experience gained may have the effect of reducing the perceived
transaction costs. In this study we examine the role of buying frequency as a mediator between online
retailing ethics and customer satisfaction.
2.5 Customer satisfaction
-purchase comparison between pre-purchase
expectation and performance received (Oliver, 1980). In this research, consumer satisfaction is
defined as the satisfaction of consumers with the web sites of online retailers.
We expect that the online retailing ethics will have a positive influence on consumer satisfaction.
From a theoretical perspective, drawing on the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm (e.g., Oliver and
DeSarbo, 1988), consumers make a comparison between product expectations and performance that
product performance exactly meet expectations. Positive disconfirmation occurs when product
performance exceeds prior expectations, and negative disconfirmation occurs when expectations
exceed performance. Confirmation and positive disconfirmation will be likely to result in satisfaction.
Customer expectations regarding the product are highly dependent on the information displayed at the
site (Coupey, 2001).The higher the ethics of the website, the more likely that it provides realistic
expectations about the product. This may result in confirmation or even positive disconfirmation
between expectations and product performance, thus resulting in customer satisfaction with the
website.
2.6 Cost transaction theory
The basic concept of transaction cost theory was
alternatives, and that which alternative is chosen depends on the transaction cost. Transaction cost
analysis is used to find the optimal governance structure. Williamson (1981) extended Coase.s study
and pointed out that the assumption of transaction cost is based on the bounded rationality and
opportunism. Bounded rationality implies that any individual in an organization has limited
competence to solve complex problems and process information; hence, the uncertainty exerted from
bounded rationality resulting in incomplete purchasing process and will increase costs (e.g
information searching and monitoring).Opportunism implies that the other party will probably lie,
steal, cheat, and play tricks for its self-interest; thus the related costs for such opportunistic behaviour
will increase the transaction costs related to the information searching, wasted time, monitoring and
the opportunity cost.
Uncertainty arises from the difficulty in predicting the actions of the other party in the transaction due
to opportunism, bounded rationality, and asymmetry of information Williamson, O.E. (1981) and
Williamson, O.E. (1985) A high level of uncertainty is likely to increase transaction cost because both
parties in the transaction spend more time and effort in searching for products and vendor related
information as well as in monitoring the transaction process.
Ganesan (1994) pointed out that hazards of opportunistic behaviour will occur, when a buyer-seller
relationship cannot be easily terminated with an incomplete contract. But, if trust exists between the
two parties, opportunistic behaviour would be eliminated. In other words, trust will reduce
opportunistic behaviours and lower the risk due to opportunistic behaviour. Thus, the related
21
transaction cost will be reduced in the exchange relationship, and when the confidence benefits are
perceived, the possibility of long-
confidence benefits, the costs related to information searching, negotiating, and monitoring will
decrease while customer has confidence in the e-retailing ethical sales behaviour. Once customers
perceive the confidences benefits from cost reduction, the positive effects on satisfaction would occur.
Therefore, transaction cost theory could be used to explain the relationship in which e-retailing ethics
is an antecedent of confidence benefits perceived by customers, and where customer satisfaction is its
outcome variable.
Figure 1. Research model
3. Research model
The online retailing ethics is still an under-researched area, and consequently, there are some models.
In what follows, we review the general marketing/business ethics models developed in the literature.
Then we summarize the results of the empirical studies that specifically address ethical issues related
to marketing on the Internet. Finally, we focus on specifying this model as integrated model which
enables the e-retailing stores to deal with these ethical issues related to marketing on the Internet. In
this model we will indicate the effect of e-retailers ethics (privacy, security, non-deception, reliability
and social responsibility) on customer satisfaction by the customer confidence benefits and customer
perceived value as a mediator as in Figure 1.
22
4. Research methodology
This study is based on an intensive examination for the literature review to develop the research
framework. The researches as well used observation for both B2B and B2C business to in order to
develop and build a conceptual framework for ethics in e-business organisations.
5. Conclusion
This study investigates the effect of online retailing ethics on customer satisfaction, and the role of
customer confidence benefits as a mediator. Based on the literature review most of prior studies
focused on privacy and security and neglected others issues such as (reliability, non-deception, and
social responsibility, as well as there is no empirical study has been found that examined the corporate
social responsibility as an ethical issue in the context of the online retailing ethics (see table 1).
Therefore we advise the online retailers to behave ethical with their customers and take into their
account the social responsibility as an ethical issue, as well as to attempt to increase the impression of
trustworthiness. This could increase consumer satisfaction.
6. Contributions
This study contributes to the field of online retailing ethics differently. Firstly, the current study
presents an initial attempt to apply the transaction cost economy framework to the online retailing.
Although a number of studies have applied TCE to explain the rise of e-commerce and cost savings in
e-commerce (Malone et al, 1987; Morton, 2006), very few studies (Liang and Huang, 1998; Teo and
perspective. No empirical study has been found that examined this issue in the context of the online
measured using a TCE approach. Finally, we take a first step into the analysis of the influence of e-
retailing ethics from the view point of organizational and environmental ethics on customer
-retailing ethics and
customer satisfaction.
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25
ELEARING EVOLUTION: NEW CONCEPTS ON ICT &
LEARNING
Mario Arias-Oliva and Juan Carlos Yáñez-Luna
Abstract
In this paper we describe a new emerging concept of e-Learning. The new definition was supported
mainly on academic literature, searching a cross fertility among theoretical approaches. We focus our
research on state of the art in eLearning arena. Keystone variables of eLearning were identified in
-ning definition that includes many other
dimensions, overcoming focus just on ICT.
1. Introduction
The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in educational systems has many
approaches: organizations are acquiring technology as complementary tools for teaching and learning
processes, and at the same time learning process is questioned. The wide area that eLearning covers,
makes very difficult to find an accepted research framework.
Nowadays e-Learning models focus mainly on technologies. Coetzee and Eksteen (2011) show us that
ICT advance has transformed the way to teach and learn in academic environments. The use of ICT
has revolutionized space and time on the learning schema. Badawy (2012) assume that eLearning is
the transfer of skills and knowledge using ICT tools. Jethro, Grace, and Thomas (2012) and Chan and
Ngai (2012) defines eLearning as a system that is used to develop learning experiences. However,
Hermes Lück (2009) points out that virtual environments are a huge interrelationship network.
Nowadays ICT is a critical dimension of learning at any level: school, higher education, professional
training, life-long learning, etc. Individuals and institutions are adopting technology as a compulsory
tool to teach and learn. Because of this reason, it is important to have a solid framework about what
considered as eLearning? We must integrate ICT, learning models and theories to explain emerging
hybrids learning models as Blended learning (b-Learning) (Camacho, Chiappe Laverde & López de
Mesa 2012) or Mobile Learning (m-Learning) Zhang & Li (2012). E-Learning has been also involved
on technological innovation, and the problem that we find is that there are many definitions and
concepts about what eLearning is. Those definitions and concepts should be integrated in an emerging
eLearning framework.
This work is structured as follow: In section 2 we will review the eLearning literature to know the
state of the art. In section 3 we will describe the methodology used for this work and we will resume
the outcomes of the research. In section 4 we will describe our eLearning model. In section 5 we will
show our research conclusions.
2. E-Learning. Literature review
There are many approaches to define eLearning. Literacy is one of them. According with García
Carrasco (2009) literacy may be defined as an extension of communication process adding sign, oral
language and writing contexts. In this sense, López-Barajas Zayas (2009) points out that the digital
literacy is considered as a significant process in which technological knowledge is reached in order to
improve the quality of processes and outcomes in any service or product. Laschewski (2011) points
out that digital literacy includes both the aptitudes to use ICT tools and the media literacy abilities to
work with multimedia and Internet tools.
26
Web 2.0 and mobile bring another approach. Collaborative and constructivism schemas certainly are
an important development on Internet. The previous context determines the technological perspective
on Internet, according to Fernández Gómez (2009); Prendes Espinoza & Cabrero Almenara (2007),
the use of these platforms allow developing collaborative situations by using the tools or applications
that incorporate, such as Chat, Wiki's, WebQuest, Blogs or emails; tools developed exclusively for
this type of education such as networked virtual campus, Learning Management System, Learning
Content Management System and Virtual Environments for Teaching and Learning, Groupware,
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), Computer Supported Cooperative Work
(CSCW) and 3D Virtual Worlds.
In this case there are two types of collaborative learning according to conditions and procedures.
These classifications come from organizational theories applied to educational institutions, and can be
defined as formal and informal:
Formal: In this case, the collaboration is a planned and time-based process for learning.
Informal: In this schema, the construction of learning is based in learner´s own experience
across the life.
In both cases (formal and informal) ICT have important impacts and benefits.
Rising ICT acceptance in learning process in opening new ways to deliver and create knowledge. We
observe that hybrids models as bLearning and mLearning are used to describe the evolution of
eLearning. According to Camacho, Chiappe Laverde & López de Mesa (2012) blended learning is a
model in which learning and teaching processes are combined face to face and ICT-based
methodologies. According to Zhang & Li (2012) mLearning is the acquisition of knowledge using
Coetzee & Eksteen
(2011); Cheung, Yuen & Tsang (2011) refers to the incorporation of each mobile device to the
Internet. Cheung et al. (2011) visualize the mobile learning as a flexible learning environment in
which learners are enabling to learn in anywhere, anytime and with any technological device.
Naismith et al. (2004) propose an approach based on learning theories in the context of mobility:
Behaviourist, Constructivist, Situated, Collaborative, Informal & Lifelong, and learning and Teaching
Support. We will focus on approaches with more impact on eLearning. In the situational context
Vavoula et al. (2009) evaluated the efficacy of using mobile devices in the learning process in a
specific scenario and with particular activities. The study showed that the service was effective in
enabling learners to gather information and to build personal reflections in the classroom. Pfeiffer et
al. (2009) identify whether mobile devices were adequate to support the acquisition of knowledge.
The study concludes that using ICTs in learning process has an additional benefit of learning in
combination with the real-world experience.
On the blended context, Warschauer (2007) lead a study using laptops which determines that the use
of these tools encourages a broad development in information searching skills and strengthening
student research activities. Williams & Pence (2011) conducted a study in the classroom using mobile
devices such Smartphones, described them as devices with high capacity and very easy to carry.
Smartphones are changing habits of students.
In the collaborative context Alvarez, Brown & Nussbaum (2011) worked in a study on postgraduate
and undergraduate courses using Netbooks and Tablet PCs. The study emphasized the interest of the
students on the use of Tablets and Netbooks and focus on behavioural effects such as increased
confidence in expressing ideas, language facility and strengthening collective capabilities. Avery et al.
(2010) conducted similar work, analysing the use of Tablet PCs to promote project-based
collaborative work and learning among groups with similar conclusions.
Ramos Elizondo, Herrera Bernal & Ramírez Montoya (2010) studied the development of cognitive
skills in postgraduate students, working through mobile devices where activities conducted interacted
with PDA and audio applications, video, Internet resources such as email and instant messaging, and
evaluation based on Web online test. Cheung, Yuen & Tsang (2011) concluded in a research project
based on mobile devices (specifically Tablets PC), and did not find a positive impact on student
academic support.
27
3. Methodology
We analyse 25 eLearning concepts in academic literature, focusing on main factors that each
definition points out as critical. The main goal of this activity was to obtain a wider definition of e-
Learning. We define 11 indicators that are included in most of the eLearning definitions. The Table 1
summarized our results:
Table 1: eLearning critical factors according to literature review
Indicator
Definition
1
ICT
This factor analyses all ICT hardware and software used in
learning activities: PC, laptops, tablets, Web apps, software, LMS,
etc.
2
Knowledge management
This factor analyses if the concept includes knowledge processes
such as application or generation of knowledge.
3
Content control
This factor analyses the degree of control that learner has on
content: stop, slow down, speed up, edit, go back, go forward,
skip a section, etc. and the degree of control that lecturers has on
learning process and materials: edition, change, evaluation, etc.
4
Formal Learning
This factor analyses if the eLearning definition is focused on
formal learning.
5
Informal Learning
This factor analyses if the eLearning definition is focused on
informal learning.
6
Actors
This factor analyses all actors involved in the eLearning process:
administrative personnel, students and lecturers belonging to an
organization or institution.
7
Synchronous communication
This factor analyses if the eLearning definition is focused on
synchronous communication.
8
Asynchronous Communication
This analyses if the eLearning definition is focused on
asynchronous communication.
9
Collaborative
This dimension will determine if the eLearning definition include
collaborative activities to support the generation of knowledge
and learning.
10
Individual
This variable will determine if the concept focuses on individual
activities to generate knowledge and learning.
We analyze each eLearning definition and determine if the indicator are included in the definition (1)
or not (0). A total of twenty-five eLearning definitions were evaluated and results are shown in Table
2:
Table 2: Factors evaluated in each definition.
No
Author
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
(Jethro, Grace & Thomas
2012)
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
(Badawy 2012)
1
1
1
1
0
1
0
0
1
1
3
(Chan & Ngai 2012)
1
1
1
1
0
1
0
1
0
0
4
(Peng & Jingjing 2012)
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
5
(Chryso 2012)
1
1
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
28
6
(Tuncay, Stanescu & Tuncay
2011)
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
7
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
8
(Westera 2011)
1
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
0
0
9
(Al Musawi 2011)
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
10
(Lominadze, Papiashvili &
Asatiani 2011)
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
11
(Zaharudin, Nordin & Mohd
Yasin 2011)
1
1
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
12
(NicoletaMagdalena 2011)
1
0
1
1
0
1
1
1
1
0
13
(Saraswathi et al. 2011)
1
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
14
(Alptekin & Karsak 2011)
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
15
(Jobe & Nilsson 2011)
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
16
(Mehrdad et al. 2011)
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
17
(Hyndman, Lunney & Mc
Kevitt 2011)
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
18
(Velammal & Anandha
Kumar 2011)
1
0
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
0
19
(Zehry, Halder & Theodosiou
2011)
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
20
(Laschewski 2011)
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
21
(Casquero et al. 2010)
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
22
(Lim, So & Tan 2010)
1
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
23
(Roldán et al. 2010)
1
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
24
(Ho & Kuo 2010)
1
1
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
25
(Seyed Danesh 2010)
1
1
0
1
0
0
1
1
1
0
Total
25
20
14
8
4
12
4
8
4
2
We see that the most common indicators in all eLearning definitions are:
Hardware: included as critical factor in 100% of definitions.
Knowledge Management: included as critical factor in 80% of definitions.
Control content: included as critical factor in 56% of definitions.
And the less cited indicators were:
Collaborative: included as critical factor in 16% of definitions.
Individual: included as critical factor in 8% of definitions.
4. eLearning proposed concept
The impact on main actors mainly focuses on the learner, but we consider that it is important to take
into consideration other actors that are important in the learning process (Lecturers, LMS
administrator, etc.) (Facundo 2004; Prendes Espinoza & Cabrero Almenara 2007; González Mariño
2008; Ozdamli & Cavus 2011).
29
Technological progress has been the trigger for distance education evolution. This evolution has been
based on models and complementing existing educational theories and methodologies with the use of
ICTs and Internet resources Mayes & De Freitas (2007) points out that a good model of e-Learning
wi
E-Learning could be defined as the process of creation, preparation, operation and distribution of
knowledge through education methodologies and content distributed through the use of ICT
collaborative and/or individual overcoming structural constraints of time and space. We think that
learning process should be considered in a holistic way, where ICT is just a frontier between
-to-face
with all ICT tools (tablets, LMS, etc.) and traditional non technological methods (blackboard, master
class, books, readings, etc.)
We summarize this eLearning concept in Figure 1. We underline that ICT in our proposed definition
can be used in both: face-to-face learning and ICT based learning. For instance, the use of electronic
pools, digital blackboards, web 2.0 services, etc.; can be integrated into face-to-face learning, being
included in the eLearning concept. Our proposed eLearning framework focus as well on formal and
informal learning, taking into consideration that both approaches can be achieved with and without
ICT use.
Figure 1: eLearning holistic model
5. Conclusion
In this paper we propose a wider definition of eLearning. Most of the theoretical approaches to
eLearning focus on ICT usage and distance learning. Our view is that the learning process should be
considered in a holistic way: learning is the end goal, and ICT is one very important mean to achieve
learning. ICT integration and development should never be the end.
Future challenges will focus on properly integrating ICT into the learning processes, both in face-to-
face and distance learning environments.
Overall, we conclude that in 21st Century it is almost impossible to think about learning without ICT.
The trend will be the integration of ICT tools in traditional face-to-face learning, as well as the
development of blended (bLearning) and Distance (dLearning).
Another trend to watch at eLearning is knowledge management. Lifelong learning requires informal
ways of learning that will be managed with mobile tools. The organization of content and the way to
access content will be critical areas in eLearning development.
30
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33
DESIGNING “OPEN EDUCATION”: HOW DOES THE ICT-
BASED SYSTEM FUNCTION AS A NEW MEDIUM OF
PARTICIPATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY?
Ryoko Asai
Abstract
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has permeated every part of our life as a daily
commodity. We can access the Internet and get huge amount of information every day. Along with
popularization of personal computers and highly leveraging information on the Internet, the way of
learning has been changing gradually. ICT provides people with greater opportunities to learn to
individual needs. Many organizations, including companies, universities and international
ICT is considered as a key element in the context of developing the individual as well as the society
This study explores social roles and difficulties of the ICT-based education system in designing
sustainable societies.
Keywords
Education, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Internet, openness, platform, social
reality, sustainability
1. Opening up an opportunity for education
Information
it has permeated every part of our life as a daily commodity. Especially in the present globalized
society, ICT has been considered as one of the most important infrastructures to connect someone to
someone else beyond the national borders and different time zones. Many people access the Internet
and get /exchange tremendous information on websites everyday. Along with popularization of
personal computers and highly leveraging information on the web, the way of learning has been
perceive what they want to learn. Hundreds universities, institutes and companies develop and release
(MITOCW), TakingITGlobal and so on. These open education platforms are basically open for
everyone who wants to learn by using the contents on websites for free in so far as they can access the
Internet. And the movement toward the development and use of ICT-based education platform is
supported and promoted by international organizations, such as the Centre for Educational Research
and Innovation (CERI) in OECD and -
dimensions in educational activities. However this term has been constituted based on the simple and
strong belief that education can be improved by making educational assets visible and accessible and
by harnessing the collective wisdom and knowledge of a community of practice and reflection (Iiyoshi
and Kumar, 2008). This thought is very related with sustainability, and implies great possibility to
lead individual knowledge to collective knowledge for contributing to make communities and
societies better.
.
Given a society well established Internet infrastructure, ICT makes it possible for people to generate
social networks and virtual communities through social media, and to utilize such a network and
shared knowledge to enjoy a fulfilling daily life. In other words, ICT is considered as a key element in
the context of developing the individual as well as the society, for example, United Nations emphasize
the importance of ICT in developing countries and active utilization of ICT in the educational arena to
empower people. Needless to say, education is the one of significant factors for sustainability.
34
Therefore, in order to achieve sustainability in the present globalized world where ICT is positioned as
a vital commodity in every social dimension, it is inevitable to collaborate between education and
ICT. This study examines social roles and difficulties of the ICT-based education system in designing
sustainable societies.
2. Do new education systems based on ICT foster zest for living?
It is obvious that ICT contributes to developing educational environments in many ways and lots of
educational tools have been developed until now. The collaboration between educational activities and
ICT use is unavoidable not only in schools but also in private and public situations, such as training of
personnel in companies, doing homework at home and so on. However, how does the open education
system contribute in the educational arena and to sustainability? At the present, people use social
media and connect with others through it actively, and some people join in study groups or study
communities on the Internet. Those people have strong interest in a certain topic and positive attitude
toward sharing information and knowledge among community members. In such a case, the online
educational platform could provide to people for opportunities to learn and share knowledge with
other members actively as far as the platform contains interesting and attractive contents.
And also it would greatly help motivated learners find a teacher or a partner who can teach them what
they want to learn, through using contents on the platform and attending virtual study communities.
Moreover, it is possible for them to expand the relationship in the virtual space into the real space, for
example leading more chance to get a job and earn money by utilizing knowledge based on what they
learnt through online contents. Because it is possible for them to show their education experiences and
careers in detail as well as social skills, to construct the relationship with others through attending
online learning communities. In other words, positive activities and attitudes in virtual study
communities could create chance to make the real life better and richer.
In this context, the open education platform provides greater chance to enhance the quality of life and
get along in the competitive world beyond boundaries between the virtual and real spaces. In other
words, the open education platform could function as a new medium of participation in the civil
society, in order to achieve sustainability. However, it is not easy to make real the ideal concept of
ideology, thought, deployment of ICT etcetera. The way of perceiving and interpreting contents is
socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions
around problems or actions (Brown, 2008). Therefore, in developing the platforms and its contents,
we need to consider t
tivate people to
participate and use contents continuously.
3. Designing culture and society through “open education”
The open education platform provides opportunity for education greater, and is expected that its
ning. However, there is a social risk generating serious
disparities between users with high ICT literacy and users with little ICT literacy, and between
information haves and information have-nots. Worse, even if people have ICT literacy well, in some
countries, the free access to the websites is restricted or not allowed by governments. Why do these
inaccessible situations exist whereas many people and organizations recognize that open education
contributes to fostering a richer society and sustainability
so on. In the case of
ditionally, the open education
platform would not develop and work well in the society where the government infringes on the
35
intellectual property right and put censorship on contents routinely. How to construct and use
platforms and contents depends on a political regime and thought strongly. In other words,
constructing the open education platform and contents play a role of designing culture and society.
In the early stage of the digital age, almost people had been only spectators at the arena where
information was exchanged by a few users those were familiar with ICT. However, the popularization
of personal computers and Internet access has changed people from spectators to creators, in other
words, from passive spectators to active participants (Jenkins, 2006, Balsamo, 2011). This shift could
enrich open educational contents with a myriad of knowledge of other participants. But whenever we
see drastic changes, difficulties or negative sides always are observed as well. First, it is unavoidable
to have difficulties in the translation tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Every participant has
different experiences, knowledge and cultural contexts, and sometimes it is difficult for them to
express those differences in words or to transfer explicable knowledge for others. Secondly, not all
information and knowledge are useful and educational. Some of participants might try to assert the
particular thought or polarizing idea and inculcate it upon others, for example extreme ideas, false
information, demagogic messages and inflammatory observation. However, Judging what is
right/false or good/evil, and which idea is moderate/extreme are very different depending on cultural
but people rarely have completely same thoughts as the others ones. The third difficulty is there, that
is, the most of open education platforms are managed in the certain languages at this moment, in many
cases, those are run by big companies, organizations or universities mainly in western countries, and
the most of contents are distributed in English even if not westerners create those contents. Therefore,
contents makers and participants are affected more or less by western thoughts. As proof of this, some
access to Facebook and YouTube, sometimes Wikipedia, no matter what the reason, in China.
In constructing web services in non-English speaking countries, in fact, it would be easier for
accessibility for local users (Umeda and Iiyoshi, 2010). And they could be well aware of the needs of
users easier, and ascertain the reactions of users toward their contents directly and more responsively.
However, given the characteristics of the Internet, the universal access makes open educational
contents richer and gives people more opportunities for learning, regardless of languages, locations
and so on. In the situation that English is used commonly and globally, it is quite expected that many
of the open education platforms and contents are developed in English. On the other hand, in order to
not only from the global perspective and also from the local perspective.
4. Social responsibility
Developing education platforms on the Internet is very much related with designing culture and
societies, the process of open education and its consequence strongly affect sustainability as well.
And, needless to say, education programs definitely empower people not only in the cyber space but
also in the real space. However, especially on the Internet, no matter how many good educational
materials and tools are open in public and available to use for free, it is very difficult for a single
person to use those thoughtfully and effectively as an educator or as a learner. Because, in many cases,
especially in the case of a learner, a single person does not have enough practical knowledge to fully
ne and by oneself (Umeda and Iiyoshi, 2010). Practical
knowledge is fostered through the real educational practice, and which belong to tacit knowledge.
Therefore, in getting involved in education on the web, it is required to devote sustained efforts to
express and open knowledge in order to be understandable for others. Sustained efforts blur the
boundaries between educators and learners, and all participants get involved with developing the open
education after all. In this context, every user assumes responsibility for making the open educational
contents more abundant and richer. Whereas participants themselves contribute to make their
platform and contents but also to develop the support tools to transform tacit knowledge into explicit
36
knowledge. This means that the ICT-based educational system is established through the continuous
human-computer interaction.
The open education systems are developed and supported by many suppliers and users, especially the
quality of contents depends heavily on interaction among the system, suppliers and users. Hence, it is
when the system causes a problem socially. In particular, since education is considered as the essential
foundation for the prosperity and sustainability of the society, the open education distributors and
contributors assume great social responsibility. In order to develop the open education systems for
sustainability, we need to evaluate and operate the quality of the system constantly and accurately.
And we could evaluate it from three different points: the quality of contents, media, and the
information system (Murata, 2005). The quality of contents is evaluated based on reliability,
purposiveness, accuracy, coherency, integrity and currentness. The quality of media is assessed by
adequacy and appropriate access control. The quality of the information system is evaluated from the
viewpoints of reliability, usability, consistency, maintainability, flexibility and confidentiality.
Through those evaluations and continuous human-computer interaction, the open education system
can contribute to empowerment of people and realization of the sustainable society.
References
ation, edited by Toru
Iiyoshi and M. S. Vijay Kumar, xi- xvii. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Balsamo, Anne. (2011), Designing culture: The technological imagination at work. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
Iiyoshi, Toru., and M. S. Vijay Kumar, eds. (2008) Opening Up Education:
The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Murata
conference2001: 43-46 (in Japanese).
Umeda, Mochio., and IIyoshi Toru. (2010), Learning on the web. Tokyo: Chikuma-shobo (in Japanese).
37
ICT SUPPORTED CRISIS COMMUNICATION AND DIALOG
Ryoko Asai and Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos
Abstract
This study explores how people use social media under serious social conditions, and how social
In this critical situation, where existing traditional media like phones, television, radio and newspapers
did not work well, the Japanese exchanged and received information through social media. In fact,
some victims were rescued based on information via ICT an
need, social media provided various services to support people immediately after the disaster.
Therefore, it seems that ICT and social media play an important role in fostering a social network
leading to horizontal communication, critical thinking and dialog; supporting social capital. This paper
discusses characteristics of the relationship of ICT and social capital, and their role in improving
difficulties in people bonding
together through social media.
Keywords
Communication, crisis, democracy, dialog, Information Communication Technology (ICT), self-critical
thinking, social media
1. Disaster and communication
On March 13th 2011, Japan was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake, which was of magnitude 9.0.
It was called the Higashi-Nihon Daishinsai in Japanese. Serious damage took place over an extensive
geographic area; especially the coastal region was devastated by a tsunami. An enormous tsunami
took everything away. People, vehicles, buildings, houses and almost all other objects disappeared
from the land. The disaster disrupted almost all public utilities, including electricity, gas supplies,
water, radio, telephone, TV and Internet systems. Given the massive damage, people utilized many
kinds of media in order to know what had happened to them, their communities and the country.
situation where they face. At the same time, some people living in not serious damaged area started to
support victims as a volunteer in many ways. In addition to conventional voluntary work, some
volunteers worked on contribution to a society through utilizing the Inter
after the Japanese earthquake, using its scheme that had become relatively sophisticated through
experience with other disasters in the past, such as the 2010 Heidi earthquake or the 2005 hurricane
that time through cooperation with the Red Cross and the Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK).
However, in severely damaged areas after the Great East Japan Earthquake, most of the conventional
media were destroyed by huge tsunami waves and many people were stranded in many places. People
had no tools to find out about the safety of their families and friends. How did people register the
safety on the Net? They wrote message cards and put it on walls in a refuge where they evacuated.
However, it was very difficult for them to send messages to people outside a refuge. Every refuge had
message boards on the wall, and the evacuee wrote and posted message cards that included their
names or other private information. In some areas, a few people accessed the Internet via mobile
phones for a short time. They took pictures of message boards by using mobile phones and uploaded
these to Picasa pictures websites. Many volunteers who were living in areas that were not so seriously
damaged checked on those pictures through computer monitors, wrote down every message on paper
by hand and posted tho
volunteers worked on sorting huge information while many users sent tremendous information to
38
social media. Under suffering from massive disaster scar, people collaborated for social contribution
by utilizing ICT, beyond boundaries between public/private, organization/individual, or
center/periphery.
2. Using both old and new media
The massive Japanese disaster of 2011 harmed the coverage of mass media because it destroyed TV
towers or broke telephone cables in the devastated area. For example, TV news programs continued to
broadcast live reports not only by using conventional broadcasting systems but also through cutting
edge technologies. In other words, existing media collaborated wi
information to people. In particular, TV companies distributed their TV programs on the Internet at
the same time that they broadcast on TV. TV companies and big Internet companies collaborated with
each other and enabled a fusion between TV and social media. The TV reported the original news
information from users but also streamed live videos from TV programs to their websites. Thus people
living in the non-disaster area watched real-time events through mass media and knew what happened
at that time. However, people living in an affected area could not know the situation they faced after
the disaster.
ICT and social media complemented the absence of mass media with its communicability and
transmissibility, with cooperation and collaboration between mass media and the Internet. Many
people used social media like Facebook or Twitter, and some ICT companies played great roles in
distributing information using their technologies. As already mentioned, Google created a special
Twitter set up a hash-tag in order to gather information efficiently (Computer Technology, 2011).
Some Internet server business companies provided many mirror sites for users. However, the fusion
did not last not for long. A few weeks later, the fusion ended and both media again delivered
information separately just as they had done before the disaster.
People, including both victims and non-victims, exchanged much of information in order to either
survive or to support others through social media. Twitter was especially useful to inform where
victims were and who needed to be rescued. Why did Twitter contribute to exchange information after
the disaster? This was because of its characteristics: quick reporting, convenience (simplicity),
propagation (transmission capability) and diversity (Computer Technology, 2011). A limited number
of characters made the messages clearer and easier to be read by others. In the fusion between TV and
social media, people got a broad range of information on the disaster through the TV news while they
checked on the reality and local information through tweets. Many users relied on tweets about local
information that sieved huge amounts of information. It is considered that the reasons for this situation
are that users had a certain level of media literacy, and shared a thin trust in other users in Japan
(Computer Technology, 2011; Kobayashi, 2011).
3. Communication and cooperation through ICT
In this social crisis, many people thought that it was natural to help and complement each other based
-ha hito-no ta
behavior (or charity) is done for oneself, and not for others. In other words, the good you do for others
is good you do for yourself, or what comes around goes around. After the disaster, social media were
used by many users to reflect a virtue of mutual support. In this social context, two types of false
information flew onto the Internet as well as correct and useful information. One type of false
information is categorized as disinformation. It includes demagogic information, which has the
malicious intent to make a society disordered or confusing. Another type of false information is
gets the information, is already useless because of the time-lag involved in sending information
(Google, 2012; Computer Technology, 2011; Kobayashi, 2011). Therefore, in a period of social
39
chaos, people are more required to possess the basic literacy of judging credibility and information
Conventionally, the function of mutual support used to be carried by a community, such as family and
neighbors. In the real world, people form real-existing communities around their families or
residential areas, where they can exchange their
gossip, in the streets, supermarkets or somewhere else in real space. People maintained close
communications and lived by helping each other through attending community events and maintaining
relations among neighbors. However, participation in community organization in Japan has decreased
since recent years (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, 2006).
Instead, after ICT grew to be used by many people, they can exchange information, without meeting
anywhere in the real world, and can contact others living in other communities through the Internet.
Now people can use new media via social media like blogs, social networking services (SNSs) and
personal websites. These new media offered a great opportunity to know others and feel for each other
socially regardless of where they live.
4. Development of open communication and dialog
The way people used ICT and social media after the disaster in Japan brings two theoretical
contributions to the discussion on development of open communication and dialog. Firstly, it shows
how institutions may affect open development projects. It identifies the relevance of considering the
institutional context when planning open development initiatives, since powerful social actors are able
to mobilize against institutional changes, which challenge social structures from which they benefit.
Secondly, it illustrates different models of appropriation or balance of control of technology when
facing state constraints to open development projects, and it contrasts centralized and decentralized
structures in using technology and producing content. These arguments are explained below.
Here we can see the complex interaction between the forms of appropriation of technology and the
institutional environment. Internet tools per se do not define whether the appropriation fosters more
democratic social structures and the institutional environment does not define how technology is
appropriated. Internet tools offer a unique opportunity for intensifying citizen participation and
freedom of debate. However, the state has mechanisms to limit and frame this expression of dissent
through filtering and censuring Internet spaces, in association with other legal and illegal punishment
mechanisms (that range from prosecution and imprisonment, to torture and execution).
Activist movements show that it is possible to overcome state censure through the use of technical
tactics (for example, changing URLs, creating proxies, using portals, and linking decentralized groups
of blogs). However this implies that activists need to have substantial technical knowledge to operate
in this environment, overcoming the state censure and surveillance. Even more difficult, readers and
contributors also need to have considerable technical knowledge to find related websites and blogs.
Indeed, most activists operate through websites and blogs that are hosted in other countries; it would
be difficult to overcome the Iranian censure operating only locally. In addition, citizens in Iran may
avoid reading activist content, fearing punishment. In such a repressive institutional environment, the
availability of tools and contents are not enough to engage citizens in open development initiatives,
especially when they do not have knowledge of the use of Internet tools and do not understand the
actual risks of engagement. Fostering open development initiatives may demand the development of
technology, which does not demand much technical skills from users and audiences.
The cases of the Japanese disaster and of the Iranian activist movement also point out that a
decentralized strategy of content production, and loosely coupled networks of websites and blogs,
may be an interesting tactic to overcome state censure in open development projects. This model is
more democratic in allowing the emergence of a broader range of opinions. However, states may be
efficient in generating filters and in identifying contributors and supporters. The more efficient the
mechanisms for identifying users, the more difficult it is to use Internet-mediated communication as a
means to organize democratic communication and dialog in non-democratic environments.
40
The relevance of the institutional environment can be expected to be present in other initiatives that
use of information and communication technology for fostering open development. Here we referred
to two examples that illustrate the interaction as means of fostering freedom of expression. Other or
future studies would be necessary to investigate how the appropriation, or the balance of control of
information, and communication technology for open development, is affected by the institutional
environment; in the same or in other contexts.
Our examples and the following discussion indicate the limitations of Internet tools as instruments for
fostering open development. Although a certain level of freedom of dialog has been reached through
virtual interactions, the mobilization of citizens through the Internet has not yet been able to change,
for example Iranian institutions substantially. That means that the resilience of institutions should be
taken into account when practitioners are planning for open development. Understanding institutions,
and their related legitimating and sanction mechanisms, may help to foresee obstacles to the changing
of power structures which are an inherent consequence of open development initiatives.
5. ICT for dialog and democracy
ICT can contribute to this process by making information accessible and therefore facilitating cit
participation in different kinds of tasks like searching for missing people or even for political decision
making. It can support openness and by that invite people to be more aware and active. Primarily, it
can support horizontal communication among people. Issues that are of interest to few people or to
people that for some reason have difficulties to contact each other by traditional means may be
neglected in other traditional communication processes even though such issues may be of vital
significance to them. ICT can easily overcome such difficulties and provide a powerful tool to
themselves through constant communication by using ICT when there are points that are doubtful and
unclear. Most important, ICT and ICT mediated communication can be structured in such a way as to
support self-critical and systematic thinking, which is the skeleton necessary for achieving difficult
tasks in crisis situations, and for maintaining successful democratic processes.
The way we solve problems and make decisions has been at the focus of philosophy. Since ancient
times the issue has been how to think in the right way. Skills, abilities, methods and processes have
been investigated. According to Plato (1992) philosophers do not have the right answers but they can
find the right answers. They have the skills and they can use the right tools to discard false ideas
(aporia). Philosophers think and act in a democratic way among themselves. But anybody who has the
ability to philosophize, to think self-critically, systematically, scientifically, i.e. has the Aristotelian
(1975) virtue of phronesis or the Kantian (2006) skill of autonomy, and acts according to this, belongs
to a functioning community, to a democracy, together with other people; a democratic dialog or
Access of relevant information is a necessary condition for finding the right solution to a problem or
making the right decision. Such information triggers and maintains the psychological and societal
processes lying behind the achievement of important aims for individuals and groups. Democracy
demands dialog, but dialog is not possible among citizens who are totally convinced about the truth of
their ideas. A participant in a dialog must have a critical attitude toward own beliefs; otherwise a
common search for a better decision is not possible. ICT tools can train and support unconstrained,
self-critical, systematic and holistic problem solving, decision and law making. Democratic groups
and societies need access to information. Whether well-organized and strong stakeholders can
guarantee it more or less for themselves the same is very difficult for citizens to achieve. ICT can
easily provide information about stakeholders, interests, needs and other relevant aspects. However,
the available form, content and amount of information in society or in politics, which are controlled by
the strongest stakeholders, have as their main goal to control or/and to constrain systematic and
critical thinking. Therefore, to take advantage of ICT features in developing better crisis
communication and political procedures, it is necessary to create rules and laws that can guarantee
openness and access to all relevant and necessary information.
41
References
Aristotle (1975), Nicomachean ethics, Athens, Papyros.
Computer Technology (2011), Nuclear disaster in IT age, Tokyo, Inpress Japan.
Habermas, J. (1988), Kommunikativt handlande, Göteborg, Daidalos.
Google (2012), The great east Japan earthquake, information and Internet, on line at
http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/kiroku311/ accessed 18.03.2013.
Kant, I. (2006), Groundwork of the metaphysic of morals, Stockholm, Daidalos.
Kobayashi, A. (2011), Disaster and social media, Tokyo, Mainichi Communincations.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, (2006), White paper on MLIT in Japan Year 2006,
Tokyo, Gyosei.
Plato (1992), The Republic, Athens, Kaktos.
42
HOW TO RESPECT PRIVACY OF ENERGY CONSUMERS
WHILE IMPLEMENTING SMART METERING SYSTEMS
Barbara Begier
Abstract
Pilot implementations of smart metering systems have become a subject of discussion among
energetics and also in scientific circles. But no voice of energy consumers was heard till November
opinion, diversified needs and opinions should be considered those coming from creators of a
solution, its potential beneficiaries, and from energy consumers. Results of the conducted research
concerning social acceptance of smart metering system in Poland have been described. Some results
are related to privacy protection in that area.
Keywords
privacy; smart metering; energy consumer profiles; agile methodologies in software engineering;
cooperation with energy users; questionnaire surveys
1. Introduction – a need to cooperate with energy users
To build a social consciousness of energy consumers becomes an important element of energy politics
in accordance with social interest and in conformity with directives of European Union. Announced
changes tending to diversification of energy sources, reduction of energy consumption, and innovative
methods of its control and metering involve various organizational and technical activities including
computing solutions. On the other hand, these activities meet unknown, to energy sellers, reaction of
sary to get energy consumers interested in the volume of their consumed
energy. Their positive attitude towards challenges concerning protection of natural environment and
resulting in increasing energy prices may decidedly become one of the most important success factors
in the undertaken project.
The observed growing demand for energy bears a need to economize its consumption. It refers also to
an electrical energy and underlies an idea of smart metering. Pilot implementations of such systems
are a consequence of recommendations given in the Directive 2009/72/WE of the European
Parliament and the Council of Europe. Smart metering provides organizations of energy selling with
ast discovering
failures in the power supply. It also makes possible to cut off or reduce remotely the energy supply
when a consumer is behind with his/her payments for energy.
Various institutions including academia are involved in preparation and implementation of smart
was heard in these discussions. A lot of attention has been dedicated to installation of new electrical
meters being important elements of the smart metering system. But there were no consultations with
energy consumers who become users of these innovative meters. The author claimed that the lack of
their opinions could generate the wave of protest against these solutions it could result in similar
actions like these, observed at the beginning of 2012, relevant to the signed (or not) ACTA (Anti-
Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) agreement [Begier
right to secure his/her intellectual property, the content of ACTA was not preceded by social
consultations.
These protests should be a warning for energetics even the right idea may be rejected or boycotted if
the side of users has been ignored. The undertaken activities should concentrate not only on technical
aspects of AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) and HAN (Home Advanced Network), possibly
joint to AMI, but also the aim itself should be learnt by consumers. Their opinions, expectations, and
43
fears should be known to all interested parties. A great informational campaign
need to explain potential benefits of the undertaken project to inhabitants. But it may be not enough.
The most important problem is if and to what degree energy consumers will accept intelligent
-government remote software systems seems to be the good
example of problem here. The aim of research described in [Gauld, 2010] was to specify what
categories of people use this kind of software and, on the opposite, who do not use it for any reasons.
In other words, the aim was to find reasons of digital divide and to identify potential barriers to make
use of offered digital services and benefits of an informatization.
Installation and operation of smart metering systems in private homes bear problems of ethical nature.
The conducted research [Research, 2012], described in the presented paper, has been focused on
t new solutions, and also
(criminal gang, secret service, bailiffs, hackers) will sell private data and/or will be able to track
citizens and their style of living. It is potentially and technically possible to learn the time they return
home (they turn on electrical devices), period of their holiday trips (no devices are used), necessity of
saving (they turn on electrical devices only when the cheapest rate applies), etc. In other words,
energy consumers may feel watched or even investigated (under surveillance in the worst case), and
they will not be willing to tolerate it.
preserve and protect
their privacy, sensitize to this problem, and teach to respect it. Only cooperation with energy
consumers helps convincing them to smart metering systems and enjoying their confidence.
2. Some methods applied in software engineering adapted to ensure
cooperation with energy consumers
Selected methods applied in software engineering, especially those recommended in agile
methodologies based on cooperation with users during software development [Principles, 2001], may
be adapted to ensure cooperation with energy consumers. These methods are focused on constant
cooperation with users during software development to produce software product which will satisfy
their users. The common aim is to share confidence at both sides. Human beings expect to be
respected and treated with dignity. For example, an idea of focus groups has been applied in practice
It is applied in social sciences, marketing, and also in software engineering. This method has been also
applied in the reported research.
One applied technique is not enough to ensure quality and good mutual relationships between
producers and users/clients. Another recommended technique is based on the EUCS (End-User
Computing Satisfaction) model [Doll &
software product. Specified criteria and their 34 measures, based on the EUCS model, concerning
satisfaction with a developed technical solution have been proposed [Begier,
2009].
Cooperation with users requires learning who users are and what do they expect. The technique of
user profiles is widely applied in software supporting e-business. Specified items are included in a
profile in
in energetics, have been proposed [Begier B., 2012]. They include more elements than only the total
energy consumption and its time characteristics.
One of important fields of software engineering is risk management. It requires identifying risk
sources, then estimating its probability, analysing its impact on a software process, and building the
RMMM (Risk Monitoring, Mitigation, and Management) plan. Risk management should also consider
risks concerned with privacy protection [Gotterbarn, 1999, Gotterbarn & Rogerson, 2005, Begier,
2010a].
44
A questionnaire survey is a relatively cheap technique that has been several times applied by the
,
2011]. Surveys are intended to obtain a feedback from users and to receive the valuable material for
software
given technical product, and to assess selected features of the developed software or other technical
solution. This technique has been applied in the reported described research.
Cooperation with energy consumers may bring expected benefits as it has been proven many times in
software development [Kujala, 2008]. Users’ involvement may help respecting social and ethical
values [Begier, 2010b] the threat of privacy is possible in the described area.
3. Research on social acceptance of a smart metering system
3.1 Aim and structure of the research
The originator of the research on social acceptance of the proposed smart metering system in Poland,
in reference to automation and informatization of electric power system at the side of its
communication and settling accounts with energy consumers, was PTPiREE (Polish Power
Transmission and Distribution Association) [Begier P., 2012] and partially inspired by the author of
the presented paper. The PTPiREE association was the employer of the described research, financed
by the National Fund of Environmental Preservation and Water Economy.
The described research, conducted in November 2012, was intended to learn an opinion of electrical
energy consumers on the general subject specified above. Its
about projects concerning environment protection and about ways and individual actions which may
lead to energy
spend money on energy consuming, and to finance energy saving (buying energy-saving equipment,
ts of smart metering:
What is functionality and usefulness of a smart (remote) meter of energy; what are expected
benefits from smart meters?
What are needs of energy consumers in the area of required communication channels
concerning the smart metering system?
What are benefits from and barriers against installation of smart meters?
Which one of the offered three concepts on how to arrange an informational campaign about
smart metering is well accepted?
What are expectations concerning continuity of energy supply and energy parameters?
What are potential threats against and fears for privacy violation?
closely bound together. The base of research was potentially all community of energy consumers in
Poland. In the term of conducted research, the energy consumer is an adult person who pays bills for
the consumed energy. The described research concerning all listed above subjects has been performed
parallel in three ways: quality research conducted in four focus groups (8 people in each), and quantity
research based on the method of CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview), and CAWI
(Computer Assisted Web Interview).
3.2 The Focus Group Interview
The methodology of Focus Group Interview (FGI) has been applied to conduct the research in four
groups: two in Poznan and two in Siedlce. Poznan is located in the western part of Poland and Siedlce
in the east of the country. The first one has the relatively advanced economy and the last one
represents rather the rural area. The participants of FGI were men and women between 20 and 60
years of age.
45
The scenario of a meeting of each focus group has been specified. At the beginning, the moderator
introduces himself and presents an aim of a conducted research and agenda of a meeting. The
starting from a question what is important in life. Is an environment protection important in it? What
national and local initiatives concerning environment protection are known to the audience? How do
participants understand a notion of energy saving? What activities in real life are the opposite to this
idea? What threats does the wastefulness of energy consuming bring for the future? What could
individuals do to save environment? What are individuals able to do to save energy? What activities
can be undertaken in a household?
Next part of questions in a discussion has been related to finances spend on energy. So the typical
question is what is a regular bill for electrical energy? Do the people understand all components of a
bill? What can be done to ensure that bills will not decidedly grow in the future? Do discussants
consider the energy class before they buy a new electrical device? Do they use the energy-saving
lighting (bulbs) and energy-efficient technologies? Do they know the offered tariffs of electrical
energy? Are they inclined to use electrical devices in the specified time (at night or other period not in
energy peak demand) to save energy? Does it refer also to use washing machines and irons? If not, are
they ready to change their habits in that area? Are they ready to change time of using the most energy
consuming devices?
electrical energy? What sad effects in a household may result from unexpected breaks in energy
supply? Is it possible to reduce the planned and also unexpected breaks? What are quality parameters
of electrical energy? What is a stability of voltage?
Then it is a good time for questions concerning new ideas. Have the participants heard about a smart
metering system? What are basic functions of a smart meter? Who pays for these devices? What
additional functions do inhabitants expect from them? What may be benefits from smart metering for
an average household? What threats may bring such device and why? What are the proper ways of
informing inhabitants about smart metering system and its potential benefits? Participants of each
focus group were informed what media are considered here: mass media (TV, radio), information
written on a bill for energy, separate registered letter, regular letter, sms, e-mail, information available
in a public place (staircase, hall, bus station, etc.). Which one is preferred by them?
At the end of a meeting its participants are asked if there are some other problems they think about
which were not discussed on a meeting. Each meeting has been planned to last about two hours. All
statements expressed during the discussion have been carefully recorded.
3.3 Participants of questionnaire surveys
The method of a questionnaire survey has been chosen to realize the intended research. Basic criteria
to recruit the potential participants of a research were the following: age, sex, kind of town (place of
living), and region of the country. Respondents were adult men and women. Their level of education
(from basic to higher) has been also considered as an additional criterion, then type of a house (multi-
family or single-family house), and income higher than or lower than the average in the country. A
social sample, circa a thousand of persons, has been randomly selected on that base to participate in
the research. Usually bills for energy are paid by a house/apartment owner or tenant. This fact was the
reason that only people from 25 years of age were finally accepted for the research purposes. So the
number of respondents decreased to 963 persons the others were too young.
These respondents answered questions directly, it means using face-to-face method. They trust the
authorized person during an interview and feel safely at the direct meeting. They have expected that
some questionnaire items may be hard to understand and answer them correctly so the help of an
interviewer is needed.
The other sample of 302 persons based on the same criteria has been randomly selected from the
onnaire survey via Internet. Technical
barriers were excluded because most of energy consumers pay their bills via Internet.
46
4. Results of the research
All data cited in this section come from the described research [Research, 2012]. Many questionnaire
items concerned energy sellers themselves and their services for energy consumers. For purposes of
this paper only some results of the questionnaire survey have been selected including answers
concerning pro-ecological awareness and behaviour, for example. The Do you pay your
attention on environment protection every day
Do your personal
activities have any impact on environment protection on the global scale
respondents and 83% of Internet sample have answered affirmatively.
Declared pro-ecological activities are listed in Table 1. It is interesting that respondents using Internet
seem to present more ecological behaviour than all population. But experienced pollsters have no
respondents try to show themselves better than other people so they answer as they think they should.
Table 1. Results concerning environment protection
Questionnaire item
Whole
sample
(963)
Internet
(302)
respondents
I turn off unnecessary lighting and devices
60%
91%
I segregate rubbish
51%
84%
I save water
54%
84%
I use fluorescent lamps and/or LED bulbs
28%
73%
I put worn out batteries into special container for utilization
25%
81%
I use energy-efficient devices (RTV & other home devices)
26%
63%
I hand over my old home devices for utilization
18%
66%
I turn off the stand-by equipment
18%
49%
I have resigned to use energy-intensive devices
8%
18%
I do nothing
9%
1%
segregates rubbish or keeps old electrical devices at home, for example. On the opposite, Internet
respondents are accustomed to improve their image and at least to include only good points in their
profiles maintained on Facebook. This observation may question credibility of any Internet survey!
Also potential employers declare in direct discussions that they do not believe written declarations of
t confirmed in practice. And differently, in
direct conversation candidates tell the truth because their skills are easy to be checked any moment.
There were taken into consideration four age brackets: 25 to 34, 35 to 49, then 50 to 64, and 65 or
more years of age. It is worth emphasizing that people in the 35 to 49 age bracket declare the greatest
awareness of the need to protect environment and also better knowledge of a notion of smart metering.
As many as 61% social and 25% Internet respondents do not know functions of smart meters of
electrical energy. The others declare that smart meters provide:
exact and reliable measurement (9% and 7%, respectively),
the current volume of consumed energy in a given period (8% and19%),
reading of a meter without any involvement of a human reader (6% and 10%),
help in energy saving (2& and 7%).
47
Internet respondents add more features. For example, they know that smart meters:
on demand calculate the cost of the consumed energy,
show the calculated cost using various tariffs,
make possible to pay just for the consumed energy (bills are not based on a forecast),
prevent from stealing energy.
point of a smart meter is a fact that inhabitants
pay just for the consumed energy (40% and 38%, respectively). The next benefit of a smart meter is
possible control of consumed energy (30% and 21%).
In answer to question concerning weak points of smart meters the following sentences were
formulated (social sample and Internet respondents, respectively):
I do not notice any weak points (24% and 12%).
Thousands of meter readers will lose their jobs (22% and 12%).
Energy seller may change the value of an automatic reader (equally 17%).
Smart meter consumes additional energy paid by a client (15% and 3%).
In a long period of time, just energy consumers will cover all cost of a smart metering system
(13% and 23%).
Data transferred remotely may be insecure/stolen (11% and 9%).
The remote reading of a meter is too exact and bills may be higher than before (8% and 4%).
Potentially, invigilation may occur because a smart meter makes possible to learn some habits
of an energy consumer (8% and 13%).
3% and 9%).
Respondents were asked to list potential threats of smart meters. The most important was that a smart
they are usually outside (potential thefts may take place). Some respondents say they do not want
anybody knows their habits like the time they go to work or to bed.
The preferred way of being informed about smart metering, including its strong and weak points is
(social sample and Internet respondents, respectively):
Letter sent by traditional mail (52% and 25%)
Information attached to the bill for energy (27% and 18%)
Informational campaign on TV (27% and 4%)
Information available for inhabitants on staircase (12% and 4%)
E-mail (11% and 39%)
Personal visit of an authorized representative of energy supplier (10% and 3%)
Information transferred by an owner of a house (8% and 1%)
Available telephone info-line (5% and 1%).
It is interesting that an age of a respondent play almost no role in the above answers. For example,
50% of respondents below 34 years of age and 57% of respondents in 50 to 64 age brackets prefer the
paper letter sent through the traditional post. And an option to be informed by leaflet attached to the
bill for energy was preferred equally by 25% of respondents in both age brackets mentioned above.
One more group of questionnaire items concern the most important elements of informational
campaign required to introduce the smart metering system. Social and Internet respondents expect:
Explanation how a smart meter works (41% and 59%).
Information when and why new meters will be installed (35% and 42%).
48
New meters cause that people pay for the really consumed energy (34% and 37%) instead of
using bills based on a forecast.
Information about who covers cost of functioning of a new meter itself and energy consumed
by it (24% and 26%).
Protection of data concerned with electrical energy consumption at home; those data are
transferred from smart meters (21% and 25%).
Explanation what happens with a meter in the case of a break of energy power or another
defect in the power net (20% and 11%).
Ensuring that a new system will improve a detection of failures in the power supply and fast
repair of damaged net elements (16% and 9%).
I do not know
5. Conclusions
The need to develop cooperation with energy consumers or their representative group has been
justified. An adoption of some methods applied in software engineering has been confirmed in
cooperation with energy users. The reported research shows that the cooperation may start from
working in focus groups and conducting a questionnaire survey to learn what energy consumers know
about smart metering and what do they expect. The aim is to persuade people to smart meters as tools
that help to save energy. An informational campaign is required to realize it.
The representative social group of energy consumers has been selected to realize the intended
questionnaire survey in direct conversation. One more numerous group, using Internet for
communication purposes, took also part in the research. Various items have been included in a
questionnaire. After careful analysis of obtained answers the proper forms and content of
informational campaign may be initialized.
Valuable although non-technical part of a questionnaire has been concerned with possible threats of
privacy of energy consumers. This kind of knowledge may help to ensure people that potential sources
of recognized threats will be technically and organizationally eliminated.
The item referred to the level of wealth was missing in the questionnaire. It was reasonable because
Polish inhabitants are afraid to be asked about their financial abilities. But on the other hand, tendency
to save money, number of possessed electrical devices at home, total floor area of a flat or house, etc.
result in a total amount of consumed kilowatt-hours of electrical energy per year. Thus a question
concerning the level of life conditions should be somehow included, however it is still discussible.
References
Begier, B. (2009), Cooperation with energy consumers when introducing new solutions in energetics (in Polish),
Rynek Energii, nr I
Begier, B. (2010a), Enhancing risk management in a software process to cover risks referred to software users.
In: Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on the Social and Ethical Impacts of Information and
Begier
Begier, B. (2011), Quality Assessment of an Expert System: An Instrument of Regular Feedback from Users,
Transactions on Computational Collective Intelligence (TCCI) III, LNCS 6560, Springer, Heidelberg,
Begier, B. (2012), A need to convince electrical energy consumers of smart metering system (in Polish), Rynek
Energii, I (VII), 8085.
Begier
Doll, W. J., Torkzadeh, G. (1988), The measurement of end-user computing satisfaction, MIS Quarterly 12 (2),
49
--
Government in Australia and New Zealand, Gov
Gotterbarn, D. (1999), How the New Software Engineering Code of Ethics Affects You, IEEE Software, 6,
Gotterbarn, D., Rogerson, S. (2005), Responsible Risk Analysis for Software Development: Creating the
Software Development Impact Statements, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 15,
Kujala, S. (2008), Effective user involvement in product development by improving the analysis of user needs,
Principles (2001) Principles behind the Agile Manifesto, on line at
http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html, recently accessed 26.02.2013.
Research (2012), Research on social acceptance of automation and informatization of electric power system in
Poland and identification of potential barriers to introduction of a new system, GfK Polonia for the Polish
Power Transmission and Distribution Association, Poznan-Warsaw.
50
BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION PRACTICES:IDENTITY
AS CONVENTION
Maren Behrensen
Abstract
The focus of the discussion of identity in the context of new biometric technology is usually on social
identity, i.e., the way in which this technology can be used to regulate status and access to social
resources. Taking up some insights from these discussions, I suggest that they should be
complemented with a metaphysical analysis of personal identity.
I defend the following main claims:
Personal identity is not a metaphysical fact, but a set of conventions.
Identification documents such as biometric passports form a part of such conventions.
The legal rules that govern the use of such documents (e.g., rules regarding technical
standards for passports or rules regarding the acceptability of breeder documents) should be
subject to careful ethical scrutiny, since they can determine whether a person has an identity
or not (which in turn determines her access to certain resources, and whether or not she will
be able to enjoy certain rights and freedoms).
I begin with an overview of the role of identity in current debates about biometric technology. In
section 2, I provide a very brief summary of the contemporary metaphysical debate about personal
metaphysical fact, it is a convention that is of the utmost importance to how we understand ourselves
and our lives. In section 4, I apply this thought to the use of biometric technology as a means of
inclusion and exclusion in an international context.
Keywords
biometric identification documents, metaphysics of identity, social identity, conventionalism about
identity, global justice
1. Introduction
The major ethical and technological challenge in the development of e-Passports (and other uses of
biometric data for identification and authentication purposes) is to find a proper balance between
communal values like security on the one hand and respect for individual rights on the other (cf. Irish
Council for Bioethics 2009: 59-98). Technology developers operate under the imperative to create
reliable means of authentication while safeguarding the data used in the authentication process. It is
thus not surprising that ethical criticism of new biometric identification and authentication practices
has focused primarily on the privacy of those who provide the biometric data: emphasizing, for
emphasize a projected increase in security and convenience, especially in air travel (cf. European
Commission 2003, Ng-Kruelle et. al. 2005). Yet proponents and critics largely agree that the main
ethical and technological challenges in this area arise from the particular relation of the representation
of personal identity (the data stored in the passport) to the identity of the person carrying the passport.
Technological and logistical concerns revolve around the issue of finding data sets which can
adequately match an authentication document with the true identity of its carrier, taking into account
both security and usability concerns (cf. European Commission 2005: 46-74). The concept of
although it is present in the literature
(cf. v. d. Ploeg 1999, Lyon 2008, Schouten et. al. 2012). However, these discussions tend to focus on
51
reducin
about the metaphysical status of personal identity and its ethical implications seem virtually absent
from this discourse.
I do not mean to suggest that privacy, security, and usability concerns are unimportant. But I believe
that we get a fuller ethical perspective on contemporary biometry, if we begin with a metaphysical
perspective on personal identity. This perspective has so far been largely absent from the discussion.
Metaphysicians rarely discuss the social and political implications of their views and social and
political philosophers rarely pay attention to metaphysics. This paper takes a first step to close this
gap.
I argue for the following three claims:
Personal identity is not a physical or psychological fact, but a set of conventions.
The combined use of identification documents and centralized databases such as birth
today.
The legal rules that govern this convention (e.g., rules regarding technical standards for
passports or rules regarding the acceptability of so-
subject to careful ethical scrutiny, since they can determine whether a person has an identity
or not (which in turn determines her access to certain resources, and whether or not she will
be able to enjoy certain rights and freedoms).
In the following section, I provide a very brief summary of the contemporary metaphysical debate
about personal identity, drawing heavily on the work of Derek Parfit. In Section 3, I take issue with
than a physical or psychological fact, it is a convention that is of the utmost importance to how we
understand ourselves and our lives. In section 4, I apply this thought to the use of biometric
technology as a means of inclusion and exclusion in an international context. I suggest that the
true identity and its representation rests on a mistake. In the political,
legal, and social context of contemporary biometry, e-
identity: they become identity. This should lead us to carefully consider the conventions
that regulate the use of e-passports, particularly the above-mentioned racialized ascriptions of social
f one happens to be
the citizen of a country that does not provide passports with biometric data.
2. Personal Identity and Metaphysics
What makes a person the same person over time? At first glance, the metaphysical problem of
personal identity seems to be no
1983: 57) And thus personal identity must be the relation which a
person has only to herself and no other entity. But this definition is circular, and it remains silent on
the crucial question of what it is essentially to be a person (cf. Shoemaker 1998, Noonan 2011).
The metaphysical problem of personal identity is the problem of finding plausible criteria for the
persistence (some say survival)
1
of persons and personhood over time. The criteria that have been
proposed for personhood and the persistence of persons fall into two large groups: substantial and
relational. In both groups we find material and immaterial versions of these criteria, so that we get
four basic views:
1. Persons are immaterial substances, i.e., souls.
2. Persons are material substances, i.e., bodies or parts of bodies.
1
David Lewis (1983) and Derek Parfit (1984) framed questions of personal identity in terms of survival.
52
3. Persons are overlapping chains of physical states and events, i.e. personhood is the continuous
existence of bodies or parts of bodies.
4. Persons are overlapping chains of mental states and events, i.e. personhood is psychological
connectedness and continuity.
While we have good reasons to regard a combination of 3) and 4) as more plausible than either 1) or
2), views 3) and 4) actually only support skeptical conclusions about personal identity. The view 1),
that persons are their souls, has fallen out of fashion in philosophy (but see Swinburne 1998). And
even if souls were the essence of personhood and personal identity, this would be irrelevant for our
common and advanced identification and authentication practices, since souls cannot be observed,
quantified, or otherwise be converted into usable data.
The view 2), that persons are their bodies, resonates with our common ways of identifying and re-
identifying people. We recognize them by their salient physical features: their facial features, their
voice, their gait. The biometric industry has expanded these common ways and added new features:
iris patterns, fingerprints, DNA.
2
But this is not something radically new or different. It is a
technological enhancement of existing epistemological strategies.
One obvious challenge to these epistemological strategies is that human bodies undergo numerous and
often drastic changes during their lifetime. They grow and they age. Features and entire body parts can
may have to be amputated, an internal organ can be replaced, or a leg prosthetic attached. And yet
3
The limits of currently feasible biometric identification and authentication systems are well-
documented. The 2005 report Biometrics at the Frontiers, delivered to the European Commission,
accuracy on the one hand, and convenience on the other (101-
to suggest that we could in principle increase the security and accuracy of identification and
authentication systems indefinitely, if we did not have to pay attention to tradeoffs in terms of
profitability and social acceptability.
4
But tradeoffs are not the only issue here. The biometric
identifiers we are currently able to use are not in fact representations of personal identity. They are
merely stand-ins for personal identity, established by convention. To see why this is so, let us turn to
more plausible criteria of personal identity, the basic views 3) and 4).
2
Instead o-
3
We could even imagine, in the spirit of the fa
all and only the molecules that now compose your friend end up composing a stranger. If what mattered for the
continuous existence of a body were the continuous existence of its parts, and if personal identity were no more
than the continuous existence of the same body, then the right answer in this case would have to be that the
stranger is now your friend. But this is obviously the wrong answer. Your friend remains your friend, even if
all the molecules in their body change, and the stranger remains a stranger, even if all the molecules that were
are too flexible and too replaceable to be a good criterion for personal identity. But we could circumvent this
problem by using features of bodies that do not change, or do not change significantly. The science and
industry of human biometrics has exactly this purpose. It develops and sells identification and authentication
systems which use some features of human bodies (or a combination of features) to identify or re-identify the
ordinary ways of identifying and re-identifying persons. And just like these ordinary ways, biometrics can fail.
4
For instance, it would unprofitable to equip a student cafeteria with state-of-the-art fingerprint scanners, since
the cost of these scanners far outweighs the expected losses if some unauthorized persons eat subsidized food
there (European Commission 2005, 24). Similarly, a move to introduce routine DNA-screening at airports
would, despite the arguable gain in security, likely fail due to lack of social acceptability and prohibitive
waiting times (European Commission 2005, 70-71).
53
John Locke developed the first comprehensive relational account of personal identity. He believed that
consciousness was the mark of personhood, and that the persistence of conscious existence was the
correct criterion of personal identity. Locke rejected substantial criteria of personal identity,
5
and
argued that we are the same persons as far as our memory stretches back into the past (Essay,
of the view that personal identity is essentially continuity of consciousness, even where its defenders
Reid and Joseph Butler.
6
mory is not.
7
mental events to particular persons.
8
Derek Parfit and David Lewis have suggested that the simple
Memory Theory should be amended with a transitive criterion of psychological continuity, which they
dubbed Relation R. Relation R refers to overlapping chains of psychological connections, and it thus
evades the transitivity problem. It does give us what I take to be to be the most plausible criterion for
the continued existence of persons, namely the continued existence of their mental life. But it does this
at the cost of making identity seem like a shallow and irrelevant category.
With a number of science-fiction examples, among them teleportation, Parfit aims to show that
-280, 1995) Psychological continuity can hold between more
than two persons: If the teleporter accidentally creates a second copy of me, then both copies will be
R-related to the original who entered the teleporter, but at most one one of them can be identical with
it (and probably neither is).
Whether I am R-related to a future or a past person depends only on intrinsic properties of my relation
with them, for instance on whether enough of my brain survives so that there can be overlapping
memory chains between us. Whether I am identical with a future or past person can sometimes
depend on a property that is extrinsic to the relation between me and them. The teleportation case
illustrates this: Whether the copy of me is identical with the original depends on whether the teleporter
accidentally produced another copy, a fact which has no bearing on the R-relatedness of either copy
with the original.
5
contemporary science-
bodies.
6
Thomas Reid pointed out that memory, unlike identity, is an intransitive relation. He used the example of the
an old general, but as an old
case yield the contradictory result that the old general is and is not the same person as the child who later
became a soldier (Reid, Essays III.6). Joseph Butler noted the ci
Dissertation I: 329).
7
8
Defenders of the Lockean theory have tried to address this problem by distinguishing between memories and
quasi-memories (cf. Shoemaker 1998). Quasi-memories are, roughly, mental states that have all the qualities of
memories, except that the person who has them need not be identical to the person who experienced them. Only
the quasi-memory also be a memory, and only then will we say that the person who remembers the event is
to the events they represent begs the question: It presupposes that the person who remembers experiencing X
must be identical with the person who experienced X. We have used the concept of identity in order to
in.
54
Parfit takes the (potential) dependence of identity on extrinsic factors as a reason to think that identity
is not what matters and that we ought to take it less seriously (1984: 245-280, 1995). He suggests that
Relation R contains everything that matters, and that it could be consoling and liberating to adopt this
view (Parfit 1984: 281). I disagree with him on both counts, and will briefly discuss and defend the
view that Relation R does not contain everything that matters in ordinary personhood, and that
sometimes what matters in ordinary personhood does depend on extrinsic factors (such as, for
instance, the possession of a passport).
3. Extrinsic Properties and Identity
It may be true that the view that identity is not what matters can give us solace. It could be liberating
to think of death not as an absolute end, but as just the end of more immediate connections between
experiences. Memories of our lives and our work could live on in others, and influence them, and this
may give us hope when, for instance, we face a terminal illness (Parfit 1984: 281). I think that Parfit is
right about this positive effect of embracing Relation R in this context. But he seems to ignore cases in
which embracing Relation R amounts to ignoring assaults on identity. To return to the example of
teleportation: If I learn that a teleporter has accidentally produced another copy of me, I may be
pleasantly surprised (cf. Parfit 1984: 199-201), but only if I can be on good terms with my
doppelgänger.
Identity theft is a crime and a risk of which developers of new identification and authentication
technologies are acutely aware. The use of PIN-
features in authentication documents is supposed to prevent identity theft, even when someone
manages to obtain these documents illegally. Now let us imagine that my evil doppelgänger has not
just stolen these documents (passport, credit card, health insurance card, birth certificate) but also
found ways to crack their security features and to mimic the biometric data that allow her to pass as
me.
In such a case, I have
good reasons to regard this as a genuine loss of my identity, since I could be left without any
opportunity to prove to authorities, employers, banks, and even friends and family that I am
still the same person.
good reasons to react to this loss with moral outrage.
If an identity thief targets my assets and my social life, this is anything but trivial, even if the attack
which causes the loss of identity is, from my own vantage point, extrinsic to the relation between
I have
no way of rectifying the theft, then the fact that I still have the same memories and the same body and
something that matters deeply.
The loss of identity in the case of identity theft is a change of convention. If the theft is successful,
what changes is how the thief will be addressed (i.e., her name, her status, her employment) and
accordingly, how I will be addressed. The use of names, behavior relating to social status, and the like,
are conventions. Thus, if successful identity theft results in a genuine loss of identity, this suggests
that identity is a convention and sometimes dependent on extrinsic factors, such as whether I am in
possession of proper documents.
Insofar as political and legal authorities are concerned, identity begins when the name, date of birth,
and the names of the parents of a newborn baby are entered in the population registry, and a birth
certificate is issued. Identity ends when a death certificate is issued. All identity documents a person
might obtain during the time of her life, from an e-passport to a keycard which allows her to access an
office building on weekends, are dependent on her prior registration. For instance, in order to apply
for a passport, she will need to show proof of identity, often in the form of a birth certificate. Note that
55
In modern states, personal identity is a chain of bureaucratic events. One missing link in this chain can
amount to a missing identity. Consider the case of Benjaman Kyle (Forsyth 2010). Kyle was found
unconscious behind a fast-food restaurant in Georgia in 2004. He suffers from amnesia and cannot
remember his name (he adopted the name Benjaman Kyle after he was found) and has only a few
vague recollections from his previous life. When Kyle was found, he had no documents on him, and
he cannot remember his social security number. If he could remember this number, it would allow
is listed as a missing person, even though his whereabouts are known.
scussion at hand are the assumptions that underlie the
virtually all R-body is
continuous. If this loss is irrevocable, Parfit would presumably recommend that Kyle should be
regarded as a new person and be issued a new social security number, new documents, and so on.
However, what actually happened was a hunt for clues about
witnesses of his former life, or if it were possible for Kyle to remember his full social security
number, he could be given his identity back.
nk: Like Kyle, refugees
without any kind of identification documents are effectively treated as non-persons, as people who do
not have an identity (v. d. Ploeg 1999: 297). Unlike Kyle, they can claim a name and an origin, but
these claims will usually be subject to intense skepticism and questioning by the border guards and
How population registries, birth certificates, social security numbers, and passports (with all the legal
rules which stipulate their proper format and use) establish and deny identities might seem distinctly
modern. And thus one could object to the view offered here that this modern, bureaucratic
understanding of identity has merely usurped the traditional ways. This is perhaps true, but it is no
s with royal letters of introduction, or of conveying
lineage by adding a matro- or patronymic to a name,
9
then they were no less based on convention than
the modern ways. The crucial difference between the two is that the modern ways are more strictly
regulated by legal means, and that today they can use the science of biometry to give them an
appearance of objectivity.
identity is very tempting [but it] does
Conventionalism appears to emphasize externalism at the expense of plausible internalism: Our self-
understanding becomes less relevant than the roles we are assigned by others.
10
After an identity theft,
I do not feel any differently about myself, rather I feel wronged by the thief. So how can we justify
saying that my identity was lost through a mere change in conventions? Or alternatively, that an
identity theft seems to be mere lack of respect for convention?
Williams appears to worry that conventionalism makes identity less meaningful. But the opposite may
be true. Parfit-style skepticism (which Williams rejects) opens up the possibility to investigate the
juncture of personal and social, numerical and qualitative identity. But neither Parfit nor Williams take
9
Patronymics were widely used in all parts of Europe until the 19th and sometimes into the 20th century. Today,
patronymics and occasionally matronymics are still in use in many Slavic-language countries (where they form a
mics are legal
surnames). Surnames that have their roots in patronymics are still ubiquitous in the Scandinavian countries, the
Netherlands, and to a lesser extent in Spain and Portugal.
10
s not strong enough to carry all the
conceptual weight we tend to put into identity and selfhood. On the other hand, it may seem as if identity (as
individuality) is lost if we proclaim that it no more than convention. I think both worries are justified, but neither
actually takes into account the extent to which identity is constituted in social processes, and that these processes
are not simply a form of self-discovery (cf. Taylor 1994).
56
this step.
11
Discussions of social identity are strangely absent from the contemporary metaphysics of
personal identity, and vice versa.
Many of the things that mark us as unique persons, things others can use to identify and re-identify us,
are quite obviously constituted in dialogue, between parents and children, teachers and students, and
the law and the citizens (cf. Taylor 1994). These dialogues have a profound effect on the way we view
ourselves, and they bear significant potential for harm.
12
If our identity is constituted in a web of legal
documents, naming conventions, ethnic and religious identifications, and biological features, we
l scrutiny.
Saying that identity is a convention does not imply that we do not have any moral tools for criticizing
callous disregard for these conventions (such as identity theft). But neither does it imply that any and
all identity conventions are immune to criticism. With regard to biometric identification and
authentication practices, I propose that we pay special attention to how biometry serves as a tool of
exclusion.
4. Biometry and Exclusion
Using biometric data for purposes of authentication and identification requires agreement on rules
regarding
which biometric data sets count as acceptable means of identification
how these data sets shall be collected, and under which circumstances travel documents that
contain or reference these data sets shall be issued
section. They are conventions that stipulate when a person counts as self-identical in the eyes of legal
authorities. Both kinds of rules present particular challenges. In the first case, the challenge is to find
data sets which are convenient to use for everyday purposes and yet difficult to steal and copy. The
ethical challenge here is mainly to protect privacy rights.
In the second case, the challenge is directly related to identity. For technology developers, this
2005: 42-
passport, e.g., birth certificates. No matter how far we can increase the safety and reliability of storing
bureaucratic process through which it was is
relatively easy to fake, and this state required only birth certificates as a condition for issuing a
documents.
Implementing effective international standards for biometric travel documents requires agreement on
the issuance conditions of such documents. From the perspective of states whose legal requirements
for the issuance of passports and other international travel documents are relatively demanding,
universally enforced, and based on reliable breeder documents, a call for high international standards
in breeder documents will seem like a reasonable demand for border security. If such a state cannot be
sure that a biometric passport (even if it is up to the latest technical standards) was issued through a
trustworthy process, then it has little reason to trust its bearer.
11
Consider an analogy with legal philosophy: Suppose I become convinced that natural law, a set of universal
and eternal moral principles, does not exist. That does not mean that I should become a relativist about the
he concludes that we should reject the concept altogether.
12
One reason why it is an insult to insist on referring to a trans*person by anything other than their chosen
57
a state that does
passport does no fulfill the latest technical requirements demanded by the most advanced states, or if
its passport issuance process is not transparent enough, she will either be effectively excluded from
international travel, or at least regarded with increased suspicion and hostility.
One of the extreme examples for this is Somalia: Somalia has not had an effective national
government for decades, and as a result, very few Somalians are in possession of any kind of
an irregular migrant. While Somalia is an extreme example, it is not an exception. Regarding
means that refugees and migrants from these countries, trying to be reunited with their families will
in in other ways than with such documents (Weiss 2011: 8, cf. also v. d.
Ploeg 1999).
countries have intransparent and inefficient standards and formats. The United States, one of the
global forces pushing for more and more security measures in international travel, is reported to have
fourteen thousand different formats for birth certificates currently in use (Sprague 2010). (But the
If affluent states unilaterally agree on using biometric data and highly reliable breeder documents as a
precondition for unrestricted or largely unrestricted freedom of movement between themselves there
will inevitably be a tradeoff for citizens of states that cannot follow the pace of these initiatives. What
global poor and non-white populations (cf. v. d. Ploeg 2005). Thus I see two major ethical concerns
with these kinds of initiatives:
Biometric technology has become cheaper and cheaper, a trend which will likely continue.
Nevertheless, for poorer states, the costs
technology and enforcing high standards for its breeder documents could be prohibitive (cf.
European Commission 2005: 44-45). Even if such states successfully implement such
ward some of these costs to their citizens, which could make it
prohibitively expensive for them to obtain appropriate travel documents.
The implementation of biometric criteria may amplify racist prejudices in border control and
travel security settings.
I take it that concern 1) is quite self-explanatory. Concern 2) requires us to very briefly consider the
history and context of contemporary biometry. Biometry found its first widespread application in
colonial regimes of the 19th century, e.g., the British rule over India. Its origins lay in the attempts of
white elites to control non-white populations which far outnumbered them, and to the whites seemed
indistinguishable (cf. Lyon 2008: 505). Today, the advantages of biometric technologies are invoked
in a context in which mostly white, affluent states claim that they need to protect themselves against
irregular migration). In the public imagination, both of these threats are closely connected to non-
white, non-
13
ndividuals but entire groups of travelers and migrants. At the same time,
these narratives promote, either implicitly or explicitly, the promise of biometry to offer failsafe
security and identity management tools. Biometry thus continues to function as an instrument for
13
Little attention is paid to the extent to which Muslim terror
or to the comparatively much larger extent to which Muslim terrorist activity affects the Islamic world.
58
-
white and non-Christian).
The use of biometric technologies undoubtedly has beneficial potential in terms of border and travel
security, in terms of bureaucratic efficiency, and in criminological terms (considering the advances
that have been made possible in this field by DNA-analysis). But we must not lose sight of the
intended and unintended side effects: How biometry can effectively deny an identity to people, how it
can contribute to racist stigmatizations of entire populations, how it imposes further restrictions on the
freedom of movement of those who, in a global context, are already disadvantaged. More generally,
we should be wary of how biometry may impose disproportionate financial and personal costs on the
global poor. These side effects occur at the intersection of personal and social, numerical and
qualitative identity, and this is why I suggested that we pay more attention to this field in ethical
evaluations of biometry.
References
Ethics of
Information Technology 5, 139-150.
Analogy of Religion, ed. S.
Halifax, London: publ. Henry G. Bohn, 328-334.
European Commission (2003), Joint Research Centre and Institute for Prospective Technological Studies:
Security and Privacy for the Citizen in the Post-September 11 Digital Age—A Prospective Overview, Report to
the European Parliament Committee on Citizens Freedoms and Rights, Justice, and Home Affairs (LIBE).
European Commission (2005), Joint Research Centre and Institute for Prospective Technological Studies:
Biometrics at the Frontiers—Assessing the Impact on Society, Technical Report Series, Report for The
The Guardian, 10 July, online at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/10/man-with-no-memory-america, accessed 17.02.2013
Irish Council for Bioethics (2009): Biometrics—Enhancing Security or Invading Privacy? Opinion, Dublin:
publ. by the Council.
Juels, A. and -
First International Conference on Security and Privacy for Emerging Areas in Communications Networks, IEEE
Computer Society, 1-12.
Philosophical Papers, vol. 1, Oxford, New York: Oxford
University Press, 55-72.
Locke, J. (1959, first published 1689/90): An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. A. Campbell Fraser,
New York: Dover Publications.
Bioethics 22, 499-508.
Ng--Identity (e-Passport) in
the European UnionOvercoming PoC-IADIS International
Conference e-Society 2005, 537-541.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2011 Edition), ed. E.N.
Zalta, online at: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2011/entries/identity/, accessed 17.02.2013.
Parfit, D. (1984): Reasons and Persons, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Identity, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 13-45.
Reid, T. (2002, first published 1785): Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, ed. D.R. Brookes, Pennsylvania
State University Press.
E. Mordini and D. Tzovaras (eds.), Second Generation Biometrics: The Ethical, Legal and Social Context, The
International Library of Ethics, Law, and Technology 11, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-3892-8_9, Springer
Science and Business Media, 195-214.
Metaphysics—The Big Questions, ed. P.
van Inwagen and D.W. Zimmerman, Blackwell Publishing, 296-310.
http://travel.state.gov/law/legal/testimony/testimony_5436.html, accessed 17.02.2013.
Metaphysics—The Big Questions, ed. P. van
Inwagen and D.W. Zimmerman, Blackwell Publishing, 317-333.
59
Taylor, C. Multiculturalism:
Examining The Politics of Recognition. Princeton, Princeton University Press,
pp. 25-73.
Ethics of
Information Technology 1, 295-302.
Normative Aspects of Automated Social
Biometric Technology & Ethics, BITE Policy Paper No. 2.
Weiss, M. G
Genomics, Society, and Policy 7, 1-19.
The Philosophical Review 79, 161-180.
Williams, B. (2007): Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline, ed. and intr. by A.W. Moore, Princeton and
Oxford: Princeton University Press.
60
VALUE-BASED DESIGN – AN APPROPRIATE STRATEGY
FOR DEVELOPING NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Hanne Pihl Bjerre
Abstract
In my forthcoming PhD dissertation, I plan to make a case for the view that the strategy of value-
based design can be used to decrease dramatically the current tension between the values of privacy
and national security. In this particular paper, which is an early version of a chapter in that
dissertation, my main aim is to frame the discussion about how we can benefit from using the strategy
of value-based design while developing new technologies which could involve conflicts between
those two values. The dissertation will be theoretically grounded, throughout, on a value-based design
perspective.
Keywords
Values, technologies, individual privacy, national security, ethics, applied ethics, value-based design,
value-sensitive design, values in design.
1. Introduction
In my forthcoming PhD dissertation, I plan to make a case for the view that the strategy of value-
based design can be used to decrease dramatically the current tension between the values of privacy
and national security. In this particular paper, which is an early version of a chapter in that
dissertation, my main aim is to frame the discussion about how we can benefit from using the strategy
of value-based design while developing new technologies which could involve conflicts between
those two values. The dissertation will be theoretically grounded, throughout, on a value-based design
perspective.
In Section 2 below, I discuss the concept of a value and what counts as a value in general. In that same
section, I also discuss the two values of privacy and security. In Section 3, I explain what value-based
design is and also discuss two different approaches to value-based design: values in design
(Nissenbaum, 2001) and value-sensitive design (Friedman, Kahn, & Borning, 2001). In Section 4, I
explain how the strategy of value-based design can be related to the development of technologies, and
I give some examples that show how the values of privacy and national security can be embedded in
technologies. Finally, I summarize my main arguments in Section 5.
2. Defining the Concept of a Value
name something, for example, a person, an animal, a place, or an abstract idea. A value is not a
physical object, so it is definitely not a person, an animal or a place, but it does seem to be an abstract
idea. In addition, a value can be described as a collection or a set of similar or related entities that
people treasure or appreciate. The two values that I will focus upon in my dissertation, privacy and
national security, seem to fit the above-mentioned criteria, but are rather abstract at this point. By
discussing privacy and security in more detail below, I hope to clarify these concepts.
2.1 The value security
National security is an important subset of security. Here, I will discuss the overall value security.
(National security will be discussed in detail in a separate chapter of my dissertation.) As a value,
security can be described as the ability to protect oneself from harm. Here, I think about protection
61
opportunities, and so forth.
Security can be categorized not only as a value, but also as a so-called "core value". A core value is,
according to James Moor (1997, p. 29), a value that is found in all human cultures, and he describes
such a value as one that must be present in all sustainable cultures. It is rather difficult, if not
impossible, to imagine someone who does not treasure the value of security, expressed in some way.
Moor does not claim that core values are necessarily distributed fairly in a given culture. Actually,
most often they are not. But the values will always be present in some way. Examples of other core
values are, according to Moor, life, happiness, freedom, knowledge, ability, and resources (1997, p.
29). It is my view that security protects the other core values, and that security is therefore the most
important of the core values. This seems to be a very suitable way of thinking about a possible
hierarchy of the core values. If we do not have security, it is difficult to uphold the other values. But it
is still important to keep in mind that all values are interrelated and help or support each other.
2.2 The value privacy
The value of privacy has been debated for a long time. Privacy is most often perceived as having
instrumental value. In other words, privacy enables us to get or protect other important things. In
order to understand the concept of privacy better, Moor (1997, p. 30) argues that a distinction between
normative and natural privacy is helpful. As the name indicates, natural privacy occurs when laws of
nature and physical circumstances provide privacy: for instance, the walls of a house, a closed door,
trees in a dense forest, even the opaque paper of an envelope that is protecting the privacy of a letter
inside of it. Normative privacy, on the other hand, is privacy provided by norms, which can be ethical,
legal, or conventional.
Unlike security, privacy cannot be categorized as a core value. Privacy is not valued in every culture
privacy can be perceived as an expression of the core value of security (Moor, 1997, p. 29). Privacy
supports security.
Privacy as an expression of security in a technology-related context can be exemplified by the use of
passwords. Using passwords can be classified as a way of making a technology more secure and,
moreover, as a way to gain and preserve privacy. A password helps a user to maintain security and
privacy at the same time. For example, having an online email account without password protection
This is not a very secure
way of storing information. The use of a password enables security. Also, using a password for online
email preserves privacy because no one else can access personal information in the email. In other
words, the owner of the email account is in control and access to the information contained in the
email account is restricted.
7, p. 31). The basic idea of this theory is
that we live in a highly computerized world, and it is impossible to control information about
ourselves completely. Being able to control information about ourselves, it has been argued, is a
fundamental definition of privacy. However, says Moor, we have to focus as well upon limiting access
to our personal information. Not that controlling information about ourselves is irrelevant, but it is just
not possible in today's complex society to do so completely.
2.3 Relating privacy and security
In many ways, we all benefit from security, including national security. But we need to make sure
there is an appropriate balance between the values of privacy and security (including privacy and
national security). Since technology plays such a central role in our everyday lives, it seems
appropriate to reflect on how to ensure that new technologies are developed in a morally responsible
way (Moor, 2005, p. 1). In the next section, I discuss this challenge and suggest a strategy called
value-based design.
62
3. Value-Based Design
Ethical considerations published by professional philosophers have changed dramatically during the
past century. Decades ago, such considerations typically took an analytical, meta-ethical approach,
instead of applying ethical ideas to specific cases in order to reach ethical judgments. Later,
professional philosophers became more interested in applied ethics (Hoven, 2007, pp. 70-72) in which
normative theories are applied to specific situations to determine how we ought to act in such
situations. Popular and well-known normative ethical theories that can be used in this way are
utilitarianism, deontologism, and virtue ethics. These theories provide us with diverse perspectives on
any given ethical question. Each theory claims to be able to tell us how to act in a given situation.
Sometimes, the theories provide ambiguous answers. Nevertheless, the applied ethics method is still
suitable in many situations; for example, when a technology is already developed and we are trying to
understand the relevant ethical considerations afterwards.
This is an important point because the assumption on which my dissertation rests is this: whether or
not we believe that ethical values are embodied or "embedded" in a given technology, such values will
always be found there if you look for them. This makes it very important to reflect upon such values
before the technology is created, not afterward. A fruitful way of addressing this need is a strategy
called value-based design. There are two basic variations of this design strategy: the values-in-design
strategy (Nissenbaum, 2001) and the value-sensitive-design strategy (Friedman, Kahn, & Borning,
2001). The general idea behind both of these approaches is that values are inseparable from
technology.
According to the values-in-design viewpoint, technologies cannot be neutral in terms of values
(Hoven, 2007, pp. 1-2). This implies that technology will embody values whether or not we intend
them to do so (Nissenbaum, 2001, p. 119). The values embodied in a certain technology will influence
people:
[…] technology is never neutral: certain design decisions enable or restrict the ways in which
material objects may be used, and those decisions feed back into the myths and symbols we think are
meaningful. (Nissenbaum & Gaboury).
Once technologies have been developed and put to use, it is difficult to go back to change the privacy-
relate design and other values-related design embodied in them. A cornerstone of the values-in-design
approach is to make sure that we focus: “[…]
(Nissenbaum & Gaboury). In addition, Nissenbaum (2001) argues that, since technologies embody
values, we have to move from values to the technology, which from my point of view seems very
reasonable. Nissenbaum makes it clear that this values-in-design idea also includes people such as
engineers and scientists. She writes:
Scientists and engineers can learn a different lesson […]: They must expand the set of criteria they
would normally use to evaluate systems to incorporate social, ethical, and political criteria.
(Nissenbaum, 2001, p. 118)
The second approach is value-sensitive-design, which is a methodology founded on theory. According
to this approach, values ca
Besides taking values into account, value-sensitive-design also carefully considers things such as
usability and personal preferences. The pertinent values in this approach include, for instance, welfare,
justice, and human rights (Friedman & Kahn, 2007, p. 1186). Value-sensitive- design is a tripartite
methodology. It consists of conceptual investigation, empirical investigation, and technical
investigation, which are part of an iterative process.
Generally speaking, I do not think that determining the ethical aspects after a technology has been
developed is the most suitable approach. The crucial considerations are the values that are embodied
in technologies and how we develop those technologies. We need to reflect on this before we develop
any new technology or a more advanced version of existing technology. Also, this includes leaving
behind the often-used idea of applying normative ethical theories when a technology is put into use
after we developed it.
63
If we have the opportunity to consider the ethical aspects before the technology is developed, so much
the better. Of course, we almost always have an opportunity to consider ethics before going forward.
This is more a question of whether we are ready to spend some extra time and money before we
continue with the development process. For example, it has been proven that it is very difficult to
change the privacy settings for a technology after that technology has been developed and
implemented. This is reflected in the following quotation, in which the values of privacy and national
security are mentioned:
Privacy needs to be treated as a first-class requirement from the early onset in the design of an
information system since, like for security and usability, it is extremely difficult if not impossible
to ’retrofit‘ a completed system to make it more privacy-friendly. (Wang and Kobsa, 2008, p. 18).
Again, this suggests that, when developing new technologies, privacy and security issues must be
-
questions are already crucial in
calls for an interdisciplinary approach, a close collaboration between computer engineering and the
humanities that will guide corporate values throughout the design process (Nissenbaum, 2001, p. 120)
4. Examples of Value-Based Design
When thinking about embedding the value equality into a computer, the challenges of a blind or deaf
person can serve as examples. A blind person cannot see the keyboard, which presents a challenge for
hitting the right keys. Putting a marker that can be felt, such as a raised "bump", on two keys of the
keyboard makes it much easier for a blind person to navigate the keyboard and therefore to be able to
use a computer. Because of this very small change in the hardware, a blind person can type on a
computer as easily as someone who is not blind. In this way, for the sake of persons who are blind, the
value equality has been "embedded" in the hardware by making a very simple change in two keys.
Similarly, a deaf person cannot hear when a computer sounds an alert. But by adjusting the software
to add a visual alert message on the screen, the value equality can be embedded in a computer for the
sake of persons who are deaf.
Turning, now, to the values privacy and security, with which my dissertation will be especially
concerned, consider some additional examples. The value privacy, for instance, is embedded in
software when a browser allows the user to turn "cookies" on or off. (A cookie is a small text file,
stored b
perform other tasks.) A user may not necessarily want to be tracked online, even though allowing
tracking might have some advantages. A browser that enables the user to turn cookies off and on gives
the user a way to maintain privacy. This also serves as an example of embedding the value autonomy
(a centrally important kind of freedom) by giving the user the ability to make decisions in
particular, decisions regarding personal information about the user. A similar example is when a user
is able to delete the browser history, which also embeds the values of privacy and autonomy.
Embedding security can be exemplified with a firewall. A firewall usually combines hardware and
software to protect a computer and its user against harm from others. The main purpose of a firewall is
this can serve as an example of how privacy is an expression of security: a firewall providing security
5. Conclusion
As explained above, my completed dissertation will show that value-based design can be used to
decrease conflict or tension between the values privacy and national security. In this preliminary
paper, I have discussed the concept of a value, which I described as a collection or a set of similar or
related entities and abilities which people treasure or appreciate. In addition, I described the values
64
security and privacy, and argued that security is a "core value" and that privacy is "an expression of
that core value" (using terms from the writings of James Moor).
I also have recommended, here, that we use a value-based design strategy to make sure that the values
that we consider important are embedded or embodied in technology from the beginning of a
technology development project. Value-based design is a suitable theoretical strategy for doing
exactly that even in national security projects..
An important underlying assumption is that technology cannot be ethically neutral, even if we do not
explicitly try to embed ethical values within it. This fact makes it even more important to carefully
reflect on the ethical values that may become embodied in various technologies. We have to make
sure that we proactively integrate ethical values into our plans for new technology. It has been shown,
for example, by previous writers (Wang and Kobsa, 2008) that it can be very difficult or even
impossible to retrofit a computer system to make it more privacy-friendly. Privacy, of course, is not
the only relevant value, but it is serves as a good example, and it is one of the two central values that
my dissertation will be focused upon.
References
Cakvoukian, A. (2011, January). Privacy By Design - The 7 Foundational Principles. Retrieved December 3,
2012, from Information and Privacy Commissioner:
http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Resources/7foundationalprinciples.pdf
Friedman, B., & Kahn, P. H. (2003). Human values, ethics, and design. In J. A. Jacko, & A. Sears, The human-
computer interaction handbook. CRC Press.
Friedman, B., Kahn, P. H., & Borning, A. (2001, December 2). Value Sensitive Design: Theory and Methods.
UW CSE Technical Report .
Hoven, J. (2007). ICT and Value Sensitive Design. In P. Goujon, S. Lavelle, P. Duquenoy, & V. Laurent (Eds.),
The Information Society: Innovations, Legitimacy, Ethics and Democracy. Boston: Springer.
Moor, J. H. (1997, September). Towards a Theory of Privacy in the Information Age. Computers and Society
(27), pp. 27-32.
Moor, J. H. (2005). Why we need better ethics for emerging technologies. Ethics and Information Technology ,
pp. 111-119.
Murakami, D., & Ball, K. (2006). A Report on the Surveillance Society: Public Discussion Document.
Surveillance Studies Network.
Nissenbaum, H. (2001, March). How computer systems embody values. Computer – innovative technology for
professions .
Nissenbaum, H. (2004). Privacy as contextual integrity. Washington Law Review (79), pp. 119-158.
Nissenbaum, H., & Gaboury, J. (2012, September 21th). Values In Design. Retrieved from Values In Design:
http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/vid/about.html
Raguse, M., Meints, M., Langfeldt, O., & Peissl, W. (2006). Privacy enhancing shaping of security research and
technology – A participatory approach to develop acceptable and accepted principles for European Security
Industries and Policies.
Wang, Y., & Kobsa, A. Privacy-Enhancing Technologies. In M. Gupta, & R. Sharman, Handbook of Research
on Social and Organizational Liabillities in Information Security.
65
AN
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH DESIGN
FOR
ANALYZING INFORMATION DIVERSITY
IN
TWITTER FOR DUTCH AND TURKISH USERS
Engin Bozdag and Qi
Gao
Abstract
Information diversity
has a long
tradition
in human
history.
Recently
there have been claims
that diversity
is
diminishing
in
informa
tion
available
in social
networks.
On the other hand,
some studies
suggest
that diversity
is actually quite high in social
networks
such as
Twitter.
However these studies only focus on the concept of source
diversity and
they only focus on
American
users. In this paper we analyze the value
information diversity
using theories from
media studies. Later, we
discuss
the initial results of an
empirical study
where we analyze
information
diversity
for
Dutch
and Turkish Twitter users.
Keywords
information diversity, information policy, filter bubble, cyber balkanization, value sensitive design,
user modeling, personalization, diversity by design
1.
In
tro
duction
Social
Information
streams,
status updates
from social networking sites
ha
v
e
emerged as a
popular means of
information
awareness. Political discussions
on
these platforms are becoming an
increasingly relev
an
t
source of political
informa
tion, often used as a source of quotes for media
outlets [8]. While most
original
reporting comes from
traditional journalists,
social publishing
makes it
increas
ingly possible to tap into breaking news. As some claim, no longer
breaks,
it
t
w
[1]. It is often argued
that
the Internet, by promoting equal access to diverging
preferences and opinions in society, actually increases
information diversity
.
Twitter allows fascinating information access, but also at the same time leads to information overload.
In order to deal with information overload, a Twitter user will either have to decrease the number of
incoming information (e.g. by limiting the number of people he follows) or by using a news
recommendation algorithm that finds the most relevant information for the user. A news
recommendation algorithm that is based on Twitter, has to make some choices to determine which
news and which followees are relevant for the user. Thus, such algorithms will select some news,
while filtering out some others. Personalization systems, ideally, help users to make choices after
carefully weighing all the media content thrown at them and consume only the relevant ones.
However, over-specialized systems can prevent serendipitous discoveries and being exposed to
diverse viewpoints. As Pariser recently argued [17], overspecialized systems can put the user in a
Providing people with only agreeable news items may have negative social consequences [15].
Group
deliberation
among like-minded people can create
p
o
larization; individuals may lead each
other in the direction of error and falseho
o
d,
simply because of the limited
argumen
t
pool and the
operation of social influences. Increased
polarization
makes it more difficult for society to find
com
mon
ground on important issues [20]. Research shows
that
o
ccurs
when
like-minded individuals form a group in order to make a decision [18]
.
When
participants
receive
new
information
in a decision case after they
ha
v
e
reached a
preliminary
conclusion, a clear
preference was
demonstrated
for information
supporting
the
preliminary
group decision.
The question is, whether users are exposed to different, challenging viewpoints in social media such
as Twitter. An et al. [1] have
investigated source
diversity for major news sources and observed
that
there is a high level of
(in
direct) source diversity for American Twitter users. According to
F
aceb
o
empirical study [2], online networks
migh
t
actually increase the spread of
nov
el
66
information
by allowing
information
flows from our weak However, as we will show,
diversity entails more than just source diversity and novel
information
is not necessarily diverse
information.
Are users mainly exposed to news from major news sources, or does the minority get
a chance to reach a wider
audi
ence as well? Do users get to see differen
t
viewpoints? Can we
observe the
same
pattern
in differen
t
countries, for instance, in the
European
political
landscap
e
?
In order to find answers to these questions, we have designed an
empirical
study to research
information
diversity in Twitter. In this paper, we first
p
erform a
conceptual
analysis of the value
information
diversity using theories from
media
studies and
information
law and policy. Later,
based upon this theory, we
presen
t
our research questions. Then, we show the initial results of our
empirical
study,
where diversity is studied for Dutch and Turkish
Twitter users.
2.
Conceptualizing Information
Div
ersit
y
Sometimes it is argued
that
technology is
value-neutral, that
is the technology is just a
neutral
means to an end which can be put to good or bad use. However,
as
van de Poel argues,
technological
artefacts
do not simply fulfil their function
but
they also produce all kinds of
valuable and harmful side-effects [26]. Van
den
Hoven argues
that information
technology is a
constitutive
technology, so
that
it shapes our discourses, practices and
institutions
and
experiences in
imp
ortan
t
ways [25]. Therefore, ethics should be involved in the design process, to
open
the black box of technology design and
development,
describe which choices
ha
v
e
been
made and can be made, preferably before the problem becomes
manifest
[25].
Value Sensitive Design (VSD) is an
approach that
aims to
integrate
values
of ethical
importance
in a principled and comprehensive manner into the design of
information
technology
[6]. It assumes
that
human values, norms,
moral considerations
can be
imparted
to things we
make and use. VSD employs
an
integrative
and iterative tripartite methodology, consisting of
conceptual, em
pirical, and technical
investigations.
The
conceptual investigation
aims to
create
a working definition of the value.
Conceptual
analyses need to be informed
b
y
empirical
investigations
of the human context in which the technical artifact is situated. Technical
investigations
involve the proactive design of systems to
sup
port values identified in the
conceptual investigation.
VSD seeks to be
proactiv
e:
to influence the design of technology early
in and
throughout
the design
pro
cess.
VSD holds
that
while the features or properties
that
people design into
tech
nologies more readily
support
certain values and hinder others, the
tec
actual use depends on the goals of the
people
interacting
with it. It states
that
while there
migh
t
be some values
that
are universal, a
universal design is not feasible. How
particular
values play out in a
particular
culture at a
particular p
oin
t
in time can vary considerably [4]. If we design for well-being, we
need
to
accoun
t
for the fact
that
people have differen
t
short and long-term goals. Therefore technology must avoid
aggregating the well-being of people who
ha
v
e
different,
incompatible
comprehensive goals or
visions of the good life [27].
In this paper we apply Value Sensitive Design the following way: First, as a
conceptual
analysis,
we introduce a
normative
framework to analyze the
value
diversity using theories from philosophy
and media studies. Second, in order
to
perform the second step of Value Sensitive Design
(empirical
study),
we
translate
the conce
p
t
information
into research questions. Finally we
provide our
researc
h
design which we will use to carry out the empirical research and
investigate
whether culture makes a difference in
information diversity
.
2.1 Dimensions of Information Diversity
Information
diversity as an
impor
tan
t
value has a long tradition in human history. Socrates (470-
490 BC) implicitly gave diversity a central role in his
antithesis
syn
argumentation.
The Socratic method is a form of inquiry between individuals with opposing
viewpoints based on
asking
and answering questions to
stimulate
critical thinking and to illuminate
ideas
[9]. Similarly John
Stuart
Mill (1806-1873) argued
that
diversity is an
imp
ortan
t
value in
67
his famous On Liberty. According to Mill, since mankind are
imperfect
there should be always
be differen
t
opinions.
Truth
is then, is about and combining of opposites
Diversity, exposure to diverse media con
ten
t
can help people to discover From a
liberal perspective,
ral
ism, variety and
conflic
t
between differing views are commonly seen as
fruitfu
l
and as being a necessary condition for h
Diversity of
information,
or media diversity, as the concept is often
referred
to in most democratic
countries, is considered to be of crucial value and a cen
tral
objective of
communications
and
media policy. Diversity forms the basis for
the
popular
ketplace
of concept, in which
differen
t
ideas and opinions
are
free to compete for the
attention
of users. Exposure to differen
t
ideas sharpen
our
wits and our ability to critically evaluate possible
alternatives
to out
established
wisdoms. Hence, only the
b
es
t
ideas prevail [7]. Societies exist for the benefit of their individual
members and what is good is both various and only
d
isc
o
verable
by the free expression of
alternative
goals and solutions to problems. The
more
the
alternatives,
the
better
the
prosp
ec
t
s
for individual and collective
wel
fare.
From this viewpoint, the freedom of media, a
multiplicity
of
opinions and
the
good of society are
inextricably
mixed. Free Press theory, a theory of
media
diversity, states
that
we establish and preserve conditions
that
provide
many
alternative
voices,
regardless of intrinsic merit or
truth,
find a hearing,
provided
that
they emerge from those whom
society is supposed to benefit its
individual
members and
constituen
t
groups [22].
In the US, the
marketplace
of ideas has been conceived by the courts
and
policymakers as a key
dimension of First
Amendmen
t
freedoms, in which
citi
zens are free to choose from a wide range
of ideas
(con
ten
t
diversity),
deliv
ered
from a wide range of sources (source
diversity).
The
citizens then
partake
of
this
diversity (exposure
diversity)
to increase their knowledge,
encounter
opp
osing viewpoints, and become well-informed decision makers who are
better
capable of
fulfilling their democratic responsibilities in a self-governing society [16].
Con
ten
t
diversity consists
of diversity in format (p
rogram-
t
ype),
demographic
(in
terms
of racial, ethnic, and gender), and
idea-viewpoin
t
(of social, political and cultural
perspectives).
Source diversity consists of diversity
in outlets (cables
and
channel owners) or program producers
(con
ten
t
owners). There is an
assump
tion
that
a greater diversity in sources will lead to a greater diversity of con
ten
t.
However,
there is no empirical evidence
supporting
the existence of such a
rela
tionship [16]. Napoli argues
that
idea-viewp
oi
n
t
diversity is the most central
to
the
marketplace
of ideas
metaphor
and its
relationship
to effective demo
cratic
self-go
v
e
r
nance.
2.2 Two faces of diversity: reflection and openness
Often, media
practitioners
and politicians think
that
more media diversity is
b
e
t
ter. This,
however, is not the case: media diversity always has to be
externally
gauged in some way or
manner [22]. According to McQuail and van
Cuilenburg
[13,
22], gauging, or
benchmarking,
should be based on the existing social diversity
that
media are reporting on. To do this, McQuail
and van
Cuilenburg
suggest
t
wo
differen
t
normative
frameworks. First, the media can adhere to
the
principle of reflection by
proportionally
reflecting differences in politics, religion, culture and
social conditions in society in a more or less
proportional
way. Second, the media can adhere to
openness by providing perfectly equal access
to
their channels for all people and all ideas in
society, including the
minorities.
In reflective diversity the media try to reflect
c
urren
t
market
preferences
and
consumer
characteristics,
whereas open diversity promotes uniform chances for
div
ergen
t
groups, movements and tendencies in so
ciety
.
Karppinen
also argues for op key task for media policy from the radical pluralist
perspective is to
support
and enlarge the
opportunities for structurally underprivileged
actors and
to create space for the critical
v
oices
and social perspectives excluded from the
systematic
structures
of the
mark
et
or state
[10]. Thus, if people are exposed to media outlets
that are
not necessarily diverse in themselves, but are
traditionally underrepresented in
p
media diet, this would increase
information
diversity [7].
68
3.
Analyzing Reflective
and Open
Diversity
in
Twitter
In the previous section, we have shown
t
wo
normative
frameworks
that
can
b
e
used to measure
diversity in
traditional
media: reflective and openness.
These
concepts need to be translated into
design
requirements
before they can be
ap
plied and measured in social media. In
t
his section we
presen
t
an empirical
study
we performed using Twitter data. We
presen
t
our
experimental
design,
show
ho
w
we translated diversity into research questions and share our initial
results.
3.1 Experimental Design and Measuring Diversity
Over a period of more than three months we crawled microblogging data
via
the
Twitter streaming
API. We
started
from a seed set of Twitter users
U
s
,
who mainly publish
news-related
t
w
eets.
The
seed users were manually
selected
to cover differe
n
t
t
yp
es of users including
mainstream
news
media,
journalists,
individual bloggers and politicians. By
monitoring
the Twitter streams of
U
s
,
we were able to add another set of users
U
n
, who actively
interacted
with
users
in
U
s
, to the
crawler. To
investigate
the impact of
cultural
differences on
the
concepts of diversity for Twitter
users, we
repeated
this
data
collection
metho
d
for
t
wo
countries, namely the
Netherlands
and
Turkey. The
Netherlands
has
the
highest percentage of Internet access in the
European
Union and
all newspapers, magazines,
TV-stations
and
broadcasting organizations
offer a wide
range
of
websites with news,
backgrounds, interactive
platforms, audio and video [19]. To safeguard
divers
i
t
y
,
the Dutch Media
Authority
and the Dutch
Competi
tion
Authority
set strict
requirements
[23]. Turkey, on the other hand, is
quite
polarized in politics and no strict media
diversity policies exist in this
coun
try
[3].
3.2 Mapping Political Leaning of the Sources
We mapped the political leaning of Dutch seed users into five groups, left, cen
tre
left, centre,
cen
tre-righ
t
and right. We did this using a number of public
data
[11,
21]. The p
stance in the landscape is
determined
by [12]. We mapped the Turkish media sources into seven
groups: Kemalists,
Islamists, Conservatives (moderate
Islamists and economic liberals),
ultra-
nationalists, left (pro-Kurd,
far-left), social liberals and
center-right.
For mapping the
T
ur
kish
media sources, we used
[3,
5].
3.3 Translating Diversity into Design and Research Questions
Table 1 shows how we translated differen
t
diversity concepts. First of all,
media
diversity measures
whether seed users, users with many followees, link to eac
h
other (Also see Figure 1). The links they
provide are important as they
reach
many users. Source diversity, frequently used by scholars in
user having a diverse set of follow We measure
this
by
comparing a categorized list of seed users (for instance those
that
belong
to
by the
total number of followed seed users (See Figure 2). As Figure 3 shows, reflectiv
e
diversity is defined as
exposure to a diverse viewpoints either
through
direct
e
x
p
osure
(t
wee
t
s
)
or indirect
exposure
(retweets).
Open diversity is defined as the exposure to
t
w
eets
coming from the
minorities (Figure 4). Defining a source as
orit
is
rather
challenging. It can for instance be
based on the number of followers a source has, thus if a source does not have many followers, it
can be defined
as a minority.
It can also be defined by checking if the source in question is a
political party and whether it does not have many seats in the
parliament.
The source could also
be
advocating
the rights of a
minority,
for instance an ethnic
minority
.
We have considered these
a sp e ct s while defining
minorit.
One
interesting
question
next
to the
mentioned
diversity
dimensions is own political bias (Figure 5). We
w
an
t
to
learn whether the incoming
information (tweets
and
retweets)
influences
what
the user is
sharing.
While
translating
these concepts into metrics, we use the following
en
trop
y
formula used by van
Cuilenburg [22] to measure
traditional
media
diversit
y:
69
log2 ) / log n
(1)
p
i
represents proportion
of items of con
ten
t
t
yp
e
category i.
represen
ts
number of con
ten
t
t
yp
e
categories. For instance in reflective diversity p
i
rep
resents incoming
t
w
eets
from seed
users with a specific political stance, whi
le
represents
all incoming
t
w
eets.
Table 1.
Translating
Diversity into Design
Requiremen
ts
Type of Diversity
Research Question
1. Media Diversity
Do seed users with different political positions link to each
other?
2. Source Diversity
Do users expose themselves to sources with different opinions in
Twitter?
3. Reflective Diversity
Do users get directly or indirectly a diverse set of tweets?
4. Open Diversity
Do users receive tweets from minorities? Or are they also
exposed (directly or indirectly) to minority viewpoints?
5. User’s Political Bias
Do users post political messages whose political position reflects
the political position of those messages that the users receive?
Figure 1. Media Diversity
Figure 2. Source Diversity
Figure 4. Reflective Diversity
Figure 5. Open Diversity
70
Figure 5. User’s Political Bias
3.4 Initial Results
Figure 6 shows the
distribution
of seed users for the
Netherlands.
Out of 67071 published
t
w
eets
,
36% is supplied by left users, 23% is supplied by
righ
t
users,
while 38% is supplied by
center (right or left) users. Figure 7 on the other
hand
shows the
distribution
of seed users for
Turkey. Out of 120395 published
t
w
eets,
33% is supplied by left users, 44% by
righ
t
and 36% by
cen
ter.
Tables 2 and 3 show the results for media diversity. We observe that seed users categorized
as mainly retweet and repost items of left seed users. 73% of all retweets and reposts go to
left seed users. The same applies to
h users
(72%). We can observe the same
pattern
for
the Turkish seed users as well,
but
the ratio is quite higher: 93% for left users and 94% for
righ
t
users. This shows
that
our seed users, formed of
traditional
media sources, bloggers,
p
oliticians
and political activists are not very diverse in other
sour
c
es.
Figure 6. Dutch
Twitter
Seed Users
Table 2. Media Diversity for Dutch Us
ers
Left
Neutral
Right
Left
380
55
83
Neutra
30
30
11
Rightl
50
16
166
71
Table 3.Media Diversity for Turkish Users
Left
Neutral
Right
Left
249
6
14
Neutra
2
1
0
Rightl
14
1
218
Figure 7. Turkish Twitter
Seed Users
4.
Conclusion
As we have shown, value diversity is more than just source diversity. The
theory
shows us
that,
in order to achieve diversity, the audience should be exposed
to
all voices, including those of the
minority.
In this paper we have shown
initial
results of our
experiment,
answering the first
research questions (media
div
ersity). We observe
that
seed users do not link to other end of
political
spectrum.
We aim to answer our other research questions to
understand
whether reflective
and open diversity exists in Twitter and whether they differ per
coun
try
.
This empirical study will
complemen
t
our
conceptual
analysis. As a last step of VSD methodology and future work, we
aim to
investigate
how diversity can
b
e
included in des
i
gn.
While these questions will answer if
information
diversity
naturally
exists
in
a social network, it
does not answer why.
Future
work includes a
qualitative user
study to
understand
whether users
are aware of the diversity of their network, if they set up their network
intentionally,
and whether
they can be persuaded
to
receive a more diverse set of
information
.
Ac
kno
wledgemen
ts
This research is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Mozaiek
grant, file number 017.007.111. The authors would like thank Ibo van de Poel and Martijn Warnier for
their valuable feedback.
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and a
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Study. International Communication
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Presenting
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73
TOWARDS A GOOD INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION SOCIETY: BUILDING A TREE OF
ACTIONS
Gunilla Bradley and Diane Whitehouse
Abstract
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are increasingly used in many areas of the globe.
In terms of the information society, the challenges facing human beings are currently enormous.
Policy-makers are often unable to handle such momentous decisions on their own. Citizens are
therefore becoming increasingly involved in many realms of decision-making that are ICT-related. At
ETHICOMP 2013, a panel of international experts will offer their insights into possible future
directions towards a Good Information and Communication Society. The result will be a tree of
actions, built together through discussion with the conference community.
Keywords
action, civic society, education, industry, good information and communication society, ICT society,
research, stakeholders, values
1. Panel overview
Information and communication technologies (ICT) and media are being introduced and used in most
parts of the globe. Sometimes development of these media progress by leaps and bounds and, at other
times, at a steadier pace (Patrignani and Whitehouse, forthcoming). The current network society is
experiencing considerable change and development (Castells, 2009), and has developed into what Al
These challenges are immense, and policy-makers on their own cannot handle these developments
(European Parliament, 2012), as the 2007 Lisbon Treaty acknowledged with regard to the European
Union (2007/C306/01). Acceptance and introduction of stakeholder approaches are becoming more
commonplace, and are now included in planned international and national action programmes. Indeed,
has been open for applications for over a year (The
human right to clean water and sanitation as essential human services (The Right to Water, 2012).
The panel proposers, Gunilla Bradley and Diane Whitehouse, consider that different components of
previously. Citizens are currently being encouraged to contribute positively to social change in their
communities, and in the design and re-design of societal initiatives as well as their supporting
technologies. There is, of course however, as some commentators have observed, arguably also the
possibility that not all members of society will be keen to act as change agents.
To position their own insights into this work, Gunilla Bradley and Diane Whitehouse will draw on
interviews they have undertaken on directions towards a good information and communication society
with a select number of individuals worldwide during January-March 2013, and on their own
exploratory work with students at Linnaeus University, Sweden, in April 2013.
1.1 Composition of the panel
The panel consists of around five different, internationally-based, ETHICOMP 2013 conference
attendees. Selected ahead of the conference, they will be chosen as a result of their work in a diversity
of fields, including policy-making, industry, research, education, and civil society.
74
It is anticipated that, while the focus may be on the European scene due to the conference location, the
panellists may be resident in or work in very different parts of the globe e.g., the European Union (if
possible, with a focus on Scandinavia), North America, Asia, and the emerging economies. They will
explore concretely what could be the beginnings of more definitive actions to reach a Good
Information and Communication Society.
The discussion will itself as far as possible incorporate the entire audience. It is currently foreseen that
the list contributors may include, in alphabetic order:
Chair: Gunilla Bradley, KTH, Sweden
Panel participants: Don Gotterbarn, ACM, USA; Kiyoshi Murata, Meiji University, Japan; Jackie
Phahlahmohlaka, CSIR, South Africa (TBC); and Diane Whitehouse, The Castlegate Consultancy,
UK.
The availability of these persons to contribute to the panel is currently being explored. A period of
pre-preparation undertaken with the panellists will ensure a solid discussion.
1.2 Panel content and outcomes
This panel session will investigate several different levels of change in the information and
communication society: societal, national, local, institutional and organisational. It will include
directions in values, lifestyles, individual cognition and behavioural modifications. On the one hand, it
will focus on solution-building in terms of outlining tentatively what are desirable goals and actions to
reach a Good Information and Communication Society. On the other hand, topics around how people
can be motivated to participate, who does not participate in change-related activities, who is absent
from such discussions, and what are the general implications of any such lack of participation for
Figure 1. A mind map of a panel proposal for a tree of actions relating to the developing world, research,
and social capital and social production - IADIS 2012, Lisbon, Portugal, 23 July 2012
Among the possible optimal goals for the network society to be covered will be: accountability,
responsibility, involvement and empowerment. Several other possibilities will be placed in the
spotlight: the bridging of the digital gap, democratisation, e-Cooperation, e-Democracy, freedom of
expression, human rights, integration and humanisation, peace and sustainability, quality of life, and a
reduction in poverty. There will also be coverage of some national/governmental actions and
international levels and actions that are feasible at both the individual level and the community level,
whether physical or virtual.
75
imilar to a form of mind
map. One such mind map was already developed following a discussion session held at the IADIS
ICT, Society, and Human Beings conference in 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal in July 2012 (Bradley et al,
2012).
This kind of mindmap in Figure 1 will help to facilitate and stimulate creativity and encourage the
this broad field of foresight into the future of the information society.
The important elements of this discussion lie in a shared conversation that enhances growing shared
communication around the kind of world which we want to live in together in the future. (Similar
endeavours are taking place at the European level in contexts such as the Futurium
http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/futurium/ accessed 31 March 2013)
References
Books and papers
Beardon, C.,Whitehouse, D. (editors) (1993), Computers and Society: Citizenship in the information age,
Intellect Press.
Berleur, J. and D. Whitehouse (editors) (1997), An Ethical Global Information Society. Culture and Democracy
Revisited, Chapman & Hall.
Berleur, J., Clement, A., Sizer, T.R.H., Whitehouse, D. (editors) (1990), The Information Society: Evolving
Landscapes. Report from Namur, Springer-Verlag and Captus University Publications.
Bradley, G., 1991, July. Psychosocial Environment and the Information Age. Paper presented at the IFIP WG
9.2 International Summer School on Social Citizenship in the Information Age, University of Brighton,
Brighton.
Bradley, G. (2006), Social and Community Informatics - Humans on the Net. Routledge.
Bradley, G., Whitehouse, D., Lin, A. (editors) (2012), Proceedings of the IADIS International Conferences ICT,
Society and Human Beings 2012 and eCommerce 2012. Part of the IADIS Multi-Conference on Computer
Science and Information Systems 2012, IADIS Press.
Bradley G., Whitehouse, D., Singh, G. (editors) (2011), Proceedings of the IADIS International Conferences
ICT, Society and Human Beings 2011 and e-Democracy, Equity and Social Justice 2011. Part of the IADIS
Multi-Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, IADIS Press.
Castells, M. (2009), Communication Power, Oxford University Press.
Gore, A., (2013) The Future, Random House.
Haftor, D., Mirijamdotter, A. (editors) (2011), Information and Communication Technologies, Society and
Human Beings Theory and Framework. Honoring Professor Gunilla Bradley, IGI Global.
Patrignani, N., Whitehouse, D. (forthcoming) Slow Tech. A Manifesto for Human-Centred Information
Technology.
Schuler, D. (2012), Civic intelligence and CSCW, In Hercheui, M.D., Whitehouse, D., McIver Jnr., W.J.,
Phalamohlaka, J. (editors). ICT Critical Infrastructures and Society, HCC10 2012. IFIP AICT 386. IFIP
International Federation for Information Processing, Springer-Verlag, pp. 369-376.
Policy documents and initiatives
2011/The European Citizens' Initiative, online at http://ec.europa.eu/citizens-initiative/public/welcome/ accessed
31 March 2013
2012/The Right to Water/Water is a human right, online at http://www.right2water.eu accessed 31 March 2013
2012/European Parliament (2012), "MEP2025": Preparing the Future Work Environment for Members of the
European Parliament: Study. Directorate-General for Internal Policies, Policy department, Budgetary Affairs.
Brussels, European Union,
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/fr/studiesdownload.html?languageDocument=EN&file=74051,
accessed 31 March 2013
2007/C306/01, Treaty of Lisbon Amending the Treaty of European Union and the Treaty establishing the
European Community, signed at Lisbon, 13 December 2007, Official Journal of the European Union. Volume
50. 17 December 2007 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:306:SOM:EN:HTML accessed 31
March 2013
76
A STATUS REPORT ON DANISH E-GOVERNMENT
Christian Bruhn
Abstract
Today, governments all over the world are implementing e-government. In Denmark, e-government
has been provided to citizens by both the federal and municipal governments and the current
legislative agenda has set the goal to digitize all communications with the public sector by 2015. In
this paper, I will report on the status of the mandatory switch to digital communication as part of the
Danish digitalization process.
Earlier studies Digital communication is a subject with ongoing research. The main
contributor is the Danish government who, with a variety of departments, publishes reports
and surveys, while Statistics Denmark also publishes an annual report on Citizens use of
information and communication technologies (ICT) (DST, 2012). Additionally, Kim Norman
Andersen from Aalborg University has recently written a status report on digitalization from a
ci
on digitalization of the public sector in general. The reason for this change in focus is the fact
that the municipalities are currently undergoing restructuring and selected tasks are being
centralized in Udbetaling Denmark, a service unit owned by the state. Also, earlier research
was uncoordinated and employed differing methods and measurements. However, with the
introduction of Komhen 2.0, a standardized method to measure the progress of Danish e-
government, data has become available and may now be compared with other, diverse sets of
data.
1. Introduction
The aim of the digitalization process is to replace the existing analog communication channels that the
public sector provides with digital communication channels. Within the EU, the definition of e-
government is the use of ICTs in public administrations combined with organizational changes and
new skills, while its objectives are to improve public services, democratic processes and public
policies (European commission, 2005). As e-government is available 24/7 it has been argued that
citizens will experience a higher level of service. Additionally, the quality of the services experienced
will be homogeneous and digitalization will substantially reduce costs across the public sector.
With the introduction of the 2011-
Government, 2011) digital communication will become mandatory. The aim is to transition
communication between the Danish administration and its citizens, and vice versa, to an entirely
digital process by the year 2015. To facilitate the future use of digital solutions one suggested strategy
has been to invest heavily in digitalizing elementary schools to ensure citizens are skilled in the use of
ICTs as well as allowing for the adaptation of future digital solutions. However, this will take time
and until then it will be possible, though difficult, to receive and exemption.
1
The possibility also
exists that some citizens will find digital communication to difficult, thus finding alternative ways of
communication and information gathering, for example by asking for help from their social networks.
Yet others may simply ignore the need for communication with the government entirely, thus
presenting a potential risk, as ignoring the communication may lead to citizens losing their public
benefits or neglecting their civic obligations (Granovetter, 1973) (Wellman and Wortley, 1990)
(Norris, 2001) (Mossberger, 2003) (Bruhn, 2009) (Giddens, 1990) (Putnam, 1995).
1
The procedure for exempt is described in the perspective chapter
77
We may face the risk that groups within society neglect the official digital communication channels
provided and adapt alternative ways to communicate with the government. This is not a problem
initiated by digitalization but a challenge that digitalization has made evident.
2. Reading guide
In this paper I will present three different views on the digitalization process: Who is using digital
solutions; Strategies used to implement e-government; and the potential of e-government.
Who is using the digital solutions,
o This chapter will be based on my earlier research, describing groups of the Danish
population who are more likely to use the digital solution and descriptions of the
methods of response citizens have developed in their communication with the public
sector.
Strategies used to implement e-government
o With the implementation of mandatory digital communication by the year 2015, the
Danish government has begun to employ a strategy strongly influent by the financial
sectors home banking initiatives. I will discuss the differences in the two domains and
argue why the method used by the financial sector to motivate their customer not will
work in a public communication context involving citizens and the state.
The potential of e-government
o The digitalization process is a result of the digital age and as this technology is
evolving and interfaces continue to change, the digitalization process the government
is implementing now, by no means its final stage. Technology is changing our world
and the way we live and this is just a little step on the way. To estimate the potential
of digitalization I will present different statistics and use these to visualize the
unfolding process.
Finally, I will discuss two ethical questions caused by the digitalization process.
2
3. Who is (not) using the digital solutions?
Denmark is a welfare society where the government offers a wide variety of services to its citizens:
Free public libraries, health care, public education, housing aid and social assistance, just to mention a
few. These services are mainly offered to the most disadvantaged members of Danish society because
of the constitutional right to financial support. The mandatory transition to digital communication will
have diverse impacts on the different groups that compose Danish society. Firstly, the number of
-income family or healthy
citizens, citizens with low income or chronic diseases have a tendency towards a higher frequency of
communication (LKS, 2005). Secondly, highly educated, healthy citizens have a stronger and wider
social network that provides them with better services compared to those with low income (Wellman,
1990). Finally, persons with high income tend to have greater ICT skills
3
than low-income groups
(Department for education and skills, 2003). Even though the segment of citizens with high-income
has the best starting point for using digital communication channels, we cannot actually know if the
individual citizens make use of them. They may use them, use them to some degree, or not engage
with them at all. Earlier studies have shown that even highly skilled citizens who use the computer for
2
As this article is about Denmark and the political ideology that formed the Danish welfare state, I advise the
reader to seek out additional background knowledge on the Scandinavian welfare model. E.g. from the
Scandinavian website: Norden.org.
3
ICT skills are the combination of skills needed to operate and understand digital solution e.g. literacy and an
understanding of society and the welfare system.
78
e-commerce will not necessarily use e-government solutions (Bruhn, 2009) (Mindlab, 2011).
Additionally, my earlier research focusing on the tax system has shown that young people with greater
skills in the use of ICTs also did not make use of e-government solutions. This was not due to lacking
computer skills, but due to a lack of understanding regarding how the systems works within the
government (Bruhn, 2009).
Other statistics have also shed light on the problems existence.
geographical size, small population and high level of education, the proliferation of digital technology
is widespread. The number and kinds of electronics owned by Danish households reveal an indication
of digital readiness. This information is provided by Statistics Denmark in its annual survey on the
proliferation of digital technology (Error! Reference source not found.).
Figure 1
Nevertheless, even with a high level of proliferation there seem to be significant differences between
the degree of digital readiness and the number and digital inquiries at local municipalities. For
example in 2012, 86% of all Danish families had access to the Internet from their homes and 65% of
the Danish population used the internet to buy theater or concert tickets (DST, 2012). Despite these
facts only 13.8% of the inquiries experienced by the municipality of Copenhagen, including those
made at public libraries, employed digital inquiries (Københavns Kommune, 2009).
The lack of complete digital solutions
4
could be one explanation for their absence as the quantity of
complete digital solutions provided by Danish municipalities is limited. By November 2012, the only
complete digital solutions provided to citizens where ordering a social security card, including the
blue EU card, filing a notice of relocation and registering for daycare, after school centers or public
schools. Other solutions provided by municipalities were only partly digitalized and typically, the
initial communication employed digital means, but the processing was completed manually. At this
point digital communication was not an option.
4
The definition of a complete digital solution is a process that is completed without any human interference
aside from the initiator.
79
4. The strategy
It is difficult to determent the exact start of the digitalization process, but it requires organization
change. After the 2007 restructuring and decommissioning of the counties alongside the
amalgamation of municipalities, the Danish public sector was reorganized into three levels (see
Error! Reference source not found.):
The state
5 regions
98 municipalities
These three sectors employ 761.000 people (DST 2012), which correlates to 35% of the Danish work
force. In addition, another 64.000 are employed in various government enterprises. In fact, there has
been a drop in public employees from 771.000 in 2010 to 748.000 in 2012, but these figures are still
20.300 positions higher than in 2007 (no data is available prior to 2007) (DST 2013, season
corrected). If we expect that the digitalization process will result in a drop in public employees, we
would have to bear in mind that many positions have transitioned from the public sector the
government and private enterprises. These positions are not included in the statistics.
Figure 2
In 2012, Epinion completed an internet survey for the government to inve
and trust in digital communication. The survey showed that 74% agreed that digital communication
was an important way to save government funds. 69% though that digital communication was good
for the environment and 69% were satisfied with digital communication. 81% agrees that accessibility
to digital communication was an advantage when the internet was present. They argued that this
would bring the Governments ambiguous 2015 plan within reach. Still it is my opinion that these
numbers are low and bias existed in the construction of the question - who would not want to save on
public expenses? In addition, it is remarkable that the survey was internet based. The outcome would
likely be different if the survey was conducted via telephone- or paper- based survey.
The Danish government has to make a decision on how communication between the two parties
involved, both citizen and government, is to take place. In order to make sure that citizens are capable
of understanding the law and their obligations, the state has a duty to educate its citizens. The
2011-
decision was been made to invest heavily in the digitalization of
elementary schools to assure the ICT skills of future generations. However, it is essential to decide
when to implement new digital solutions. One can argue that the government must make sure citizens
have acquired the necessary ICT skills before they implement mandatory e-government. On the other
hand, if the government has to wait for each citizen to acquire the skills needed they risk an infinite
wait. Therefor one can argue that it would be acceptable that a group of citizens, variable in size, who
are not capable of using the digital solutions remained.
80
Figure 3
One part of the private sector in particular has proven that digitalization can be accomplished with a
high level of participation - the financial sector. In 2011, 83 % of the Danish population used online
banking (DST, 2011). The financial sectors success with digitalization is due to the fact that most
banking is made up of relatively simple transactions, for example deposits, withdrawals and paying
bills. Thus, the compulsory use of digital banking and the use of fees to guide the customers to make
departments and introduced a relatively high fee for paying bills or making deposits and withdrawals
with a bank teller. By decreasing the accessibility and introducing new fees, the financial sector
succeeded in creating a high level of digitalization. This confronted them with the fact that large
groups of the population do not have the ICT skills necessary, or know how to use the digital
communication channels provided. The financial sector responded to this by informing costumers that
they could pay for the extra services if they were still available, or move to a bank that provided the
required services.
In 2012, 92% of the Danish population between the ages of 16-74 years old had used the internet
within the last three months (DST, 2012). However, the digital channels are not the citizens preferred
method when it comes to communicating with the public sector. There is no clear indication why this
is the case, but the quality and palette of digital solutions offered have been poor. Government
research has shown that low accessibility, low quality digital solutions, as well as non-digital
communication were the main barrier for making use of digital channels (Alsted Research, 2004;
Videnskabsministeriet, 2005). Interview based research for 2010 revealed that citizens experienced
communication with the government as difficult and problematic (Mind-lab, 2011), and as a result
individual service were citizens preferred method. In the interviews, respondents indicated that the
choice of individual service was purely due to convenience. In order to motivate citizens to use the
digital solutions the Danish government could not employ the same methods as the financial sector by
having citizens pay for personal service. Therefore, the Danish government made the decision that
digital communication should become mandatory. With a focus on simplicity, quality and
convenience, new digital, self-service solutions where implemented. Of course, these new solutions
have had an impressive rise in use. In some municipalities, 92% of all reallocation messages were
digital. But, if we look at how many Danish citizens have signed up for all the services provided by
their e-boks.dk digital mailbox (see Error! Reference source not found.), only 23% had. In addition,
approximately 1/3 of all Danish citizens used e-boks.dk but had not signed up for all e-boks.dk
services.
81
Figure 4
On the other hand, 46,7 % of families with children under the age of 6 had signed up for everything. It
is unclear whether this significant percentage is because of increased digital communication with
parents, or if Error! Reference
source not found.).
There are no detailed statistics available on the use of internet banking, however, in Denmark all
banks, pensions and e-government solutions make use of the same digital login, NemID. Therefore we
can look at the number of logins using NemID. First, there is a significant increase in the use of
NemID e-government reoccurring in March 2012 and 2013 correlating with annual tax returns. The
number of NemID logins for online banking only increased by 5% from the fourth quarter of 2011 to
the fourth quarter of 2012, while the use of NemID to make use of e-government solutions during in
the same period increased by 101%. This doubling in the use of logins to e-government solutions is
not an indication of the successful implementation of digital solutions, but only an indication that
some analog services have closed down, for example notices of reallocation are only available as a
digital service.
The Danish government has adapted the financial sectors strategy for implementing e-government. By
decreasing, or even closing down, accessibility to individual service, the government has forced
citizens to use digital self-service solutions. The government previously employed the same strategy
when the department for tax closed its individual service locations as well. Today regional tax-centers
have been closed to public access without prior arrangement, and call-centers have become the only
option available to citizens to receive personal service. In addition, during peak periods call-centers
are overloaded, resulting in increased wait times for citizens. There is no statistical information
available on how many citizens eventually give up calling due to such overloads.
Figure 5
82
5. Discussion: Ethical dilemmas in the digitalization process
Here I will address two ethical problems of the digitalization process. The first of these is the lack of
engagement in the digitalization process by the citizens themselves, if the digital self-service solution
is the only option. The second problem is that the government has allowed for the possibility that
digital identity.
There have been many discussions about the effects of the digitalization process. The main concern
this has raised is that this process would split the population in two into those who make use of the
digital technology and those who do not. As 92% of the population studied in 2013 had used the
internet within the last three months (DST, 2013), this concern has not considered critical. However,
as an 8% non-digital minority is still a problem, it raises the questions of how low can we expect the
percentage of non-digital citizens to be, and what other analog channels do we have to keep open for
this minority group?
There is a way to get exempt from digital communication. First, the public authorities must help you if
you are having difficulties in making the mandatory switch to digital communication. Help will be
accessible at libraries and local citizens-offices where educated help will be made available. No
technical issues will be addressed. Secondly, it will be possible to either grant a family member or its
equivalent access to your digital communication or apply for exemption. The rules for exemptions
have not been decided but according to information on borger.dk there will only be 5 reasons to grant
such an exemption:
1. You do not have access to a computer with internet from your home
2.
3. You do not currently reside in Denmark
4. You have language difficulties
5. You have difficulties in gaining access to a digital signature (NemID)
It is believed that an exemption would last for two years and that citizens will be able to apply for the
exemption at the Danish Citizens Service starting in November 2014 (Danish government, 2013).
One analog channel the government wants citizens to make use of in particular, is a person or relative
their gatekeeper and help the citizen with digital tasks. This however raises the question of what
happens when the appointed gatekeeper makes a mistake? Would he be held liable and, if so, will it be
a risk the gatekeeper would be willing to take?
With the potential to grant access to a personal digital signature to other persons, the government has
tried to legalize a wide spread and common practice, particularly among spouses, where passwords are
routinely shared (Bruhn, 2009). However, with digital signatures the possibility of detect fraud does
not exists when people do not keep their passwords personal but share them in such a fashion.
With the possibility to grant other persons access to a digital identity, the government has outsourced
tasks that it should really manage, to the family or close social networks of the citizens in question.
Additionally, the issue of how many tasks the gatekeeper is capable of handling is raised.
This means that the citizens are caught in a dilemma. The more citizens employ digital solutions the
more digital-solutions will emerge. If they do not use the digital solutions - they will get financial
restrictions. The financial restrictions come in the form of reduced accessibility, such as having to
cross greater distances to reach points where the government provides the personal service needed, or
making the communication so difficult and complicated that citizens give up.
Because we are currently in the vacuum between the analog and digital age, there will be a large
segment of society who have never been educated in the use of ICTs as well as another who are
autodidactic. Therefore, with the implementation of mandatory e-government, the resourceful and
those with large social networks will continue to use digital solutions because they will be convenient
for them.
83
6. Conclusion
The process of digitalization is a difficult one and it has just begun. Especially in the contexts of e-
government it can be a challenge as many of the decisions are politically motivated. Danish citizens
will not be left behind in the digitalization process. While this is primarily due to the Scandinavian
welfare model, there are some issues in this process that we need to be aware of such as policies
regarding exemptions from digital communication. As this process can be made difficult enough that
citizens give up, alternative analog channels must continue to be as accessible as digital ones. Not
only can the exemption process be seen as a barrier, the digital solution itself can be a barrier as
citizens ignore digital communication as opposed to taking on the challenge. This is not due to a lack
of IT skills, but because of shortcomings in understanding how, for example, the tax system works
(Bruhn, 2009). Therefore it is an imperative task to educate citizens in the use of ICTs, as can be seen
in the introduction of the 2011-
Government, 2011). But it will take at least a generation before this cultural change in digital
preference will succeed.
It is also very important to implement standardized ways of measuring the digitalization process, as
can be seen in the Komhen 2.0 standards. Alongside this, we also need to see if there is a change in
usage patterns when an analog channel is digitalized to ensure that citizens are not ignoring their
digital communications.
Finally, to report on the status of the Danish digitalization process, it is advancing, however it is
important to monitor this process closely at all times. Citizens may develop alternative ways of
solving their communications needs with the government and, in turn, the government needs to be
aware of this. The digitalization process has created new challenges for both: the citizen and the
government.
References
-
Alsted Reasearch. "Kvalitativ analyse af borgernes holdninger til, erfaringer med og eftersppspter efter offentlig
digital kommunikation for Ministeriet for Videnskab, Teknologi og Udvikling". KKvikling: Alsted Reasearch,
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September 2003 from the Commission to the Council, the
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kanalstrategi
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Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press, 1999.
Mind-lab. "Væk med bøvlet", København: Mind-lab, 2011
Mossberger, Karen. "Virtual Inequality". Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2003
Norris, Pippa. "Digital Divide". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
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American Journal of Sociology 96, November, 1990: 558-588
85
ON THE ROLE OF ETHICS IN PERSUASIVE DESIGN
Sandra Burri Gram-Hansen and Lasse Burri Gram-Hansen
Abstract
In this paper, a selection of the current primary approaches to Persuasive Design are analysed and
discussed in relation to two ongoing research projects. Based on experiences gained when applying
persuasive design to more established research areas, it is suggested that current research within the
field of Persuasive Design may benefit from a more nuanced and context oriented perspective.
Persuasive Design researchers commonly acknowledge that successful persuasion is dependent on
acting within an opportune moment, often referred to as the rhetorical notion of Kairos. Kairos
constitutes the link between the opportune moment and the appropriate action and does as such also
signify an ethical perspective. As a result this paper argues that a recurring ethical perspective
throughout a design process may be a central to constituting the unique claim of persuasive design in
relation to more established research areas such as learning and digital mediation of cultural heritage.
Keywords
Persuasive Design, Kairos, Ethics, learning, cultural heritage
1. The indeterminate concept of Persuasive Design
The common perception of technology has changed radically as users all over the world have
progressed from digital immigrants to digital natives, and adapted to considering technology a natural
element in our surroundings. Computers are no longer a specific type of data processing equipment
used by researchers, they are now used by just about everyone for just about everything, and with the
dawning age of ubiquitous computing laid before us, we rapidly approach an era where computers will
be an unnoticeable part of our everyday life.
The many different aspects of HCI, and the implications that interacting with computers have upon
our perception of the world, have already been researched from a variety of angles. Amongst these is
the ability to use computers as persuaders, when wanting to change the attitude or behavior of the
users.
The term Persuasive Design (PD) most often springs from work originally presented by Stanford
University researcher, BJ Fogg, who in 1998 introduced the notion of Persuasive Technology (PT)
and in 2003 published the first book on the subject in which he identified a number of ways in which
computers may be considered superior to human persuaders [1]. By persuasive, Fogg proposes that
computers hold a particularly strong potential to change the attitudes and behaviors of the users, but
emphasises that the designer cannot rely on coercion or deception in influencing the user. Fogg
defines a specific perspective on interactive computer technologies, which distinguishes itself from
e.g. marketing technologies or technologies which somehow mislead the users.
Approaching the notion of computers as persuaders from a social psychology perspective, Fogg
which through analysis of a variation of persuasive technologies where identified as common in
persuasive technologies.
86
Figure 2.The Functional Triad as visualised by Fogg [1]
As shown in Figure 2, Fogg argues that a persuasive technology may function as a tool, a medium for
simulation or as a social actor. For each of these roles Fogg lists a number of persuasive principles,
which through analysis of a large variety of persuasive technologies he identifies as system design
commonalities. These principles are listed in Table 3:
Table 3 - Overview of The Functional Triad, and the design principles defined in each category
Computer Role
Ability
Design Principles
Tool
Making target behaviour easier to do
Leading people through a process
Performing calculations or measurements that
motivate
Reduction
Tunnelling
Tailoring
Suggestion
Self-monitoring
Surveillance
Conditioning
Medium
Allowing people to explore cause-and-effect
relationships
Providing people with vicarious experiences that
motivate
Helping people rehearse a behavior
Simulation
Social Actor
Rewarding people with positive feedback
Modelling a target behaviour or attitude
Providing social support
Social signals
experience of applying a technology, and it is suggested that the simple task of understanding the
psychological role of the technology may benefit researchers as they explore the notion of persuasive
technologies further. Moreover, the functional triad is argued to be of value to designers who seek to
develop persuasive technologies, in the sense that the three different roles of the triad may serve as
inspiration in the design process [1].
several of which focus on development based conceptualizations of the persuasive principles
presented in the functional triad. Most renowned within the PT research community, is the Persuasive
System Design model (PSD), which was introduced by Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa in the
acknowledgement that the functional triad lacked a design oriented perspective [2]. The PSD model
presents a categorization of the persuasive principles of the functional triad, which establishes a link
87
between these principles and well known features of requirement specifications, thereby making the
categories more apprehensible for system developers.
Whilst the PSD model can be perceived as a broader approach to the development of persuasive
technologies, similar steps have been taken within the narrower field of Information Architecture (IA),
commonly applied IA components [3]. The exploration of the notion of Motivating Information
Architecture (MIA) leads to the conclusion that whilst the persuasive principles originally identified
by Fogg, can be related to IA components, the principles themselves does not lead to any
extraordinary design ideas, but did disclose features within IA where persuasive principles may have
potential. However, the potential of the design principles are dependent on the way in which they are
implemented, and the challenge remains in defining how, when, and where a persuasive principle may
be most efficient.
The mentioned perspectives represent the primary methodological reflections related to PD presented
within the PT research community, and both PSD and MIA constitute important and valid arguments
regarding potential approaches to a deeper understand of PD. Other methods are described and
commonly applied in relation to PD, such as The Design With Intent toolkit (DWI) [4] and concepts
such as Value Sensitive Design (VSD) [5] and Inspiration Card Workshops (ICW) [6, 7]. However,
PSD in particular but also MIA distinguish themselves by focusing specifically on PD, whilst the
others constitute methods which are successfully applied in other research areas and have proven to
also have potential in relation to PD.
At a general level both PSD and MIA approach PD with a primary focus on the design principles
presented within the functional triad and both approaches appears to emerge from the expectation that
PD constitutes a new approach to design of interactive technologies which claim may be potentially
be established through a strengthened methodological foundation.
However, whilst PD does call for a stronger theoretical and methodological foundation, this
commonly taken focus on the mentioned design principles is challenged once applied to more
established research fields, as the novelty of the design principles is lacking not only in IA, but also in
wider understandings of design. Also, the focus on the design principles rather than on the roles
presented in the functional triad as originally intended by Fogg, does appear to complicate the
identification of a unique claim in PD, due to the lack of novelty in the design principles.
2. Persuasive or just improved?
Amongst the areas in which the system oriented approach to PD has been challenged and found
insufficient is the widely established area of technology enhanced learning, in the following
exemplified by the EU funded research project e-PLOT (Persuasive Learning Objects and
Technologies).
The e-PLOT project was initiated in November 2010 and aims to develop a pedagogical framework
for active engagement, based on persuasive design, as well as to demonstrate its value by creating
tools and exemplars of adaptable, reusable learning resources. The goal of the project has been to
generate more effective active e-learning resources and provide teachers with the necessary tools to
both create new and adapt existing resources to suit their needs.
The development perspective in e-PLOT aimed at further enhancing two specific learning
technologies; GLOMaker and 3ET. The first being an authoring tool for creating learning objects, and
the second an exercise tool which automatically generates grammatical exercises for language
learning. Learning Objects and similar types of learning technologies have often been criticized for
not taking learning theory and pedagogy into consideration [8, 9]. They are often described as taking a
students are expected to learn simply from being exposed to the learning material in a different and
multimodal way. One primary issue with this approach to learning is that focus is on the presentation
of the learning material, rather than on the actions of the learner. In the acknowledgement that
persuasive technologies by definition require interaction between the user and the technology, it was
88
expected that a primary benefit of considering persuasive design in relation to learning objects would
be the promotion of a more constructivist approach to learning, in which student motivation and
activity would be a requisite for learning.
In the duration of e-PLOT, researchers have performed analysis of both the theoretical overlap
between learning and persuasion, as well as an analysis of the practical application of persuasive
principles in the two learning technologies. The approaches taken to the analysis were primarily
inspired by the practices which have dominated the PT research field, such as the previously
mentioned PSD model. Results show that, as expected, both in theory and in practice, the overlap is
extensive, and that a vast number of persuasive principles have been applied in the learning
technologies even prior to the PLOT project [10].
Consequently it was concluded that the claim of PD in relation to learning design was not constituted
by the persuasive principles originally presented in the functional triad. As the persuasive design
principles were already applied in the technologies, there was no reasonable argument that adding
more persuasive principles to the design of the learning technologies would somehow make them
persuasive rather than simply enhanced.
3. Persuasion rather than promotion
Based on the hypothesis that the physical location of the receiver influences the way in which a
specific message is perceived, a similar study of the cross field between PD and digital mediation of
cultural heritage (DMCH) is currently being researched. Current results within this second project
supports the understanding that the unique claim of PD in relation to a more established research field
is not determined by the persuasive principles themselves.
rage in Vedersø, Western Jutland, is included as a practical outlet for
exploring the theoretical and methodical connections that form the basis of the project. The museum,
located in the actual Vicarage in Vedersø that was inhabited by Kaj Munk, was founded with the
purpose of conveying the history of Kaj Munk as a writer, priest, and politician, and to make his
historical connection to the Vedersø area apparent.
ch
Some portray him as an overly nationalistic, religious
while others see him as the symbol of the non-violent part of the Danish resistance towards Gemany
underlines that his cultural heritage is not self-explanatory from the recollection of fragmented events
in his life.
Cultural heritage can be seen as identity-forming and reproducing and aiming to re-establish the lost
relation to our past and rediscover our roots [11, 12]. E.g. the former Danish Ministry of Cultural
Heritage was created in order to rediscover the cultural roots of the Danes in a project that can be
viewed as more or less nationalistic in its aim: to establish a national identity. Cultural heritage is no
exact science with predictable, measurable results but rather something emotional, political, and
identity-related.
The notion of heritage itself contains some form of influence as heritage is something you are born
into without question and that you have to feel an emotional relation towards. However, it is unclear
whether cultural heritage is a choice or a duty bestowed upon an individual and subsequently whether
it is based on persuasion or motivation. What is becoming increasingly clear is that the Danish cultural
heritage is under increased pressure from competing cultural offerings through travels, movies etc.
which underlines how mediators of cultural heritage are interested in reaching the broadest audience
possible in a way where the intended image of national identity is clearly reproduced.
In this perspective lies the connection to persuasion but in a broader sense than traditionally
experienced within the field of PD. In the field of mediation of cultural heritage the intention is not to
achieve a narrowly defined behaviour or attitude towards a specific subject. The aim is more broadly
89
to motivate Danes to become more active users of cultural heritage experiences and change their
views of cultural heritage to something dynamical that requires constant user engagement in order to
renew its existence and justification. This motivation is more open than e.g. the intention of increasing
visitor numbers at a specific museum or increase sales of a specific book with value towards cultural
heritage.
4. Considering the notion of persuasion
The challenges faced when attempting to apply PD to various more established research fields, lead us
understanding of PD.
The very idea of persuasion is commonly considered as having been brought into the world by
classical rhetoric. In his 2003 textbook, Fogg made reference not only to the ideas presented by
Aristotle, but also to the rhetorical notion of Kairos which may be defined as the opportune moment to
perform a persuasive action [1]. Modern studies of persuasion are naturally influenced by other
disciplines too, notably social psychology, anthropology, marketing and advertisement studies,
usability and IT design etc. [13].
Several researchers have argued that the field of PD may learn a great deal from both classic and
modern rhetoric, both in terms of methodology and in terms of gaining a deeper understanding of
persuasion [14, 15]. Amongst the perspectives from classic rhetoric considered particularly relevant to
PD is the mentioned notion of Kairos which is widely acknowledged as being a core concept to the
field this regardless of any differences in the general understanding of PD.
Kairos is described as three-dimensional and is often referred to as timing, or the ability to perform the
appropriate action at the right time and in the right place. In term of appropriate, the performed action
is required to be not only effective but also ethical in consideration of time, location and manner in
which a specific action is taken [16].
In relation to the previous mentioned approaches to PD, Kairos is often taken into consideration from
a narrow understanding of the concept and referred to as the appropriate moment to apply a given
persuasive principle. However, PD may benefit from considering Kairos from a wider and more
nuanced perspective in which the concept contributes to a more general understanding of the world
and the context in which a technology is to be applied.
In other words, the understanding of Kairos in relation to PD should expand from including not only
n of Kairos
amongst practitioners of PD should develop from being mostly related to timing within specific design
solution, to being a concept which places a strong focus on appropriateness overall, thus placing ethics
as a core element in any approach to PD.
5. On the role of ethics in PD
Besides from addressing the importance of appropriate timing of persuasive initiatives, Kairos does
also emphasize the importance of ethical reflections in the design process. The acknowledgement that
persuasion must take place in an appropriate manner, does not only refer to selecting the principles to
implement in a system, but also to a general understanding of the context in which the technology is to
be applied. In light of the challenges faced when applying persuasive design principles to more
established fields, it appears reasonable to explore if the potential claim of PD, may actually be related
more to the understanding of appropriateness, and in continuance, the persistent focus on ethics.
Fogg originally defined PT as any type of interactive computer technology designed with the intent to
[1]. As such, PT by
definition focuses solely on endogenous persuasive intentions, in the extent where the intention
becomes a core element in the design. However, the definition also emphasises the importance of
90
ethical considerations, by accentuating that persuasive technologies do not coerce or deceive users
whilst fulfilling persuasive goals.
The original definition of persuasive technologies is argued to be problematic in a number of ways.
Amongst others, the emphasis on persuasive technologies being ethical is problematic as the
perception of ethicality is based on the social reality of the evaluator, and a technology which appears
perfectly ethical to the designer, may be considered unethical if applied in an unintended or
unexpected use context.
In order to address some of the challenges related to the ethics of PD, steps have been taken towards a
three dimensional approach to ethical evaluation, which considers not only the consequences of the
technology but also the intention and the use context [16].
Commonly used approaches to ethical evaluation of technologies such as the ACM Code of Ethics,
tends to place the primary responsibility of applying a technology, on the designers and developers,
thus discarding the responsibility of the users who apply the technology. Contrarily, Albrechtslund
argues that designers, are limited to conceiving only the intended use of a technology, but have no
way of ensuring that the actual use will resemble their intentions. Once a technology is developed and
handed over to the users, the perception of both the technology and the intended use is influenced by
the context in which it is applied and the social reality of the users. In fact, the usage more often
deviates from the original intention, making it inequitable to hold the designers solely responsible for
the consequences of a technology [16, 17].
However, the acknowledgement that the designer is unable to foresee all possible use scenarios should
not be interpreted as an excuse for the designer to disclaim responsibility for unethical use of a
technology. Contrary, once aware that the technology may potentially affect users far beyond the
intended aim the designers should more than ever be aware of the reciprocal responsibility which
emerges between themselves and the users - and as such, ethical evaluation should be initiated from
the very beginning of the development phase, whilst the notion of the technology is matured and
explored [10].
Challenging as it may be, the strong demand for ethical reflections in relation to PD, may in fact be
one of the aspects which distinguishes PD from other more established research fields such as IA,
learning and DMCH. While persuasion in other design traditions is acknowledged as an integral part
of a design process, PD enriches the design process with a communicative determination and a
demand for a recurring ethical evaluation process.
The definition of ethics as a core element in PD is strengthened even further when the understanding
of ethics is related to Kairos, and as such considered a vital perspective towards determining the
appropriateness of a given persuasive strategy. Ethical considerations in the design process itself has
so far been recognised as an important aspect [5] but it has generally not been seen as a necessity in
persuasive design.
Acknowledgements
Part of this work was funded by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)
of the European Commission in the project EuroPLOT
References
1. Fogg, B.J., Persuasive Technology - Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do. 2003, San
Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
2. Oinas-Kukkonen, H. and M. Harjumaa, Persuasive Systems Design: Key Issues, Process Model, and System
Features. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 2009. 24(1): p. 485-500.
3. Lykke, M., Persuasive design strategies: means to improve the use of information organisation and search
features in web site information architecture?, in Proceedings ASIST Special Interest Group on Classification
Research 20th Workshop2009, ASIST: Vancouver.
4. Lockton, D., et al., Influencing interaction: development of the design with intent method, in Proceedings of
the 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology, S. Chatterjee and P. Dev, Editors. 2009, ACM:
Claremont, CA. p. 1-8.
5. Davis, J., Design methods for ethical persuasive computing, in Proceedings of the 4th International
Conference on Persuasive Technology, S. Chatterjee and P. Dev, Editors. 2009, ACM: Claremont, CA.
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6. Davis, J., Generating Directions for Persuasive Technology - Design with the Inspiration Card Workshop, in
Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Persuasive Technology, T. Ploug, et al., Editors. 2010,
Springer Verlag: Copenhagen. p. 262-273.
7. Gram-Hansen, S.B., H. Schärfe, and J.V. Dinesen, Towards a Context Oriented Approach to Ethical
Evaluation of Interactive Technologies, 2011.
8. Wiley, D.A., Connecting learning objects to instructional design theory: A definition, a metaphor, and a
taxonomy, in The Instructional Use of Learning Objects. 2002.
9. Dalsgaard, C., Åbne læringsressourcer - mod en sociokulturel teori om læringsressourcer, in Department of
Information and Media Studies2007, Århus Universitet: Århus.
10. Gram-Hansen, S.B., Persuasive Learning Design Framework, in EuroPLOT Deliverable2012, Aalborg
Universitet: Aalborg.
11. Lund, N.D., Kulturarv - et begreb mellem politik og information. Biblioteksarbejde, 2004. 67/68.
12. Lund, N.D., et al., Digital formidling af kulturarv: Fra samling til sampling. 2009, København, DK: Forlaget
Multivers.
13. Christensen, A.-K.K. and P. Hasle, Classical Rhetoric and a Limit to Persuasion, in Proceedings of the 2nd
International Conference on Persuasive Technology, Y. de Kort, et al., Editors. 2007, Springer Verlag: Palo
Alto, CA. p. 307-310.
14. Hasle, P.F.V., The Persuasive Expansion - Rhetoric, Information Architecture, and Conceptual Structure, in
ICCS 2006, H. Schärfe, P. Hitzler, and P. Øhrstrøm, Editors. 2006, Springer-Verlag: Aalborg. p. 2-21.
15. Pertou, M.E. and S.D. Iversen, Persuasivt design i retorisk perspektiv. Rhetorica Scandinavica, 2009. 49/50:
p. 126-141.
16. Gram-Hansen, S.B., Persuasive Everyware - Possibilities and Limitations, in SOIC 20102010, IIIS: Orlando,
FL.
17. Albrechtslund, A., Ethics and technology design. Ethics and Information Technology, 2007. 9(1): p. 63-72.
92
FACING FACISM, UNIQUE BIOMETRIC IDENTIFIERS AND
DATA TOTALITARIANISM: SOCIO-TECHNICAL
CONSIDERATIONS
Alberto Cammozzo
Abstract
New technological facts, combined in a social perspective, highlight a possible data totalitarianism
based on unique biometric identifiers. This article reviews those technological and social facts,
highlights the socio-political implications and ventures some suggestion. Technological facts are: 1)
non-cooperative visual biometrics, especially face and behaviour recognition (gait), and their
multimodal combination; 2) wearable computing and augmented reality; 3) face recognition search
engines; 4) interoperable biometric systems, making easy to enrol and recognize targets on different
independent systems, and 5) the build-up of massive biometric data collections. Those technological
facts may combine in a socio-technical arrangement where a securitarian culture prevails, as
highlighted by: 1) social networks that fight a war on pseudonymity;
socially and legally un-encoded and asymmetrically distributed: ubiquitous surveillance is unevenly
flanked by practices as crowdsourced surveillance or sousveillance. This socio-technical set-up
highlights a condition where a new form of data totalitarianism may raise, especially in countries
where technological advancement is not combined with equal improvement in privacy-awareness and
democracy. Besides data protection authorities rulings, what initiatives could help to face this threat
on a socio-technical ground? 1) Re-establishing information symmetry. This could be achieved
through publicly accessible face recognition search engines and the decoupling of identity provider
and content repository services, allowing both real name requirement and pseudonymity; 2) protecting
privacy in the public context, assuming default opt-out from identity recognition.
Keywords
privacy, biometric data, face recognition, gait recognition, wearable computing, interoperability,
pseudonymity, identity providers, data breaches, surveillance, sousveillance, re-identification.
1. New technological facts
There have been recent evolutions in face and gait recognition; new devices and services with
potential severe effects on privacy are being tested.
1.1 Non-cooperative Visual Biometrics: face and behaviour recognition
Visual biometric techniques rely on images or video footage. Non-cooperative biometric systems are
effective even on targets wishing to defeat the system in one or more phases of the recognition
process, while collaboration is required in cooperative recognition (Goudelis, Tefas, and Pitas 2010;
Wayman et al. 2005, 9). The main phases of the process are: enrolment (the extraction of a personal
biometric feature, template or signature from images), verification (matching of other images against a
single template) and identification (matching against a list of candidate templates) (Wechsler 2007, 4).
Examples of intrusive visual biometrics are fingerprints, retina, iris, vein and palm scans and optical
skin reflectance; while non-intrusive or non-collaborative visual techniques are centred on face
recognition on conventional images or on facial thermograms (depicting heat). Thermograms are
independent from ambient illumination and best suitable for covert surveillance. Increasingly,
personal behavior characteristics such as smile or gait are used. (Goudelis, Tefas, and Pitas 2010;
Xuan Zou, Kittler, and Messer 2007). Examples of non-visual biometrics are, for instance, voice
recognition, body odor or head resonance (Wayman et al. 2005, 3).
93
A recent application based on the intuition that «colours of clothes, decorations, and even human
-computer set-
up, with Android Galaxy phones and camera-enabled glasses (Wang et al. 2013).
A so-
given image or video. An example is the FBI's Next Generation Identification searchable database that
includes «facial imaging, scars, marks, and tattoos» and has «room to accommodate future biometric
technologies (i.e., voice, gait, etc.) as they become available and prove reliable» (US Federal Bureau
of Investigation 2009).
1.2 Wearable computing & Augmented reality
view field, overlaying information in a head-up display manner. This head mounted device could
recognize voice commands, record video, take pictures, display text messages and maps. This kind of
automatic analysis of the environment.
Even if visual biometric recognition does not seem to be in current Google glass features and was
explicitly excluded from previous Google project Goggles (Adee 2010), it's well into its technical
possibilities. Face recognition and gait analysis will eventually make its way into wearable computing
devices. Probably Google Glass biometric recognition policy will be consistent and allow face
recognition only for Google+ users that opted in. But third parties (like Baidu, see section Error!
Reference source not found., or Facebook) could develop apps with different privacy policies.
Governments already have such devices designed explicitly with biometric visual recognition in mind
(Yapp 2011; Beckhusen 2013).
Privacy implications of this technology are substantial, since wearable computing devices similar to
ordinary glasses conceal the fact that they are acquiring video footage and automatically analysing the
scene. Everybody in sight is a potential target of biometric recognition. People are unaware of having
their biometric features being analysed and potentially recorded and ignore what use will be done of
this information.
Advocates of wearable computing affirm that making available to the masses a biometric recognition
device could re-establish an information as
and Lo 2006) (more on this in section 0).
For instance, a wearable face recognition device could help to spot agents provocateurs and prevent
in New York, pictures taken by protesters were used to identify and sue an officer spraying pepper on
demonstrators (Coscarelli 2011), even if no use of automatic face-recognition was reported.
As we will see in section 0
given that all footage is centrally stored at Google's.
1.3 Face recognition search engines
Recently Baidu, the main Chinese search engine company, is testing an open face recognition search
engine (识图 http://stu.baidu.com) (Ong 2013). This test service lets anyone upload an image
containing a face and then run a search on matching images published anywhere on the Web. Google
Face recognition search services seen so far restrict their results on the image set provided by their
users (store and match operations are joint) on consensual targets (Cammozzo 2011). Baidu face
search fills the gap, delivering a disjoint store and match service on any target, with an unrestricted
access to publicly available data.
94
Even if it's in a testing phase and not very reliable, such a search engine is a genuine novelty and has
many privacy consequences (Cammozzo
available and allow to take privacy measures. As we will see in section 0 it may help to fill an
help to mature social norms that are more respectful for visual privacy.
1.4 Interoperable biometric systems
Data collected on one biometric recognition system can be used on another system only if the two are
interoperable. This means that people enrolled on one type of software could be recognized by another
system if those are interoperable and they share their data. For instance, US DHS and FBI biometric
systems are interoperable (US Federal Bureau of Investigation 2012), while most of the apps that use
face recognition to unlock a smart-phone are not.
Currently few systems are genuinely interoperable, probably because face recognition has been widely
used only for the last few years and the technology needs to mature and consolidate; but as soon as
this happens interoperability will soon emerge along with compliance to standards. For instance
biometric passports already comply to ISO/IEC standard 19794 part 5 that defines biometric data
interchange formats for face image data (ISO - International Organization for Standardization 2011).
Compliance to standards and interoperability allow airport authorities to automatically match
passengers faces with the biometric features and identities encoded on their passports: this is what
-
As already noted (Cammozzo 2011) while standardization and interoperability are technically
desirable, they also make abuses easier in case of data breaches or leaks. Once interoperable biometric
data for a given person is out of the system, any other system complying with the standard will be able
to identify the target person.
1.5 Massive data collection, data breaches and government access
Even if its reliability is disputed, face recognition use is exploding. According to some analysts
(Acuity 2009), biometric market will strike revenues of 10 billion dollars in 2017, of which up to 33%
may come from face recognition. Visual biometric databases are being built around the world at an
incredible pace for the most diverse reasons: from surveillance, to biometric passports, attendance
systems, digital signage and marketing, down to games and authentication on cellphones. In the
coming few years, it will be difficult for anyone to avoid being enrolled in some kind of visual
biometric system.
In April 2011, the Sony PlayStation Network suffered a massive data breach: personal data of 77
million users were copied off the Sony servers. It's not known if biometric visual information was
PlayStation
gaming system includes a face recognition system since 2009 (Flatley 2009).
What will be the consequences of massive visual biometric data breaches on a similar scale? If the
biometric data is stored in interoperable format, the first consequence is that face and gait, more than
names, will be a way to link data coming from different sources, even anonymous ones, legitimate or
not. Moreover leaked data could be used to identify people in public spaces through CCTV
surveillance, wearable devices or even your home smart video intercom.
Governments in all countries have ways to lawfully access any kind of personal information for law
enforcing reasons. This applies also to social network data, independently of privacy options (see for
instance Robinson 2012), and may happen in an automated way. Some countries may exert pressure
even outside clear legislative frameworks. Depending on the democratic and legal status of a country,
agreements between companies detaining biometric data and governments may be more or less
transparent to the public and biometric data could be used for political purposes.
95
Government also hire private contractors to design and run CCTV and surveillance systems. Those
contractors will likely serve private customers, and only a very strict privacy policy will keep
companies off the temptation of sharing (or selling) data, or taking advantage of economies of scale.
Suspects that this is already happening have hit the press (Wolf 2012).
2. Social facts
These technical facts make possible a global, unique, personal identifier around biometric face/gait
recognition. This could be combined and linked to current social, economic and political trends to
give an overall socio-technical perspective.
According to Nissenbaum, the two main sets of social norms dealing with privacy are norms of
appropriateness that dictate what information about persons is appropriate, or fitting, to reveal in a
particular context, and those that govern flow or distribution of information movement, or transfer
of information from one party to another or others. As a consequence, common practices are
understood to reflect norms of appropriateness and flow, and breaches of these norms are held to be
violations of privacy (Nissenbaum 2004). To avoid puncturing socially established privacy contexts,
technological systems should try to comply to social norms. Computer code should follow social code,
accommodate technological innovations.
2.1 #nymwars: the war on pseudonymity and the identity market
The two biggest social networks, Google+ and Facebook, are fighting a war against their users
Real
[...] Your nickname should represent you as an individual, and should not be used to represent a
business or profession. (Google 2012a)
Facebook is a community where people use their real identities. We require everyone to provide their
real names, so you always know who you're connecting with. This helps keep our community safe.
[...] The name you use should be your real name as it would be listed on your credit card, student ID,
etc. [...] We require everyone to provide their real names, so you always know who you're connecting
with. If you'd like to list a second name on your account (ex: maiden name, nickname, or professional
name), you can add an alternate name. (Facebook 2013a)
Users not complying will see their accounts suspended. For suspended accounts, both companies are
relying as a last resort, on some form of government-issued photo identification (Facebook 2013b;
Google 2012b).
These measures have been heavily criticized under ethical and privacy considerations as a defence of
corporate interests (Elliott 2012) and as an authoritarian exercise of power against vulnerable people
and marginalized communities: those who use pseudonyms are not only paedophiles, but also rape
survivors, victims of stalking, political and sexual minorities; or simply, communities with a tradition
of nicks and pseudonyms, as artists
a privacy context.
A strong reason for social networks to require real names is that they are silently fighting for a share
in a new global single-sign-on market as identity service providers. Besides the business of providing
social network services for their users and that of advertising, they are becoming identity service
providers (so calle
do build a users database for authentication themselves (Ko et al. 2010): increasingly we see sites
asking users to authenticate using Facebook or Google+ credentials.
96
As we will see below, from a security and privacy point of view it would be better to unbundle the
two services: one party should acts as an identity provider and know nothing about the content, the
other keeps sensitive biometric content, ignoring the real identity and trusting the identity provider.
Given the huge mass of biometric data stored in social networks, real name policy implies that
pictures and videos linked with each unique real name identity could lead to re-identification, as it has
already been demonstrated (Acquisti, Gross, and Stutzman 2011).
2.2 Securitarian culture and asymmetric “right to surveillance”
Our cities, malls, shops, schools, bars and even homes are increasingly pervaded with CCTVs and
webcams, often for security reasons but also for marketing or even more frivolous purposes. But who
is watching who is often not so clear. Classic “panoptic” surveillance enacted by government,
communities and shop owners is being flanked by other practices: with the terms crowdsourced
surveillance Schneier (2010) describes (mostly failed) examples of traditional centralized surveillance
where the task of watching the actual video stream is crow-sourced. In these examples, volunteer or
paid citizens watch pictures and videos to spot shoplifters (interneteyes.co.uk) or the US-Mexico
border (texasborderwatch.com) or people in no-
what Steve Mann, a renowned researcher and advocate of wearable computing, calls sousveillance or
or the balance between surveillance and sousveillance (Mann, Fung, and Lo 2006). This concept
recalls the idea that dispersing visual recording technologies between citizens could help
We are being socialized into accepting video surveillance “for our own security”, even if we know
that often security cameras actually are not about security. While traditional surveillance is usually
accepted socially and regulated by law, other processes especially sousveillance are socially and
legally un-encoded and not so clearly accepted. Mann reports that while he was in a Paris McDonalds
he had been assaulted because of his wearable computing video recording device (Mann 2012).
customers were already filmed by McDonalds surveillance
cameras, and later raised the question on his blog: «It would seem that society has come to accept
ubiquitous surveillance without questioning it. Regardless of whether or not ubiquitous surveillance is
justified, should those people who accept surveillance not also accept sousveillance?». This question
stays open, along with others on the social consequences of ubiquitous visual equiveillance.
holding a video-camera and recording people's reactions (Bishop 2012) and saying «I'm just taking a
video» since «video cameras are everywhere...». Reactions go from people getting up and leaving,
others insulting him, pushing him put of places, calling the police or physically attacking him.
What these examples show is an amazing social asymmetry: people have become rather indifferent to
CCTV cameras in streets, offices, malls and even watching them from billboards, but are pretty
reactive when someone actively films them. There is strong social resistance against being video-
recorded by unknowns for unknown reasons. Sousveillance except in some specific contexts does
not seem to be viable. I push forward the hypothesis that what people accept or refuse are the
underlying reasons behind being surveilled, not surveillance per se. If there is the hint of a reason, and
that reason is implicitly accepted under the assumption of an advantage or at least no harm,
surveillance is tolerated.
3. Combined technical and social asymmetries
On the issue of visual biometrics, all four kinds of code interfere: the legal, the social, economic rules
and computer programs (Lessig 1998; Lessig 1999).
On the technical side, we have seen that visual biometrics (face and gait recognition) can represent a
unique personal identifier. We have also seen that an enormous mass of those identifiers are being
97
collected from a number of operators, that if biometrics are standard or interoperable those identifiers
can be linked to a single identity (re-identification), and that massive personal data breaches do indeed
happen. This introduces a huge information asymmetry: unknown entities may know things about us
that we don't know.
On the social side we have seen another asymmetry: while sousveillance is considered creepy,
biometric recognition and ubiquitous surveillance are socially accepted, and social network companies
are succeeding in enforcing a real name requirement against pseudonymity. This allows them to
become identity providers for third parties, but also to link each single unique biometric identifier to a
single real life identity. Legal codes and social norms accept and regulate top-down surveillance but
are socially and legally unprepared to cope with bottom-up sousveillance.
This combination introduces another greater asymmetry: the ability to control the appropriateness and
flow of information about us belongs to someone that is not us. According to the Nissenbaum
definition, this means that our privacy is not in our hands. On a global scale, this ability is in the hands
of few companies and governments. Because of technical innovations and social unpreparedness,
societies face a possible data totalitarianism based on biometric unique identifiers that may be called
Is the society aware? The imminent launch of Google Glass is producing harsh reactions (Champion
escribed since 1999 by Phil Agre (Gruteser and Grunwald 2004). A no-return
actually deepen the asymmetry, as the victim of a panic reaction could be the right to sousveillance,
and not the ruthless exploitation of personal data: a ban for people from to record in public with
4. How to face it? Re-establishing information symmetry
Data authorities have become quite responsive to issues linked to biometric visual data. US FTC has
issued recommendations on face recognition (US Federal Trade Commission 2012) and in the EU a
new data protection regulation has been proposed that expli
are actions are likely to foster a social response in a direction that avoids data totalitarianism?
While computer programs behaviour is to some extent predictable, it's extremely difficult to design
measures that could impact on social norms. Some measures, playing on awareness and allowing
systemic feedback, could perhaps help to re-establish an information symmetry.
1) Publicly accessible face recognition search engines, as the test site of Baidu, can help re-establish a
symmetry. Anyone can check what biometric data is linkable to her identity, leading to a full
awareness of what kind of visual information is available also to others. She can also take appropriate
enforceable. This reduces the risk that personal data is provided to thirds by entities running similar
services covertly. One great downside of this approach is that only privacy-aware and tech-savvy
users will be able to limit the availability of personal biometric data.
2) To face the issue of biometric data linked to real identities, we could design and investigating a
technical arrangement where the identity provider is separated from the content or service provider
(eg. social networks, e-mail, website requiring authentication). The entity who identifies the user
should know nothing about her content, while the party who provides or stores user content trusts the
identity provider about her access credentials. This is what happens with single-sign-on systems. Each
user could, if he wishes, use multiple identities from several different identity providers. While
keeping the freedom to use pseudonyms for most services, users can be required to provide real
names, according to the type of service requested. Reliably linking together multiple identities to one
real name is made more difficult. Law enforcement could access both parties (identity and content)
with a single warrant.
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3) As a general rule, privacy in the public context should be protected assuming default opt-out from
non-cooperative biometric visual recognition. Users enrolled in biometric recognition systems should
be specifically informed on all possible uses, scope and duration of their data. Exceptions for specific
cases should apply.
The matter is evolving very rapidly, so we are going to see in the next few years what will be the
outcome of the interaction of computer code with social norms together with market and legal rules.
References
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IS/IT ETHICAL ISSUES AS A CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY: REVISITING STRATEGIC BUSINESS
PLANNING UNDER THE LENS OF IS/IT ETHICAL
PREOCCUPATIONS
Anne Chartier and Bernard Plante
Abstract
ethical issues are presented as specific issues associated to project development course. Considering
the IS/IT use in organizations, their social, economic and ecological impact, this scheme ought to be
revisited. For a more consistent vision of strategic planning process with the Net Economy
parameters, we formulate guidelines to integrate IS/IT ethical issues as organizational strategic issues
and we propose a clearer distribution of responsibilities regarding IS/IT ethical issues across the
Keywords
Business ethics; organizational strategic planning; IS/IT ethical issues; corporate social responsibility
1. Introduction
Authors interested on business ethics have stated the important role of IT« as a tool to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of corporate governance» (Rezzae, 2009, p. 324). However, even if IS/IT
has significant impacts on market as well as on business, few concerns are given to the IS/IT ethical
issues which could beat strategic impact. In a previous era when IS/IT systems were few or were used
as closed systems, a narrow view of IS/IT ethical issues was acceptable. However, considering the
important role IS/IT play in the day-to-day functioning of organisations, the fast and large spreading
and their social, economic and ecological impact (Wilkin and Cerpa, 2012), IS/IT choices in
organizations cannot be considered as neutral.
practices that involve computers, in order to reveal the moral import of practices that appear to be
to ensure the IS/IT alignment to increase the business profitability, they must also be preoccupied by
the ethical impact of their strategy on the business ecosystems as well as on the society as a whole
(Spinello, 2011). A change in the traditional strategic business planning process is required to
incorporate IS/IT ethical issues to reach a better fit to the Net economy reality. We ought to revisit this
scheme and propose a vision consistent with the Net Economy parameters.
Organizations of the net economy should show concerns about the IS/IT ethical issues throughout the
strategic planning process. Scholars working on Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) have tried to
However, at the organizational level, information systems and information technologies (IS/IT) and
their ethical issues are not taken into account in those categories, despite the prominent role they play
in organisations, in economic and in society. All too often, ethical issues are presented as specific
issues linked to project development course, with concerns mainly with privacy or with security
issues, or with incident arising in the use of IS/IT artefacts as consequences of users, computer
101
Which IS/IT ethical concerns should be taken into account at a strategic level and which one at an
operational level? What are the links between the organizational strategic planning process and the
strategic planning process should ponder the ethical benefits and drawbacks resulting from the
dissemination of information systems and technological artefacts.
This paper analyses ethical issues at three organizational levels: strategic, tactic and operational.
Taking IS/IT ethical issues into account at all organizational levels constitute a profound change with
the prevailing theories. The aim of the paper is to clarify why the strategic planning process must take
ethical issues into account, explain which IS/IT ethical issues should be considered at different levels
in the organizational planning process and propose guidelines to integrate IS/IT ethical issues as a
dimension of a strategic planning process evaluation category.
The first part of the paper presents the limits of the actual tools used to evaluate organizational
strategic planning process bearing in mind IS/IT ethical issues. The second part exposes why
computer ethics should be deliberated at the strategic level of organisations. The third part presents
some IS/IT ethical issues of importance to all organizational levels and proposes guidelines to
incorporate those issues in the forethought.
The paper should interest academics as well as managers and IS/IT professionals who care about
taking into account a global vision of IS/IT ethical issues as a corporate social responsibility.
2. Any concerns for IS/IT ethical issues at the strategic level?
With IS/IT pervading all organizational levels in all organizational spheres, moreover with the
development of Internet-based systems, one could think IS/IT ethical issues are a strategic
organizational concern. However, a rapid examination of both strategic planning evaluation process
dimensions, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) categories and IS/IT strategic planning evaluation
dimensions show that there is little concern toward ethical issues linked to technological choices in
organisations. IS/IT ethical issues are too often narrowed to the sole responsibility of IS/IT
professionals or IS/IT users.
2.1 The Strategic Planning Process
The Strategic Planning Process is the establishing of strategic goals, mission and values of an
organization as well as products and services offering. As illustrated in Figure 1, its main objective is
Where is the firm going considering the market opportunities?”. The next step
How can we attain these goals?”. This questioning will be answered, among
What is
requireding resulting in IT architecture.
Different tools can be used to evaluate the attainment of strategic objectives. These tools, described as
Performance Measurement Systems (PMS), are used to report financial and non-financial measures
(Länsiluoto and Järvenpää, 2010). The most popular one is the Balance scorecard (BSC) developed in
1992 by Kaplan and Norton.
Balanced Score cards (BSC)
BSC can be used either to internally evaluate managerial performance or to interpret information from
the external business environment. The dimensions retained to measure the attainment of these
s of the BSC are:
financial, customer, internal business process and learning and growth (Cheng and Humphreys, 2012).
Ethical issues do not appear as a dimension to be evaluated at the strategic level. This could explain
why, in the last decade, efforts have been done to re-examine the use of BSC and other performance
measurement systems with a growing concern to environmental management issues (Länsiluoto and
Järvenpää, 2010). Since the sixties, voices have risen to ask questions about businesses social
102
responsibilities (Schwartz and Carroll, 2003). These questions have resulted in the development of a
research domain dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Figure 1 – IS/IT planning process
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
CSR focuses
Carroll, 2003:503). For decades, scholars have tried to tackle the categories which should define CSR.
the entire range of obligations business has to society; it must embody economic, legal, ethical and
-Jan, 2006:179). In
2003, Schwartz and Carroll proposed that CSR was composed of three domains: economic, ethical
and legal. Maon et al. (2008) have stated that CSR issues can be defined as the result of the influence
of four key drivers: economic, social, political, and individual. The three first drivers are identified as
appear to be value ba
It is important to notice that two elements are absents from CSR model. The first one is the ignorance
of technology as a driver for CSR issues. There seems to be a lack of direct concern toward IS/IT
either as tools used by almost all organizations or as products or services offered by others (Pouloudi
, 2006), notwithstanding the fact that IS/IT pervades every sphere of the society. The
second one is that IS/IT ethical issues do not seem to explicitly be a concern in the whole process. One
may think these elements wiil be taken into account by another planning process which focus is
information systems planning.
Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP)
The Strategic Information Systems Planning process, which follows the organisational strategic
planning process, is considered as a critical component of business performance. Strategic Information
Systems Planning (SISP) is seen as a function of strategic management in organizations to ensure
through better IT per
planning has long been established as inescapable to ensure organisational performances (Henderson
and Venkatraman, 1993; Guillemette and Paré, 2012). Since the lack of concerns for IS/IT ethical
issues at the strategic planning process, it would seem logical to take these issues into account in the
Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) process. The IS/IT planning process usually takes
place after the business strategy planning process with a delegation of IS/IT strategy to IT specialists
(Ward and Peppard, 2002). Segars et al. (1998) has identified six dimensions to a structured approach
Where is the
firm going? How to attain
these goals?
What is
required?
Market,
business
opportunity
Business Strategy
And Goals
IS Strategy
IT
Architecture
103
for reviewing the SISP process: comprehensiveness,which preoccupation is the extensiveness of the
search for solutions, balanced against the costs of time and financial resources; formalization, which
concern is the existence of structures, techniques, written procedures, and policies guiding the
planning process to obtain efficiency gains ; focus, which is the balance between creativity and control
orientations either as innovative approaches to opportunities and threats or integrative approaches
linked to control (through budgets, resource allocation, and asset management); flow is the locus of
authority and devolution of responsibilities either as a top-down or as a bottom-up approach;
participation refers to the extent to which multiple functional areas and key personnel at lower levels
of the organization are involved, as well as the extent of lateral communication in the process;
consistency refers to the frequency of planning activities and performance evaluation which indicators
are: frequency of meetings, constant communication and reassessments of the overall strategy. These
dime
al., 1998:17).
Table 2 – Preoccupations of the organizational or the IS/IT strategic planning processes.
Model
Dimensions
Authors
BSC
financial, customer, internal business process, learning and
growth
Cheng and
Humphreys (2012)
CSR
economic, legal, ethical and discretionary categories of
business performance
Carroll (1979)
CSR
economic, ethical and legal categories
Schwartz and Carroll
(2003)
CSR issues
Market based drivers : economic, social, political
Individual drivers : highlight the CEO’s role in orienting the
ethical norms of the organization […] and the presence of
employees’ values in the workplace
Maon et al. (2008)
SISP
Six dimensions for reviewing the SISP process:
comprehensiveness, formalization, focus, flow,
participation, consistency
Segars et al. (1998)
Table 2 summarizes the different preoccupation levels demonstrated in the planning processes either
as organizational strategic planning process or as IS/IT strategic planning process. IS/IT ethical issues
do not seem to be among the chief preoccupation of a strategic planning process. These issues are
taken into account neither at the strategic level nor during the IS/IT strategic planning process. Even
in the context of the so---product
about as specific issues linked to project development course, mainly privacy or security issues, or to
incident arising in the use of IS/IT artefacts as a consequence of users or compu
given to IS/IT ethical issues as a corporate responsibility even when strategic organizational choices
should be pondered in the equation.
rotect society. It is
implicitly assumed that computer professionals possess all the expertise to evaluate the impact of their
actions or the consequences of th
context and have the time to think about those ethical aspects. However, computer professionals are
often more concerned by the technical side of their work. Many ethical decisions are beyond computer
organizations which have their own business code of conduct, codes which can be more preoccupied
104
-being or which lean on a social contract
CEO and managers make strategic choices and organizational policies. They should be aware of the
l issues should be
considered as an organizational strategic topic and which one should be hand over computer
professionals? The next section is an attempt to delineate these responsibilities and propose a
framework linking the organizational choices across an organization considering IS/IT ethical issues.
3. Why computer ethics should also be deliberated at the strategic level of
organisations?
IS/IT have an impact on the society as a whole. They contribute to shape our society. For example,
one may wonder if those who have created digital mobile networks where thinking of the impact their
project would have on youth, on social relationships, on the way we are learning, making business,
giving cares to patients in clinics or in hospitals, etc.
As stated by
e products of
such actions, e.g., computer systems and software, manuals, advertisements, and laws and policies
regulating the use of computers. These products deserve special mention because their moral
properties may be analyzed independently from a cons
Exclusion of IS/IT ethical issues as a global strategic issue ignores the pervading role IS/IT play in
every sphere of the society as well as the economic and social impacts they have and the prominent
role of High Tech Companies (Krumsiek and al. 2003).
Figure 3 Ethical issues as a professionals or users’ responsibility
105
3.1 Computer ethics, a must considering IS/IT influence on organizations
The central aim of computer ethics is to formulate policies to guide individual and collective action in
the use of computer technology (Moor 1985). Computer ethics, as a branch of applied ethics, should
also be concerned with other practices that involve computing technology. It should be concerned
with practices such as its development or management which require the formulation of policy
guidelines (Brey, 2000). According to that view, the aim of applied ethics is not purely to arrive at
well- ourse, policies and
Strategic planning process ought to be improved to take into account IS/IT ethical issues, given
ions, either as tools they buy
, 2006) or as applications or artefacts used by people as direct or indirect users
and consumers of IT artefacts or of software. IS/IT change the way social life is conducted.
Organizations are dependent on one another regarding the electronic information which flows through
electronic data interchange systems (EDI) between organizations. Good deal of official (black arrows)
and non-official information (white arrows) are transmitted and coll
operations.
Figure 4 – IS/IT as vectors of organizations relationship
Official and non-official information flow between organizations, between organizations and formal
users or clients, but also between organizations and informal users is a complex process (Figure 4).
Products provided to client organizations (1) can consist of IT infrastructure (e.g. net wares), IT
artefacts (e.g. computers, laptops, mobile phones, etc.). Generic applications (e.g. ERPs, CRM, online
games, etc.) are sold to organisations or to consumers. Online social networks such as Facebook,
come with a cost because their by-products consist of raw data about users sold to client
organizations. Some organizations are IS/IT services providers (2). They offer support to develop on
demand applications or they offer consulting services on IS/IT products or generic applications. High-
106
tech organizations may develop products and offer support altogether to organizations which are their
clients.
Client organizations (3) buy IS/IT from providers to be used either as direct support to their operations
(e.g. the use of surveillance systems and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to monitor truck fleets or
just-in-time systems which create new ways of operating). IT functionalities are embedded in products
products sold to consumers.
Considering the complexity of official and non-official information flow in organizations and the
pervasive role IS/IT play in the relationships between organizations but also between organizations
and the society, it is difficult to deny the importance of IS/IT ethical issues at all organizational levels.
What concern should be addressed at each organizational level (strategic, tactic and operational)? The
next section posits IS/IT ethical issues as strategic decision making issues.
3.2 IS/IT ethical issues as strategic decision making issues
In 1995, Mason et al. (1995) stated that the challenges posed by the information society call for a new
social contract which must reflect the primary social and economic activities of the society.
Organisations cannot ignore their role in this agreement and cannot deny their responsibilities either as
IS/IT providers or as IS/IT consumers. With a clearer allocation of responsibilities among
organisational levels, managers should be able to better target ethical decision making at each
organizational level hoping that IS/IT ethical issues will be better taken into account as a strategic
issue.
Strategic level
Overall, CEO should ask questions about the IS/IT alignment choices and their coherence with the
ethical values promoted by the organization. Technological choices should exemplify those values.
The premise to this proposition is that CEO are aware of technological choices and aware of IS/IT
ethical issues. At the strategic level, organizations should discuss IS/IT ethical issues and formulate
clear orientations regarding ethical issues and technological orientations (e.g. ecological choices in
acquiring or discarding technological artefacts, choices of favouring free software solutions against
commercial ones, information justice toward those who provide the data the organization makes use
of, technological implementation and the quality of life in the workplace, prohibiting the information
control abuse, the digital divide as a form of social exclusion, etc. (Pimple, 2011)).
Tactic level
their lives. Managers and professionals should ask What can be done to maximize positive effects of
technological choices and minimize negative impacts? What are the consequences of the computer
systems design for the autonomy of users (Brey , 1999, 1998)? What are the biases in their computer
systems (Friedman and Nissenbaum, 1997)? Other topics to be considered are the IS/IT ethical issues
and consequences of IS/IT choices invisible to the users, taken-for-granted or simply unnoticed by
most people (e.g. pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing, ambient intelligence).
Operational level
At the operational level, there is a wide range of ethical issues which are important to the practice of
IS. Numerous topics and preoccupations have emerged and arisen the attention of researchers about
IS/IT ethical issues: codes of ethics for IS practitioners, issues of privacy and security, combating of
cybercrime, intellectual property disputes, and hacking to name a few
1
(Mingers and Walsham, 2010).
Professionals should ask which values are embedded in the design of their computer systems and
technological choices. How to make managers aware of IS/IT ethical issues? What can be done to
1
See the seminal work of Mingers and Walsham (2010) who present an interesting and global portrait of
107
better promote IS/IT ethical issues across all the organization? Table 3 summarize the questioning
which should prevail at each level.
Table 3 – Questioning pertaining to each organizational level
3.3 IS/IT ethical issues as a corporate social responsibility dimension
Ethics should not be considered as a dimension apart from other dimensions but should be embedded
in all organizational preoccupations whether they are economic, legal or technological. Organizational
revisited to include IS/IT ethical dimensions, as summarized on Table 4 ( text in bold fonts underlines
the ethical vision which should be embedded in all organizational activities rather than being
considered as a separate organizational category).
Balance score cards (BSC) used to evaluate results of the strategic planning process could include an
evaluation of IS/IT ethical dimension by asking questions on how do technological choices exemplify
organizational values through their impacts on finance, customer, internal business process, learning
and growth.
IS/IT ethical dimension could be included as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) by asking How
technological choices? How are our values embedded in the technological, economic, environmental
and legal dimensions? How are ethical issues linked to the economic, environmental and legal
dimensions?
Considering the social and economic impact of technology, technology should be included as a market
based driver for corporate social responsibility issues. Individual drivers should also include the
evaluate the ethical norms coherence throughout the organization as well as the capacity of employees
to ensure coherence between technological choices and values in the workplace.
Finally, two more dimensions should be added as dimensions to evaluate IS/IT strategic alignment:
IS/IT knowledge at all levels, IS/IT ethical awareness. IS/IT knowledge should evaluate what can be
technological alphabetization should be in order to be able to evaluate the impacts of IS/IT choices
Considering the impacts of IS/IT organizational choices and the pervading effects of technologies in
all sphere of the society, it is legitimate to include questioning on IS/IT ethical issues as part of the
organizational strategic planning process. Such questioning should take place at all organizational
levels and should be embedded in tools which are used to evaluate the results of the strategic planning
process whether it is Balanced Score Card, Corporate Social Responsibility categories or the
dimensions for reviewing the Strategic Information Systems process (SISP).
IS/IT alignment choices and their coherence with
the ethical values promoted by the organization.
How do technological choices exemplify those
values?
Strategic
level
Tactic level
Ho
their life. What can be done to maximize positive
effects of technological choices and minimize
negative impacts?
Which values are embedded in the design of our
computer systems and technological choices?
How to make managers aware of IS/IT ethical
issues? What can be done to better promote IS/IT
ethical issues across all the organization?
Operational
choices
CEO and CIO
CIO and project
managers
IS/IT
professionals
108
Table 4 - Preoccupations of the organizational or the IS/IT strategic planning processes revisited
Model
Dimensions
BSC
How do technological choices exemplify organizational values through their impacts on
finance, customer, internal business process, learning and growth?
CSR
How do technological choices exemplify organizational values? How technological choices
affect people’s job and their life? What are the IS/IT ethical issues linked to our
technological choices? How are our values embedded in the technological, economic,
environmental and legal dimensions? How are ethical issues linked to the economic,
environmental and legal dimensions?
CSR
issues
Market based drivers : technological, economic, social, political
Individual drivers : IS/IT knowledge at all organizational levels influence the CEO’s role in
orienting the ethical norms of the organization […] and the capacity of employees to
ensure coherence between technological choices and values in the workplace.
SISP
Eight dimensions for reviewing the SISP process: IS/IT knowledge at all levels, IS/IT ethical
awareness, comprehensiveness, formalization, focus, flow, participation, consistency.
4. Conclusion
A brief examination of the Balance Score Card dimensions, the Corporate Social Responsibility
little concern toward IS/IT ethical issues as a strategic issue despite the scope and the important
impact of IS/IT in organizations and in society. An illustration of the complexity of the relationship
and the intertwining of information flow between IS/IT providers, IS/IT client organizations, direct
and indirect IS/IT users is proposed to underline the fact that IS/IT ethical issues should be
considered as a strategic issue and contend that managers at all levels cannot ignore their
responsibilities regarding these IS/IT ethical issues.
A first limit of this paper resides in the limited literature review of the strategic planning process
evaluation dimensions. However, following this preliminary analysis, this research topic appears to be
a promising one. A second limit relates to the non-systematic inventory of the IS/IT ethical issues. A
finer analysis would contribute to give a finer understanding of which ethical issues should be of a
concern to each organizational level. It would also contribute to improve the proposed guidelines.
Future researches should clarify these points. Moreover, it would be interesting to better understand
Two original contributions must be underlined. The first one is the delineation of responsibilities
among strategic, tactic and operational organizational levels regarding the questioning about IS/IT
ethical issues, with the hope that those issues will be taken into account as a strategic issue. The
second one is a revisiting of strategic evaluation tools and the proposal of guidelines to tackle IS/IT
ethical issues.
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MORAL REASONING IN E-LEARNING GENERATIONS:
FROM 1.0 TO 4.0
Gonçalo Jorge Morais Costa, Nuno Sotero Alves Silva and Tiago
Filipe Rodrigues Fonseca
Abstract
This paper explores two hot topics in e-learning literature: moral reasoning (bond to ethical and social
issues) and its generations. Future educational environments impose a dramatic shift regarding
-
unforeseen ethical and moral dilemmas which e-learning literature seems to disregard. Recent e-
learning empirical data (second co-author PhD) serve as analytical starting point despite potential
limitations. This paper is divided into three sections: guiding concepts (moral reasoning and e-
learning); ethical and social dilemmas- evaluating e-
framework); and, analysis (disclosure, e-learning today and future e-learning).
Keywords
Moral reasoning, e-learning, generations, educational actors
1. Introduction
Moral behaviour is a sine qua non condition in education, although future educational environments
traditional (lecturers and learners) and non-traditional (non-
(Costa, Silva and Fonseca
and moral dilemmas, which e-learning literature seems to disregard. Against this backdrop, the paper
explores e-learning implementation in Lusíada Universities (from 1.0 to 2.0- e.g., Silva, Rogerson and
Stahl, 2010) as starting point to predict such ethical and moral dilemmas.
Hence, the authors aim to: (i) understand the ethical and social dilemmas posed in each e-learning
lecturers, learners and non-human agents)
moral behaviour, as well as effects upon the ethical and social dilemmas; (ii) and, demonstrate how e-
learning technologies shape the micro (individuals) and macro levels (educational institutions). For
that, the paper is divided into three sections: guiding concepts (moral reasoning and e-learning);
ethical and social dilemmas- evaluating e-
analysis (disclosure, e-learning today and future e-learning).
2. Guiding concepts
2.1 Moral reasoning
(Richardson, 2013). Practical reasoning recognises the importance of experience (neo-Kolberghian
thesis), as well as a complex interaction among several elements to produce a moral intention (Frey,
2000). Therefore, moral reasoning unites moral intensity (moral imperative of a circumstance) and
moral sensibility (cognitive process) (Jones, 1991). While moral reasoning involves a person; moral
intelligence may invoke an artificial agent, which acknowledges the interaction among action,
cognition, and spirituality in a non-human agent due to human-computer interaction (Panã, 2013).
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2.2 E-learning
Definition
Literature illustrates a wide range of e-learning definitions, as for instance:
1. online delivery of information for purposes of education, training, or knowledge management,
and is different from formal education, which occurs off campus, and usually, but not always,
through online resources (distance learning) (Turban et al., 2006);
2. ICT in higher education in order to engage students autonomous utilisation (Stahl, 2005);
3. Internet and other networks exploration to provide training through synchronous or
asynchronous mode (Abram, 2003).
These definitions outline a formal scope of education, which enables four technological systems:
Learning Management Systems (administrative tasks); Managed Learning Environment (learning and
learning management procedures); Learning Content Management Systems (content management
process); and, Virtual Learning Environments (educational actors interactions). However, novel and
future educational mashups (e.g., Skype, social networks, PodCast, immersive learning games)
challenge this paradigm in a continuum of thought (Wenmonth, 2006). Concluding, e-learning entails
conceptual/physical components, formal/informal standards through a framework for co-operation
Generations
Crump and Costea (2003) argue that learning technologies exist on a dynamic continuum; so, while
education 1.0 resumes a static and non bidirectional communication amongst lecturers and learners (a
traditional perspective of e- -source
applications, where learning is becoming a creative activity (podcast, wikis, blogs, etc) and that the
And, what is the future of learning environments? In spite of semantic web early-stage of
development, e-learning 3.0 is becoming a reality. These learning environments provide contextual
information and text, voice or images organisation throughout workflow tools as supporting
infrastructure (Teten, 2007), i.e., artificial agents explore information or other sources (voice, image,
etc.). Likewise, these non-human agents can provide recommendations regarding educational content
e anywhere (physical environment) lecturers or learners
preferences (infuse in society) to promote transversal collaboration (Moravec, 2009).
Educational technologies 4.0 will have artificial intelligence in all applications (Turban et al., 2010),
although literature recognises a myriad of visions:
1. blend of human and non-
knowledge (post-human society) (Kurzweil, 2009);
2. total ubiquitous capabilities (knowledge repository of human civilisation), i.e., an aware and
cognoscenti multidimensional network (joint human and artificial intelligence due to quantum
computing) from which meta-knowledge (complex decision-making) will arise in order to
progress be achievable (Tow, 2010);
3. haptic devices (unlike sensations that objects and interfaces provide to individuals) will
permit communication among human and non-human agents (Kambil, 2008), as well as, a
continuous exchange of our behavioural profiles and activities (Nash, 2008);
4. cognoscenti multidimensional network to promote complex decision making through
ubiquitous wearable and haptic devices that update users behavioural profiles and experiential
preferences (Spivack, 2007).
Despite the prior explanations is vital to compare each generation scheme (table 1) as well as
technologies versus examples (table 2).
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Table 1. E-learning generations vs. technological examples
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0*
Meaning is
Dictated
Socially constructed
Socially constructed
and contextually
reinvented
Socially constructed,
contextually reinvented
and experiential
Technology is
Selected
Cautiously adopted
Everywhere
Everywhere (systemic)
Lecturing is
L/S
L/S; S/S
L/S; L/AIA; S/S;
S/L; S/AA
L/S; L/AA; S/S; S/L;
S/AA; AA/L; AA/AA;
AA/S
Classrooms
location
Building
Building/online
Everywhere
(infused society)
Everywhere
(multidimensional
society)
Lecturers are
Licensed
experts
Licensed experts
Everybody
Everybody (including
AIA)
Hardware and
software
Proprietary
and costly
Open source with low
cost
Low cost and used
purposively
Low cost, used
purposively through
individual demand
Companies
view of
learners
Industrial
workers
Like 1.0, despite a
knowledge economy
Co-workers or
entrepreneurs
Co-entrepreneurs
Legend: L- Lecturer| S- Student| AA- Artificial Agent|* authors education 4.0 vision
Source: Adapted from Moravec (2009)
Table 2. E-learning generations vs. technological examples
E-learning
generation
Technologies
(standards)
Examples
1.0
HTTP, HTML, SOAP,
XML, Java, Flash, etc
Content portals, websites, enterprise portals, databases, file
servers, file sharing and search engines
2.0
P2P, RSS, AJAX, Open
ID, ATOM, etc
Community portals, social bookmarks and networks, multi-user
games, instant messaging, blogs and wikis
3.0
OWL, SPARKQL and
SWRL
Intelligence agents, personal assistants, semantic web, semantic
search, and knowledge bases
4.0
?*
cognoscenti multidimensional network, haptic interfaces, and
mobile/ambient findability
Legend: * hitherto, literature about 4.0 generation does not recognise potential standards
Source: Adapted from Turban et al., 2010
3. Ethical and social dilemmas: Evaluating e-learning!
3.1 Authors’ argument
E-learning assessment literature is vast and investigates topics like information systems management,
o
The majority of contemporary frameworks neglect a multidimensional analysis which moral reasoning
and e-learning overlaps require; so, the authors acknowledge the work of Stahl (2002a).
3.2 Stahl’s framework
Stahl-level (individuals); meso-level (e-learning project); macro-
level (educational institutions). Yet, the author denotes he individual on the micro level is also
part of meso level organizations, in this case of a university, and belongs to a macro level society or
Stahl, 2002b, pp.56).
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Figure 1. E-teaching framework Source: Stahl (2002, pp. 143)
In each layer two dimensions arise: (i) if the moral problem is theoretical or practical; and, ii) if the
ethical relevant behaviour falls into a descriptive, normative or meta-ethical theory. Despite the
interdependent relationship, namely between normative and descriptive ethics, Stahl (2002a)
(p. 141). Nevertheless, which ethical dilemmas require moral reasoning in digital learning
environments? This author acknowledges cheating, intellectual property, plagiarism and copyright
violations, privacy versus surveillance, personal data versus identity, integrity and honesty.
4. Analysis
4.1 Disclosure
Disclosure is the act or procedure of revealing or exposing, as well as, formulating a revelation (The
Free Online Dictionary, 2013). That is, e-learning technologies shape Stahl (micro and macro
levels) as Lusíada Universities empirical data demonstrate (see Table 3).
4.2 Today: E-learning at a glance
In order to debate moral reasoning in future learning environments, the authors explore Lusíada
universities empirical data. The continuous utilisation of social media in Portugal and Angola denotes
interesting differences as Table 4 denotes. Note that in Portuguese Lusíada social media is a key
component for communication and learning, contrarily to Angola.
4.3 Outlook: The Future of e-learning
Future learning environments (3.0 and 4.0) comprise human (lecturers and learners) and non-human
agents; so, these will reinvent the prior ethical dilemmas as the following queries denote:
1. Are the ethicultural challenges analogous in each e-learning generation? (query 1);
2. Assuming the non-human agent as knowledge creator, who belongs the intellectual property
rights? (query 2);
3. Who is morally responsible for such knowledge? (query 3);
4. What is moral reasoning in these learning environments? (query 4).
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Table 3. E-learning implementation in Lusíada Universities (1.0) versus Stahl’s matrix
Levels
Actors
Examples
Reflection
Micro
Lecturers
Produce and introduce content
simultaneously for
Portuguese and Angolan
learners
characteristics? It is required ethicultural
sensitivity?
Learners
Academic integrity, namely
regarding plagiarism, is more
intense in Portuguese than in
Angola learners
In Angola technological infrastructure is not
totally available, contrarily to what happens
in Portugal. As a consequence, Angolan
learners have less means to access to
plagiarism, copyright and intellectual
property rights)? Does this fact justify a
distinct moral intensity about academic
integrity?
Macro
Educational
institution
Institutional accreditation
(Bologna Process)
concerning delivered content.
This content should be
shared by Portugal and
Angola campuses (e-
learning)
In Portugal, e-learning technologies have been
supported by European Union financial
programs (Bologna Process). However, in
Angola it resumes a continuous internal
investment by the University. In addition,
Lusíada University (shared name) resumes a
Janus assumption: in Portugal it is a
foundation; and, in Angola it is a profitable
organization. Does this organizational
antagonism imply unlike social
responsibility?
Source: Adapted from Silva et al., 2011
Table 4. E-learning 2.0 implementation in Lusíada Universities
Levels
Actors
Examples
Reflection
Micro
Lecturers
Portuguese lecturers interact with learners,
although without introduce content
(organisational policy), while in Angola
lecturers create Lusíada Facebook pages
(absence of organisational policy) with non-
authorised content (copyright and intellectual
property violation)
How to improve Angolan
making?
Learners
In Angola is common to have false learners
groups or Facebook pages (identity issues), as
well as containing information that violates
copyright and intellectual property (e.g.,
books)
Academic integrity is more
intense in Portugal. How to
change the status quo and
decision making?
Source: Authors
Query 1: ethicultural sensitivity
Panã (in press) argues that non-human moral intelligence can provide a basis for cultural abilities,
since acknowledge a compliance with norms and values. If future learning environments embrace
simultaneously a physical and virtual relationship with individuals through haptic devices; then, is
reasonable to claim that intelligence is distributed across the social, natural, cultural and technological
sensitivity will continue to be a wishful thinking because if a system will learn and evolve with
-ethicultural human user will shape a non-ethicultural agent despite
memetic computing development. Memetic computing is an attempt to capture the biological-cultural
combination and optimisation in non-human agents (Emergent Technologies Task Force on Memetic
Computing, 2010), i.e., ethicultural sensitivity in non-human agents.
115
Query 2: intellectual property rights
-human agents that produce knowledge according to our behavioural
profiles and activities (Nash, 2008) or emotional states (Spivack, 2007), the human perception of
creativity and ownership will be tremendously reshaped. In spite this assumption is a fuzzy debate due
to:
autonomic learning- inner mechanism of self-
attitudes, competences and learning strategies (Wang and Li, 2007);
autonomic non-human learning- systems that now themselves or ought to create self-
knowledge (Cofino et al., 2003).
If knowledge can be produced by a human or non-human agent what will be the outcome? Presuming
their contribution? In case of autonomic non-human learning, who belongs intellectual property
-human agent...
This legal quandary is also challenged by devirtualisation (immersive learning environments):
t configure multiple methodological and ontological
perceptions (Baofu, 2008) which is related to informational existentialism (Costa and Silva, 2010).
Query 3: moral responsibility
From the previous queries, it is possible to debate the moral responsibility. Its theoretical ground
acknowledge intellectual property rights legal subjectivity (Gutwirth and Hert, 2006), since a non-
human agent own actions continue to illustrate difficulties about copyright law. In fact, their
polymorphic behaviour leads to unpredictable outcomes which even hurdles the legal and moral
analysis (Shoyama, 2005). Hence, two arguments exclude non-human
(Groom, 2004): (i) technological exclusion, defined as design measures to prevent or restrain
copyright or related rights; (ii) contractual exclusion, internet structure facilitates contractual
interactions in a variety of ways, as for instance immediate communication regarding agreement terms
and conditions.
Query 4: moral reasoning
Himma (2009) refers two conditions for moral agency: free choice (rational agent); and, the agent
ought to understand the consequences of its actions. The issue of conscience within non-human agents
assumes a traditional anthropocentric conception (Floridi and Sanders, 2004), despite do not possess
functional consciousness (Torrance, 2008). Although these non-human agents produce moral dangers,
which presume to ascribe moral reasoning through a positive retort to three queries (Sullins, 2006): (i)
are non-human agents considerably autonomous?; (ii) what is the meaning of intentional behaviour in
such agents?; (iii) are these morally responsible, or not?
Traditionally, autonomy acknowledges a condition or state regarding self-government and self-
determination; although, it remains unclear if individuals value equally autonomy (Christman, 2011).
The complex interaction among both entities will produce unforeseen results in a certain context, as
well as is virtually impossible to ignore that such non-huma
information and design constraints (Gotterbarn, 2010). From the above assumptions it is reasonable to
refer that a non-human agent simply entail moral agency, since
-responsibility indicates that the speaker intends to use the idea of a social construction for the
purpose of ascribing a subject to an object with the aim of attributing sanctions (the heart of
responsibility) without regard to the question whether the subject fulfils the traditional conditions of
, 2006, pp. 210).
Discussion and conclusion
E-learning evolution is a current topic within literature, although the novel dilemmas that future
learning environments will pose has been neglected as this paper denotes. From the analysis is
possible to argue that education 3.0 and 4.0 will produce intricate quandaries regarding moral
reasoning, since old ethical issues continue and novel ones arise.
116
Probably the most relevant is the interaction among both entities, because it is feasible to question if
an unmoral person may influence negatively the autopoietic non-human agent despite its capabilities
to evolve. In case of a positive answer the ethical dilemmas will proliferate; if not, a behavioural
change is possible? Hitherto the retort is blurry, although the concept of moral exemplar may provide
important clues. A moral exemplar is an individual that achieve continued successful performance
through ethical behaviour (Huff and Barnard, 2009), so a moral lecturer or learner may induce a
positive influence over the non-human agent.
In spite of be complex and uncertain to predict learning environments features, is the authors believe
localitas (as a necessary quality of bodies),
connectivitas (fusion status about multi-glocal experiences), and humanitas (capacity for self-
consciousness, self-exploration, and self-determination as the Roman philosopher Cicero describes)
(Silva, Alvarez and Rogerson localitas
connectivitas will incorporate learners distributed experiences due to systemic and
immersive environments.
Acknowledgments
For financial assistance pertaining ETHICOMP 2013, the first co-author gratefully recognises
Autónoma University of Lisbon.
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DEVELOPING ROBUST CAD CURRICULUM BY APPLYING
BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AND
TECHNOLOGY
Richard Cozzens
Abstract
The drafting and design world has undergone and continues to undergo drastic technological changes.
These changes have had a huge effect on technology and engineering education. The course objectives
and assessments at the state and national level has been a subject of discussion for several years as a
result of the fast paced changes in technology and how it is reshaping the industry. At
ETHICOMP2008, I discussed the feasibility of Web-Based Training. The research conducted
indicated that web-based CAD training was a feasible method of training given the training had the
right components. At ETHICOMP2010, I discussed the quality of Web-Based Training. In the paper,
it was mentioned that web-based CAD training would never completely replace face-to-face training
but could be used as supplement and in some cases be a viable substitute. At ETHICOMP2011, I
explored social media for disseminating training. This background has provided me with a strong
foundation to help guide a state grant in developing a robust CAD Curriculum applying Blended
Learning Techniques and the latest technology. In this paper I will present a collaborative project
between the state of Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) and Utah State Office of Education
Districts (USOE) to develop a new approach to presenting and teaching an old subject engineering
and technology as it applies to Computer Aided Design (CAD). In the paper I will present the
proposed curriculum and the project curriculum development team. I will also explain the role of the
flipped classroom blended learning and how web-based technology is being used to provide teaching
and learning opportunities at multiple levels. I will also explain how this curriculum because of the
technology can be used as a stand-alone web-based course, hybrid course or a supplement to a regular
face to face class. After the grant requirements are discussed there will be a section covering the
lessons learned since the curriculum development phase is 2/3 complete. Then a short summary will
close this paper out.
Keywords
CAD, Blended Learning, Web-Based Curriculum
1. The Problem
The first problem: The technology used to generate mechanical drawings has evolved significantly in
the last few years. The use of CAD software not only provides fast and efficient tools to generate
these mechanical drawings and designs but provides tools for design review and evaluation. The
designer of today must understand the design intent and constraint requirements of the part and/or
assembly being created and/or designed. It is critical that these concepts be incorporated into the
existing drafting and design course without neglecting the fundamental concepts traditionally taught in
this type of course. Time in the classroom remains constant but the content has increased to include
the use of software and in many cases multiple software packages. Although the technology has
evolved significantly, the fundamental principles of drafting and design have not changed. The state of
Utah education system at the high school and college/university level has been struggling with this
issue for several years. In addition to this problem engineering and design curriculum has been taught
the same way for years using memorization and providing a solution before the student even
question is posed. Blooms Taxonomy states that the lowest level of learning is memorization. One of
the highest level of learning is application and evaluation. The traditional method of teaching
engineering and design is more a method of memorization with limited application. The traditional
method had very little evaluation type exercises. Newer methods of teaching this type of curriculum
119
pose questions. The questions provide the student with a purpose to learn the information. It is a
method of engaging the student. An example of this is Project Lead the Way. PLW curriculum almost
always poses a question prior to any lesson. These questions provide the student with a need to know.
meet the changes in technology but it has not been enough. The methodology has not been updated or
standardized at all.
The second problem: Students learn at different rates using different methods of learning. Dr. Avi
Wiezels has structured his classes in attempt to solve a problem that Folkestad and De Miranda has
difficult to teach CAD related technologies in a stand-and-deliver format, where some students excel
and subsequently are waiting on the instructor, and those that lag behind and may never grasp the
Arizona State University was experiencing similar challenges in keeping the students fully engaged
and learning.
2. The Solution
The Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) opened up grant proposals from USHE faculty to
create a hybrid course that satisfy General Education requirements for high demand Career and
Technical Education (CTE) courses such as engineering and technical design (this includes CAD).
The idea is that these courses could be used for Concurrent Enrollment (CE) credit so students in the
public education system (high schools) could get college credit for taking this class. A team of USHE
faculty members from across the state applied for this grant. This team is referred to in this paper as
the TICE Team. In August of 2012 the TICE Team proposal was awarded the grant. The course being
The grant is not the solution, it is merely the vehicle needed to apply the solutions developed by TICE
team. The following section headings are the grant requirements. Below each of the requirements is an
explanation to the TICE teams solution to meeting and in some cases exceeding the requirements.
These solutions are what makes this curriculum unique and robust compared to the more traditional
engineering and technical design curriculum
Dr. Wiezels solution to the second stated problem was to implement blended learning using the
following format. All of Dr. Wiezels lectures were accessible online (via e-learning tools and
YouTube). The students would come to class watch the lectures on video. It was robust because they
could work at their own speed. If they did not understand a concept they could replay the video
portion over and over again. For students that learned better from reading, the book was available
online as a PDF format. The advanced students were able to complete the homework and leave early.
This cleared his time and attention to the students that were struggling. In many cases he still lectured
on the subject but was able to adjust and customize the lecture to the struggling students through
formative/process assessment. I was able to observe this first hand and have attempted to implement
into my courses ever since that experience. It was important to me to implement this flexibility into
this project.
3. The Utah Technology Intensive Concurrent Enrollment (TICE) Project
What is TICE (Technology Intensive Concurrent Enrollment)? The Utah Education Network (UEN)
(TICE) is a collaborative program sponsored by the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) and
designed as a hybrid blend of teaching and learning activities that take place in class and online. They
so qualified high school juniors and seniors may enroll and earn
credit in one of the institutions in the Utah System of High Education (USHE) as well as meet
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For this purpose the Curriculum Development Team (TICE Team) was composed of selected
professors and instructors from across the state to create a web-based book (PDF and/or eBook) that
teaches the principles of drafting and design at the process level to promote curriculum acceptance
and implementation from K-12 to Post-Secondary Education. This will provide a method for every
school in the state to use the same book and objectives, and achieve the same outcomes for all CE
classes accepted by every state college/university. This will provide the link to a higher educational
path for high school students wanting to enter a career in an engineering profession early in their
education regardless of their geographic location. Given that this book focused on the process level, it
can be used without going out of date. The components in each lesson have applied techniques that
can be applied to any CAD software and any version (release) of that software. The book will be
accessible through Canvas (classroom management system similar to Blackboard) as an online course
delivery tool. The entire course is being developed around the state objectives for both the pre-
engineering and drafting technology programs.
course to explore engineering technology and technical design solutions using critical thinking in
Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM). Includes: Design Professions & Teams
using the Engineering Design Process; Documenting the Design Process through Sketching & the
Engineering Notebook; Design Measuring; Geometric Construction & Computer Aided Design
(CAD); Design Visualization; Multi-view Drawings; Fasteners; Assembly Drawings; Dimensioning;
Tolerancing; and Presentation of a Final Team Design Project .
The Course Outcomes are:
Upon successful completion students will be able to:
1. Understand the role of design in society, related professions and the engineering design
process.
2. Understand and apply mathematics, measuring conventions and scales using scale factors.
3. Develop the ability to visualize a design solution in 2D and 3D as well as manipulate it.
4. Document the design process and apply drawing standards in solving technological problems.
5. Understand and demonstrate the use of geometric and numeric construction constraints.
6. Understand and develop multi view drawings that include all necessary views.
7. Fully describe the size, shape, location, and manufacturing required to produce a part.
8. Fully define the allowable variation of the geometric size, shape, location, and manufacturing
required to produce a part.
9. Document a full assembly to completely describe each part to be manufactured.
The Course Modules are:
1. Design Professions & Teams Using the Engineering Design Process
2. Documenting the Design Process through Sketching & the Engineering Notebook
3. Design Measuring
4. Geometric Construction & CAD
5. Design Visualization
6. Multi-View Drawings
7. Fasteners
8. Assembly Drawings
9. Dimensioning
10. Tolerancing
11. Final Team Design Project
12. Supplemental Resources
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3.1 TICE Grant RFP Criteria 1
Names and institutional affiliations of the course design team members.
Name
Title
Institution
1
Richard Cozzens (Grant Director)
Professional in Residence
Southern Utah University
2
Jeremy Farner
Professor
Weber State University
3
Howard Bezzant
Professor
Utah Valley University
4
Elias Perez
Professor
Utah State University Eastern
5
Michael Stenquist
Instructor
Salt Lake Community College
6
Rex Thornock
Instructor
Ogden-Weber Tech College
7
Tim Feltner
Instructor
Layton High School
8
Dr. Thomas Paskett
Instructor
Fremont High School
9
Gary Roberts
Instructor
Wasatch High School
Pedagogy & Assessment Advisor:
Shalini Kesar (Assistant Professor) Southern Utah University
Technology and Curriculum Development Software Advisor:
Isabella Borisova (Instructor) Southern Utah University
Advisory Members:
Dave Milliken: Utah State Skilled and Technical Sciences Education Specialist
Darrell Andelin: Utah State Technology & Engineering Education Specialist
3.2 TICE Grant RFP Criteria 2
Requirement: Proposal narrative describing the course learning objectives, articulation with a
corresponding USOE course, course design methodology, course activities, materials and resources to
be used by students and instructors, along with a description of how these will be incorporated into the
Instructure CANVAS learning management system.
All the USHE institutions and UOSE Districts use a variety of different software to teach the
Fundamental Drafting class. For this purpose the Curriculum Development Team proposes to create a
web-based book (PDF and/or eBook) that teaches the principles of drafting and design at the process
level. This book would not address any specific CAD software. This will provide a method for every
school to use the same book. Given that this book focuses on the process level it can be used without
going out of date. The components in each lesson can be applied to any CAD software and any
version (release) of that software. The book will be accessible through Canvas.
The entire course will be developed around the stated objectives. Most of the objectives will be
covered in the form of a chapter in the book (module in Canvas). Each chapter will have the following
supplemental component:
Chapters - The components of each chapter are listed in the section below.
Power Point Presentation - The instructor can use this for lecture purposes. The student could
use it for quick review.
Video of the process and principles presented in the module. - The video can be used in place
of or as a supplement to the class lecture. Provides the ability to expand this course offering to
smaller rural schools where certifications are a challenge.
Samples of the application - This will provide the instructor with samples of the application of
the principles being taught. This will provide the student and understanding of why this
principle is important to know and understand and how it fits into the overall scope of the
course.
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CAD Software Video - There will be a basic video presenting the principles being presented
in the chapter for each of the following CAD software packages (AutoCAD, Inventor,
Solidworks and Creo). Note: This is the only part of the curriculum that will be somewhat
dependent on the CAD software and version level. This will be basic instruction using
Camtasia (screen capture software). These videos will not be produced professionally to save
cost. We believe our team has the expertise to produce quality videos.
Project - Several projects will be provided for each lesson. This will provide an opportunity
for the student to apply the knowledge presented in the chapter to solving a related project
problem. This component will is critical to meeting the objectives listed for the Engineering
Design course objectives.
Daily Quizzes - These quizzes can be used for quick review of the material covered in the
previous lecture and/or assignment. These quizzes will consist of one to four questions taken
from the chapter exercises. As with every other component the quizzes will be available
through Canvas.
Knowledge Assessment - This will provide the student the opportunity to demonstrate his/her
mastery of the chapter. This assessment will be created in Canvas using a variation of
question types. This method will provide immediate feedback to the student and efficient
grading and assessment information for the instructor.
Application Assessment - This will provide an opportunity for the student to apply the
knowledge to solve a problem similar to what they could experience in industry. It is meant to
simulate a real work place situation. Scoring rubrics will be provided to help provide feedback
to the student and help the instructor grade consistently.
Supplemental Information for the instructor - One of the main objectives for this course is to
make the curriculum instructor friendly and ready to go. Most of the high school instructors
have several different classes they are required to teach. They have limited time and resources
to develop curriculum. Providing these resources will also help keep the class standard across
the state.
Components of each chapter:
Introduction
Objectives
Key Terms and Definitions
Background information (as required)
Graphically rich step by Step instructions.
Practice Exercises to re-enforce the principles taught.
Questions to test knowledge of subject.
Project to provide the student the opportunity to apply the knowledge to solving a problem.
Knowledge assessment (tied directly to the objectives)
Application assessment (tied directly to the objectives)
We will incorporate the chapter format that Southern Utah University has been using for their
successful CAD publications for 10+ years.
The TICE team members believe that we can teach the underlying basic principles of drafting in
generic terms and then supply some supplemental training specific to each CAD software. This
approach treats the specific CAD software as just a tool to learn the process so the student can solve
the problem much like a calculator is to math (just a tool, it does not matter if it is a Casio or an HP).
The knowledge and application assessments will be process based not based on a specific software.
This will provide some freedom or variety between the USHE programs attempting to supply students
that are more specific to a certain industry. The TICE team sees this proposal as an opportunity to help
solve this problem.
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Summary of project objectives:
1.
sharing existing knowledge and resources
while developing new curriculum and applying new methods of delivery.
2. Join resources and knowledge from the drafting portion of Skilled and Technical Science
Education (USOE) with the drafting portion of Technology and Engineering Education
technology and Engineering programs.
3. Develop the curriculum in such manner that math credit can be given for this class.
4. Change the course number and title to match for all USHE institutions.
5. Strengthen working relationships and improve overall knowledge and skill across the state.
6. Provide an opportunity to reach out to smaller rural schools via hybrid and web-based tools.
3.3 TICE Grant RFP Criteria 3
Requirement: Description of the common assessment of core learning outcomes and how the results
will be transmitted to USHE for publication on the TICE web site.
The course numbers and title will be changed so it will be the same at all USHE Institutions (Southern
Utah University, Weber State University, Utah Valley University, Salt Lake Community College and
Utah State University Eastern). The course number will be 1010 and the course title will be
e Tice Team will develop the common course
(final) assessment based on the course objectives and learning outcomes. This assessment will be used
by all the USHE institutions and USOE districts. The learning outcomes listed below are a
combination of the Technical Design 1 course, Engineering Design course, Introduction to
Engineering Design course (Project Lead the Way) and American Board for Engineering and
Technology (ABET) guidelines for technology programs. Learning Outcomes by Chapter (module):
1. Communication using Graphics
2. Design Visualization
3. Sketching and Text
4. Scales and Scale Factors
5. Engineering Geometry
6. Geometric Relationships
7. 3D Modeling
8. Multi-view Drawings
9. Orthographic Projection
10. Isometric Projection
11. Section Views
12. Auxiliary Views
13. Fastening
14. Dimensioning
15. Tolerances
16. Assemblies & Bill of Materials
17. Working Drawings from Assembly
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3.4 TICE Grant RFP Criteria 4
Requirement: Description of the level of commitment from faculty and institutions to offer the TICE
course (names of instructors, with tentative numbers of sections and projected numbers of students)
for CE and/or regular credit in the first year.
All institutions and faculty members involved in this project have a long history of demonstrating
support of the high school drafting and design programs such as CE, UACTE and Skills USA. We
used numbers supplied by the USHE representative. It was approximated about 430 students could be
effected by this course. From the numbers that have been received the class sizes range from 5 to 35.
The average class size seems to be about 17.
The current numbers reflect only the credit being given for the Skilled and Technical Science
Education program. As mentioned incorporating the Technology and Engineering Education program
could possibly double the number of students impacted. This is a high impact course.
3.5 TICE Grant RFP Criteria 5
Requirement: Description of professional development activities planned for teachers and faculty
wanting to offer the course.
Professional Development will be provided at three different levels.
1. The first level is at the state level. Every year UACTE hosts the Mid-Winter Conference and
the Summer Conference. We have already received permission to use both of these
conferences to present and train the teachers on this newly developed curriculum. This is an
existing conference that the teachers are required to attend. Certification and upper division
credit will be provided by Southern Utah University and Weber State University for those that
chose to get credit for the training.
2. The second level of training will be provided to the individual or collective schools/instructors
by the college or university offering the concurrent credit. This will be managed by the
controlling college or university. The school and the instructor will have to meet the
qualifications required by the controlling college or university.
3. The third level of training will be a web-based introduction to the course with supplemental
information hosted on appropriate Utah State of Education CTE website
http://www.schools.utah.gov/cte/sts.html .
3.6 TICE Grant RFP Criteria 6
Requirement: A Timeline for course development activities and delivery.
August 1st Start of Grant
August 6th-9th 2012: TICE Team Workshop I. This work shop will be held on the campus of Southern
Utah University in the Engineering and Technology Building Room 120. This workshop will cover
the following topics:
Dr. Shalini Kesar will review the following subjects with the team members; Pedagogy &
assessment. The objective of this training is to review the best practices so we as a team can
implement the best practices into the curriculum. This will also help us to be more consistent
in our curriculum development even though each team member will be taking individual
lessons.
Ms. Isabella Borisova will train the team members on advanced software applications needed
to develop the course curriculum. This initially will include MS Word, Adobe Acrobat Pro,
Camtasia, Snag It and Canvas.
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Friday, October 26th 2012: TICE Team Workshop II. TICE Team will meet at Utah Valley University
to review and share the developed curriculum. Skype conference calls can save a lot of travel but it is
limited and there will be need for some face to face meetings and possibly additional training.
February 2013 UATCE mid- Winter Conference: We will meet as a team all day Friday and then give
June 2012 (Summer UACTE Conference): Present the newly developed curriculum to the high
schools at the summer conference (three days).
Fall Semester 2013: Each USHE institution, college, department and Curriculum Develop Team
Member will take responsibility for implementing the concurrent curriculum into the high schools
within their boundary.
3.7 TICE Grant RFP Criteria 7
Requirement: Detailed budget showing all planned categories of expenses, including a budget
justification narrative. There are no specific limits on the amount of support that can be requested;
however, proposals that minimize costs by taking maximum advantage of existing resources will be
given priority for funding.
To keep the budget as simple to manage as possible the travel and miscellaneous expenders will be
rolled into the individual team member payment. Each team member will be paid as an outside
contractor. Each team member will be paid in three separate payments. The first payment will be at
the beginning of the project. Second payment will be mid project. The final payment will be made on
completion of the project. These payments per team member may have to be adjusted according to the
amount of work completed. It is inevitable that some work will have to be shifted. The amount of the
payments will be adjusted to the amount of work complete at an acceptable level of quality. The
acceptable level of quality means that it is approved by the review committee. The scope of work right
now looks like 1.6 chapters per team member to develop and review.
Dr. Shalini Kesar, a professor at Southern Utah University and an expert in pedagogy & assessment
methods will provide training to the team members in the first workshop. Dr. Kesar will also advise
the team members throughout the project as required.
Ms. Isabella Borisova, an instructor at Southern Utah University will provide training for the team
members on online and web-based technology. Isabella will also consult and support the web-based
development throughout the duration of the project. With the help of Ms. Borisova we will develop
and produce our own training video. Since this project will require a significant amount of video this
will be a huge cost savings to the project.
Although the bulk of the developed curriculum will be developed and uploaded to Canvas by the
assigned team member some of the more routine work will be handled by a student worker as shown
on the budget.
Computer and other hardware/software costs will be considered the institutional match. The only
software purchase requested is the software required to create the video, publish the eBook and
professional version of Skype so that the team members can conference call, share screens and
documents.
The director and co-director will have full responsibility to make sure the project is successfully
completed.
4. Current Status and Future Schedule
The TICE Team is eight and a half months into the project and we have completed seven one and a
half day workshops. The workshops have been used to train each other on pedagogy, assessment,
documentation, software as well as fine tune the modules, module objectives and measurable
outcomes. The TICE Team has two additional workshops scheduled to complete, review and critique
the complete curriculum. June 18th, 19th and 20th the team is scheduled to train the state
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skilled/technical and pre-engineering high school teachers on the new curriculum. The state will have
six selected programs test the curriculum as a pilot program in the Fall Semester of 2013. If all goes as
planned the curriculum will be completely integrated in the Spring Semester of 2014.
5. Lessons Learned
I believe I had an advantage heading into this project because the experience I have had publishing my
books and developing my web-based CAD training site. I have had years of research on the topic of
web-based CAD curriculum development as pointed out in the abstract and reference section of this
several years. All this experience has proven to be critical. I was better able to estimate the actual
time required to develop the original document and videos. I was able to contribute to the
standardization and of the processes and document formatting in all of our workshops.
With this said there are numerous things that I still had to learn, they are listed below:
1. Technology is a wonderful tool but you always need a backup plan. We have had several
Skype Conference calls and numerous Adobe Connect Conference calls. When the technology
worked it was amazing but almost every time there were several problems to solve prior to
taking care of business. It turned out that face to face workshops were necessary at least every
six weeks. We could fill in the rest with conference calls. This could be applied to web-based
training. When communicating face to face conversation allows all the senses to be involved.
2. Articulating and agreeing on the modules, objectives and outcomes. I naively thought we
could this hammered out in one two day workshop. Seven workshops later we are still fine
tuning these points. This has taken more time than creating the documents themselves. Again,
this is where double loop learning and action research has been valuable (it is a refining
process).
3. Everything takes longer that originally estimated. I knew this at the beginning but I appreciate
the fact even more now.
4. The time and energy it takes to manage personnel. This is not really related to this paper but
still a critical issue.
5. he right people on the bus (and the wrong
members I just got out of the way and luckily this was most of the team. I specifically selected
talented and motivated instructors and professors but with diverse points of view. This created
a lot of lively debate but we are ending up with a better product because every idea was tried
and critiqued.
6. Spending a day and a half every two weeks with a talented and motivated team has been
invaluable to my education. Each TICE Team member has his/her own set of skills, talents
and knowledge. Each workshop has been a learning adventure.
6. Summary
According to my previous research and the research of others this curriculum has the necessary
components to be robust. The curriculum (if necessary) could be used as a stand-alone web-based
course for motivated students in remote rural schools. The same curriculum could be used in a
blended learning environment or flipped class room environment. The curriculum could be used as a
supplement to traditional face to face lecture as well. This alone by definition would make the
curriculum robust.
The fact that the curriculum is self-contained makes it robust. No outside publisher, supplier or
assessment company controls the cost or application of the curriculum.
The fact that it allows the schools to select its own CAD software makes the curriculum cutting edge,
unique and truly robust.
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The fact that it uses all the latest technology in disseminating the information (Canvas, Adobe
Acrobat, U3D, Camtasia, Power Point Presentation just to name a few) makes it robust. As L.M.
Kamp stated about the short comings of e-learning in engineering education these things do not
guarantee its success or accep
the end only time and trial will tell if this curriculum is truly robust. If the teachers use it and the
students learn that will be the ultimate test.
References
-
Engineering Education, Vol. 33, No. 1 March 2008, 117-125.
Folkestad, E. & -Capture Based Instruction on Student Comprehension of
-
Nov2001 to Jan 2002.
Cozzens Web-
Cozzens-
Cozzens-Based CAD Trai
Sheffield, England, UK.
-
http://www.edbatista.com/2006/12/doubleloop_lear.html, accessed 01.23.2011.
-
http://infed.org/thinkers/argyris.htm, accessed 01.23.2011.
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INFORMAL COMMUNICATIVE PRACTICES IN FORMAL
SETTINGS: FACEBOOK AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN
CONTEXTS
Nina Bonderup Dohn and Niels Bonderup Dohn
Abstract
The research question for this paper is: How do formal and informal practices interact to create
tensions and possibilities for communication when Facebook is engaged as a platform for learning?
The question was investigated through a study of student experiences in three different naturalistic
setups. The results show that the affordances of Facebook, coupled with its pervasiveness and
familiarity, offer new learning possibilities. However, ethical issues arise concerning privacy,
surveillance, and indirect pressure to participate on a commercial platform. In addition, the very
everydayness of Facebook appears to lead to a certain depreciation of the educational activities.
Keywords
Facebook, learning possibilities, informal, formal, communication, ethics
1. Introduction
Facebook is immensely popular, not least among young people. In Denmark, where the study to be
reported here took place, 88 % of the 16-19 year-olds and 75% of the 20-39 year-olds had a Facebook
profile in 2010 (Statistics Denmark, 2010). The prevalence of the platform has increasingly
stimulated educators to wonder whether the motivation and communicative skills at play here might
(Ajjan & Hartshorne, 2008; Aydin, 2012;
Lampe, Wohn, Vitak, Ellison, & Wash, 2011; Mazman & Usluel, 2010). On the face of it, one would
expect students to find it easier and more motivating to communicate about learning issues if they
involved Facebook activities because of their fa
In addition, one might hypothesize that the forging of connections between school subjects and
student out-of-school interests might be facilitated, given the ease with which students via Facebook
remediate content across virtual contexts.
On the other hand, it might be argued that introducing Facebook activities into educational settings
places unclear demands on the students (Dohn, 2009)
-school and out-of-
bonds for teachers arguably amounts to a breach of privacy for the students.
These considerations point out a question in need of investigation, namely:
Research question: How do formal and informal practices interact to create tensions and possibilities
for communication when Facebook is engaged as a platform for learning?
2. Method
To investigate this question, a study has been conducted of student experiences in three different
naturalistic setups where Facebook was utilized as a platform for learning. The three setups were
undertaken with different age groups, at different educational levels, in different school subjects and
information oriented selection of cases has been used in the choice of settings in which to initiate the
setups (Flyvbjerg, 2006). The diversity in educational settings make all the more significant the
similarities we note in tensions and possibilities experienced by the students.
-re:
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1. -
18. The intention of the teacher was to supply a forum for discussing ethical and societal
questions in relation to biology, not least through student initiated postings inspired by out-of-
school contexts.
2. A Teacher Education class (N=23) in practicum as biology teachers, students aged 20-35. The
intention of the teacher was to supply a platform for guidance and discussion to help the
students link theory and practice, especially concerning pedagogical and biological issues that
arose for them in their practicum.
3.
1
, students aged 16-
17. The intention of the teacher was to focus on the genres, styles, rhetoric strategies etc. at
play in Facebook chat and update messages.
Case 1 was used as exploratory case and the data were generated in an iterative manner. Thus,
classroom observation and analysis of the Facebook site formed the basis for the formulation of a
semi-structured interview guide to investigate the research question. On the basis of 5 semi-structured
interviews a questionnaire was constructed which was answered by all students. The closed statement
items were scored on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 7 (agree) to 1 (disagree). In addition,
there were 3 open questions concerning a) positive and b) negative aspects of using Facebook in the
biology class and c) further comments.
Students in cases 2 and 3 were treated to the same questionnaire with appropriate adjustments, e.g.
concerning tensions and possibilities for communication had their counterparts in cases 2 and 3. The
questionnaires were filled out by 27 students in case 1, 15 students in case 2, and 22 students in case
3.
The interviews (case 1) and open ended questions of the questionnaires (all three cases) were coded
independently by the two authors with codes highlighting answers to the research question. The codes
were affordances for participation, constraints on participation, interaction of formal and informal
contexts, interest, subject content, surveillance, and ownership. The authors compared and discussed
coding after each coding session. The contradictory findings (less than 13%) were negotiated and re-
coded until a unified opinion was reached.
The analysis of questionnaire data included descriptive statistics (mean scores and standard
deviations). The reliability coefficient (Cronbach alpha) of the questionnaire was calculated to be 0.83
(case 1), 0.72 (case 2), and 0.72 (case 3) which is acceptable given that the questionnaire was
distributed for the first time (Cronbach, 1990).
3. Results
The most general result across the three cases is that the employment of Facebook as a platform for
learning is not straightforwardly a good or bad idea, nor is it experienced unequivocally as such by the
students. Instead, students, often individually and definitely as a group, report both positive and
negative ways in which the interaction of formal and informal practices influence their
communication about and understanding of subject-related matters. The divergence in views is clear
from large standard deviations on many quantitative items and from differences in answers to the
open-ended questions.
Across all three cases, the students view the Facebook activities as schoolwork, though at least some
of them think of the activities as different from
cases 1 and 3 and from cases 1, 2 and 3, respectively) from other assignments. Qualitative answers
1
The Danish school system comprises 9 years of compulsory school after which students choose whether to
continue in one of three types of upper secondary schools; to take another year (10. klasse) in a lower secondary
school or to quit school altogether.
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everyday so it is easier for us to engage in the -
ivities as
schoolwork are measured by the items in Table 1.
Table 1. Student views on the school-likeness of the Facebook activities. 7 point Likert-type scale.
Item
Case1: Mean (SD)
Case2: Mean (SD)
Case3: Mean (SD)
Home-/schoolwork
4.85 (2.31)
4.07 (2.40)
4.59 (2.15)
is school
5.31 (1.85)
4.40 (2.31)
N/A
makes Facebook school
3.88 (2.12)
4.13 (2.23)
3.45 (1.97)
makes [subject] less
school-like
3.88 (2.05)
4.47 (1.45)
4.77 (1.71)
3.1 Possibilities for communication
Affordances of Facebook as a platform for learning. In all three cases very many answers (44 in case
1, 38 in case 2, and 13 in case 3) to the open-
a
comments they lead to from the teacher and fellow students; dialogue; upload and sharing of content
-friendly interface and easy-to-use functionalities
on mobile apps are cited as platform focused reasons for the support of these activities. In addition,
many students mention their familiarity with the platform and its communication practices from their
out-of-school lives as conducive to participation and communication. Some answers specifically
indicate that the availability of educational communication on the stude
served to increase the conspicuousness of assignments and discussions.
Coupling of informal and formal contexts
was to help the students forge connections between school subjects and out-of-school concerns. In
cases 1 and 3 the hope was that forging such connections would heighten the degree to which the
students found the subjects relevant and would increase their interest in and understanding of them. In
case 2, the intention was to support students in employing their school knowledge during their
practicum. Student views on how the Facebook activities influenced their attitude towards the subject
matter are measured quantitatively by the items in Table 2.
Table 2. Student views on clarity of Facebook activities and how the Facebook activities influenced their
attitude towards and understanding of the subject matter. 7 point Likert-type scale.
Item
Case1: Mean (SD)
Case2: Mean (SD)
Case3: Mean (SD)
more relevant to daily
life/practicum
3.85 (1.67)
3.53 (1.30)
4.23 (1.63)
concepts easier to
understand
4.64 (1.68)
3.00 (1.46)
4.05 (1.99)
makes book easier
3.96 (1.59)
N/A
N/A
makes class teaching
easier
4.00 (1.67)
N/A
N/A
makes report writing
easier
3.65 (2.00)
N/A
N/A
is fun
4.27 (1.60)
3.73 (1.53)
4.64 (1.99)
makes [subject] fun
4.27 (1.87)
3.53 (1.19)
4.50 (1.99)
In cases 1 and 3, the students as a group found the Facebook activities mildly conducive to their
understanding of and attitude towards subject matters. The mildly positive evaluation is strengthened
by answers to the open-ended questions. Here, statements pointing to aspects which have stimulated
interest clearly outnumber those to the opposite effect (13 positive, 4 negative in case 1; 26 positive, 4
negative in case 3); and statements indicating that Facebook activities furthered understanding of
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subject matters outnumber the reverse (5 positive, 1 negative in case 1; 4 positive, 2 negative in case
3). However, it is only in case 3, where the students focused on the phenomenon of Facebook
communication itself that they found the activities (slightly) conducive to seeing the relevance of
subject matter in out-of-school contexts. That the Facebook activities in case 2 did not raise student
experience of relevance of their biology class to their practicum is perhaps somewhat surprising given
the students already considered the biology class relevant and that the Facebook activities did not as
such add to this. The supplementary information from the qualitative statements is inconclusive on
this point.
A few of the students (2 in case 1, 4 in case 3) commend the coupling of formal and informal practices
itself. T
-like and got Facebook which is a
big part of our lives into something school-
quotations above from case 3.
3.2 Tensions and constraints on communication
Constraints on communication. In response to the open-
which Facebook as a communication platform poses on student activities (11 statements in each case).
Platform focused issues include the way information is structured on the site (leading to
gestures, facial expressions etc. Technical issues are mentioned by a few. Practice related aspects are
commented on as well: Firstly, some students do not have a Facebook profile or do not visit it
regularly. This of course constitutes a hindrance for communication about learning matters for these
particular students, and, more generally, is experienced by other students as an impediment to class
communication. Second, several students (5 in case 1, 5 in case 3) note that Facebook offers many
distractions (notifications, commercials, messages etc.) and that they are easily side-tracked from their
subject-related activities.
Coupling of informal and formal contexts. A number of students (12 statements in case 1, 1 in case 2,
10 in case 3) remark that they tend to not take the learning activities on Facebook as seriously as other
(case 1). On the basis of these statements, one might perhaps expect the students to have experienced
a corresponding diminishment of academic demands in the Facebook activities in comparison with
class activities. The data, however, do not clearly show this to be the case. Thus, in response to the
q
students in cases 1 and 2 answer in a way which indicates that they found the academic demands to be
of the same level as their class activities (Case 1: mean = 3.46 SD=1.84; mean = 3.35, SD = 2,00;
Case 2: mean =3.93, SD = 1.03; mean 3.80, SD = 0.86). In case 3, students did find the academic
demands lower (mean = 5.14, SD= 1.72; mean = 2.00, SD = 1.31). The divergence between case 3 and
the other cases might be due to differences in the concrete Facebook activities undertaken in the three
cases. The lack of a clear link between the experienced diminishment o
former is attributable to Facebook itself, qua informal communication sphere, as a context for
learning.
A number of statements express negative views on the coupling of formal and informal practices itself
-learning
platform] is more proper, more school-
132
few students note more
to see their profile and be able to follow their Facebook life.
Surveillance. Several of the quantitative items query aspects of surveillance, either directly or
indirectly by asking how the students view their educational Facebook communication in comparison
with their communication in other Facebook groups and in class. The results are presented in Table 3.
Table 3. Student views on their communication practices in their educational Facebook communication in
comparison with communication in other settings. 7 point Likert-type scale.
Item
Case1: Mean (SD)
Case2: Mean (SD)
Case3: Mean (SD)
I consider that [teacher]
5.35 (2.04)
2.73 (2.21)
N/A
I consider that
activities prevail on
[educational
Facebook setting]
4.31 (2.00)
3.53 (2.33)
N/A
I discuss in the same
way as in class
3.77 (2.10)
2.87 (1.51)
N/A
I discuss in a more
reflective way than in
class
4.54 (2.10)
3.47 (1.55)
N/A
I write in the same way
as on [other Facebook
setting]
1.85 (1.26)
2.93 (1.87)
4.00 (2.41)
I write in a more
reflective way than on
[other Facebook
setting]
5.77 (1.89)
5.20 (1.66)
4.32 (2.12)
I consider that
activities prevail on
[other Facebook
setting]
2.85 (1.97)
4.00 (2.42)
N/A
Student attitudes appear to vary a great deal on this issue across the three cases. Thus, the only
apparent unanimity is that the students say they wrote in a more reflective way in their educational
Facebook setting than in other Facebook settings. In cases 1 and 2, students also agree that they do not
discuss in the same way in the educational Facebook setting as in class. However, students in case 1
appear to find their contributions to the Facebook discussions more reflective than the ones in class
contrary to findings in case 2. The differences may be due to the concrete activities undertaken on
Facebook. They may also to some extent reflect differences in age group and educational goals
between the cases. Thus, the data from case 1 fairly clearly indicate that the students reflected on the
teacher presence and the sustained existence of their communication in the educational Facebook
setting (in contrast to other Facebook settings). This reading is corroborated by answers to the open-
ended questions where 8 statements (2 of them positive) concern surveillance issues, notably both
surveillance from the teacher and from the other students.
The quantitative data for case 2 show the students to not be very aware of teacher presence and to be
less aware of the persistence of their communication than on other Facebook groups. The qualitative
statements modify this picture somewhat: 9 statements (all negative) concern surveillance issues, but
apart from one they all mention visibility to fellow students as the problem
since the Facebook activity was an opportunity for the students to discuss practicum matters with their
teacher, they did not give extra thought to the fact that the teacher could see what they wrote.
However, they did give extra thought to the fact that the dialogue was made publicly available to their
fellow students.
133
4. Discussion
Increase/decrease in learning opportunities. On the basis of a review of the use of Facebook as an
(Aydin, 2012, p. 1095) A prime reason is the
increased, informal relationship which Facebook affords. In addition, Aydin points to studies which
-to-use functionalities for
knowledge-sharing and interaction.
Our study corroborates the results of the research reviewed by Aydin as concerns the affordances of
easy access to educational communication in general and with the teacher in particular (especially
conspicuousness of the educational activities taking place on it. In this sense, utilizing Facebook for
educational purposes presents an increase in learning opportunities for the students. On the other hand,
however, our study also reveals counteracting characteristics of Facebook as a learning platform,
implying a decrease in learning opportunities: Distractions are many on Facebook and the very
everydayness of the platform seems to lend an appearance of diminished significance to the activities
the three cases that utilizing Facebook as
a learning platform does not in itself increase the relevance of the educational activities for out-of-
school contexts. Thus, our study adds important qualifications to previous research and serves to give
some co
(Ajjan & Hartshorne, 2008; Lampe et al., 2011; Mazman & Usluel, 2010).
In one obvious respect, not discussed in the abovementioned literature, the employment of Facebook
as a learning platform poses a clear decrease in learning opportunities for a specific subset of students:
Quite a large minority of Danish youth does not have a Facebook profile (cf. introduction). In case 1,
2 of the 30 students did not (data for cases 2 and 3 are not available). For some activities primarily
the ones taking place in class these students were able to pair up with other students and participate
through their profiles, but for most of the activities they were effectively left out of the educational
communication. This constitutes a clear ethical problem in that learning opportunities which formally
should be equal for all students in the given educational program become contingent on student
engagement in a specific virtual environment not hosted by the educational institution itself. The
problem is accentuated by the fact that Facebook is owned by a commercial enterprise which may
exploit user information on the platform in marketing offensives. As such, it would seem a violation
of student rights for the school to formally require them to acquire a profile on the platform. An
American study reports that students who decline having a profile on social networking sites often do
so for ideological reasons, e.g. because they disapprove of the way identity is constructed on the sites
(boyd, 2007). It seems reasonable to hypothesize that Danish students decline on similar grounds. In
effect, the utilization of Facebook for learning amounts to giving such students the unfair choice
between joining a platform of which they disapprove or missing out on learning opportunities.
Surveillance and privacy issues. Across our three cases, a number of students voice criticism of the
invasion of their privacy by the
educational Facebook activities and, especially, by their teacher. Though views on this issue are to
some extent balanced by positive assertions as to the convenience and meaningfulness of forging links
between school settings and everyday activities, the risk should not be overlooked that some students
feel coerced into surrendering more information about themselves than they want to. The divergent
student views on the significance of privacy versus convenience correspond to the variances reported
in (Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, & Witty, 2010): In a study of college student and faculty
attitudes towards using Faceb
faculty
(N=62) were 21.0%, 53.2% and 22.6%, respectively, indicating that faculty in general are more
skeptical than students about coupling the formal practices of education with the informal practices of
134
Facebook. Further, students (undergraduate and graduate) find passive behavior (such as viewing
profiles, photos and videos) significantly more acceptable than active behavior (such as sending
messages and commenting on photos) for both teachers and fellow students (Teclehaimanot &
Hickman, 2011). This suggests that breaches of private life are deemed more offensive when
involving teacher-initiated interaction than mere pulling of accessible personal information. Notably,
our study shows that students may feel the breach of privacy not solely as regards their out-of-school
life, but also as regards their educational performance which is displayed to their classmates against
their wish.
5. Concluding remarks
By way of conclusion we shall summarize what our study has shown about our research question:
How do formal and informal practices interact to create tensions and possibilities for communication
when Facebook is engaged as a platform for learning?
The overall answer to the question is that the coupling of formal and informal communication
practices on Facebook serves to open up new learning possibilities whilst at the same time creating
barriers to communication which rest both on ethical issues and on a certain depreciation of the
activities ensuing from the everydayness of Facebook as a communication platform. More
specifically, our study has shown the following:
The affordances of Facebook as a platform for learning are high, both technologically and in
terms of familiarity of use, but distractions are many.
The everydayness of the platform at once raises conspicuousness of educational activities and
leads to a diminished significance of them.
Students who have chosen not to be on Facebook are faced with an unfair choice between
joining a commercial platform of which they disapprove or missing out on learning
opportunities.
Students disagree on their attitude towards the coupling of their private/social Facebook
sphere with their educational sphere. To some this is convenient and raises the
meaningfulness of their educational activities. Others consider it a breach of privacy and feel
under surveillance by teacher and fellow students.
References
Ajjan, H., & Hartshorne, R. (2008). Investigating faculty decisions to adopt Web 2.0 technologies: Theory and
empirical tests. The Internet and Higher Education, 11(2), 71-80.
Aydin, S. (2012). A review of research on Facebook as an educational environment. Educational Technology
Research and Development, 60(6), 1093-1106.
Boyd, d. (2007). Why Youth (Heart) Social Networking Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage
Social Life. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth Identity and Digital Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cronbach, L. J. (1990). Essentials of Psychological Testing. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
Dohn, N. B. (2009). Web 2.0-Mediated Competence Implicit Educational Demands on Learners. Electronic
Journal of E-learning, 7(1), 111-118.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219-245.
Lampe, C., Wohn, D., Vitak, J., Ellison, N. B., & Wash, R. (2011). Student use of Facebook for organizing
collaborative classroom activities. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 6(3),
329-347.
Mazman, S. G., & Usluel, Y. K. (2010). Modeling educational usage of Facebook. Computers & Education,
55(2), 444-453.
Roblyer, M. D., McDaniel, M., Webb, M., Herman, J., & Witty, J. V. (2010). Findings on Facebook in higher
education: A comparison of college faculty and student uses and perceptions of social networking sites. The
Internet and Higher Education, 13(3), 134-140.
Statistics Denmark. (2010). Befolkningens brug af internet – 2010. Retrieved from
http://www.dst.dk/pukora/epub/upload/15239/it.pdf.
Teclehaimanot, B., & Hickman, T. (2011). Student-Teacher Interaction on Facebook: What Students Find
Appropriate. TechTrends, 55(3), 19-30.
135
APPLICATION OF FLORIDI’S INFORMATION ETHICS
MODEL IN HIGHER EDUCATION: IMPROVING
INFORMATIONAL ABILITIES IN A FIRST YEAR
EXPERIENCE CLASS
Marsha Driscoll and Tammy Bobrowsky
Abstract
s as Resource,
RPT construct, then engaged in 3 sessions of training in information search processes. Students then
answered a 25 question survey about the metacognitive process of information search based on
students then engaged in a review of the questionnaire and revised it to more accurately reflect their
m
networking website (target) for feedback (resource) on its use as an assessment tool. The final
ir awareness of their cognitive
e-folios (another product for a different target). A qualitative analysis of the compiled reflective
papers provides in
Keywords
Higher education, information ethics, information literacy, infosphere, Luciano Floridi, metacognitive
processes, student learning
1. Introduction
st volume regarding the philosophy of information (Floridi, 2013) addresses the
ethical questions resulting from the ever expanding and integral nature of the infosphere. His unified
model for information ethics, which defines information as Resource, Product, and Target (RPT),
directly challenges the mission of higher education. The university community as a whole plays an
important role in the use, development, and evaluation of the infosphere. Wolf, et al. (2013) suggest
that higher education uniquely depends on and contributes to the infosphere, and that its mission must
address the ethical imperative to prepare students to deal with information in more sophisticated ways.
Higher education has addressed the integration of the digital infosphere through the practices of
course websites, increased numbers of on-line courses, and the use of massive open online courses
(MOOCs) (Kop, et al., 2011). Now higher education must, as Wolf, et al. (2013) recommend, refocus
on information ethics in the classroom. When done well educational efforts emphasize connectivity,
collaboration, and ready use of easily available information. The desired outcome is emergent
learning for large numbers of students.
The analytical abilities needed include more than the ability to differentiate between a general web
search and a search through scholarly indices. Students need to develop the metacognitive skills to
find, assess, and understand the need for assessing information. Appropriate cognitive development in
university students includes the enhancement of strategies for information retrieval, information use,
and information construction. As Floridi describes this process, students need education for the
intentional and thoughtful interaction with information as resource, product, and target.
Rather than simply putting more courses on-line or requiring students to find relevant and credible
information in an overwhelming information environment, universities need intentional scaffolding of
exercises and courses that will develop student informational abilities and the metacognitive skills
136
directing their use of information. This paper reports the study of a course structured to improve
student informational abilities.
1.1 Literature Review
Although
1980s into the internet/information age and seemingly adept at managing information and
communication technologies (ICTs), they face new challenges in respect to evaluation and use of
information in an overwhelmingly information rich world (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008; Holman, 2010;
Saade, Morin, & Thomas, 2012). At a minimum, students need to know how to direct their own
learning, how to critically assess the resources they find, and to have competence and confidence in
their ability to use the tools for collaboration (Kop, 2011). Information overload and a lack of specific
informational abilities are barriers to effective student learning (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008; Gasser, et al.,
2012).
As Wolf
classrooms and for its students the practices associated with developing strong analytical abilities with
respect to obtaining, asse
theories on information ethics provide a foundation and argument for the moral and ethical
construction and use of the infosphere and its contents (Floridi 2007, 2013).
The widespread availability of library databases, electronic journals and books, and other new
technology such as discovery services (unified searching across all library resources) has made it
easier for students to find research through library resources. However, scholarly articles, and to a
lesser extent, books both freely available and through proprietary databases can often be found
through a simple web search; the application of internet protocol and geolocation technologies allows
for the seamless access to these resources to the extent that library patrons may not even realize the
content is being provided by their library. This is blurring the lines between what is considered a
library resource vs. what is an online or internet resource. As Purcell notes, students entering into the
university are very likely to begin research projects through a search engine rather than through the
library resource rather than an online resource, when many students see these as one and the same.
While librarians have traditionally taught library skills through one-time instruction sessions, this has
only allowed them enough time to showcase resources or provide very basic instructionhow to use
the catalog, where to access the databases, etc. Academic libraries can better support the development
of metacognitive skills by focusing on critical thinking and evaluation of information. Many
universities have been doing this by creating credit bearing formal classes in information studies or by
revising library instruction to focus more heavily on evaluation and ethical use of information, and
transliteracy, which teaches students to apply learned skills across a spectrum of resources and
applications (McBride, 2011-2012). In terms of informational abilities or information literacy,
library resources through traditional bibliographic
instruction (2011, p.675). The transforming information landscape is driving the need for these skills.
An approach to address these needs requires action beyond simply putting more courses on-line or
requiring students to find relevant and credible information in an overwhelming information
environment. Research on cognitive development in adolescents and young adults has expanded
considerably since the topic was first explored by William Perry (1970).
cognitive development theorized the movement of college students from a position of intellectual and
ethical dualism through multiplicity to relativism. This development is manifested through an
increasingly sophisticated epistemology moving from basic authoritarianism to rational and empirical
support and from an absolutist perspective to one of tentative affirmation. A student at any particular
of a stage that
is more than one position farther along. This ability or inability to understand the process of cognition
Flavell (1979) described metaco
137
defines metastrategic knowing as an awareness about procedures, and metacognitive knowing as an
awareness of what one knows. Metastrategic knowledge is further divided into metatask knowledge,
concerned with task goals and metastrategic knowledge, the understanding of which strategies are
available to accomplish those task goals (Kuhn & Pearsal
suggests the importance of connecting skill development to metacognitive development. As cognitive
tasks become more complex, the metacognitive aspects become more important because students are
required to make increasingly more complex decisions about their cognitive strategies.
Universities need intentional scaffolding of exercises and courses that will develop student
informational abilities and the metacognitive skills directing their use of information (Bowler, 2010).
As Bowler (2010) demonstrated, students who conduct successful information searches are also able
to recognize the cognitive processes involved in such a search. Using a quantitative analysis of
s, Bowler identified 13 attributes of
metacognitive knowledge that contribute to successful information searches. The metacognitive
taxonomy she developed serves as the basis for this investigation into metacognitive skill
development. These metacognitive informational abilities clearly address the problems identified by
Kop (2011) and may serve as specific student learning outcomes that transcend particular content.
2. The study: methods, design, outcomes, and discussion
2.1 Methods
Subjects consisted of 17 enrolled students in an Honors First Year Experience course. The data
analyzed consisted of a required assignment for the course. Students were given an informed consent
form that explained the request to use their work for the study. Students had the option of refusing
consent with no negative consequences.
2.2 Design
information as Resource, Product, and Target. Students then participated in three classroom sessions
regarding information, information search, and library skills. Students were given an information
search assignment to assess how well they understood the lessons regarding quality of information,
the differences between scholarship and journalism, and the availability of unsubstantiated
information on the internet.
Following the information search assignment, students completed the Information Search Process
Questionnaire (ISPQ). ness of their own
search processes. It also served as the basis of a class discussion of the questionnaire and student
search behaviors. Students recommended revisions for the questionnaire and posted it on a social
network site for feedback. Copies of this questionnaire are available upon request. Students reviewed
the feedback and considered the effectiveness of the new questionnaire. The course design attempted
e
nature of information. Their posting of the ISPQ and generating on-line feedback demonstrated their
own role in information as product.
At the end of the course, students wrote individual reflection papers in which they discussed their
personal and intellectual growth during the first semester of college. The reflection papers were
2.3 Outcomes
One goal of this work was to develop an instrument for quantitatively measuring student
138
metacognitive strategies, the researchers developed a pilot instrument to assess these skills in first year
trument showed very high variability, in spite of the fact that
all of them had received specific instruction in how to conduct scholarly information searches. A
discussion of these results led to a revised instrument that students then administered to family,
friends, and teachers.
As the students observed, the problem with a self-report involving skills is that accurate assessment
own behaviors. Many of the students administered the questionnaire to younger siblings who scored
themselves very highly on the questionnaire. When closely questioned about their behaviors, these
younger siblings demonstrated that they did not understand how to conduct a high quality information
search. They were extremely comfortable using the internet, but they had almost no awareness of the
variability of the quality of information.
The outcome of this portion of the course was that the students determined the most effective method
of assessing the quality of information search skills is to observe the behaviors themselves rather than
-reports of their skills. An assessment of relevant metacognitive skills continues
to require that students describe their own cognitive processes during information search and
information use assignments.
skills at the same time they are developing specific academic skills. As students develop a more
complex view of information, they also develop a metacognitive understanding of their skills. The
process of this development occurs over time, rather than instantaneously and frequently includes
periods of confusion. As each level of abstract cognition becomes more solidified, the accompanying
metacognition becomes clearer and less confused.
By the end of the first semester, most of the students had developed and recognized a set of meta-
strategies for mastering information. Of the 17 essays, 14 of them included detailed strategies for
mastering information. Most commonly, these meta-strategies were identified simply as methods for
doing well in courses. However, in six essays, the students exhibited a higher order meta-strategy,
recognizing that their strategies were beneficial for their personal comprehension and application of
information:
I get distracted very easily, so I have to force myself to concentrate. But if I put the time and effort
needed into something I find I get good results.
I realized that if I stay on top of my work that I am able to stay caught up in my classes and I am able
to pass my tests
I had to learn how to move schedule around practices and meets, so I could stay on top of classes and
other activities
The level of work to be done was also a surprise, studying for tests a new concept I had to learn,
but requires more thought, time and revision.
It is also largely the student's work ethic outside of the classroom that will determine their degree of
success.
You have to consider what is most important and prioritize your time so as to complete all that you
want to in a day, while maintaining a
assignments done earlier left more time to make sure that it is good quality work and there is less
stress.
Three students identified specific meta-strategies for assessing the quality of the information they
were studying:
If I can recreate events and puzzle them out myself, or experiments I often will and it is very helpful...
I have already learned valuable skills that will help me attain my academic goals, such as note-taking,
daily reviewing, and utilizing the resources I am provided with.
139
job as students and employees.
The second most commonly mentioned metacognitive skill, self-monitoring, seems to be intricately
connected to the use of meta-strategies. Frequently, the self-monitoring cognitions involve
recognizing that the student knows what strategies to use and must exercise some self-discipline in
order to follow through with applying those strategies. Again 14 essays included specific self-
monitoring behaviors:
I am able to look back and realize mistakes I have made and how I can fix them.
I have to be responsible for balancing my academic and social life so that I still receive good grades.
Although I still feel like I am barely grasping the things that I must understand in my courses to
myself to teach myself and think critically of all information at all times.
Of these, two of the students who identified self-monitoring skills did not explicitly describe their
meta-strategies. Additionally two students who did identify meta-strategies did not report any self-
monitoring skills.
Much less commonly, students mentioned the metacognitive practice of assessing the quality of the
information they were studying. This type of metacognition appeared less frequently and also
contained errors as concepts about the nature of information were developed. There was confusion
and contradiction in the descriptions of the nature of information. Only five of the students mentioned
the quality of information, and of these only three addressed the issue of depth and critical thinking:
Every question was multi-faceted and complicated, with the answer only as correct as the amount of
research you put into it. Now, learning was no longer memorization, but the comprehension of
complex concepts.
discovered that in order to
succeed in college, a student can't get away with just memorizing definitions, a test is a chance for a
professor to make sure that you have a full understanding of a topic, and that the student would be
able to apply it to other circumstances.
How do you tell when the People who are supposed to know what they are talking about,
-known and documented sources, do a little fact checking to
confirm the information, besides I [sic] never hurts your case to have several experts who say you are
right rather than just one.
significant confusion and inconsistency:
on even if it is true. This is due in part to the sheer amount of
to find useful information online and at the library.
I have compiled a mental list, of certain bits of information that I know to be true, anything caught out
being wrong about these I no longer will consider reliable and ditch it.
They have some understanding that not all material found on the internet is equally trustworthy, but
they have no clear epistemological principles. One of these students provided a fairly coherent
Finally, seven students addressed their metacognition regarding determining the effective and ethical
treatment of information. Although these comments demonstrated an understanding that mastered
information will have applications, there was very little understanding of how their personal use and
development of information had ethical implications. The ethical issues seemed to be very general,
addressed ethical implications also contained thoughts regarding the nature of information. In that
essay the ethics comments addressed the ability to manipulate opinions and ideas of others through the
use of information:
140
If you act like authority people will obey you, and if you sound like you know what you are talking
about you often will be assumed to. In debate I have manipulated this assumption many a time to beat
less assertive competitors with real evidence, using only off the cuff adlib. If I can do it while being
but a novice...imagine what a master could do.
2.4 Discussion of results and implications
The first goal of this project was to implement a pedagogical intervention for increasing student
awareness of and interaction with the infosphere. This goal included five specific objectives for
quality of specific information, 3) evaluate the relevance of specific information, 4) recognize the
limitations of their own knowledge, and 5) locate and utilize appropriate assistance in their
information searches.
The classroom interventions directly addressed these goals by providing formal instruction on
information search procedures and conducting classroom discussions about student research
experiences. In spite of specific instruction, students still demonstrated considerable confusion about
the nature of information and the ethical treatment of information. Apparently, during the first
semester of college work most students are focused on general study practices and self-regulation
rather than on improving their understanding of the nature of information. Some students do
recognize a shift in the nature of their learning to multiplicity and to relativism (Perry). But during this
first semester, most students remain somewhat confused about the quality of information and their use
perspectives are equally valid.
The developmental changes in young adult metacognition have not changed as a result of the
expansion of the infosphere. Progression from dualism to relativism progresses in much the same way
as described by Perry in 1970 and revised by Rapaport (1986). The vast amount of data, and the
extraordinary ease with which it can be accessed simply adds one additional layer (admittedly a
powerful layer) to the traditional problems faced by college faculty. How do we teach students to
approach information critically? How do we encourage thoughtfulness in the face of easy answers?
repercussions?
Sloppy thinking has always been a problem for college students. The infosphere simply compounds
the impact of sloppy thinking. The infosphere also makes the ethical use of information a more
immediate and critical issue than it was during the days before the internet. Yet students who are not
certainly not developmentally prepared to address the ethical issues of the infosphere. Educators in
thinking within the infosphere. Such issues must be taught continuously as students continue to
develop cognitively throughout their higher education. As students develop specific information
literacy skills they should also be challenged with information use skills. As they learn to assess the
quality of information, they need to assess the quality of their own products. As they place their own
information in the infosphere students need to address the tension between such diverse interests as
intellectual property versus open access, transparency versus privacy, and balancing on-line versus on-
The results of this small study suggest that even the very brightest of students remain relatively
undeveloped in post formal thinking. Even these very bright students have a considerable way to go
as they improve their metacognitive abilities. Faculty who use on-line courses, MOOCs, and course
web-sites should include student learning outcomes regarding metacognitive skill development in the
use of information. Faculty who encourage students to publish such academic artefacts as class papers
we want students to increase their understanding of the nature of information as resource, we must
also insist that they address the nature of their own information as product and target.
141
Acknowledgements
We are especially grateful to the Bemidji State University Technology Fee Fund Grant which
supported this research. Our thanks to the students in the Bemidji State University Honors Program
for their insight on the student's perspective.
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Gasser, U., et al. (2012), Youth and digital media: from credibility to information quality, online at
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142
ETHICOMP IN LATIN AMERICA
William M. Fleischman
Abstract
This paper is a report on the genesis, organization, content, and significance of the regional
ETHICOMP workshops conducted as constituent workshops of CACIC 2011 and CACIC 2012, the
two most recent Argentine National Congresses on the Sciences of Computation.
Keywords
Ethical issues in the sciences of information and computing, conferences, Latin America
1. Introduction
This paper is in part a report on the two regional ETHICOMP workshops organized by the author in
collaboration with valued colleagues from Universidad Nacional de La Plata and Universidad
Nacional de Tierra del Fuego, and conducted as constituent workshops of CACIC 2011 and CACIC
2012, the two most recent Argentine National Congresses on the Sciences of Computation. (CACIC
Congreso Argentino de Ciencias de la Computación). We begin with a (very) short history of the
ETHICOMP regional working conferences, provide some of the relevant back story and an account of
the content and activities realized in the two Argentinian workshops, and conclude with an assessment
of their significance both for the Argentine community of academics and professionals in computer-
related fields and for the larger international ETHICOMP community.
2. The ETHICOMP Regional Workshops
As a matter of background, the formal name of the first workshop was I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica.
I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica was the second in an occasional sequence of workshops organized by
the ETHICOMP community to open dialogue with groups of professionals and, in the larger sense,
with societies that have been underrepresented or absent from the series of international ETHICOMP
conferences dating back to 1995. The first workshop was held at Yunnan University in Kunming,
China, as a post-conference activity of the 2007 ETHICOMP conference organized by Kiyoshi Murata
at Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan. The 2007 workshop was a free-standing event organized by
Simon Rogerson, Terry Bynum, Don Gotterbarn, and Kiyoshi Murata.
By contrast, I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica was accepted for inclusion in CACIC 2011 on the basis of a
proposal presented by William Fleischman, as one of eleven workshops conducted in parallel
essentially, conferences within a larger conference around which the annual Argentine National
Computing Conferences are organized.
The structure of each of the annual CACIC's is centered around a series of workshops conducted in
parallel. These are sheltered in a congress in which, in addition, there are weeklong courses for
students from the disciplines of computer science who participate in the congress, as well as plenary
activities including an Ateneo de Profesores (an Athenaeum for Professors devoted to issues in the
various aspects of computing and informatics curricula and degree programs). Three keynote lectures
in the early evening of each of the three central days of the congress constitute plenary activities
attended by students, academics, and professionals. In CACIC 2011 there were eleven
workshops. Among them, for example, were XII Workshop Sistemas y Agentes Inteligentes
(Intelligent Systems and Agents) and VIII Workshop Bases de Datos y Minería de Datos (Databases
and Data Mining). The Roman numeral preceding the workshop name indicates the ordinal of
iteration of the workshop over the seventeen-year history of the CACIC congresses. Thus, I
ETHICOMP Latinoamérica represented the first time that consideration of ethical issues was included
in CACIC.
143
3. Origins of the ETHICOMP Initiative in Latin America
The short history of the origins of the Latin American initiative begins with the 2010 ETHICOMP
held at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain, organized by Mario Arias Oliva, Simon
Rogerson, and Terry Bynum. Early on, there were discussions aimed at conducting a second
ETHICOMP workshop in Chile following the 2010 ETHICOMP. The need for such a workshop was
indicated by the chronic absence of representation from Latin America in the ETHICOMP
conferences of the past decade. The expectation was that the workshop would be hosted by Chilean
colleagues of Mario Arias at Universidad de Atacama in Copiapó.
These preliminary arrangements were set aside due to extraordinary circumstances in the family life of
Professor Arias superimposed on the heavy responsibilities of organizing the highly successful 2010
ETHICOMP conference. (Corramos un tupido velo sobre la inoportuna erupción del volcán islandés
que proporcionó a varios participantes europeos y norteamericanos el pretexto para unas vacaciones
prolongadas en Catalunya. Translation: We draw a chaste curtain over the matter of the inopportune
eruption of the Icelandic volcano that provided the pretext for a prolonged vacation in Catalunya for
fortunate European and North American participants in the Tarragona ETHICOMP. Just a joke.)
After the closing session of the Tarragona conference, I spoke with Simon Rogerson, Mario Arias, and
Don Gotterbarn, indicating my enthusiasm for the project and my willingness to attempt to find an
appropriate venue and time for the realization of the first workshop in Latin America. These
colleagues gave their blessing and agreed that the project should move ahead.
My initial efforts at organizing the workshop were undertaken with the assistance of a Chilean
colleague on the faculty of Villanova University. In pursuit of a suitable host and venue for the
workshop, I made a trip to Chile, as a speculative venture and at my own expense, in summer 2010.
This, however, failed to produce an invitation or indication of interest from any of the several
potential host institutions contacted in Chile.
When it became clear that there was little likelihood of finding a Chilean university to host the
ETHICOMP regional workshop, I turned to two Argentine colleagues, Miguel Angel Mayosky and
Fernando Tinetti, who had been students in a course on parallel algorithms that I presented during the
years from 1987 to 1996 when I was an occasional visiting professor of computer science at
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. These two former students, now professors on the faculty of
Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), responded with generous enthusiasm to the idea of a
workshop on ethical issues in computing. Through their intermediacy, the regional workshop
proposal was presented to Professor Armando De Giusti, Titular Professor of Informatics (Profesor
Titular de la Facultad de Informática) and Academic Vice President of UNLP. Professor De Giusti
responded with equal enthusiasm.
The proposal for the ETHICOMP workshop, as initially presented, followed the model of the previous
workshop at Yunnan University and the abandoned Chilean venture in that a small free-standing
conference was envisioned. After investigating this possibility, Professor De Giusti reported that the
proposed workshop dates in January or February of 2011 (high summer in Argentina) were not
feasible because of conflict with customary vacation periods and pre-existing commitments for
international educational projects.
Providentially, however, Professor De Giusti indicated that UNLP was scheduled to host CACIC
2011, the annual Argentine National Computing Conference, in October of 2011 and thus it would be
natural to include the workshop as part of that activity. On the basis of a revised proposal, the
international ETHICOMP community received a formal invitation from Professors De Giusti and
Patricia Pesado, principal organizers of CACIC 2011, integrating I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica into
the national congress. Subsequently, these contacts resulted in my being invited to present one of
three keynote addresses to the congress.
144
4. I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica
At this point, it seems appropriate to include the English language version of the prospectus for the
first workshop as presented to the organizers of CACIC 2011. I prepared two versions in English
and Spanish. The version appearing on the English language page for I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica
on the CACIC 2011 web site [XVII Congreso Argentino de Ciencias de la Computación, 2011]
version in Spanish that I prepared based on this document
composed in collaboration with Simon Rogerson.
4.1 Workshop Prospectus:
clusive dialogue concerning the
ethical and social issues associated with the development and application of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). Since 1995 there have been eleven conferences in addition to
workshops and reports under the ETHICOMP umbrella. All have been organised by the Centre for
Computing and Social Responsibility (CCSR) of De Montfort University in the UK in collaboration
with other universities around the world. The ETHICOMP Working Conference series was launched
in 2007 in China. It is a new venture designed to promote ICT ethics and social impact activity in
regional academic and professional circles. Dialogue with colleagues in South America has been
limited in the past. As part of the ETHICOMP Working Conference series, the purpose of the
ETHICOMP Workshop at CACIC2011 is to share insights and perspectives from fifteen years of
ETHICOMP activity and to initiate a vigorous and sustained dialogue linking the countries of the
Southern Cone with the international ETHICOMP community.
The aim of the workshop is to discuss the ethical issues surrounding information and communication
technology from a South American perspective. This will be based upon the following broad themes:
the concepts of computer and information ethics
the ethical issues related to typical ICT applications in various sectors relevant to South
America including
o privacy and surveillance
o E-government
o Electronic voting technologies
o open source initiatives
o digital media and intellectual property norms
o The Creative Commons initiative
o robotics (e.g. medical and military applications)
the implications of such issues on professional practice
o the role of professional organizations and special interest groups
how such issues might be included in school and university educations programmes in South
America in general and Argentina in particular
o the relative merits of a dedicated course on ethical and social issues versus the
inclusion of modules in individual courses such as software engineering, databases
and data minin
4.2 Workshop Organization
The organization of the workshop was entrusted to a coordinating committee named by the congress
organizers, and a scientific or programme committee which was constituted on the basis of
nominations from Simon and myself and our Argentinian collaborators. The programme committee
145
was responsible for reviewing papers submitted for presentation at I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica. For
completeness, here is the list of the membership of the two committees:
As listed on the CACIC 2011 web site, the workshop coordinating or organizing committee consisted
of the following individuals:
Simon Rogerson (De Montfort University)
Terrell Ward Bynum (Southern Connecticut State University)
William Fleischman (Villanova University)
Guillermo Feierherd (Universidad Nacional de La Patagonia SJB)
Mario Arias Oliva (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
The scientific or programme committee was composed of the following individuals:
Rafael Capurro (Stuttgart Media University)
Armando De Giusti (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
Anne Gerdes (University of Southern Denmark)
Donald Gotterbarn (East Tennessee State University)
Gonzalo Iglesias (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
Maria Clara Lima (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
Miguel Mayosky (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
Kiyoshi Murata (Meiji University)
Ugo Pagallo (Università di Torino)
María Inés Tula (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
At this point, also, it is more than appropriate for me to acknowledge the extraordinary contributions
of two Argentine colleagues Fernando Tinetti and Guillermo Feierherd. Professor Tinetti was
tireless in supporting the preparations for the workshop, helping in so many ways to overcome the
obvious difficulties of organizing a conference from a great distance, in a place that none of us from
North America or Europe had ever seen, working with an established structure the CACIC
congresses having a fifteen year history and its own organizational dynamic. And even though I felt
reasonably confident communicating in Spanish, my confidence was stronger in oral communication,
in less formal circumstances, but less certain in extended written communication where the possibility
advice and actions in mediating communication between Europe, North America, and Argentina were
invaluable. I cannot overstate the importance of his generous behavior in facilitating preparations for
the first ETHICOMP workshop. He and his family were also exceptionally generous in offering me a
place in their home during my stays in La Plata. This enabled me to get the feel of the city of La Plata
and several of its neighborhoods, which resulted in my developing a strong attachment to the city and
to Argentina. If I mention this, it is not only to give public expression to my gratitude but also to
underscore my sense of the welcome we received from UNLP and everyone associated with the
congress.
I was not acquainted with Professor Feierherd before the preparations for CACIC 2011. He was
entrusted by the organizers with the portfolio of integrating I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica into the
structure and calendar of the congress. It must, at times, have seemed to him an exotic, if not quixotic,
undertaking. Nevertheless, in the course of preparations for the first workshop we developed a strong
personal rapport, something that has had considerable importance for the subsequent history of the
ETHICOMP initiative in Latin America.
Professor Feierherd and I understood the importance of cultivating Argentine participation in the
workshop. In spite of the implied invitation in the workshop prospectus, there were no papers
submitted by Argentine authors for I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica. However, Professor Feierherd
resourcefully arranged for a series of invited talks for the second day of the workshop. This
146
accomplished the significant purpose of introducing the Argentine voice and perspective into our
discussions.
Congresses in the CACIC series normally occur during the second or third week of the month of
October. Workshops at CACIC are slotted into the afternoons of the middle three days of the
congress and are accorded one or two afternoons, depending on the number of papers expected. I
ETHICOMP Latinoamérica workshop was scheduled for two afternoons, Tuesday, October 11th and
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011. Five papers and one invited address, presented by members of the
international ETHICOMP community, comprised the first day of the workshop. Here is the roster of
authors, papers, and presenters:
4.3 Papers Contributed to the Workshop:
, Technology and Governance: Condition for
William Fleischman -Offs of Introducing Ethical
Issues in Computing through a Dedicated Course or through Modules in Relevant Content
Anne Gerdes
Kiyoshi Murata and Yohko Orito
Mario Arias Oliva, Mar Souto Romero, Antonio Pérez Portabella, and Teresa Torres Coronas,
Needless to say, I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica could not have been convened without the contributions
of these authors and the admirable undertaking of each of the presenters to make the long journey to
La Plata to participate in CACIC 2011. This paper is, in part, a sincere thank-you note to each of
them and a validation of the considerable effort they made to initiate dialogue with colleagues in Latin
America on the questions at the heart of the ETHICOMP movement.
4.4 Invited Talks by Argentine Professionals and Academics:
The second day of the workshop included the presentations of the Argentine academics and
professionals invited by Professor Guillermo Feierherd. Again, for completeness, here is the list of
the presenters and presentations scheduled for the second session of I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica:
Inter-American Development Bank, Transparency International, and the United Nations Development
Program
CEO of C&S Informática and member of the Comisión Directiva de la CESSI (cancelled due to
illness)
CPCIBA, el Consejo Profesional de Ciencias Informáticas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
At the conclusion of these presentations, and in the best tradition of ETHICOMP conferences, there
was a lively general discussion among workshop participants in which the perceived successes and
shortcomings of I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica were summarized and the possibility (and advisability)
of scheduling a second iteration of the Argentine workshop was discussed. Significantly, two of the
prospective organizers of CACIC 2012 expressed their interest and willingness to incorporate a
147
5. ETHICOMP Has a Big Footprint at CACIC 2011
Although I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica was the centerpiece of the presence of ETHICOMP at CACIC
2011, there were two other events that gave the ETHICOMP movement and the set of concerns that
characterize our discussions and conferences a larger presence at the Argentine National Congress on
the Sciences of Computation. The first of these was an address by Dan Joyce of Villanova University
and co-author with me of a paper presented in the workshop. Dan currently serves as Board Member
and Vice Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), one of
the largest and most active of the ACM SIGs. When Dan learned about the Ateneo de Profesores, a
session devoted to issues in the various aspects of computing and informatics curricula and degree
programs, he recognized that this presented an opportunity to share information about the large and
active special interest group, SIGCSE, which might be relevant to the Argentine academic community
and might generate contacts of mutual benefit to both parties. Therefore, he volunteered to present a
short exposition on activities and publications sponsored by SIGCSE and the advantages conferred by
individual and institutional SIGCSE membership. This proposal, transmitted to the CACIC organizers
by Guillermo Feierherd, was promptly and enthusiastically accepted. Dan made his twenty-minute
presentation in Spanish to a large audience at the Ateneo on Wednesday morning of the congress.
The second of the events that anchored the presence of ETHICOMP in CACIC 2011 was the plenary
s de la Tecnología en Nuestra Comprensión de
of Human Intelligence and Culture), which I presented in response to an invitation from the
conference organizers. It was a tremendously rewarding and stimulating experience to prepare and
present an extended exposition in Spanish concerning the ways in which technology is influencing our
ideas about learning, memory, the role of books and libraries, and ultimately, human culture and
intelligence. The effort (and terror) of making an hour and a quarter presentation in Spanish was
abundantly repaid by the response of the audience, most particularly the large and engaged group of
students who attended the keynote. One immediate happy consequence of the talk was an invitation
to return to Universidad Nacional de La Plata the following month for a second talk presented to a
more general audience of UNLP students, faculty, and administrators.
6. What Can We Say About the Significance of I ETHICOMP
Latinoamérica?
To the uncritical observer, I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica may indeed have seemed a quixotic
(ad)venture. Attendance at the workshop itself was scant. There were the predictable difficulties of
two languages and two cultural contexts. What was striking, however, was the reaction of the
Argentine students who attended the first session of I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica. They listened
carefully to the presentations, were not intimidated by the barrier of discussing philosophical and
technical matters in a language not native to them, and they were influenced by what they heard. This
was most evident in the extended, intense dialogue between several of them and Simon Rogerson at
the conclusion of his talk. Clearly they had heard in his words a call to conscience something that
appealed to their idealism and expressed the moral ambitions they felt should characterize the
profession for which they were preparing.
This might appear to be an effect of minor importance, out of proportion with the effort involved in
travelling such great distances to participate in the workshop. I think that would be a serious
misunderstanding. One has only to observe the care with which student participation was integrated
into the program of the congress, as well as the number of hours in the chronogram of CACIC devoted
to student-centered activities, to recognize that one of the most significant objectives of CACIC is to
provide experiences that enrich and broaden the perspectives of the cohort of students in the
computing disciplines from all regions of Argentina. Certainly, this is one of the most important
settings in which to cultivate a sense of solidarity and a strong and robust consciousness of
professional responsibility among those aspiring to work, research, and teach in the various branches
of modern computing.
148
In spite of difficulties imposed by the barrier of language, it appears that the workshop fulfilled its
principal objectives. There was widespread recognition of the importance of the questions that lie at
the heart of the ETHICOMP movement. The lively discussion that followed my keynote address at
CACIC 2011 was a further indication of the resonance of these concerns among Argentinian
colleagues and students.
As a practical matter, the organizers of CACIC 2012 were sufficiently impressed to include a second
iteration of the ETHICOMP workshop in the congress held this past fall at Universidad Nacional del
Sur de Argentina in Bahía Blanca. Of equal importance was the enthusiasm of Guillermo Feierherd
for undertaking the role of Argentine organizer for a second iteration of ETHICOMP Latinoamérica.
Both of these developments speak to the significant influence of our effort.
7. Aftermath of I ETHICOMP Latinoamérica
As previously noted, one welcome consequence of my keynote presentation at CACIC 2011 was an
invitation from Javier Díaz, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at UNLP, to return in
November 2011 for an afternoon lecture and discussion at UNLP. The audience for this event
included students and professors from the Faculties of Arts and Letters and Pedagogy, in addition to
especially the personal invitations he extended to colleagues from other faculties, bespeaks his
awareness that the questions at the heart of the ETHICOMP movement are of interest not only to
computer scientists. They affect a wide spectrum of academic, professional, and civic communities
who should also be part of the dialogue. In a small way, this second presentation at UNLP
represented an opportunity for engagement with this larger audience and is further indication that the
inclusive nature of ETHICOMP was understood by those who hosted and participated in the
Argentine workshop.
8. II ETHICOMP Latinoamérica
With Guillermo Feierherd taking the lead, I agreed to co-organize II ETHICOMP Latinoamérica as
one of the workshops included in CACIC 2012 [XVIII Congreso Argentino de Ciencias de la
Computación, 2012] at Universidad Nacional del Sur de Argentina in Bahía Blanca this past October.
One important goal of the effort was to secure representation by Argentine authors among the
submissions for the workshop. To this end, I made contact with several individuals with whom I had
spoken during the discussion following my second lecture at Universidad Nacional de La Plata. The
results of this initiative were two excellent submissions from two pairs of Argentine authors. In
addition we received a paper from a team of young professors at a university in southern Brazil. Their
paper described an educational and developmental project that is providing appropriate technology,
instruction, and software to help the younger generation of families involved in small-scale agriculture
learn to use available technological resources to maintain and modernize practices on their family
farms.
8.1 Papers Contributed to the Workshop:
Here is the complete list of papers accepted for presentation at II ETHICOMP Latinoamérica:
Rosario Molfino
Joaquín Bogado (UNLP) and María Beatriz Ga
presented by both authors
Privacy
149
Miriam Cátia Zarpelon, Deisi Balestrin, Ana Paula Bertotti, Cerize Maria Castilho, Samuel Diego
Rese, Anibal Lopes Guedes, Marcelo Zanetti, and Márcio Eduardo (all of Universidade Federal da
Fronteira S
Daniel T. Joyce (Villanova University) and William Fleischman (Villanova Universit
by William Fleischman
Alberto Cammozzo
ot presented)
It is worth noting that the workshop was authentically tri-lingual. The only paper presented in English
was that of my student, Matthew Sher. Attendance at the workshop was good. It was remarked by
more than one (non-presenting) participant that, in contrast to the normal dynamic of a congress with
multiple concurrent workshops, those who came to hear the first paper in the session stayed for the
entire session.
Again in CACIC 2012, the footprint of ETHICOMP in the congress extended beyond the workshop
itself. The organizers of CACIC 2012 invited me to present a two-day tutorial describing the
motivation for the inclusion of a course on ethical issues in university computing curricula and
presenting a selection of topics and critical materials for inclusion in such a course. This seems a
significant step in view of the fact that no such course currently exists in the computer science
curricula in Argentine universities. In any event, it was an exhilarating experience to present the six-
hour tutorial in the Spanish language and exchange ideas with a young, engaged and enthusiastic
audience.
9. III ETHICOMP Latinoamérica – Looking to the Future
As I write, the call has been published for CACIC 2013. III ETHICOMP Latinoamérica is again
numbered
Computing. Although the ETHICOMP working conferences or workshops were originally designed
as one- t the theme of
ethical issues in computing and information has taken its place among the topics that are commonly
indication that one of the principal objectives of the Latin American initiative, the establishment of a
critical dialogue on ethical issues relating to computing and information technologies, has been
achieved.
Another welcome result of the Argentine workshops is that María del Rosario Molfino of Universidad
Nacional de La Plata, co-author of one of the papers presented II ETHICOMP Latinoamérica, has
accepted an invitation to join the ETHICOMP Steering Committee. As a representative of the library
sciences, the Open Access Movement, and as the Committe
provide new perspectives to inform the future activities of ETHICOMP.
series, the purpose of the ETHICOMP Workshop at CACIC 2011 is to share insights and perspectives
from fifteen years of ETHICOMP activity and to initiate a vigorous and sustained dialogue linking the
made a good first step toward this goal and we will soon have the opportunity of welcoming Latin
American colleagues to forthcoming conferences of the international ETHICOMP series.
References
http://cacic.info.unlp.edu.ar/, last accessed 16 March, 2013
http://cs.uns.edu.ar/cacic2012/, last accessed 16 March, 2013
150
TOR AND THE DARKNET: RESEARCHING THE WORLD
OF HIDDEN SERVICES
Catherine Flick and Runa A. Sandvik
Abstract
services
researching illegal activity that researchers should take into special consideration before delving into
technically anonymous services.
Keywords
Tor, research methods, darknet, hidden services, ethics, anonymity
1. Introduction
Tor is free software, developed and maintained by the Tor Project (2013 [3]), that allows users to
connect to the Internet anonymously and securely. Through its proxy service, it also allows users
access to content that might otherwise be blocked by local authorities or Internet Service Providers.
Tor was originally developed as a project of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, for the purpose of
protecting government communications. Today, it is used by a wide variety of people and
organisations for a variety of different purposes.
Tor protects its users by bouncing their communications around a distributed network of relays run by
volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching an Internet connection from learning
what sites the users are visiting, and it prevents the sites users are visiting from learning the users'
physical locations. Thus Tor offers improved privacy, freedom, and security through prevention of
surveillance, and allowing anonymous navigating around government (and other) censors. Tor works
with many existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and
other applications based on the TCP protocol.
The particular technical capabilities of Tor means that it is agnostic as to the types of activities that are
carried out on the Tor network. This makes it a potential double-edged sword, with the capability to
-use technology are not new (Molas-Gallart,
1998), however, unlike with the chemical industry, technology such as Tor is designed in principle to
circumvent any sort of regulation even self-regulation. It is important to note that some traditional
anti-social behaviour that occurs on the internet such as DDoS are not possible through Tor as it will
only accept certain types of connection packets, notably TCP, and not UDP which is required for
usual DDoS attacks. Tor also rejects port 25 (SMTP) connections by default, so is not directly able to
allow spam-type behaviour, although users can still participate in this behaviour through other
methods within the Tor network (Tor Project, 2013 [1]). One of the main disadvantages to Tor is that
it is relatively slow (high latency, low throughput) compared with ordinary internet connections a lot
of traditional anti-social internet behaviour requires low latency and/or fast internet connections.
The lack of any regulatory boundaries makes any research into activities and communities on the Tor
network potentially difficult, particularly with regard to ethical issues. This paper aims to explore
some of the potential issues facing researchers who wish to explore Tor and its rich, diverse, and
fascinating social dimensions. To do this we will firstly look at the background to Tor and its
capabilities; then examine current best practices for researching the internet, and how these practices
some recommendations for researching the area, highlighting some of the pitfalls and ethical issues
151
1.1 Tor
Tor is used by a wide variety of people and organisations (Tor Project, 2013 [2]) for different
purposes, and more than 500,000 people use Tor on a daily basis (Tor Project, 2013 [4]). The Tor
Project has seen a steady increase in the number of Tor users since the software was released in 2002,
most recently notably due to the uprisings in the Middle East where users relied on Tor's location and
identity anonymising to avoid government retaliation.
Tor is also currently used by journalists working in oppressive regimes, citizens wishing to avoid
government censors, law enforcement sting operations, and so on. Some use Tor to keep websites
from tracking them and their family members, some use Tor to research sensitive topics, and some use
Tor to connect to news sites and instant messaging services when these are blocked by their local
Internet service providers.
The Tor network consists of 3,000 servers (also known as "relays") run by volunteers all over the
world. Tor works by wrapping the traffic in three encrypted layers before sending it through three
randomly chosen relays in the network. Once the traffic reaches the third relay, it will exit onto the
public Internet. By distributing the transactions over several places on the Internet, and its use of
encrypted layers, Tor ensures that no single point can link a user to her destination.
The traffic flow is a bit different for users who connect to Tor hidden services. Hidden services only
exist within the Tor network, which means the traffic between the user and the site never reaches the
public Internet. While a normal connection will use three relays in the Tor network, a connection to a
Tor hidden service will use six relays.
1.2 Hidden Services
twork in 2004. Hidden services, which are internal to the Tor
network, allow users to host various kinds of Internet resources, such as chat, websites, e-commerce
systems, and file storage, without having their identity of location revealed. Not only does this protect
the operators, but also the resources, as hidden services can help prevent selective Denial of Service
(DoS) attacks.
A hidden service can only be accessed through its Tor-specific .onion pseudo top-level domain
(pseudo-TLD). One example is 3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion, which is the address of the search engine
connect to this site must first learn about the .onion URL. The servers in the Tor network understand
the .onion pseudo-TLD and route data anonymously both to and from the hidden service using so-
The abstraction of the server to its rendezvous point and the masking of the originating request by the
client means that the client does not know the location or identity of the server, and vice versa. The IP
address, physical location, or operator of a Tor hidden service is never revealed to servers in the
network, visitors, or the Tor Project.
Such services so far include
1
search engines (such as DuckDuckGo)
anonymous email
filesharing services (direct download and Bittorrent)
Internet Relay Chat
discussion boards on drugs, hair-loss, hacking, freedom of speech, etc.
whistleblower websites
1
As listed by https://ahmia.fi/
152
pornography of varying legality
Bitcoin exchange
advertisements for various illicit services for hire (counterfeiting, theft, hacking,
assassination)
newspapers (such as The Onion Press)
e-commerce sites for illicit drugs, weapons, and pornography (the most notorious being Silk
Road)
2
drops
Wikileaks mirrors and drop points
anonymous blogs
There are also a number of non-publicly listed hidden services, the addresses are normally spread by
word of mouth or invitation. It is virtually impossible to get a full listing of hidden services that
operate within the Tor network.
1.3 Scope
While some of the hidden services available have obvious ethical and social issues associated with
them, this paper attempts to establish methods for researching these and other ethical issues associated
with and use of these hidden services, particularly when it comes to examining those which may
involve illegal activity. Current methods for researching on the internet discuss issues of identification
of public and private data, data mining, informed consent, legal requirements (such as privacy and
data protection acts), identity, anonymity, and confidentiality, but, as we will argue, there is an added
dimension of ethicality implicit in the anonymity of use (and misuse) of the Tor network.
As with Ess (2002), we wil
it to the researcher to reflect on the suggestions we provide and make their own decision as to what is
appropriate for their research. We also restrict ourselves to sociological research pure technical
2. Ethics and Research Methods
This section will focus primarily on ethical decision making in traditional research methods that
would theoretically apply to researching the Darknet. Firstly, we will look at ethical thinking in
Internet research methods; secondly we will investigate the principle of anonymity and its effect in
traditional research; and finally we will look at researcher safety and ethics when investigating
potentially illegal activity.
2.1 Internet Research Methods
Traditional ethical principles for Internet research methods (Ess, 2002) concentrate on asking
researchers to reflect on the nature of their research in the following ways:
1. What is the venue/environment in which the study takes place?
a. What normative ethical expectations are in place within this environment?
b. Who are the posters, authors, or creators of the material, interactions, or other
information that are to be studied?
2
Personal information about a person of interest, found through internet archive searches/social
media/hacking/surveillance/etc.
153
c. Informed consent-specific procedures related to timing of asking for consent, the
medium by which such consent is obtained, whether a moderator or other
(anonymisation/pseudonymisation, etc.).
2. Ethical and legal concerns
a. What cover from ethical guidelines and legal regulations exists for the research?
b.
highly diverse populations on the internet?
c. What are the normative ethical expectations or assumptions of
authors/posters/contributors/etc. being studied?
d. What ethically significant risks can the research raise for the subjects?
e. What benefits might the research provide?
f. What ethical traditions do
(Ess, 2002)
Each of these questions poses potential problems for the researcher, as there is little in the way of
prescriptive responses to them for particular areas of interest in Internet research. For example:
questions 1a and 2c could have many interpretations within one community; how do you, the
you reliably separate out European and American subjects in order to apply the correct legal rules
and/or ethical guidelines with regard to, say, privacy, in order to comply with questions 2b, 2c, and
2f? How can you reliably provide freedom to withdraw from a study, or gain consent from authors
that may no longer be participating in a particular environment? Is a venue where it is free and easy to
create an account, yet material is only available to those who are members, considered publicly
accessible?
Further guidelines follow a similar vein: Eysenbach and Till (2001) have reservations about public vs.
private space in Internet communities and informed consent procedures. The problems of maintenance
of confidentiality, even on a high level (for example, naming the community), are also considered
significant. The authors consider the following values important to recognise when studying an
Internet community: intrusiveness, perceived privacy, vulnerability, potential harm (of the
community), informed consent, confidentiality, and intellectual property rights (Eysenbach and Till,
2001). Many of these issues can be categorised in the above questions, but are phrased in slightly
different ways (potential harm vs. risks; vulnerability vs. a more general investigation into the
research subjects), which allow us to broaden the context for ethical deliberations.
Even within standard Internet research, coming to a decision on how to proceed with these guidelines
is difficult at best. The nature of the Darknet as discussed in section 1 compounds these issues
significantly. At this point, then it is important for us to establish that the Darknet is a peculiar case.
To do so, we look at the effect that anonymity has on communities and research.
2.2 Anonymity, the Darknet, and Research
Although confidentiality and anonymisation are raised in both sets of guidelines discussed in section
2.1, they assume that the data associated with online identities is somehow consistent (hence talk of
pseudonymisation and many of the aspects of informed consent that rely on there being identifiable
identities). But within Tor and its hidden services, it is often the case that there is no consistency to
online identities, in fact, many individuals choose to remain completely anonymous not even their
IP address can be used as an identifier, as it is anonymised by the Tor network itself.
As discussed by Kennedy (2006), the conception of anonymity is highly contextual within the Tor
network it is highly possible that people feel anonymous when, by virtue of the information they share
o
network services provide technical anonymity when used correctly, personal or identity anonymity is
much harder for a user to maintain.
154
As far as research itself is involved, Kulik, Stein, and Sarbin (1968), as well as Alvik, Haldorsen, and
Lindermann (2005) have both reported that anonymity has very little effect on self-reporting and
disclosure of socially unacceptable behaviour (delinquency in the former, alcohol consumption of
pregnant women in the latter), when compared with confidentiality (latter) or non-anonymous
increased slightly in anonymous conditions.
discussion boards for sensitive topics (such as health-related topics) where users may wish to remain
completely anonymous. Any attempt to engage with these communities is still potentially likely to
yield reasonable data for analysis, despite their legal status.
However, it is important for researchers to ensure that, despite the technical anonymity afforded by
Tor, that any data acquired during the research is completely anonymised in terms of personal or
identity anonymity a research participant could give up information that identifies him or herself
outside of the service which could compromise the anonymity expected by the participant. It would,
in this case, be the responsibility of the researcher to make it clear to the participant where questions
may reveal personal information about the participant, and any methods that the researcher will use to
ensure this is not traceable back any particular participant. Some methods in this case may include
aggregation and/or anonymisation of data (where large enough sets are available though this may
not necessarily prove sufficient, as in Arrington (2006)). Working with the data may require a lot of
changes to names, places, situations, etc. in order for the participants to remain truly anonymous. It
is up to the researcher to determine what aspects are important for the research question at hand and to
ensure that the participants are fully informed as to how their data is being used, how it will be stored,
and when it will be destroyed.
2.3 Researching Illegal Activity
Given the nature of the Tor hidden services, it is likely that research could encounter instances of
illegal activity. Research into illegal activity is not new, and in the UK there is no requirement to
report illegal activity to authorities unless it has to do with immediate threats to people, such as child
abuse or terrorism. At this point, the duty of care of the researcher would be to those who might be
harmed, and would require the researcher to report the information to authorities (Cardiff University,
2012; Sheffield University, 2011). It is this duty of care that should be foremost in the mind of the
researcher
stake, such information should be shared with authorities. Unless the researcher has actively witnessed
illegal activity occurring, it is also difficult to provide evidence that might hold up in court.
As for other illegal activity that could be encountered (such as researching the drug trade on the Silk
Road), the main ethical considerations should be safety of the researcher, confidentiality, and consent.
2.3.1 Safety of the Researcher
researchers when partaking in active fieldwork. This could potentially allow them to become the
target of illegal activity, particularly if the researcher is insensitive to the context in which the activity
is taking place. It is wise for the researcher, if seeking data through active fieldwork, to explain the
exact reasons for their involvement in the community, along with information about the nature of the
research, how the data will be collected, how it will be used, and the anonymisation processes.
Credibility of the researcher is highly important in this case.
If the researcher, on the other hand, is conducting passive fieldwork only (through reading publicly
accessible material), it may be wise for them to not actively identify themselves unless necessary. The
researcher should consider the context in which the information is disclosed, however, as discussed in
2.1 and 2.2, and decide whether it is necessary for permission to be sought from contributors before
use.
155
Researchers should not engage in illegal activity themselves, regardless of the nature of the activity. It
is generally possible to discover methods and mechanisms of activity within Tor hidden services
without having to engage in the activity.
2.3.2 Confidentiality and Consent
r anonymity, it could be the case that
identifying information is obtained in the research process. It is thus important for researchers to
maintain the confidentiality of the participants, unless it is necessary to disclose activity that may
threaten harm to third parties (as discussed in 2.3).
Given this possibility, it is important for researchers engaging in active fieldwork to ensure that the
participants give their full consent to the research being undertaken. In such a consent form, the
acknowledgement of the limitations of confidentiality and anonymity should be included. All methods
for anonymising and information about handling and storage (and destruction) of data should be
included.
Although traditionally signatures are required on consent forms, in internet research it can be
acceptable to have a checkbox on an online form this can simplify a lot of consent requirements
when needing to maintain anonymity.
3. Conclusion and Further Research
This paper is limited to discussing the important questions of how a researcher might approach
background to Tor and its hidden services, and discussed particular internet research ethics with
regard to the particular cases that the Darknet may raise.
In particular, it is important to note the importance of anonymity in researching the Darknet given
the inherent technical anonymity that Tor provides, it is reasonable to expect that, as a participant, one
would remain anonymous within a research setting on the Darknet. It is therefore important for the
researcher to acknowledge this expectation, and to ensure identity and personal anonymity even if
data obtained might provide information that could help to identify the participant outside of the
Darknet environment. Researchers should note that maintaining anonymity should not jeapordise the
quality of information that is obtained in the fieldwork process.
It is equally important for the researcher to ensure the correct type of fieldwork is being done
according to the research question active or passive and that appropriate measures for obtaining
consent and ensuring confidentiality are taken. In particular the context in which the research is being
done should
important to build up credibility within a community before being able to request information.
Finally, it is important that researchers remain aware of their own safety when conducting research in
this area, particularly when it involves potentially legally dubious activity. This is not to say that
illegal activity is all that the Darknet is used for; on the contrary there is much to be studied in the area
of efforts to avoid oppressive regime censors, whistleblowing safe spaces, and positive communities
devoted to particular health conditions. However, there are some activities that could potentially
cause harm to the researcher and/or third parties it is thus the duty of the researcher to not only look
after his or her safety, but to have a duty of care to people that could be harmed if such information
comes to light during the research activity whether that be through maintaining confidentiality and
anonymity of participants, or alerting authorities if there are credible threats to third parties. In all
cases, details of confidentiality, anonymity, and data storage should be made explicitly clear to the
participants as part of the consent process.
We are aware that these ethical considerations are only the starting point for beginning to explore
measure the use and value of hidden services? What sorts of data can we gather from them? How can
we analyse the data, and to what extent can we trust the data we collect? Some of the research we
present here moves toward assessing these questions, but there is more to be done in establishing a
framework to explore the hidden services of Tor.
156
References
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http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/research/researchethics/resources/illegal-matters-research.pdf
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157
“SURGERIOUS TWEEZERS”: EXPLORING DOCTORS’
PERCEPTION!
Tiago Filipe Rodrigues Fonseca, Gonçalo Jorge Morais Costa and
Nuno Sotero Alves Silva
Abstract
Serious games are a key component within technological mashups that characterise future learning
environments, namely in medicine. Recent empirical studies denote ambiguous results about their role
regarding serious games, their advantages/disadvantages within training and probable ethical impacts
in their medical practices through a qualitative interview. The reason for this contribution is literature
disregard pertaining to medical staff awareness, because its current focus entails: games applications,
features or design; medical practices for clinical decision making; surgical techniques; acquiring
knowledge/skills; and, limitations in the prior dimensions.
Keywords
Serious games, medicine, doctors awareness, qualitative analysis
1. Introduction
Serious games can be deemed as a novel opportunity for education or training; so, to neglect them is a
remarkable mistake (Swertz, 2009) which some European Union positive actions demonstrate
(Felicia, 2009). In spite of their importance to education, some authors continue to be sceptical about
their role in medicine (Congdon, 2010).
Serious medical games literature focuses its attention upon the following dimensions: specific games
application, as for instance knee replacement surgery or laparoscopic interventions (e.g., Verdaasdonk
et al., 2009); medical practices concerning clinical decision making (Alhadeff, 2009) or surgical
techniques (Kullman, 2008); acquiring knowledge and skills (Lewis, 2007); game assessment,
specifically technical features (Marks, Windsor and Wünsche, 2007) or design (Cabas Vidani and
Chittaro, 2009). Hitherto, li
games. In fact, the authors find out a single study about medical staff acceptance (Cabas Vidani,
Chittaro and Carchietti, 2010). Against this backdrop, this contribution debates Por
awareness regarding serious games through a qualitative interview because it may peril these
technologies acceptance.
2. Serious Games
2.1 Definition
Serious games literature acknowledges a lack of consensus concerning its definition, as the following
examples illustrate:
1. video games designed exclusively for training and education (Annetta, 2010);
2. games that move from entertainment per se to learning in its broadest sense (Stone, 2008);
3. a mental contest mediated through ICT with specific rules to promote governmental or
corporate training (Zyda, 2005).
advergaming, product
advertisement; (ii) edutainment, educate and amuse; (iii) games-base learning, learning outcomes; (iv)
diverted, political or geopolitical issues; (v) simulation, simulate an aspect of reality; (vi) persuasive,
158
promote behavioural changes; (vii) organisational, teach and reflect about organisational dynamics;
(viii) educational, primary and secondary education. Thus, these are key components within
technological mashups that characterise future learning environments.
2.2 Medical applications
The development of medical serious applications denotes an unbelievable pace, as for instance:
Orthopaedic Patient Education 1.0, iMedic, or Pulse. In spite of acknowledging diverse medical
specialties, their common features permit: (i) three dimensional (3D) imaging; (ii) create medical
scenarios and change their settings; (ii) import/export results, simulations or reports from/to other
learning environments; (iv) access/deliver results comparison to international databases; (v) import
data from healthcare databases (patients data).
Figure 2. Orthopaedic Patient Education 1.0; Source: 3D 4 Medical (2013)
Orthopaedic Patient Education 1.0
use the tablet or smartphone pen to: (i) highlight and include annotations for future practices or inform
their patients; (ii) simulate the tweezers procedures in surgery.
Figure 3. iMedic; Source: Wan (2010)
iMedic
iMedic is a virtua-ray that
iMedic allows medical staff to expand, shrink or rotate the 3D image by doing hand movements that
eyeglasses recognise; (ii) through some commands (similar to pincers) users can simulate surgical
procedures.
159
Pulse
Pulse explores complex medical practices in diagnosis illnesses and emergency services through a
virtual learning environment, so the aim to improve decision making and diagnostic protocol
(Alhadeff, 2009). Some examples of this game features are (i) medical history; (ii) physiological
response to drug treatment; (iii) use of complex medical systems; (iv) surgical procedures.
Figure 4. Pulse; Source: Alhadeff (2009)
3. “Surgerious tweezers”: Forwards or sideways?
3.1 Why “surgerious tweezers”: Forwards or sideways?
result of training
through virtual objects manipulation using heptic devices. Therefore, the authors acknowledge a two
the
“ultimate” learning tool or just another learning tool (educational and ethical challenges)?
Considering that tweezers are small pincers, usually of metal, that allow small objects manipulation
sage of an old-fashioned instrument (tweezers) through a novel technology (serious games)
which promotes educational and ethical challenges.
3.2 Challenges
Werkhoven and van Erp (2007) advocate valid content and intuitive interfaces, as serious games
educational challenges. Valid content embraces the contextual environment realism, as well as the
need to people experience causal and non-causal relations; and, intuitive interfaces facilitate creative
and educational processes. However, is impossible to neglect pedagogy and learning outcomes...
Gunter, Kenny and Vick (2008) argue that educational content within a game does not presume
educational goals achievement, so pedagogy has been changing throughout games generations: (i) first
generation, behaviourism and cognitivism; (ii) second generation, constructivism is added; (iii) third
generation, all theories. In spite of these improvements learning assessment continues to be difficult,
even when non-traditional assessment techniques are explored (e.g., Shute et al., 2011). And to expect
behavioural determinants include motivation, social environment, etc. These assumptions reveal at
some extent why serious games us
knowledge about it is another constraint. Swertz (2009) stresses two challenges regarding serious
games introduction in learning environments: responsibility and power. Content responsibility moves
from the lecturer to game designer (educational challenge), which in specific contexts has alarming
which may explain their non-acceptance regarding serious games (ethical dilemma). Another ethical
160
quandary involves patient privacy and confidential medical data, since serious games import data from
healthcare databases.
4. Research design
4.1 Aims and objectives
The key research question endeavours to
concerning serious games, as well as, understand these games impact over their work and ethical
practices.
4.2 Methodology
Research methods
Qualitative research explores social and cultural facts (Yin, 2009), as well as the researcher
investigates a small amount of cases, numerous variables through text or simple numerical analyses.
whereby the information system in
rather than figures and percentages. A non-experimental qualitative survey serves as a research
method, which is typical in qualitative inquiry within medical contexts (Clamp, Gough and Land,
2004).
Data collection and analysis
The authors promote personal interviews or face-to-face surveys, since these are appropriate for probe
analysis, despite its non-homogenous understanding procedure, has a long tradition in text analysis
(Titscher et al.
), the researcher endeavours to
create codifications. This process involves seven analytical procedures (Mayring, 2003): proper
communication model (empirical results); systematic and rule-based analysis (content units);
interpretive categories reviewed through feedback loops (first and second analytical reviews); refer the
subject instead of technique (open-code structure); instruments verification (pilot analysis); theory-
guided analysis (serious games literature); inclusion of quantitative steps of analysis (number of
codes); trustworthiness (authors procedures). The open-code structure is ID answer_ID medical
staff_content analysis expresses (e.g., Q3_D1_one learning tool- mashup). Note that in order to avoid
lost of sensitive meanings interviews translation is not an option.
4.3 Interview protocol
Design and interview guide
The interview survey has three sections:
section 1 (profile)- recognises the respondents profile, namely as regards to gender, age, years
of professional practice, and medical specialty;
section 2 (background)-
and their characteristics;
section 3 (analysis)- explores serious games advantages/disadvantages to medical education,
as well as their trends (practices and ethical impacts).
The next step is to expose the English version of the interview protocol (by section), which table 1
illustrates.
161
Table 5. Interview protocol (by section); Source: Authors
Sections
Query
Query
1
-
Respondent profile
2
1
Are you aware of serious games? (positive answer implies queries 1.1 and 1.2; and,
negative simply 1.2)
1.1
Which are serious games features?
1.2
Orthopaedic Patient Education 1.0 (7 to 10 minutes of usage)
2
Do you believe that Portuguese doctors are aware of these technologies (serious
games). Why?
3
Do you agree with serious games integration within training and educational
healthcare environments? Why?
3
4
What are the potential advantages and disadvantages that serious games may produce
in training and education?
5
What expectations serious games tend to generate?
6
What impacts will arise concerning doctors daily work?
7
What impacts will arise regarding doctors ethical practices?
The introduction of Orthopaedic Patient Education usage during the interview enables a behavioural
games characteristics.
Diagnosis
Yin (2009) suggests that surveys (interviews or questionnaires) assume several perils, so it is
fundamental to conduct a diagnosis (pilot procedure). McNamara (2009) argues that contextual
circumstances (interview environment), participant/interviewer personal characteristics, and type of
interview may constraint empirical results quality. Thus, this author recommends eight principles to
prepare an interview: (i) choose an environment with minor interruptions (medical learners- researcher
office; doctors- office prior to consultations); (ii) explain the purpose of the interview
(aims/objectives); (iv) explain the interview format (types of queries and game usage); (v) indicate
interview average time (40-45 minutes); (vi) further contact with the researcher (respondents have the
researchers contacts); (vii) ask for doubts before the interview (initial query); (viii) bear in mind to
prepare answers recording or taking notes (interviews have been recorded). As a final note, the
Table 6. Respondents profile (pilot studies); Source: Authors
Respondent
Gender
Age
Medical specialty
L1
Female
22
Orthopaedics
L2
Male
21
Palliative Medicine
The absence of professional practice is not a decisive constraint, as well as in contemporary medicine
rd year.
Moreover, the pilot interviews enable an equal gender representation.
sage. After exploring the demo
learners feel that is another important to help medical training (obtain better decisions) due its intrinsic
levels. As regards to serious games impacts their focus is ethical issues like privacy or security.
Table 7. Respondents answers- full interviews (pilot studies); Source: Authors
Sections
Query
Remark
Analysis
2
2
nto parcial,
contudo tal não é reflectido nos métodos de
Q2_L1_lecturers (none
usage)
na classe médica, penso que pelo menos na
comunidade estudantil isso acontece de facto. As
razões são diversas mas acima de tudo a falta de
Q2_L2_lecturers (none
usage)
162
3
melhorar e aprofundar conhecimentos são bem-
Q3_L1_learning (support-
other tool)
que vi do exemplo, penso que
Q3_L1_learning (support-
other tool)
3
4
Q4_L1_learning
environment
(interactivity)
as funções de simulação e importação de dados
Q4_L1_features (serious
games)
5
Q5_L1_realism (context)
extos médicos
(problemas e soluções), mas também o nível de
stress associado a questões críticas (exemplo
Q5_L1_realism (context);
Q5_L1_realism (stress)
6
rápidas e de melhor qualidade. Ainda assim, sem
Q6_L1_decision making
(better)
-
7
emocionais do médico podem ser diminuídas se
a relação pessoa
Q7_L1_doctors skills
(social/emotional)
como por exemplo: privacidade e segurança. A
meu ver obrigará necessariamente a uma revisão
do código deontológico no sentido de se adaptar
Q7_L2_privacy;
Q7_S2_security;
Q7_S2_deontological
code (revision)
5. Empirical findings
5.1 Section 1
In this case, interviews respondents, have a similar equal gender representation. Age varies from 32 to
51, i.e., three different age groups (30-40, 41-50, above 50). Each age group has two elements with
similar ages despite different gender, so a quite representative sample. Medical specialties are
completely unlike (contexts and challenges), which enriches the analysis.
Table 8. Respondents profile (final interviews); Source: Authors
Respondent
Gender
Age
Years of professional
experience
Medical specialty
D1
Female
32
8
General Practice
D2
Male
44
20
Military Medicine
D3
Male
32
6
Emergency Medicine
D4
Male
51
24
Orthopaedics
D5
Female
41
16
Internal Medicine
5.2 Section 2
Remarkably all respondents are completely unaware of serious games! Interviewee 2 refers that the
pondent 4 opinion
validates since he is a regional board member. Pertaining to serious games appliance in medical
training all respondents are in favour, namely as another tool that promotes lifelong learning.
163
Table 9. Respondents answers- section 2 (final interviews); Source: Authors
Section
Query
Remark
Analysis
2
2
Q2_D1_doctors
(ignorance)
a ausência de informação oriunda dos hospitais e da ordem
Q2_D2_doctors
(ignorance)
Q2_D3_doctors
(ignorance)
tecnologias mas não os jargões tecnológicos. Neste caso é
Q2_D4_doctors
(ignorance)
Q2_D5_doctors
(ignorance)
3
aprendizagem dos futuros médicos. Contudo, esta
tecnologia deve interagir com as formas de aprendizagem
Q3_D1_learning
(support- other
tool)
experimentação, parece-me que será um passo decisivo
para ajudar a potenciar a aprendizagem não somente em
contexto educacional, mas analogamente ao longo da
Q3_D2_learning
(support- other
tool);
Q3_D2_learning
(lifelong)
sem dúvida. Os médicos serão mais capazes em termos de
aprendizagem e procedimentos tradicionais, mas também
Q3_D3_learning
(support- other
tool);
Q3_D3_learning
(lifelong)
faculdades. Face ao crescente número de alunos parece-me
importante desenvolver alguma prática clínica adicional
Q3_D4_learning
(support- other
tool)
-valia importante para treino dos
formandos para o aperfeiçoamento da destreza dos já
Q3_D5_learning
(support- other
tool);
Q3_D5_learning
(lifelong)
5.3 Section 3
Table 10. Respondents answers- section 3 (final interviews); Source: Authors
Section
Query
Remark
Analysis
3
4
m, validação contínua de
Q4_D1_learning tool;
Q4_D1_realism
(requirement)
-the-job;
necessidade absoluta de realismo gráfico e de resposta
Q4_D2_learning tool;
Q4_D2_realism
(requirement)
do corpo humano caso os sistemas não sejam reais;
pluralidade de áreas médicas deve ser um
Q4_D3_learning tool;
Q4_D3_realism
(requirement)
não sabemos a textura e relevo do corpo humano o que
Q4_D4_learning tool;
Q4_D4_realism
(requirement)
go; capacidade de treinar sem que o paciente
Q4_D_learning tool
164
5
diferentes cenários guardem os resultados para que o
médico monitorize a sua evolução; é um jogo e a resposta
fisiológica é sempr
Q5_D1_realism
(context);
Q5_D1_features
(serious games)
Q5_D2_features
(serious games)
aprendizag
Q5_D3_learning tool
Q5_D4_learning tool
Q5_D5_learning tool
6
Melhor preparação implica decisões mais rápidas e de
Q6_D1_decision
making (better)
Q6_D2_decision
making (better)
direc
Q6_D3_no influence
Q6_D4_decision
making (better)
Q6_D5_decision
making (better)
7
rão apenas servir intentos de
formação ou de melhoria de performance não têm
Q7_D1_ethical
dilemmas (none)
Q7_D2_ethical
dilemmas (none)
tida não haverá, pois se o médico falhar na vida real
Q7_D3_ethical
dilemmas (none)
provavelmente irá induzir alterações no código
Q7_S2_deontological
code (revision)
Q7_D5_ethical
dilemmas (none)
All doctors stress the importance of serious games as a learning tool (improve decision making),
although focused realism as an essential requir
respondent 4 feels that the deontological code needs a revision; and, interviewee 3 neglects game
designers responsibility.
5.4 Limitations
A trustworthy qualitative research emerges from an effort to realise meaning or validity about data
collection (Huxham and Vangen, 2003). In fact, literature encompasses four quality standards: (i)
dependability, record the research process and documentation; (iv) conformability, data audit.
opinions or beliefs, i.e.:
1. the systematic approach that merges interpretative flexibility, interview design/preparation
and content analysis is rigorous in spite of potential subjectivity;
2. and, the empirical results denote interesting insights as regards to the paper aims/objectives.
At last, two probable critics may arise due to a restrict analysis: the number of interviews (5 or 7
including the pilot studies), and why not another type of survey (e.g., questionnaire with open
165
queries). Borges-Costa et al. (2006) illustrate a non-
within a hospital context and in studies conducted by medical staff/hospital administration. The prior
assumption clearly validates personal interviews as a key data collection procedure.
6. Conclusion
seriou
to ignore (Bredl and Bösche, 2013). A probable explanation for this discrepancy is that learners are
digital natives; (iii) both groups acknowledge serious games as another learning tool, but indicate
contextual realism as vital. Future studies are essential to promote a better understanding, as for
instance concerning the code Q7_L1_doctors skills (social/emotional).
Acknowledgments
For financial assistance pertaining ETHICOMP 2013, the second co-author gratefully recognises
Autónoma University of Lisbon.
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167
PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS ON A MORAL TURING
TEST
Anne Gerdes and Peter Øhrstrøm
Abstract
In the wake of the growing interest in human robot interaction, it might be fruitful to explore artificial
moral agency by reflecting upon the possibility of a Moral Turing Test (MTT); and whether its
obvious lack of focus on interiority, i.e., its behaviouristic foundation, counts as an obstacle to
establishing a test to judge the performance of an Artificial Moral Agent (AMA). Subsequently, in
order to settle whether a MTT could serve as a useful framework for the understanding, design and
ethics regarding the formal representation of moral theories and standards. Here typically three design
approaches to Artificial Moral Agents are available; top down theory-driven models and bottom-up
approaches which set out to model moral behaviour by means of models for adaptive learning, such as
neural networks. And finally, hybrid models, which involve components from both top-down and
bottom-up approaches to the modelling of moral agency. With inspiration from Allen and Wallace
(2009, 2000) as well as A.N. Prior (1949, 2003), we elaborate on theoretical driven approaches to
machine ethics by introducing deontic tense logic. Finally, within this framework, we reflect upon the
character of human interaction with a robot, which has successfully passed a MTT.
Keywords
Moral Turing Test, Artificial Moral Agents (AMAs), robot ethics, human robot interaction, inner
states, deontic tense logic, branching time
1. “As if” – A Moral Turing Test
substance of our lives as teleological beings, developing robots setting ourselves further
technological-cultural goals is not an inhuman or antihuman enterprise. It is simply part and parcel
of the life of a species that first began cultivation the land, devising tools and machines, and
cultivation culturally developing members of the species itself. Machines and artefacts are an
1974, p. 259)
Due to the growing interest in human robot interaction (e.g. Benford & Malartre, 2007; Dautenhahn,
2007; Turkle, 2011; Wilkes, 2010; Levy, 2008 and the Geminoid Lab of Henrik Schärfe); it might be
fruitful to discuss artificial moral agency by considering the possibility of a Moral Turing Test (MTT),
which might enable us to distinguish principles for evaluating morally correct actions rather than (as
in the originally Turing test (1950)) skills of articulation. The Turing test is based on a criterion of
indistinguishability, meaning that a computer system passes the test if a human interrogator is unable
to distinguish between utterances produced by the computer and those produced by a human. It is
important to point out that the development of a system that can pass the MTT will only be a first step
towards producing an AMA. The kind of machine ethical reasoning needed in order to pass the MTT
should not be confused with ethical autonomous decision making. According to McDermott (2008),
ethical decision making involves a conflict between self-interest and ethics, whereas challenges
regarding ethical reasoning concern how to formalize human reasoning processes, which are based on
moral principles and may be computationally very complex, although they are not structurally
different from other kinds of reasoning processes (McDermott, 2008, p. 2). Ethical reasoning
presupposes a notion of free choice in the sense that alternative future possibilities are open to the
persons in question. In order to be a genuine ethical decision maker one must also be free in the sense
-interest even though it runs counter to moral
prescriptions. A robot does not have to be free in this sense in order to pass a MTT.
168
Given that we depend on various kinds of robot services, then at least for the sake of safety, we may
AMA passes the original Turing Test, the bar is set too low since it would allow it to be as fallible as
we are. It seems reasonable to demand more of AMAs than we expect from humans, which seems
conceivable, since we would, of course, like them to be reliable robots, and since we want them,
unlike humans, not to get emotionally distracted in carrying out moral reasoning processes prior to
their actions. Thus, contrary to the Turing Test, robots should be able to out-perform humans in a
MTT test set up across different domains. Hence, the perspective of the MTT shifts in character to
become a comparative MTT, in which the aim is to establish, which agent is unfailingly more moral
across a set of ethically relevant situations (Allen et al., 2000, p. 255). In this sense, a comparative
MTT would provide a tool for risk assessment, useful when computer scientists and engineers strive to
and action within given domains, preferably within every possible domain. Within this behaviourist
framework, we might consider the idea of artificial moral agency from a performance perspective in
maintaining that morality can be decided by mere appearance, which to the face of it seems reasonable
enough, since how do we settle whether human beings are virtuous or not? Simply by judging their
behaviour i.e., she is a generous person since she acts out of generosity; she is a moral person since
she always acts morally appropriate. Why then should we demand more or something else for robots?
1.1 The Role of Inner States
fit nicely into a classical utilitarian framework, in which intentions and right reasons for acting are
disregarded and only consequences of acts are taken into account in the evaluation of moral
behaviour. However, to most moral philosophers, internals cannot be omitted. Aristotle remarked that
concept of well-being or eudaimonia and highlighted phronesis as the form of wisdom related to
practical reason in action. This form of proficiency is not neutral but moral in its being, since it
mirrors a form of reflection grounded in practice and cultivated by our ability to be involved and to
take a stance in any specific situation. Furthermore, according to Kant, we find that reasons count;
a good will, i.e., my
ability to act from a sense of duty implied by the fact that I am capable of carrying out rational
reasoning in accordance with moral rules that may guide my conduct. A more recently example of the
importance of internals can be found in (Moor, 2009). Here James Moor distinguishes among four
types of ethical agents: Ethical Impact Agents, which are machines that have obvious ethical impact
on the surroundings as an example, Moor mentions the robotic Qatar camel jockeys, which save
young boys from engaging in the dangerous race. At the next level we find Implicit Ethical Agents,
representing systems designed to avoid unethical or undesired outcomes such as for instance a
simple control system in an ATM machine that blocks for purchases when faced with user patterns
suggesting fraud (Wallach, Allen, 2009, p. 29). Next, we find Explicit Ethical Agents, which are
act, not because they want to, but because their programming causes them to do so (Putnam, 1964
1
, p.
672). They may be conceived as Ethical Agents similar to human beings in the sense that they carry
out their moral reasoning assuming that they have free will, consciousness and intentionality, and
hence the capacity for being held responsible for their actions. As such, inner states seem to matter,
and abilities for moral reasoning have to be understood as situated in the unified whole of human life
1
Here, Putnam refers to an argument from an unpublished paper by Baier given at Albert Einstein College of
only be achieved, will carry
consciousness as something that calls for a decision rather than a discovery.
169
and experience, as pointed out in the Dreyfusian attack on the whole idea of Artificial intelligence
(Dreyfus & Dreyfus 1992); as well as by Searle in his famous Chinese Room argument against so-
called strong AI, in which he states that a machine may be perfect in displaying verbal behaviour, and
thus able to pass the Turing Test, but all it does is manipulating meaningless symbols, without
intentions left behind it, and thus without sense -
2. Pragmatics: Approaches to the Design of a MTT
From an engineering perspective, we might note that inner states, consciousness, motivations and
intentions may all count. Yet, performance is all we have access to in judging the moral actions of
both human and robots. Hence, we should set out to seek solutions that would give empirical testable
results, which allows us to measure whether a robot simulates moral behaviour in a satisfactory
manner. Still, re-describing what counts as preferable, artificial moral agency in terms of the
abovementioned comparative MTT is one thing, whereas actually bringing it to life is something
entirely different. We need to consider how to build moral robots relying on some sort of combination
between translating moral philosophy into programming combined with the challenge of deciding the
scope of moral reasoning and action within a given context.
In order to design a system which can pass a MTT, we need to implement a relevant ethical theory. It
ince they involve some important
ideas regarding human moral agency. In fact, Kant stated that the fact that we are aware that we might
act morally wrong is what makes us responsible creatures, and this fact is, therefore, essential to our
humanity. This means that it should be possible to do reasoning about moral questions. Facing this
Kantian challenge, many researchers have tried to formulate a deontic logic. One of the founders of
this enterprise was A.N. Prior (1914-69) who wanted to study the logical machinery involved in the
(Øhrstrøm et al. 2012). In an early study he claimed that such logical system had to be based on
complete descriptions of (a) the actual situation, and (b) the relevant general moral rules.
obligation could be automatically inferred from (a) and (b) if complete knowledge of these were ever
Clearly, the combination of the requirements regarding (a) and (b) would involve
which will make it possible to know all there is to know and take everything into consideration before
making a (perfect) moral decision. From an engineering point of view, it seems obvious that we
evaluation as a basis for carrying out perfect moral behaviour. Of course, due to the frame problem,
specified by a formal description, which can select for preferable events or outcomes within a
restricted domain.
In seeking to engineer a theoretical approach to morality similar to the Kantian approach, Allen and
Wallach distinguish among a top-down theoretically driven approach, a bottom-up developmental or
explorative approach and finally a hybrid (Allen & Wallach, 2009, ch. 6, 7 and 8), which combines
both top-down and bottom-up approaches and furthermore includes a virtue ethical component. They
all run into similar problems from different angles. Therefore, in the following, we will mainly place
emphasis on the theoretically-driven approach and only briefly sketch essential points regarding the
remaining strategies. Hence, the developmental approach includes an adaptive learning or value-
emerging line of attack to artificial intelligence, as the one reflected in embodied architectures, such as
neural nets, genetic algorithms and connectionism. From this developmental approach, shortly spoken,
Thus, the system cannot learn anything
desirable values to emerge on a background, which implies a kind of build in mechanism to navigate
in distinguishing right from wrong.
170
According to Allen and Wallach, a pure top-down approach will run into trouble due to the frame
problem following in the wake of formally seeking to represent a scope of ethical reasoning by
applying theory-driven rules, i.e. decisions algorithms, for ethical actions, which point out satisfactory
outcomes in a contextually open domain. Therefore they introduce a hybrid-model, which not only
combines but also integrates top-down and bottom-up approaches by incorporating virtue ethics as a
theoretical foundation for implementation of the idea of how we develop into virtuous persons through
learning by habit, which goes well together with the model of connectionism. The hybrid model seems
to give rise to the same type of problem regarding specifying rules for decision algorithms, or
developing self-learning architectures, as well as deciding for which virtues are going to be taking into
considerations (since, for one thing, virtue ethics have not yet been able to come up with a finite
catalogue of virtues). To sum up the hybrid model seems to us to be rather futuristic for the time
being, and furthermore, since every-day moral reasoning does make use of top-down rules in
explaining moral actions this approach still holds some promises for turning ethical theories into
workable and implementable models of ethical reasoning (at least) within restricted domains (which is
also noted by Allen & Wallach, 2009, p. 83).
As an example thereof, Anderson, Anderson and Armen (2004) represent a theory-driven approach in
their suggestion in which they model ethical reasoning by a combination of two components: Firstly,
they make use of act utilitarianism, which allow for a kind of cost-benefit calculation of outcomes of
-
based actions - relying on prima facia duties: fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, non-
maleficence and self-
weight relevant prima facia duties up against each other:
tead of computing a single value based only on pleasure/displeasure, we must compute the sum of
value for each such duty could be computed as with Hedonistic Act Utilitarianism, as the product of
No matter what model of ethical reasoning we may choose to implement in order to establish a system
which may pass a MTT, it will have to take time and modality into account. This was strongly
emphasized in the works of Prior on deontic logic.
incorporate the logic of ethics into a broader context of time and modality. Unfortunately, he was
never able to pursue this goal in details, but he certainly managed to establish the broader context of
time and modality into which the logic of obligation has to fit. In order to indicate what such an
approach involves, we shall make use of a simplified example.
Let us imagine that an agent in certain situation or scenario, S0, has to choose between two future
possibilities represented by the scenarios, S1 and S2, which may both in principle be realised
tomorrow. The agent wants to act morally correct and carries out a careful reasoning in order to do so.
This is done within the scope of a tempo-modal logic corresponding to a branching time system. A
simplified system of that kind can be represented by the following diagram:
S0
S2
S1
c11
c20
c21
c10
171
This branching time diagram involves four so-called chronicles (c10, c11, c20, c21), i.e. possible courses
of time. At S0 the future possibilities S1 and S2 are both possible, and one of them is necessary. Letting
s1 and s2 stand for propositional descriptions of the situations corresponding to S1 and S2, and M
MF(1)s1 1 MF(1)s2 2 may occur
s1 and s2 are the mutually exclusive in the sense
that there is a proposition, p, implied by s1, the negation of which is implied by s2. This means that in
general we have
F(1)p F(1)~p
But what are the truth values of F(1)p and F(1)~p at S0? Some would say, that if these propositions
are true, they will also be settled i.e. necessary. For this reason, it may be claimed that
F(1)p NF(1)p
F(1)~p NF(1)~p
conclusion
NF(1)p NF(1)~p
which means that whatever happens tomorrow (p or ~p), will happen necessarily. It is straightforward
to read (4) as a claim of determinism. When dealing with ethics based on the notion of free choice, we
-logical system, which includes (4) as a theorem. However, there are
several ways out of this, denying either (1) or (2) (and (3)) (see Øhrstrøm and Hasle 2011). Given
handle the reasoning related to a MTT. But how should this new operator be conceived? It is
nse since
what happens in the future depends in principle on the choices of a number of free agents (see Prior
2003, p. 65). On the other hand, it may be reasonable to address what most likely produces the best
consequences. In addition, as suggested by Prior, we need to look for descriptions of (a) the actual
situation, and (b) the relevant general moral rules. As argued above, these descriptions cannot be
complete
descriptions as detailed as possible. In making a system, which can pass the MTT, we should include a
clear account of the general relations between the basic notion of modality and obligation. One such
rule could be the Kantian principle that if something (say an act that leads to F(x)p) is obligatory, then
it is also possible i.e.
OF(x)p MF(x)p
(i.e. its negation is obligatory). Formally,
~MF(x)p O~F(x)p
A number of relations of this kind have to be considered in order to establish a system, which will
allow us to discuss obligation in a tempo-modal context (see Øhrstrøm et al. 2012). It is still an open
172
question exactly which relations should be accepted and which should be rejected. Clearly, the actual
implementation of a system corresponding to a MTT has to be based on a formalization of the logic of
obligation, time and modality. Although there is a lot to discuss regarding the precise properties of
such a logical system, the actual formulation of reasonable candidates, which will work in specific
contexts, is not too far away. This means that it may be possible to produce early prototypes of MTT
implementations. Such systems may be useful for empirical studies of ethical reasoning.
3. Human-Robot Interaction: Challenges in Dealing with an Artificial
Moral Agent Approved with the MTT-Certificate
Let us assume that in the future an AMA passes the comparative MTT; not by behaving
indistinguishably from a human moral agent, but by out-performing him or her by being able to apply
forward to the best ethical response to the case at hand. This might seem ideal to us and ensure
reliable human-a moral praiseworthy agent
want to pay? In order to sharpen our imagination let us seek inspiration digging into the science
interact with humans as polite and caring servants. These robots are, of course, programmed with
-
living, but the detective, Del Spooner has a strong aversion against robots. He was once involved in a
car accident in a river, where he tried to save a 12 year-old girl from drowning in the car, but instead
he was saved by a robot, who interfered with his action and computed (maybe based on a deontic
time-to-
moral--
-in
is judged by the consequences of its rescue, measuring up to saving Spooner, which turned out to
represent the best possible outcome under the given the circumstances. Also, within its deontological
framework, the robots action can be judged as morally good. Here the robots moral system activates
reference to the double-effect doctrine (Quinn, 1989), which emphasizes that it is sometimes
permissible to cause harm as a side effect (double effect) even though it would not be tolerable to
cause the particular kind of harm as a means - of doing good. In this particular case, the robot acted
according to a specific system of moral reasoning which implied saving Spooner while letting go of
the girl - she stood a little chance while the detective could be saved if the robot acted timely. Still,
have saved the girl. This means that a human would have rejected the system of moral reasoning used
by the robot and looked for a revision of it.
If robots are ultimately capable of acting morally perfect by means of having access to relevant
knowledge, which humans lack at a given time of action, then encounters with robots are perhaps less
promising than it seems in the first place.
decide that the best way to protect human beings is to protect them from themselves. Thus, in the end,
logical implication is short-circuited by Spooner. In this way paternalism evaporates in favour of
human autonomy, which carries with it human capacity for failure, which again is what made us moral
beings in the first place: the fact that something important is at stake when we make up our mind and
act upon it knowing that we may be held responsible for our decisions.
173
4. Concluding Remarks
It seems that Prior was right in claiming that the formulation of a formal system, which correctly
incorporates all aspects of moral reasoning, would in principle require a complete description not only
of all relevant moral rules and laws, but also of all relevant aspects of the situation in question.
reality. Since we can never have anything like that, a complete and unquestionable system of moral
reasoning cannot be established. On the other hand, we have argued that although there are many open
questions regarding the precise properties of the formal relations between time, modality and
obligation, it is in fact possible to formalize important aspects of ethical reasoning in a specific
context and thereby contribute to a system which may pass a comparative MTT. Systems
implemented on the basis of such formalizations will, however, be partial and temporary in the sense
that the actual moral evaluations can be questioned when their implications are considered in concrete
situations. As we have seen, an observation of this kind may lead to a revision of the system of ethical
reasoning. Clearly, this may happen again and again. Any formalization of ethical reasoning may have
to be revised when confronted with real life. Clearly, humans are faced with the very same fact, which
means that this limitation may not disqualify the system as seen in relation to a MTT. One important
consequence of this is that we have to distinguish between modeling moral reasoning and actual
decision making in moral questions. Creating a system which can pass a MTT may not give us a
system which can provide satisfactory decisions in practical situations. Nevertheless, the study of
possible systems which may pass a MTT can certainly give rise to useful and important insights
concerning moral reasoning.
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175
POWER ETHICS: THE MASSIVE DATA CENTER
David Gleason
Keywords
Data Center, Power Consumption, Privacy, Security, Connectivity
Extended Abstract
Over the last few years, data centers worldwide have become enormous, serving the explosive storage
and processing needs of companies like facebook, Apple and Google. Moreover, virtualization has
been deployed in most mid-sized, private data centers, leading to fluidity, adaptability and
redundancy. Many IT departments are now moving these virtual machines to the cloud, using services
a host of
ethical issues.
This paper surveys ethical issues raised by the construction of massive data centers. It addresses
questions like the enormous power consumption of data centers, the security and privacy of the data
stored thereon, and the requirement for connectivity for access. Data center systems can be used for
good or ill, like traditional data centers, but the transience of servers and entire data sets enables
stealth computing at a new level of risk. Data centers make profits by hosting pornography sites and
malware; facebook is used for bullying; Google is used by hate groups. On the positive side, data
centers take a huge technological burden out of small organizational management there is no longer
the need for a high-priced systems administrator and support team.
POWER CONSUMPTION: The new york times reported recently that data centers globally consume
30 Nuclear power stations of electricity [30 billion watts]. Highly inefficient, these centers use
electricity for idle servers to accommodate spikes in demand, and have continuously-operating,
multiply redundant power sources. A recent McKinsey study reported that only 6-12 percent of the
electricity consumed by data centers is actually productive. Furthermore, the heat produced by the
machines must be removed mechanically, with water-cooled systems and still more energy
consumption.
There are abundant opportunities for improvements to save power, engineers can design server
processors for lower power consumption, for example by lowering clock speeds; green data centers
can benefit from efficiencies like reusing heat, reducing dependency on use of continuously operating
diesel generators through the use of better batteries in UPS unites. Because it uses fewer processing
cycles, efficient software can also reduce power consumption. An unnecessary disk read operation
that runs a trillion times a day costs money.
The move to portability has put financial incentives into efficiencies that provide battery longevity.
When the iOS 4 was first introduced, it brought battery life to its knees until Apple tweaked it for
energy efficiency. These advances have reduced power consumption of local machines. Battery
longevity for portable devices requires efficient design - lower power consumption - but pushes
computing into the cloud.
PRIVACY AND SECURITY: to win customers, data centers must guarantee privacy and security, but
the agreements are usually written in favor of the provider.
Data center management needs to be diligent about who is using its systems for what purposes.
Unfortunately, data center services are only based on ability to pay. This paper will address this issue
in some detail, particularly the difficulty of real-time tracking of potentially hazardous or otherwise
destructive code and content (e.g., malware or child pornography). The responsibilities of these
services to track content remains largely unanswered. On the governance and control side, law
rth
amendment never anticipated the amount of information that would be available in public and semi-
public space).
176
Data mining on the part of malevolent actors is enabled by data centers with lax security. Insidious
software can be used to follow traffic
hotspots enable their transmissions to be monitored very simple software.
Many security issues are addressed with tight operating systems like iOS, where the kernel is hidden
from the applications. These systems also allow remote management to apply security policies (like
the maximum timeout before a passcode is required) and to wipe devices remotely.
CONNECTIVITY, while ubiquitous in the developed world, is still spotty elsewhere effective
applications should be designed to run in an off-line mode.
ALWAYS ON: Data center systems are grown. They can't just be turned on and off services must be
moved uninterrupted in real time from one system to another, as though they were alive. Furthermore,
bandwidth must be ubiquitous and uninterrupted. Because of latency, it must also be fast, so telecomm
infrastructure is also growing with technologies like 4G, fiber, and coaxial cable. These technologies
themselves present ethical problems of access for some and not others, enormous expense, and ever-
more questionable content available at a price.
THE BRIGHT SIDE: Data centers takes the maintenance of technology out of the local network and
into structured support systems professionally staffed. Reliance on data availability is no longer in the
a great benefit.
Storage that let IT managers increase capacity at the click of a mouse (and a debit to the checking
account).
In the end, there is great promise in hosted apps; thin computers; lower maintenance; reduced software
maintenance overall; ease of maintenance; cloud computing with privacy/security attended to;
efficient applications continuously updated and available; features like simultaneous document editing
in real time. All your data available anywhere, anytime (if you can afford connectivity), even at 40K
feet. Ubiquitous connectivity, telecommuting, easy data sharing and video-conferencing all lead to
savings on transportation energy, time and costs. Enabled by data centers, these services offer great
promise, but the risks are also high.
Do the benefits outweigh the ethical risks and practical costs? Only if we pay attention to the impact
these technologies will have on people, economies and our world.
177
A NEW FRONTIER IN ICT ETHICS: ROBOTIC
CAREGIVERS
Krystyna Górniak-Kocikowska
Abstract
The theory of evolution caused a deep change in Western ethical theories. Likewise, the development
of computer science/ICT and other emerging and converging technologies will cause a change of
similar or greater importance to ethical theory and practice (policy) globally. To illustrate this point
the paper explores some of the ethical issues related to the creation and use of anthropoidal robots as
caregivers in medicine and social services. This development is compared to the ethical problems
logy.
1. Introduction
The rapid changes in the field of medicine and caregiving opened the door for a new set of ethical
questions and problems. This paper will focus on some of the ethical issues embedded in the fast
developing area of robotic caregivers. My basic claim is that the new development in technology
which is very likely to happen in the near future, namely the creation of autonomous machines
entrusted with the care for the wellbeing of human individuals who need various degrees of assistance,
will do to ethics what the theory of evolution did; i.e., it will generate a paradigmatic change.
The paper begins with a brief description of the importance of the theory of evolution to (Western)
ethical theories. Next, I entertain the issue of the global significance of the ethical theories pertaining
to the problems generated by ICT and other emerging and converging technologies. This part is
followed by the discussion of the convergence as well as divergence of ethical issues, in particular the
interest/policies issues and identity/worldview
technologies such as computer science and life sciences. This point is illustrated by the ethical debate
around the development of synthetic biology, in particular with regard to the creation of the synthetic
genome.
As a case in point, I discuss some of the ethical issues caused by the introduction of robots, including
caregivers with an exclusion of an important albeit
presently less developed category of robotic nurturers. I pay special attention to the problems of
communication and autonomy.
glimpse into the future; it contains a brief discussion of possible future
developments in the area of ethics as well as the significance of these possibilities to humankind.
2. The theory of evolution and ethics
d a profound change in ethics. It forced ethical theorists
to look at ethics in the context of a changing, dynamic, rather than unchanging, static reality and to
treat human beings as a changing (evolving) entities as well; moreover, the acceptance of the theory of
evolution led to the inclusion of non-human animals into ethical consideration.
One of the consequences of this development in the field of ethics was that, with time, the problem of
animal rights as well as the problem of ethical judgments regarding animal actions gained significance
to the point that these problems generated whole new branches of ethics such as animal rights ethics
and the emergent field of animal ethics respectively. The latter is concerned mostly with animal rights;
however, questions about the moral agency of animals are under investigation; voices are being raised
in defense of the thesis that some animals should be treated as autonomous agents at least in a way
178
comparable to severely disabled human individuals (Tanner, 2006; Johnson 2011). These
developments show the degree to which the scope of ethical investigations expanded. The most
significant point in this case is the fact that this ethical expansion paved the road for the
theoretical/philosophical investigation of non-human individuals as autonomous moral agents.
Another important repercussion of the theory of evolution was the change in the way humans
anthropocentric worldview. On the other hand, as pointed out in the Conclusion, the developments
discussed in this paper permit for a view that a certain type of anthropocentrism could strengthen in
the future.
view) looking at humans as a species,
The time is approaching when Friedrich
N
ietzsches
proclamation that humans are but a link, a stepping-stone to what he called the bermensch, will
become a reality.
It
is imperative that the transition from a human to a posthuman (even though not
exactly a fulfillment of
N
ietzsches or for that matter Francis Fukuyamas vision) takes place
according to rules of voluntarily and globally accepted ethics.
Humans in their present form will be confronted sooner or later by some post-human entity. The
character of this confrontation in itself opens the door to some very interesting ethical speculations.
Presently, there are two feasible ways in which the emergence of posthumans could happen. One is
humans a gradual adjustment to changes. The other more likely of the two way is technological.
biology), the other is the construction of autonomous machines (computer science/ICT and
emerging/converging technologies). These two ways permit for an anticipation of a third way a
synthesis of the two.
species acquired enough unique features to be identified as such, i.e., as a species in its own right.
Myth, legends, and lately the history of science and technology teach that long ago humans not only
had dreams about human-like machines but also had begun attempts at making such machines.
However, these attempts only recently show a rapid progress. Today there is legitimacy to the claim
that the emergence of posthuman entities via the technology route is really in our future. If this
happens it could be a process too fast for humans to have sufficient time for adjustment; physical,
psychological, or social. Consequently, humans could be inadequately prepared for the emerging
ethical dilemmas caused by this development. This is the scenario I am interested in.
3. Computer science, ICT, emerging and converging technologies and ethics
The theory of evolution led to the expansion of ethics by including the non-human natural world into
ethical consideration. The computer revolution leads to the expansion of the scope of ethics by
including machines, i.e., human creations into ethical considerations.
One of the significant step in this expansions is the area of robotics. Computer/ICT ethics, in itself a
on this subject (e.g., Lin et al, 2011; Wallach & Allen, 2008) in addition to multitude of articles.
Just as post-evolutionary ethics explores the way humans treat their natural environment but also
ventures into the problem of ethical investigations of animals as autonomous ethical agents so, too,
computer/ICT ethics and in particular robot ethics explore the way humans treat their creations
(robots). What is more, in a pretty obvious parallel to the post-Darwinian ethics, these new branches
of ethics venture into the problem of ethical investigations of anthropoidal robots as autonomous
ethical agents.
Michael Sandel (Sandel, 2005: 241-247) claims that the debates on
bioethics, human cloning and genetic engineering will have very far-reaching implications for
philosophers, forcing them to change the way they think about philosophy.
I
believe that
S
andels
179
view applies equally, or even more so, to theologians and religious scholars, including religious
ethicists. The same statement can be made regarding the impact of computer/ICT ethics, robot
ethics and ethics of emerging/converging technologies on philosophy, religious studies and
religious ethics. The rapid progress in life sciences,
I
C
T
, robotics, emerging and converging
technologies shows that the fundamental ontological questions regarding the essence of humanness, of
what it means to be a human being, could once more become central to philosophers, scientists, and
religious scholars.
Computer ethics, as this area was initially known before expanding and absorbing the new
technologies into its field of interest, was defined from the very beginning in several different ways.
(Bynum & Rogerson, 2004: 17-20) Some scholars, like Donald Gotterbarn thought of computer ethics
social and ethica
well known. (Bynum & Rogerson, 2004: 18) Judging from the way Bynum and Rogerson described
new social/ethical policies to deal with them in just and
computer ethics should cover a much wider spectrum, namely, I perceived computer ethics as global
ethics in a geographic as well as a conceptual sense. (Gorniak-Kocikowska, 1996)
I believe this initial diversified conceptual approach to computer ethics permitted a richness of ideas
and a dynamic development of this field, in which the pragmatic, professional concerns often rub
by the continuing development of computer/ICT ethics and the ethics of emerging and converging
technologies and also by parallel developments of new branches of ethics incited by the
accomplishments in the life sciences and biotechnologies; in particular in the area of synthetic
biology. These new developments show that focusing on policy alone is insufficient for successfully
dealing with ethical issues caused by the scientific and technological progress. I believe that the time
ave to be synthetized into one global
ethics, which will permit humans navigate the changing world. I want to bring this point to the
information.
4. The convergence of ethical issues: Policy/interest issues versus
identity/worldviews issues
of the human genome, or genetic blueprint of life, which holds the keys to transforming medicine and
t the beginning of 2008, J. Craig Venter
A team of 17 researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) has created the
largest man-made DNA structure by synthesizing and assembling the 582,970 base pair genome of a
bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-
Ec polio virus. The genome constructed a live polio
ten years after synthetizing the polio virus, the existence of a new scientific discipline known as
synthetic biology (a.k.a. synbio) is an acknowledged fact and universities worldwide (mainly in the
U.S., Japan and Western Europe) are offering graduate and doctoral programs in this field. One can
(syntheticbiology.org)
180
There are several parallels worth noticing between the development presented above and the
developments in the area of computer science and ICT including emerging and converging
technologies. There is also a noticeable progressing convergence of these two, life sciences and
computer science/ICT. Synthetic biology is impossible without computers. Craig Venter said with
had on the planet whose parent is a computer.
science/ICT and their offspring: robotics, aim at creating a complex, autonomous, life-like (and
eventually: living) entity. In other words, computer science and its acolytes could benefit greatly from
the research in the field of synthetic biology and vice versa.
What is even more interesting and potentially very disturbing to humans is the not unlikely
perspective that in the future autonomous robots could produce synthetic life without human
involvement; or/and (much less likely at this point, even as a distant perspective) that autonomous
synthetic life form of high complexity could create robots. Should that happen, humans will encounter
proclamations of the coming of the Űbermensch; but Nietzsche did not foresee it happening through
the achievements of science and technology. Moreover, the Űbermensch was supposed to be the next
stage in the evolution of humans; synthetic biology, on the other hand could accomplish the creation
any natural form
(Bedau, 2011: 29)
It is understandable why an animated media debate followed
-replicating bacterial cell with a completely synthetic
ranging
Barak Obama requested a report on this subject from the Presidential Commission for the Study of
Bioethical Issues. The report New Directions: The Ethics of Synthetic Biology and Emerging
Technologies was issued by the Commission in 2010.
ts want to drive a stake
into the heart of vitalism, and perhaps to undermine religious positions concerning the origin of life,
2011, 23) It is interesting to realize that while the public discourse
report concentrated mainly on identifying principles and policies.
Thomas Murray (Murray,
him they are quite typical in the sense that they reflect two different approaches to ethical problems in
general. They generate two different types of disputes on ethical issues which Murray calls interests
and identities (the latter are closely related to what in a different terminology would be called
. In comparison with my earlier discussion of approaches to computer ethics interests
would fit the professional ethics approach, whereas identities would be comparable with the
these two approaches is that an interests dispute can be resolved through policy negotiations with all
parties involved being reasonably satisfied with the outcome, whereas an identity dispute creates a
-
important observation. For those who follow the ethical
happen, much more effort is required to solve the identity/worldview issues.
181
5. Robotic caregivers
The case of robotic caregivers presents a very good illustration of intersection and mutual
entanglement of interests and identities issues; or, in other words, professional ethics and general
ethics, (megaethics). This is especially due to the fact that robotic caregivers from the very beginning
became a global phenomenon, and therefore their presence affects a variety of cultures, worldviews
terminology, identities. Following are some of the many issues in robot ethics
pertaining to robotic caregivers.
Robots, of course, have a long and rich history (Robot, Wikipedia), both as ideas and as contrivances
resulting from technological ingenuity; but a truly important qualitative change regarding their
significance for the (global) civilization took place only recently. Therefore, it is quite safe to treat the
emerging robot ethics as a venture into uncharted territory for which the closest point of reference and
the closest affinity could be found in bioethics and in particular, in the ethics of synthetic biology.
Some of the typical issues addressed in the context of robotic caregivers, are the questions of
responsibility, human autonomy and dignity, relationships, communication, and decision-making
processes. Many of these topics by far exceed the concerns of the pioneers of robotic ethics such as
social aspects of using robots, especially anthropoidal robots, as caregivers there are also problems
concerning purely medical or business issues which contain their own set of ethical questions often
belonging strictly to the area of professional ethics. Within each of these problems, several sub-
categories can be further identified.
Depending on the area and extent of care and also depending on the nature of human interactions
certain ethical problems take precedence over others. For instance, in long-term care activities aiming
at assisting caretakers with completing everyday tasks such as eating, grooming, dressing, etc., and
companionship play an instrumental role.
In
order to properly fulfill their intended functions in this
area, caregiving robots should havthe ability to communicate
effectively with a variety of individuals besides the caretakers (such as th reators and/or
technical supervisors, the medical or other professionals, individuals emotionally related to the
patient/caretaker by family ties or friendship). A significant number of these individuals, in particular
patients/caretakers and their families and friends, could be technologically illiterate, which could
cause a separate set of problems, especially in crisis situations.
problems regarding this topic. Far more complex, as mentioned earlier, would be questions related to
human autonomy and dignity as well the issue of independent decision making by robotic caregivers.
These problems are closely related to the problem of robot-human communication but have a much
wider philosophical dimension.
5.1 Communication
The communication problem requires further diversification depending on the level of communication
a caretaker is capable of; for instance, verbal (oral/aural, sign language/physical, written language),
non-verbal (e.g., muscle spasms, bodily functions measured by instruments). Some of the existing
robots have a high level of sophistication regarding non- Cyberdene has
developed the Hybrid Assistive Limb suit (HAL) which is currently available to rent in Japan. It
detects nerve signals sent by a person attempting to move, and then is said to automatically move the
muscle as the person expects. It can apparently multiply original strength by a factor of 2
(Sharkey & Sharkey, 2010)
Communication with patients suffering from cognitive disorders creates its own set of problems and
belongs basically to a separate category. This is mainly due to the elevated responsibility of caregivers
in light of the philosophical, ethical, legal and procedural issues involved (see, for instance, Crigger,
1993: 198-206), but also because of the growing urgency to treat this kind of disorders (PTSD being
presently most visible among them), which is amplified by the shortage of trained professional
(human) caregivers.
182
The most common problems in the context of robot ethics and robotic caregivers would be the
problem of proper interpretation of messages conveyed by a caretaker to the robot and the problem of
acting upon the wishes/directives issued by a caretaker. In all these cases the level of autonomy of
both the caretaker and the robot in decision-making processes plays also a very important role.
There is another communication-related problem with significant ethical weight. Some caretakers, for
instance those with memory problems and/or diminished cognitive skills could mistake anthropoidal
robotic caregivers for humans; either for their relatives/friends or for individuals perceived to be
malevolent. Obviously, the ethical problem of deception emerges here as well as the issue of
communication.
robotic technology could be
developed more as a tool, rather than as an identifiable robot. It could even begin to function as an
extension of the elderly body and
into a human body and/or mind the problems of communication (especially the issue of identifying the
communicator) as well as human identity and autonomy acquire a new dimension; also in terms of
ethical problems.
5.2 Human autonomy and dignity
The fact that the area of caregiving seems to have been targeted as the field of experiments in
anthropoidal robot-human relations could also cause serious ethical concerns. One of them is the
- Who controls the
robots? Are they actually designed to help the elderly person, or to cut costs and reduce the workload
of their carers? Often the focus is more on improving the lives of the caregivers, rather than ensuring
that robotic assistance is provided in such a way as to improve the lives of the elderly
themse
behalf of robotic care in light of the not so rare abuse of caretakers by their human caregivers, which
has been an issue causing ethical concerns for a long time. The same could be added with regard to the
problem of communication; if the robotic caregiver-caretaker communication causes concerns it
-human communication problems between caregivers and
caretakers but also quite notoriously between physicians and patients (Groopman, 2007).
These problems reach out into another very important dimension, namely that of the human dignity.
Francis Fukuyama, following Immanuel Kant, called human dignity which is in his view inseparably
linked to his famous Factor X
his insistence on the treatment of human individuals as autonomous beings. Dignity and autonomy
belong to the most fundamental moral properties of a human being. Philosopher Simon Blackburn
describes the mechanism of the denial to treat someone as an autonomous human being when he
that I have behaved in a way that I want to explain. But I find other
people listening to my story with a look in their eyes that suggests that this talk is just another
symptom. It is just another sign that I need to be managed or handled or cured or trained. Then I have
1999: 108) Many a patient can recall being in a situation like this. Blackburn, of course, addresses the
question of dehumanizing-through-not-listening in a general philosophical way. Sharkey & Sharkey
echo this observation and translate the concerns regarding this issue into the area of robotic caregivers.
There are two main ethical concerns about the use of assistive robot care for the elderly and its
effects on their welfarefirst that it might reduce the amount of human contact that the elderly have,
and second that if used insensitively, it could increase senior feeling of objectification and a
lack of control over their lives. In Western philosophy, particularly
in phenomenology, existentialism, personalism, and in various branches of philosophical
anthropology and social philosophy this problem has been addressed quite thoroughly; mainly in the
183
Unfortunately, medical patients, especially the elderly and patients with cognitive/mental disorders,
are not infrequently deprived not only of autonomy but also of dignity and that this deprivation takes
different forms and has a variety of causes and/or reasons. In robotic health-care, this lack of
autonomy of a patient could potentially elevate the ethical problem of human dignity to new heights,
especially in cross-cultural relations and in patient- It is important to
ensure that robots introduced into elder care do actually benefit the elderly themselves, and are not
just designed to reduce the care burden on the rest of societ
Given the paradigmatic significance of introducing anthropoidal robots to the day-to-day life of
nd with further
development of science and technology, it seems to me that it is very important to raise the global
awareness of the issue of robotic caregivers now. It is also very important to have a thorough global
discussion regarding robot ethics conducted from both positions, that of interests as well as identities.
6. Conclusion – a glimpse at future problems
I believe that robotic caregivers will be one of the fastest growing areas of development in robotics in
the immediate future both technologically and commercially. The latter will be caused chiefly by
demographics (rapidly growing population of the elderly); persisting shortage of nurses, especially
those well qualified and willing to work with only marginally responsive patients (Roy & Pineau,
200
of the younger generation, etc.). According to some estimates, the sales of personal robots for
and their prices will decline quite rapidly from the $80,000 or so in 2010. (Sharkey & Sharkey, 2010)
telemedicine (Jordan-Marsh, 2011, esp. p. 7 & 399). It is safe to assume that their presence in
telemedicine will grow in visibility proportionally to the advance of telemedicine itself.
I also believe that with their increasing ubiquity robotic caregivers should cause growing concerns
ginning of this development the argument goes and
the science and technology involved are so incredibly complex that it will take a very long time before
humans will have to face such a situation. That may be the case if one accepts the view that humans
are supposed to react to a new reality. However, if humans are supposed to be proactive and to
prepare themselves for this new reality and for the problems it will generate then precious little time is
left to do so. Writing about synthetic biology, Mark including me are
convinced that fully synthetic cells might very well be created within our lifetimes, perhaps even
between a synthetic cell and an autonomous complex synthetic organism; just as it is a great distance
between a robotic nurse capable of handing out a glass of water to an elderly person and a robotic
caregiver capable of satisfying all of the needs of a disabled person, and having total control over such
a person.
But what does a great distance or long time mean? Thousands, hundreds of years? Decades? Are
of evolution and creating a synthetic genome. But it only took 150 years to close this distance and it
happened at an accelerated speed. Let me recapitulate some of the milestones along that road. 1859
Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. 1866 Georg Mendel finished some of his
experiments with peas in which he made, among others, an observation which helped Friedrich
Mieschner isolate (in 1868) what today is called nucleic acid. 85 years after that, in 1953, Francis
Crick and James Watson published a paper about the structure of the DNA. Fifty years later, in 2003,
the mapping of the human genome was completed. In 2008, the progress made in creating a synthetic
bacterial genome reached a point at which it was perceived a cause for various ethical concerns urgent
enough to merit, at least in the United States, the interest of The Presidential Commission for the
Study of Bioethical Issues.
184
For comparison, here is a brief timeline of robotics. Putting the pre-computer attempts at creating
robots aside, o robot,
robotics. Norbert Wiener introduced the principles of cybernetics
in 1948, and in 1949 the robots Elmo and Elsie (The Turtles) were created by William Grey Walter.
The term artificial intelligence was coined in 1956. In 1961, Unimate, the first industrial robot was
Shakey, the first robot able to reason
about its surrounding was built and the Soviet Lunockhod 1, a remote-controlled robot, explored the
robot P2. In 2004, a self-replicating robot was revealed at Cornell University. In 2010, 89 years after
Robonaut 2 into space on the
Space Shuttle Discovery. I would venture a claim that the reality of autonomous anthropoidal robots
will soon cause similar ethical concerns as did the creation of a synthetic genome.
An interesting by-product of this expansion of the scope of ethical concerns and problems is that it at
the same time strengthens as well as weakens ethical anthropocentrism. Strengthens, because these
on-
presently explored from the human perspective and, in a sense, the two new branches of ethics
process because the
present ethical expansion foreshadows a very radical turn of events, namely the creation of ethics not
only for but also by robots (presumably anthropoidal robots; however, one cannot exclude the future
existence of autonomous non-anthropoidal robots). Should this happen, human-centered and human-
generated ethics will lose the status of exclusivity.
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186
SOCIAL AND COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES FOR
AGILE SOFTWARE TEAMS
Peggy Gregory and Katie Taylor
Abstract
Agile methods are being widely used in industry and government projects as a way of delivering IT
software projects. We report results from a survey about agile team work and a follow-up interview
study. Themes emerging from the interviews were team tension, method adaptation and cultural
the social and ethical challenges for IT developers working in organisations that adopt agile methods.
We take as the focus of our work, a view that cultural shifts are essential to agile working, and that
these require an intensive commitment from individuals, teams and organisations.
Keywords
Agile Methods; Social and Ethical challenges; Team working.
1. Introduction
Evidence suggests that agile methods are being widely adopted and used in industry and government
projects (West and Grant 2010). In the UK the most popular agile methods in use are Scrum, XP and
DSDM. The underlying principles of agile development are expressed in the agile manifesto, and are
briefly summarised in the following statement:
this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools;
Working software over comprehensive documentation;
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation;
Responding to change over following a plan.
1
These principles form the basis for all agile methods, expressing a focus on people-centred, pragmatic,
collaborative and flexible software development. The agile approach is characterised by incremental
and iterative development of software with frequent delivery of finished products that provide
business value. Underlying this approach are core practices, such as working in co-located, self-
organising teams, having small regular meetings, working flexibly to accommodate change, actively
involving customers in the development process, and using retrospectives and feedback to improve
practice.
As a result of the growth in uptake of agile methods, we are interested in understanding how they are
practiced by teams of developers on the ground. One of the criticisms levelled at the agile community
has been that its claims for success are largely unsubstantiated (Dyba and Dingsoyr 2008). Despite
this, in the UK, agile project management is becoming very popular and in March 2011 the Institute
for Government made recommendations for improving government IT by adopting agile approaches,
and is tracking progress on the changes set out in the Government ICT strategy
2
. As one of the key
components in the agile approach is team work and frequent interpersonal communication (Sharp and
Robinson 2010), we have focussed our research on investigating agile teams. We are particularly
interested in team communication (Markham 2009), and how the use of agile techniques impacts on
the working experiences of software developers and other professionals who work in agile teams
1
http://agilemanifesto.org/
2
http://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/our-work/more-effective-whitehall/fixing-flaws-government-it
187
(Whitworth and Biddle 2007). We discuss results from two exploratory empirical studies with the aim
of teasing out some of the social and ethical issues that arise.
We undertook a survey during summer 2012 to explore team structures and communication
approaches used by agile teams. This was followed by two semi-structured interviews, the aim of
which was to gain a more detailed understanding of how individuals experienced team work and
which aspects they found most challenging.
2. Agile Team Work Survey
The questionnaire consisted of ten questions asking which agile method teams used; typical team size;
team member location; how the team communicated; meeting frequency; meeting attendance; meeting
type; meeting recording; experience with agile, and finally an assessment of how agile the team were.
The aim of the survey was to assess what variety there was in the way that agile teams were
constructed.
The questionnaire was targeted specifically at practitioners who were already working in an agile
team. It was distributed to agile practitioners in the UK both in paper and online formats. The paper
copy was distributed at two conferences in which a majority of the attendees were agile practitioners.
Additionally, it was distributed electronically to agile business groups using distribution lists and
LinkedIn groups such as BCS Agile Methods, AgileNorth, Agile DSDM, Agile Yorkshire and Agile
Scotland.
Thirty-seven completed questionnaires were received. The most commonly used agile method was
(16%) and DSDM (11%). Team sizes varied between 4 and 30, with a mean size was 6. However,
70% of respondents stated their teams consisted of between 4 and 8 members. Most respondents
reported that they were co-located in a dedicated work area (73%), with only 11% reporting that they
worked in globally distributed teams. 81% said they regularly had face-to-face meetings and 19%
used electronic communication. Also most respondents (78%) reported that they had daily team
meetings, with 13.5% have weekly or bi-weekly meetings and 8% meeting less frequently. When
asked to describe how decisions were recorded, electronic shared documents were the most frequently
used tool (65%) followed by wall charts (46%), other means (19%), paper-based documents (8%) and
unshared electronic documents (2%). In terms of meeting attendance 49% stated that all team
members attended meetings, and 46% said most team members attended meetings and 2% said that
meeting attendance was poor. 18 respondents answered questions about how long the team had used
agile methods and how agile their team was (as these were added later to the online survey). Of the
respondents who answered this question the range of experience with agile methods was 1 to 10 years,
with a mean of 3.2 years. This group of respondents also answered a question about how agile they
thought their team was on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is hardly agile at all, and 5 is totally agile. Of
these 2.7% rated their team as 2, 15.2% as 3, 21.6% as 4 and 8.1% as 5; the mode was 4.
These survey results indicate that our survey respondents use a variety of agile methods, including
mixed methods. The relatively high number of respondents using mixed methods indicates that some
teams find they need to adapt agile methods to make them workable within their organisation. Scrum
was the most popular single method used, and was also frequently mentioned as a hybrid method. This
is unsurprising as Scrum is a framework approach for software development teams and it is structured
by a small number of simple team practices such as the sprint planning meeting, the daily scrum, the
sprint review and the sprint retrospective (Schwaber 2004). It does not contain as many software
development-specific practices as XP and hence is a more generically usable method.
Our results suggest that many of our respondents have been successful in implementing the core agile
team-management techniques of working in small co-located teams, meeting daily and managing
shared documentation in the workplace. The fact that most respondents stated they worked in co-
located teams was particularly interesting as this can be a difficult requirement to fulfil. However,
despite this, less than half of respondents said their teams had full team attendance at meetings. Quite
a few teams used paper-based documents such as wall-charts, as well as electronic documents. In
general there was a surprising homogeneity amongst responses, and many appeared to be achieving
188
core agile team work practices. However, some comments that respondents added to the bottom of
their questionnaires indicated that there are other issues to be teased out about agile team work. One
respondent commented that:
Another view was:
not understanding how to get the benefits from t
cultural change that teams need to get to grips with when they adopt agile methods.
3. Interview Study
Following the survey, two follow-up interviews were conducted in which interviewees were asked to
elaborate on their experiences of working within an agile team. Themes that emerged from these
interviews were about team tensions and dealing with disagreements; team roles and adapting
methods; and team culture. These suggest that much of the focus for both success and failure within
agile teams comes from the intense communication practices that are a vital part of this way of
working.
3.1 Team tension
Team tension and disagreements between team members were mentioned by both interviewees. The
first interviewee was quite knowledgeable about agile methods, but was working in a team that had a
history of problems with Scrum, and they were still experimenting with finding a way to make the
method work for them. They were also working in a distributed team so three team members were
based outside the UK, in Europe, the Middle East and the US and they had to use Skype for their team
meetings. The first interviewee discusses team disagreements:
d you have any disagreements between members of the team, and how did you resolve
them?
was hard to get that emotion across, it was difficult. And also, just some of the practical things, like
having a discussion or an argument, it was quite difficult at the time.
Researcher: Do you think it might have been useful to have some sort of argument and resolved it?
Interviewee 1: You know, just being there. You
The second interviewee also talked about his experience of working in an agile team where there was
a lot of unresolved tension and stress.
Storming, Norming and Pe
Forming. And the slightest bit of tension in order to kind of solve problems was quelled, so they never
3.2 Team roles and adapting methods
Both interviewees mentioned that their teams adapted methods, and that there were problems resulting
from missing team roles especially with getting sufficient input from business customers. Both
interviewees worked in Scrum teams, in which the customer role is represented by th
189
Interviewee 1: No, no direct involvement. So the face of the customers would have been more the
Researcher: Did someone act as the Product Owner in your team?
Interviewee 1: Yes. That role moved from person to person this also caused issues. There were 3
different people who managed that role in my time at the company. The first person left the company,
and then it rolled back to the head of the company, and then it was too much work for him to take on
so he tried to distribute it back to somebody else. And the way they managed that were very different,
and their visions for the product and their techniques were very different and that caused a lot of
Interviewee 2 also talked about method adaptation, and the problems with not having a product owner
who was fully integrated into the team:
Interviewee 2: No, they used most of Scrum. Where they had problems is tracking the monitoring the
work. So Scr
them because they had 6 different environments and the work would get pulled through, not only by
them but also by other projects, so they had to track it through the 6 environments as well so I think
they ended up with about 20 different categories.
Researcher: In terms of roles, did they use all the roles in the Scrum team?
Interviewee 2: They used all the roles, although from experience both the last [job] that I had and the
previous two, the Product Owner role was very much an executive role, so they provided a strategic
view and the business analyst provided the actual product owner role themselves so they wrote the
3.1 Cultural change
The importance of cultural change was highlighted in both interviews. Interviewee 1 talked about his
recent experience as a new-comer in an agile team that had been together for a while. He discussed the
problems of isolation in a distributed team, and the way that the team culture created uncertainty:
if that makes sense so instead of working together with
taking that
on board and sort of dismissing some of the techniques and things like that. So they had tried some of
they went off and just sort of rolled back to w
In contrast, Interviewee 2 gave an example of successful agile teamwork in a newly formed agile
team:
previous culture in the organisat
wanted to make that successful, traditional project managers which were moving from command and
control to servant-leadership, so there were huge changes around everything and in a matter of I
-95% of the people
towards agile, changing the style from command and control to servant-leadership we got all the
ceremonies working well and the retrospectives, the daily stand-ups, sprint planning sessions, all the
reporting set up and done, which we did from scratch all the burn-
4. Discussion
We take as the focus of our work a view that the cultural shifts that are essential to agile working
require an intensive commitment from individuals involved in the team, but these shifts have
190
repercussions beyond individuals and teams, into the organisation. This leads us to question how
practitioners experience agile working, the extent to which they view it as a positive improvement,
and whether there are any ethical questions we need to ask about the acceptability of this way of
working.
One of the main consequences of working in an agile way is the increased amount of face-to-face
working that teams engage in. The rationale for getting teams to co-locate is to help them to spot and
solve problems more quickly as they can talk with colleagues sitting in the same room rather than only
discovering problems during formal reviews. However, this way of working can be quite intense. Both
interviewees in our study gave examples of experiencing unresolved inter-personal tension in agile
teams. Obviously tensions can occur in any working environments but as agile teams experience a
more intense form of working relationship, these tensions are harder to avoid. There are potential
problems with asking IT developers to work in high-intensity teams, as many are introverted and are
more comfortable working on their own (Capretz 2003). Another activity characteristic of agile work
is the commitment to delivering outputs in short time-boxes, which can also put a lot of pressure on
staff. These can be seen as a form of micro-management through which staff are tracked and
controlled. The use of wall charts and kanban boards to promote a visual workplace, also explicitly
exposes the work patterns of individual staff to public scrutiny. We question whether, in the wrong
hands, some of these practices can be used to coerce and control staff.
Working collaboratively with customers is the third principle in the agile manifesto, and is a core
practice embedded into agile methods. Interesting parallels can be drawn between this and the
tradition of participatory design (Iversen, Halskov et al. 2010). Agile techniques, such as the use of
facilitated workshops in DSDM, are designed to provide ways of ensuring that stakeholders can have
meaningful input throughout the development cycle. However, both our interviewees talked about
problems with getting customers into the team, and anecdotally we have heard other agile
practitioners discuss this problem. This is often explained as a practical problem of not having easy
access to someone with the right business or user knowledge because they are too busy, located
elsewhere, or hard to identify. But there are other aspects to this problem. Customer collaboration is
costly as customer representatives need to work regularly with the development team because of the
iterative nature of agile projects. Some customers struggle to see the benefits of collaborative working,
-
way of maintaining control over projects, so while they devolve control of low level tasks to the agile
team, they retain overall strategic control (Thompson and McHugh 2009).
We have found that cultural issues are important in agile development, at different levels,
organisationally, within the agile team and individually. Both interviewees mentioned the importance
of having the right culture within the team. The second interviewee was a Scrum Master and therefore
was able to influence and develop the culture within his team. However, the first interviewee was a
because they feel like they are working against the culture of the organisation, and this can leave them
struggling to achieve their aims. In contrast, there can also be a sense of positive energy in agile
teams, as ownership of working processes can be empowering and creative. There are a number of
very enthusiastic advocates of agile development. It may be that software developers associate more
strongly with their professional identity than their organisational identity. This is perhaps why there
are many agile evangelists in the software engineering profession, and many examples of
organisations in which agile approaches are being adopted from the bottom up (Marks and Scholarios
2007).
5. Conclusions
Our study found that the agile teams surveyed were largely successful in implementing the core agile
team-management techniques of working in small co-located teams, meeting daily, and using shared
visual documentation. A variety of agile methods are being used including mixed and adapted
methods. Themes emerging from the interviews were team tension, method adaptation and cultural
191
change. When we explored these in more depth we found they contained some interesting contrasts
around control and organisation. We believe these are worthy of further scrutiny.
References
Capretz, L. F. (2003). Personality Types in Software Engineering. International Journal of Human-Computer
Studies 58(2): 207-214.
Dyba, T. and T. Dingsoyr (2008). Empirical Studies of Agile Software Development: A Systematic Review.
Information and Software Technology 50(9-10): 833-859.
Iversen, O. S., K. Halskov and T. W. Leong (2010). Rekindling Values in Participatory Design. 11th Biennial
Participatory Design Conference, 2010.
Markham, D. B. (2009). Agile Won't Work: Implementing Agility in Non-standard Teams. Agile Conference
2009. Chicago, USA, IEEE: 338-343.
Marks, A. and D. M. Scholarios (2007). Revisiting Technical Workers: Professional and Organizational
Identities in the Software Industry. New Technology, Work and Employment 22(2): 98-117.
Schwaber, K. (2004). Agile Software Development with Scrum, Microsoft Press.
Sharp, H. and H. Robinson (2010). Three 'Cs' of Agile Practice. Agile Software Development: Current Research
and Future Directions. T. Dingsoyr, T. Dyba and N. B. Moe. Berlin, Springer.
Thompson, P. and D. McHugh (2009). Work Organisations: A Critical Approach. Houndmills, Basingstoke,
UK, Palgrave Macmillan.
West, D. and T. Grant (2010). Agile Development: Mainstream Adoption Has Changed Agility, Forrester
Research Inc.
Whitworth, E. and R. Biddle (2007). Experience Report: The Social Nature of Agile Teams. Agile Conference
2007. Washington D.C., USA, IEEE.
192
HELLO “SMARTER” WEB MARKETING, GOODBYE
SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION. REALLY?
Frances S. Grodzinsky, Andra Gumbus and Stephen Lilley
Abstract
Weblining refers to the exclusion of classes of consumers from the marketplace based on
characteristics of groups not individuals. People are prejudged according to assigned social
affiliations. This is done in two ways. First, smarter marketing utilizes fine-grained data and is much
more capable of picking up biographical nuances. Crude gender and race stereotyping is made
obsolete. Second, smarter marketing taps into the stream of social networks, and information gleaned
from social group dynamics replaces or supplements biographical data. In this paper, we will evaluate
-- that social discrimination disappears when social data is used-- by
focusing on Facebook and its business strategies.
Key Words
Web marketing, social discrimination, Weblining
1. Introduction
Smarter marketing: Seeing customers as individuals,”
which aired in August 2012 depicts a group of female joggers conspicuous in their matching outfits
the commercial expose this marketing shortcoming by removing their suit jackets to reveal a diversity
using analytics to find insight in social chatter, reviews, and sales transactions, helping some
companies increase online revenue up to 50% by offering customers an experience as unique as they
commercial dramatizes two claims made by the web marketing/advertising industry. That they 1)
discrimination. The first claim critics hotly contest pointing out privacy violations, consumer
manipulation, and lack of autonomy, for example, in not knowing and not controlling the data
collected from cookies and clicks. The second claim, however, has faced less scrutiny. The critique
that we present in this paper is informed by our study of social networking sites, most importantly,
Faceboo
marketing purposes present a new and troubling pathway for social discrimination.
2. The Common Critique
Before discussing social discrimination, let us go over the common critique of the e-marketing
industry. Personal data has become a valuable commodity to buy and sell. According to Forrester
Research, U.S. companies spend up to $2 billion a year to collect information. Using customer
relationship management software to grade customers is becoming more common (Holbrook and
Kulick, 2001). Unfortunately, firms are capturing more than customer related behavior and this is of
greater concern to privacy advocates. They now have credit histories, shopping habits and personal
habits such as web browsing, health, lifestyle, sexual orientation, politics and other personal
preferences that go beyond what we buy. A McKinsey report from October, 2011 describes
companies seizing the potential of big data as industries ranging
193
-gathering and analytics to shape strategy
to differentiate themselves (McKinsey, 2011). Analytic software gives marketing firms the ability to
sort data collected from customers into patterns to segment a customer base. Web generated data can
be collected from registration forms, online transactions, and other clickstream records. Clickstream
data gives marketers the ability to analyze paths, shopping carts, search by key terms and entry and
exit points. Decision tree models are used to sort customers into groups to make predictions about
behavior. Other tools such as market basket analysis let retailers know what a customer is buying at
the same time and puts that into clusters to personalize communication to the consumer (Danna and
entry point, keywords used in the search, the clickstream within the site, and the contents of the
shopping cart. The store can then compare this data to existing customers and put the consumer into a
group profile. This profile may or may not be accurate. This is the crux of the ethical issue with
behavioral advertising there are consequences that flow from assigning a consumer to a profile
group that may have deleterious effects on his/her purchasing power.
For example, a targeted advertising approach based on what a consumer has actually purchased is
including 18 of the top 20 financial institutions in the U.S. that purchase credit card information. This
in banking, e-
commerce, retail, direct-to-consumer
sell or up- ct NetGain! uses a customer segmentation approach that
analyzes needs, attitudes, and behaviors of customers. A description of NetGain! on the website states
psychographic data to determine at the household level who has the highest propensity to respond to
www.affinion.com/solutions ).
The Affinion direct response group (adrg) advertises services such as database modeling and analysis
-driven methodologies to analyze and predict
customer buying patterns and behaviors that deliver the necessary metrics to attract and retain
customers. Our 30 modeling analysts, PHD statisticians and programmers focus on building highly
(www.affinion.com/solutions).
3. The Scored Society: The E-Score and a Question of Fairness
Retailers and service providers increasingly rely on e-
(desirable and undesirable consumers). On the Internet, Google
Facebook scores each consumer based on our his/her habits, Klout scores are based on activity on
Twitter and e-scores rank our value as customers (Singer, 2012). Shopping is no longer an egalitarian
activity where consumers are charged the same price for the same item purchased. Loyalty card
programs and other means of tracking consumer habits mean that two customers are charged different
amounts based on their shopping patterns and history with the product even though they purchase it
the same way at a the same time from the same location. This lack of transparency results in an unfair
price advantage for some but not all buyers (Clifford, 2012).
The e-score is becoming an increasingly powerful way of determining the value of a customer and
whether companies want him/her as a consumer of their product. Companies such as banks, credit
card and debit card providers, insurers and online educational institutions are using this data to decide
what (if any) product is pitched to a particular consumer (Singer, 2012). From an ethical standpoint
we are concerned about the creation of a subprime class that companies or financial organizations can
choose to ignore when they offer credit cards, insurance or loans. The consumer program director of
collects information about you to generate a score and what your score is results in the offers you
get on the Internet. In most cases, you
194
what predictions they have made about you, or the potential for being denied choice or paying too
The e-score in essence creates a two tiered system that gives preference to profitable users for
important buying powers and protections and denies others. This is clearly in opposition to the intent
of the Fair Credit Reporting Act which requires that consumer reporting agencies show users their
credit reports and allow corrections to incorrect errors on the report. This law also mandates that
consumers know if any adverse action is taken against them based on the reports. The proliferation of
consumer ranking and digital marketing practices raises concerns about basic principles of justice and
fairness in society.
4. Ordinary Forms of Social Discrimination: Redlining and Weblining
service providers to offer services to residents of the inner city where a red line was literally drawn on
a map to indicate locations where the company would not do business. Statistical discrimination, often
based on census data resulted in such racially discriminatory practices as not offering home loans to
African-Americans regardless of income level. Redlining is prohibited today, but a more far-reaching
the map used is not a geographical map, but a
data map with points derived from how we navigate the internet, where we go, how much time we
spend, what we consume, and our purchasing practices. Individual data is aggregated and certain
predictions are made about the behavior of certain demographics.
Marcia Stepanek (2000) of Business week coin
banks ranked their customers and assigned different fees and services based on that rank. We now use
this term in a broader sense than just price discrimination. Weblining refers to the exclusion of classes
of consumers from the marketplace based on characteristics of groups not individuals. If you are
deemed affiliated with an undesirable demographic, you might not get a loan, receive credit, or be
insured based on a group level prediction. People are not treated as individuals to be examined case
by case, but rather are prejudged according to assigned social affiliations.
The Internet which was touted as the great equalizer then has the potential to foster discriminatory
practices. When the Internet is used to webline, it is creating inequalities and barriers to access. If
insurance companies exclude segments of the marketplace and limit their sales efforts to the
financially well off, for example, a disparate impact can negatively affect parts of the nation that have
trouble getting insurance (Chin-Hui-Lai and Kleiner, 1999). In addition, this information can be sold
to various organizations and go from firm to firm. It can easily lead to social prejudice or worse forms
of outcasting and stereotyping. It may also construct a barrier to upward mobility.
There are no specific laws that protect us from the social aggregation practices that assign us to
arbitrary groups based on our internet choices. The few cases of weblining brought before U.S. courts
had strong affinities with redlining. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
(ACORN) claimed that Wells Fargo steered individuals away from certain housing districts based on
racial classifications and stereotypes about racial "life-styles." In another suit it was alleged that
(http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/1078/Weblining-Internet-Redlining.html). Most weblining
practices do not prioritize geographical location and use more sophisticated analytics than crude racial
profiling; therefore, they are unlikely to be challenged according to the key anti-redlining policies of
the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977.
5. Smarter Marketing and Social Discrimination
Companies such as IBM respond to the common critique by arguing that, far from taking advantage of
consumers, smarter marketing provides a better consumer experience through customization of
promotions. Personalization is the key; moreover, it provides the additional benefit of eliminating
195
forms of social discrimination endemic to weblining. This is done in two ways. First, smarter
marketing utilizes fine-grained data and is much more capable of picking up biographical nuances.
Crude gender and race stereotyping is made obsolete. Second, smarter marketing taps into the stream
information gleaned from social
group dynamics replaces or supplements biographical data.
Let us consider the first point. Granted, there is a quantitative change in the amount of personal
information made available on platforms such as Google and Facebook, making possible fine-grained
differentiations which are much less likely to raise alarms of racism, sexism, ageism, etc. This is not
to say, however, that gender, for example, is no longer taken into account when identifying consumers
of interest. Su
algorithms. Also, some biographical details such as country club membership and magazine
subscriptions are so highly correlated with race and income that they are, in effect, proxies. Finally,
the market is structured such that media buyers bid on access to a pool of potential customers and
these are packaged according to familiar aggregates.
6. Social Media and Discrimination
-- that social discrimination disappears when social
data is used-- by focusing on Facebook and its business strategies. Facebook is the first social media
ve
Facebook is a means to project oneself online and communicate and share with family, friends, and
acquaintances, but from the business perspective of Facebook this is rich, authentic material to profit
from by selling access. Users have helped to create a juggernaut by their willingness to share
personal data as currency to generate future products and services from Facebook. A new twist on the
relationship of user and social media sites is the payment by social media to shoppers who offer
product links to something they like. Posting product links that drive traffic and sales to retailers is
now worth $ 50 a month according to a New York Times (NYT) article from October, 2012. Is citizen
marketing a paid promotion, an endorsement or a recommendation? The social media sites act as
pay only if a purchase results, but others pay for each click they send. Should this payment be
disclosed to friends? How will users perceive the money making side of this new relationship? Will
they mind that their friend is making money when sending a link? These questions have not been
studied due to the novelty of the practice (Clifford, 2012).
Currently there are over 1 billion users of Facebook. The sheer scale of this population, from which to
gather information, is unprecedented. With the launch of a new feature called Timeline in
September 2011, users can post information about their past as well as current interests and activities
entire life in one place, and it is unsettling to see the past presented as clearly as the present. Linking
Facebook more closely to m
(Wortham, 2011). Currently there are as many as 82 data categories from which Facebook draws
information. That number will surely increase as Facebook continues to add commerce, video and
mail to their services eventually to become the one platform for everything we do on the Web
(Sengupta and Sisaro, 2011).
innovative feature of th
diverse forms of online interaction with their friends. The connections and networks can be mapped
(hence the term, graph), analyzed, and most importantly, plumbed for social data. The ubiquitous
million photo uploads, 2.5 billion status uploads and other data daily in order to determine which ads
2012). Anne Kandra (2012:24) relates an incident of a man writing a humorous respons
for a 55-
196
in this case). If so, they identify a social network or networks of
interest to make more concerted promotions.
With a Tom Sawyer twist, Facebook encourages its partners (e.g., corporations with fan pages,
marketers, and advertisers) to have the social graph work for them. Carolyn Everson, Facebook's Vice
President for global sales, described it this way in an interview conducted by Irina Slutsky:
It's way beyond just a social-media-advertising discussion. What we're trying to do at a simple level is
be advocates on behalf of brands. If I like a brand story and I have a great experience that I post on my
wall, it goes out to my friends and friends of friends-it's word-of-mouth marketing at a scale that
I feel very confident based on results that we're seeing, especially when friends are
recommending to friends. Research shows that, on average, people are 68% more likely to
remember seeing the ad if their friend has recommended it and twice as likely to remember
the message of the ad (2011).
At first glance, this process seems far removed from standard weblining because the product
friend networks are significantly homogeneous with regard to race, ethnicity, and class. Media buyers
may very well attend to the same sets of privileged consumers as in the past not because of
biographical identification but because of social affiliation. In any case, the effect is the same in that
promotions and discounts do not reach traditionally underserved populations. Even more troubling is
the practice of denying services to an individual based on analysis of his or her social network. While
friend networks might reveal to advertisers that people who like Caribbean vacations might also like
tanning lotions and sunhats, they might also reveal information that could be used for more sinister
purposes. For example, health insurance companies could purchase Facebook data on social graphs to
identify associations between social status/affiliations and medical problems by analyzing posts, e-
cards, and frequency of likes on social graphs for certain medical products. Individuals or families
that apply for insurance that are found to share common characteristics with suspect social
status/affiliations may be denied coverage.
7. Policy Vacuum
purposes present a new pathway for social discrimination. In this last section we explain that we find
this particularly troubling because we see no effective policies to counteract this. Anti-discriminatory
combat clear, blunt racial identification and mistreatment. Arguably the most important novelty of E-
marketing strategies is that the commercial interests in social discrimination are realized while the
means appear to be above reproach. If legal action of this type is untenable, what else can be done?
7.1. Muddying Internet Tracks
There are some ways to make it difficult for internet tracking that can reduce email examination and
analysis. Free services like HushMail, RiseUp and Zoho promote no-snooping or a user can register
additions like Ghostery and Do Not Track Plus will prevent Web sites from relaying information to
tracking companies (Murphy, 2012). Of course, the more diligent one is with covering tracks, the less
of a record he or she accumulates for the e-score systems. As with credit history, no record is as
problematic as having a bad record. Furthermore, it is counterproductive to be invisible on social
network sites. Even if a user keeps a low profile, she has little control over the social chatter of her
friends, and it is the latter that is increasingly important to media buyers.
197
7.2. Promote Privacy Protections
such as the case
of the 2007 Beacon controversy, a tool that automatically posted what its users did or what they
bought on other sites (2012). It settled with the FTC in November over accusations that it misled its
customers about privacy settings. The settlement subjects Facebook to regular privacy audits for the
before it can override their own privacy settings (Sengupta, 2011).
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently tightened rules for web sites that collect data on
pace with technology advances. Web companies (as of 2000) are required to notify parents and obtain
consent from parents when information is collected from children under 13 (Wyatt, 2012). However,
many children use false ages online, and the law did not anticipate add-
not require consent. This problem is magnified as Facebook targets younger users. Recent complaints
to the FTC focused on sites encouraging children to play brand-related games and provide email
addresses of friends without seeking parental approval. Children are invited to make videos promoting
products
children are targeted by suggesting that children play games and share them with friends. The new
names and addresses to include identifiers like tracking codes that can be used to gather data about
children as they visit sites (Singer, 2012). In a recent NYT article headlining the business section, it
was reported that an operator of fan sites agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty to settle charges that
cy rule. Over
registering for the fan site the children were asked for birth dates, cellphones, street addresses,
on (Singer, 2012).
Europe has taken a different tactic when it comes to respecting privacy concerns and has introduced a
new law that would force Internet companies to obtain explicit consent for use of personal data, tell
users why their data is being collected and retain it only for as long as is necessary. This law addresses
difficult questions: who owns personal data, what happens to it, and what balance is maintained
between leveraging data and guarding privacy. In Europe individuals are gaining more rights over
companies. A controversial aspect of the law is the right to be forgotten, which means the user can
demand that the data be deleted (Sengupta, 2012). The global standards group W3C failed to get
nces due to the conflicting legal approaches in the
U.S. and Europe. In 2011 the FTC exempted first party advertisers like Google and Facebook arguing
that consumers approved of collection because they chose to use the service. The European law does
not make distinctions between first and third party advertisers and favors strict prohibitions on
tracking (Sengupta, 2012).
In a survey conducted at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology the majority of Americans said
they do not want information collected about which sites they visit and have a strong aversion to
online tracking in general. However, over 90% had not heard of the FTC proposal not to track and
only 14% said they would like a tool to prevent websites from tailoring advertisements based on
visited sites (Sengupta, 2012). Microsoft conducted a survey of users in the U.S. and Europe and
found that over 75% wanted to default to the do-not-track option in their new Explorer 10 browser.
Yet advertisers say that this threatens the barter system where consumers get free email, maps social
this relevant advertising, we are going to make the Internet less diverse, less economically successful,
and frankly
Bureau (Singer, 2012).
198
8. Conclusions
In summary, privacy protections have a checkered history especially in the United States. Fortune
500 companies have a vested interest in keeping it that way. Furthermore, we see in these regulatory
efforts a penchant for protecting the privacy of personal information; however, little attention is being
paid to how that information in an anonymous and aggregate form may be used in ways that are
discriminatory or how a more subtle form of discrimination can be based on collective information of
friends. This would require an appreciation that leaked private information is not the only risk for
denial of goods, services, and opportunities; rather it is also made possible by the social graph.
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199
AUTOMATED DECEPTIONS, BENEVOLENT AND
OTHERWISE
Frances Grodzinsky, Keith Miller and Marty J. Wolf
Abstract
This paper begins by exploring two fundamental questions: What is deception? When is it permissible
to be deceptive? Then we focus on deceptions by machines made to masquerade. We analyze three
cases: Case 1- -The
nsequences are good; Case 3- Mixed. Case 3 encompasses
combinations of ethical intent with bad consequences and unethical intent with good consequences.
Next we investigate more complex questions of how deception that involves artificial agents (AA)
differs from deception that only involves humans. Finally, we analyze the ethical implications in
situations involving masquerading machines, and how deception that involves both humans and
machines impacts software development in general.
Keywords
Deception, Artificial Agents, Masquerade
1. Introduction
In her book Alone Together, MIT anthropologist Sherry Turkle (2011:90) writes:
works when put the other way arou
We are enchanted by Siri the personal assistant on the iPhone. Robot pets and babies delivered to
Siri and the babies are not human, and the pets are machines, not animals. Yet, even when we are
consciously aware of these distinctions, the power of these deceptions causes us to interact with these
devices (Grodzinsky et al., 2009) as if they were people or animals.
For our purposes in this paper, a machine masquerades when it leads another agent to believe or
behave as if the machine were human. This is a type of deception that raises particular questions. As
people who think about the societal implications of technology, what are we to make of these
masquerading machines? Are these developments merely slight variations on previous cases such as
life-like (and not so life-like) dolls, or is something happening here that is a significant departure? Are
these new deceptions beneficial, benign, harmful, or a mix?
This paper begins by exploring fundamental questions such as: What is deception? When is it
permissible to be deceptive? Then we focus on deceptions by machines that masquerade. We will
analyze three cases: Case 1- -
- Mixed. Case 3 encompasses
combinations of aspects of the other two cases: ethical intent, bad consequences, unethical intent, and
good consequences.
Software developers have a huge responsibility in deciding if, when and how to use deception.
Developers use deception to provide a user-
users as LoA1 and the level of abstraction of developers as LoA2 (See Grodzinsky et al, 2011). In this
paper, we introduce LoAU and LoAD
abstraction, respectively. While the sets of observables clearly intersect, developers do not typically
have access to the entire context in which the user is running the software. Even so, developers can
deceive because they understand and control the interface in ways that non-developers typically do not
fully understand. This creates a power imbalance between developers and users. Furthermore, we
200
argue that it also creates a power imbalance between machines and people. Thus, questions regarding
how a developer uses this power are particularly significant. One question with ethical significance
that a developer has to wrestle with is whether the use of deception in software artifacts can cause a
user to make inappropriate choices - choices with ethical significance - because of wrongly believing
that something is true.
2. What is Deception?
The kind of deception of interest to us in this paper implies successful, intentional deception by
dev
you or directing you away from truth. Moreover, this misleading must be willful or non-accidental.
So, X deceives Y with regard to f only if X willfully causes Y to fail to believe what is true with
-191).
Thomas Carson agrees that deception requires some kind of intention to cause others to have false
deceives another person S1 if, and only if, S intentionally causes S1 to believe x, where x is false and
9: 178 179). Carson says that deception connotes success, i.e.,
a deception is something that is believed.
If we accept the premise that deception connotes success, and if we limit ourselves to examples in
which the deception is intentionally built into software artifacts, is this kind of deception always a bad
willing to be deceived, or to deceive ourselves, if we thought that more good than bad would come of
the deception, the aims, intentions and character of the prevaricator (Solomon, 2009: 26). If the
software developer is not intending to do harm, but trying to make life easier for the end users of
his/her product (at LoAU), it might be assumed that this is an instance of a benevolent deception. Yet,
it still raises the question of how a developer plays out the virtue of honesty when developing
sophisticated machines that perpetuate deception.
Another relevant, subtle point is the use of metaphor when designing computing artifacts. For
example, if a s
f thinking about organized collections of
bits. (Our thanks to Luciano Floridi for this example.) These kinds of metaphors are (in the main)
benign and consensual. But there may be cases in which the people involved do not share the same
assumptions about the metaphor; in these cases, the developers may be unintentionally hiding reality
technology. This case is interesting, and may be useful to explore in future work, but it is not the focus
of this paper. Instead we focus on cases where a deception is deliberate, and not merely a
misunderstanding of a metaphorical interface.
From the point of view of the end user (LoAU), Mark Wrathall offers insight into deception as a
how we view the world and how the world is presented to us. This is supported by the way Floridi
handles different levels of abstraction in his development of information ethics (Floridi 2013). We can
be deceived in our perception because of details that we do not notice or are hidden from us. If
machines are deliberately anthropomorphized and perceived by a culture as persons, or even just as
pseudo-persons, then the habits of our hearts (Bellah et al., 1985) may change in a way that gives
machines some of the status that has previously been associated exclusively with humans. That is a
big step, one fraught with ethical significance.
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2.1 The ethical significance of a successful deception
Assume that a machine masqueradea deception implemented by a developeroccurs. Assume
further that the consequences are at worst benign and at best (on balance) good. Is there something
fundamental about deceiving people in this way that is inherently objectionable, despite otherwise
good results?
We do not think that the deception of a masquerade necessarily poisons the ethical well to the extent
that all masquerades are to be condemned as ethically unacceptable. In non-computer cases, we
typically accept the possibility of benign deceptions (such as luring someone to a surprise birthday
party) and even benevolent deceptions (coyly responding to questions about refugees hiding in the
attic from an unjust government). We see no reason that machine masquerades are categorically
excluded from these kinds of exceptions to the rule. However, we do think that non-objectionable
machine deceptions are exceptions and that the rule against such deceptions holds unless a valid
argument overrides the rule in a specific situation.
Deceptions induce disinformation and misperceptions (Wolf et al., 2011). The virtue of honesty and
the value of truth are givens in most forms of ethical discourse, and deceptions involving machines are
to avoid, and believing what is tr
(2009:199). Deontic ethics would deny to deception any possibility of being good at all. This may not
be a concern in the two cases where an AA is either the deceiver or the deceived, since it is unclear
whether deontology with its human-centered focus holds sway here. On the other hand, it certainly
has a role when an AA is the vehicle by which a developer deceives a human user. This role is further
complicated in situations like those we relayed in the beginning of this essay: People, even when told
initially and regularly reminded that an AA is not human or animal can still slip into a mode of
behavior in which they treat the AA as if it were.
We do not claim that these deontological concerns require that all developer deceptions through
masquerading artifacts are necessarily evil; in many practical situations the deception may be so slight
and the intent of the developers so benign that only the most doctrinaire philosopher would label the
act as evil. While it may be the case that we cannot reconcile these concerns within the bounds of
deontology because of the pragmatic requirement of deception needed to create some computer
artifacts, we maintain that when developers defend a machine masquerade as ethically justifiable, they
should make an explicit argument for that exception. We contend that, because of the importance of
truth a
that deceptive AAs are unethical, though exceptions can exist.
Case 1-
In this case, the default position holds. If a masquerade is intentionally designed for unethical reasons
(by whatever ethical analysis you prefer) and if the consequences of the masquerade are bad (by
whatever ethical metrics you use), it seems straightforward that there is no strong argument that the
masquerade is ethically positive. We will not discuss this case further.
Case 2-
This would be a likely candidate for an exception to our default position. If the only thing we can
argue against a deception is the deception itself, and especially if the intent and the consequences are
authentically strong positives, we are likely to agree that the deception is justifiable, allowed,
encouraged, or even mandated.
Case 3-Mixed
pure. Consequences are rarely completely bad or completely good. In almost all cases, a masquerade
will come from mixed motivations and will have mixed results. In these cases (including most of the
realistic cases we have considered), from a consequentialist perspective we have to do the hard work
of applied ethics to decide if the good outweighs the bad. From a deontic perspective we would have
to examine the act of deceiving. What are the intentions of the developer? Can the obligation to
202
create the most user-friendly machine override the universal prohibition of deception? Can she make
the case that the deception is benevolent, in the best interest of the users, and that she is not using
them merely for her own ends? We contend when this case is made the deception is justified from a
deontological perspective. In what follows, we will look at several examples where we start with the
fundamental assumption that the deception makers have to make a case that their masquerade is a
benevolent deception.
3. Deception used in the development of artificial agents
For most AAs, developers are interested in having users actually use and trust the AAs to do their jobs
(see Grodzinsky, F., Miller K., and Wolf, M. J. (2011) for a discussion on trust and AAs). That being
the case, they ought to carefully consider the impact of incorporating deception into their design. The
incorporation of a harmful deceptive element in an AA is usually contrary to the purposes of the
developer with good intentions. In this section we explore concerns that arise when deceptions are
implemented in AAs and then consider concerns that arise when AAs are deceived by other AAs and
humans.
3.1 Human-Robot-Human Deception
One of the concerns regarding masquerading machines is that their inherent deception may be
included not because it is functionally required, but only because it is possible. The developer may not
have needed to be deceptive to provide a suitable AA. Yet, deceptions may be developed because
people working at LoAD find it interesting and challenging to mimic human appearance and behavior.
When designing an interface for a robot, for example, the developer might be happy with the
functionality of the robot, but may decide that it would be more entertaining to users if it had a human
or animal face. For the early model of the robot, its non-humanness is always observable to users at
LoAU. When the human-like interface is added in the later model, the developer is incorporating a
deception into the robot. The developer (LoAD) is aware of the true nature of the machine, but it is
hidden, or at least obscured, from users at LoAU. The result is that the robot is masquerading as a
human.
-
repeated exposure. As a person becomes accustomed to the AA's behaviorit regularly answers
questions truthfully and honestly, and it looks like us or something that is familiar to usthe person
interacting with the AA may change her expectations of the AA. An initial skepticism about the
machine may be replaced with assumptions formerly reserved for people. For example, a
masquerading machine may be regarded as trustworthy at least in part because of a human-like
appearance. But the human-like appearance is probably irrelevant to questions regarding
trustworthiness, and changes in behavior that might be noticed if the machine were more obviously a
machine may go unnoticed if a machine is masquerading. That is, humans may give an unwarranted
veracity of the information given by the AA is no longer a natural part of her interaction with the AA,
it is easy for unintended consequences to occur as the user continues to make decisions based on that
information. Thus, a robot practicing deception, through consistent high-level performance and
familiar interfaces, can, in the mind of the user move to a state in which its non-humanness is not an
observable. This may be true even for a robot that regularly reminds the user that it is not a human.
The reminders may not register.
At the end of the interaction period, she was unable to remove these robots as the users had become so
attached to them (Turkle, 2011). Can this be said of the young who are more exposed to technology
and therefore less easily deceived or enchanted? In the case of Callie, a ten year old, who took care of
t is
203
2011:77). Thus, regardless of whether a robot's non-humanness is formally an observable, we may
ultimately be dealing with a case where a human user does not observe it and believes incorrectly (or
behaves as if) the robot is human. Robots that masquerade as humans have the potential to impact the
decision-
vulnerability to them. More than harmless amusements, they are powerful because they invite our
attachment. And such attachments change our way of being in the worl
Therefore, the choice to deceive, and the acceptance by the user of the masquerade reveals the
asymmetric power structure that needs to be accounted for in design and development of robots (see
Miller et al., 2012). Sharkey and Sharkey (2011) have written eloquently about existing and planned
use of robots with babies, and the elderly; power mismatches can be seen playing out in these
applications of masquerading robots.
Some developers of masquerading machines could have admirable intentions; but other developers
who intended this form of social engineering may have nefarious intentions. Sometime the
deployment of a robot becomes more important to analyze than the development of the robot, because
context will determi
consequences of the deception may be good or bad. However, even the developer who had good
intentions might establish a viable mechanism that can be replicated by others whose intentions are
less commendable. We liken this situation to the early development of e-mail systems. The
unexamined assumption among early developers of the Internet and its precursors was that everyone
using the Internet could be trusted. Today we see the impact of such a decision: significant amounts
of network traffic and computer processing are dedicated to the eradication of spam from our
electronic in-boxes, and phishing scams disrupt many lives. Significant care is in order when the
potential impact of a technology enters into the human realm. Analysis, leading to the development of
non-trivial counter-measures, seems to be in order to prevent extensive harm from deceptions
involving sophisticated AAs that can masquerade.
3.2 AA – AA Deceptions
Up to this point, we have discussed humans being deceived via sophisticated machines. However,
another kind of deception, machines deceiving machines, is already an important issue in Cyberspace.
The significance of this type of deception is confirmed by t
(http://www.captcha.net/) A captcha is an automated puzzle designed to distinguish webbots from
humans. A captcha is used when one AA (controlling online resources) is designed to grant resources
to authenticated humans, but to deny those same resources to AAs masquerading as humans. This
Webbot AAs used by humans to buy things on the Web also present opportunities for sophisticated
machines to try to fool other sophisticated machines. In e-commerce, a masquerade is possible that
would swindle an automated shopping bot: masquerading as a legitimate automated vendor, but
instead taking money under false pretenses. Similarly, but more sinister still, is a webbot whose job it
is to penetrate a system (perhaps disguised as a person interacting with the system) in order to damage
the target system. Cyber-warfare is an arena in which the ethics of masquerading machines is an
active area of concern.
We should point out here that although these kinds of deceptions can from one frame of reference be
legitimately categorized as AA AA deceptions, from another LoA this is also a case of humans
deceiving other humans, where the deception is mediated via two AAs. In the next section we look at
a less common, but also interesting, situation.
3.3 Humans Deceiving AAs
Currently, the case of a developer deceiving an AA does not typically arise. A developer does not on
the one hand, program a machine to embed one view of reality, and on the other try to convince the
machine of another version of reality. However, we can envision cases of this kind of deception. For
example, a developer researching human deception might develop a program that simulates human
204
thought processes, and during experiments about deception, the developer (or a user who ordered the
simulation) might input true statements and false statements, probing for what kinds of deceptions are
successful. In such experiments, as with some experiments with humans that have given their consent
At a primitive level, we can view many kinds of present day security breaches as a person deceiving
identity. If (by one means or another) I obtain access to a system by
pretending to be someone else, then I might be said to have deceived the system about who I am.
s view of the
ed with unauthorized access to systems, and we
false.
However, consider a different security case in the foreseeable future. Imagine a robot guarding a
sensitive, and dangerous area, say the site of a recent nuclear accident. Assume that the robot is
control of the robot after deployment. The
robot has been programmed to admit some people and to block other people, perhaps based on the
capabilities, a person trying to gain unauthorized entry to the site might attempt to deceive the robot.
If such a deception is successful, the robot would permit access to someone masquerading as a
firefighter when he/she was not really a firefighter. In this case, the actions of the deceiver and the
robot seem very much like a deception involving two humans.
It can be argued that the person trying to deceive a robot is actually deceiving the humans who
developed the robot. We do not object to this characterization. However, there is an added dimension
to the deception when the robot is autonomous. In the case of the autonomous robot acting as a guard,
deceived, the collective entity of the developers and the robot itself. We are not claiming that the robot
are claiming that as
AA development progresses, future machines will have functional information processing capabilities
that are increasingly similar to human intelligence. We further assert that as these machines become
more sophisticated, then strategies that people have used to deceive other people will be used to
deceive these sophisticated machines. It seems both reasonable and accurate to use at least some of the
terminology we have developed to describe human-to-human deception in order to describe human-to-
machine deceptions, even though there are important distinctions between sophisticated machines and
humans.
One of these distinctions is that machines may someday be better at detecting deception than most
humans are. Researchers are working on software to detect micro-expressions that appear in human
faces when they lie (Wilson 2011). While the researchers point out that detecting a lie is different than
determining the truth, and lying is a more overt activity than deception, we consider the potential
impact of developing software that detects deceptioneven just the fact that a human has tried to
deceive it. This sort of relationship changes the power balance between the AA and the human as the
AA is (presumably) capable of both practicing deception (that cannot be detected by even the most
expert humans) and detecting deception. This creates an environment where the AA seems to have the
upper hand in the relationship and raises the specter a power mismatch, reminiscent of HAL from the
movie 2001 A Space Odyssey.
If machines become capable of detecting human deception (benevolent or not), a question that
developers will face is what should the AA be programmed to do with that information? The
developer is faced with deciding a priori how to deal with deceptions, with little knowledge other than
the fact that a deception has taken pla
Floridi identifies two different occurrences of the tragedy. In one, the Good Will is sufficiently
powerful, but insufficiently informed; and in the other the Good Will is sufficiently informed but
insufficiently powerful. The developer in this case has the power to do something at the time of
205
development, but will not always have appropriate contextual information to know what to do. Yet,
the developer can imagine the moment after the AA is deployed where the deception is noted and
even with that (meta-) information, the AA is powerless to do anything about it. One possible
solution is to signal an alarm and stop the process. At this point human intervention might be
necessary. This way, the human could take other information present at the time of the deception and,
perhaps, avoid the Tragedy of the Good Will by assuming the power to act. The implication is clear:
machines with these sorts of abilitiesto deceive humans and to detect human deceptionwill
Curiously, while AAs may be able to detect deception in humans, they would face the same
difficulties that people face when trying to detect deception in AAs. This observation lends further
support to the claim that developers bear tremendous ethical responsibility for the technology they
develop. Much of our social structure is influenced by technologies that cause people to make
changes in how they behave.
4. Conclusions
Deception, a loaded philosophic term, is a live issue in cyberspace. Increasingly, some deceptions are
being realized by machine masquerades. Whether to implement a deception, which implies success
and misapprehension by users at LoAU, is up to the developers of software at LoAD. In some cases,
as we have shown, this deception is benevolent, in that it is helpful for the users negotiating the often
complex world of technology. In more malevolent cases, deceptive machines can cause great harm.
This paper has explored several interesting mixed cases.
We conclude that deception by developers is of concern because it can lead users to make choices
with ethical significance based on a deception. Consider a machine that is masquerading as a child. In
an emergency people who think the machine is a human child and take extraordinary measures to save
ess dramatic example is a
person who invests time and energy in an online relationship, only to later find that the object of this
effort was a cleverly programmed webbot. In both cases, deceived humans treated a machine in a way
that was inappropriate because the humans were deceived. Significant harm can be done to people,
even in cases where the harm was not intentional or anticipated.
While this paper was in development, a prominent U.S. college football player, Manti Te'o of Notre
Dame, claimed that he
publicly for months was an online fiction (CBS, 2013). There is controversy about whether or not
ustrates how computer-
mediated masquerades are becoming part of our culture.
Our default position is that deception is unacceptable, and benevolent deceptions are exceptions. This
is true of masquerading machines, as well as other deceptions involving sophisticated machines.
Responsible developers should make a case-by-case analysis of any deceptions they are considering
implementing, and should justify why a particular deception should be an exception to the default
prohibition. We contend that this ethical responsibility should be established now. We anticipate
significant practical, ethical and legal problems in the foreseeable future when AAs become
increasingly human-
inappropriate decisions based on these deceptions; when these decisions have ethical importance, the
deceptions also have ethical importance.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank Mariarosaria Taddeo and Luciano Floridi for their insightful comments that
strengthened the paper.
References
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Netherlands, March, 2011, pp 17-27.
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New York: Oxford University Press, pp 188-200.
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Symposium on the Machine Question: AI, Ethics and Moral Responsibility, part of the AISB/IACAP World
Congress 2012 (2-6 July 2012), Birmingham, UK.
Sharkey, A.; Sharkey, N. , "Children, the Elderly, and Interactive Robots," Robotics & Automation Magazine,
IEEE , vol.18, no.1, pp.32-38, March 201.
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ed. Clancy Martin. New York: Oxford University Press, pp 15-36.
Turkle, Sherry (2011) Alone Together, New York: Basic Books.
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Enquiry Conference (CEPE) , Milwaukee, WI.
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(accessed 18 September 2012).
The Philosophy of
Deception. ed. Clancy Martin, New York: Oxford University Press, pp 67-81.
207
INFORMATION WARFARE - ARE WE ALREADY AT WAR?
Olli I. Heimo and Kai K. Kimppa
Abstract
According to Pentagon, USA can consider an information warfare act as reason to use any weapons
suitable as recourse. At the same time they, amongst others, are already attacking countries that they
are not officially at war with information warfare weapons. In this paper we look at the currently
known information warfare weapons used and whether they are morally or socially justified. First we
define what we mean with information warfare in this paper. Then we look at the justifications used
arising from the societies or other groups which are known to have used information warfare. Finally,
we look at the possible moral justifications and their problems.
Keywords
Information warfare, Cyberwar, Just war, War, Transparency
1. Introduction
Acquirement of information warfare weapon systems (IWWS) is a current trend around the world.
Countries and military alliances are developing new IWWSs for defensive, counter-offensive and
offensive purposes. (US Department of Defense, 2005, Wu, 2006, YLE 21.1.2009.) These weapons,
however, are of a different kind compared to traditional warfare equipment. Ethics of information
warfare has been discussed for a long time, but the discussion has been more about the usage of
IWWSs with traditional weaponry, e.g. surveillance before missile attacks, rather than substituting it.
Why fly bombers in enemy airspace, if you can destroy the infrastructure by sitting in a comfortable
office?
In this paper the point of secrecy with the modern IWWS is a central topic, i.e. do the citizens know
what is done with their mandate to protect their country? When these acts of war are conducted, who
are the people doing these decisions and what are 'we' even capable of doing? On what kinds of moral
(and other) decisions is the use of these weapons based? Until today, only China (F-Secure, 2011) has
shown their capabilities of information warfare to their citizens, whilst the open democracies in the
west have been as silent as a grave, with the exception of Stuxnet which the US government recently
took responsibility of (NY Times 1.6.2012).
The societies around the world have been computerized during the last couple of decades and hence
they have become more and more dependent of information systems. Fall of these systems is seen
more and more as a threat against national security. Need for a functioning information warfare
capability, mainly a defensive one, has been rising for some time. Of course, because acts of war
mostly rely on the possibility to cause more harm and casualties to the opposing force than suffered,
the possibility to destroy or harass opponents' electronic infrastructure is a tempting option: no
casualties on one's own side and a plenty of harm to the other side.
Cyberwarfare is something that is happening here and there, every now and then; in a way, all the
time, as in the use of Echelon. It currently can be considered warfare without the proclamation of war
or like in the Bronze soldier crisis (The Guardian, 17.5.2007, Ottis, 2008) outsourced war. Should
the citizens of a democratic country be aware that their nation is at war?
2. Information Warfare
During the last couple of years, few large warfare-like internet conflicts have emerged. In 2007,
during the internal Estonian bronze soldier conflict which escalated to an international conflict
between Estonia and Russia, many Estonian information services were attacked from Russia with an
effective blow to the infrastructure. The attack was largest information warfare attack ever made, by
208
the length (3 weeks) and was focused towards governmental services, banks and media. Russia
proclaimed that the attack was not done by the government and accused the nationalistic youth
movement Nashi (which is heavily supported by Kreml). (The Guardian, 17.5.2007, Ottis, 2008.)
Another Russian information warfare attack was apparent during the Georgian conflict in 2008. A
large distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack separated the whole country from the Internet whilst
Russia began its invasion with land and air forces. The Guardian reported the conflict as the first
possible modern cyberwar. (The White House, 2009)
Not all of the weapons used in information warfare require the presence of the warrior behind the
keyboard. The best example so far is a worm commonly known as Stuxnet. It was considered a
military grade smart weapon designed to seek and destroy a target in real-world (Schneier.com,
22.10.2010, BBC, 23.10.2010, 22.11.2010, Langner, 19.11.2010) already before the revelation that the
US was behind it. It was precisely programmed to target specific Siemens Simatic S7 Logic
controllers, indistinguishably similar to which were used Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz. Thus the
enrichment program was successfully delayed due to broken centrifuges for an extended period. (F-
Secure 2010/1, F-Secure 2010/2) It was a mystery for a long time, whichever government - if any -
was behind the operation. The government of the United States took the responsibility as late as 2012
(NY Times, 1.6.2012). The same analysis of course considers the Flame malware (see e.g.
Washington Post 19.6.2012). Compared to Stuxnet which is a strike-malware, Flame is a
cyberintelligence malware designed by US- ther
military intelligence, possibly for Stuxnet. The geographical spread similarities are backing up this
theory. (BBC 4.6.2012, Washington Post 19.6.2012)To raise a central question: should the citizens of
a country be aware of its modern information warfare attacks?
As an extension of information warfare, information technology based warfare, such as drone attacks
in countries with which the drone using country is not in war with. An example would be the US using
drone attacks in a country such as Yemen (to kill a US citizen, no less) (The Tech, 2002; for other
examples, see e.g. Bissett, 2003). Does this constitute an act of war, when US is not in war with
Yemen, yet does military acts within its borders?
Lately hacktivism, especially hacker groups like Anonymous and LulzSec have drawn attention
towards cyberwarfare (BBC, 5.6.2011, 15.6.2011, 16.6.2011, 21.7.2011, 31.10.2011, CBS News
21.6.2011). Governments and large corporations alike are being targeted by hacker activists -
hacktivists - around the world. None-the-less, due to the anonymous nature of these activists, there is
no proof for whether they have conducted all or even some of these actions. The motivations behind
these kinds of attacks can vary from political aims to financial gain. Some, like the aforementioned
Nashi, can be blamed for whenever the necessity for plausible denial comes in handy, and others can
be derived from the imagination. Many governments could benefit from this kind of activism and they
might be doing all or some parts of it. Ottis (2008) states, that "[t]he beauty of people's war is, that it
provides near-perfect deniability for the government or any other entity that is behind the attacks",
even though Ottis refers to Chinese "people's army", it can be expanded to mean any people,
anywhere and with any motivation. Thus we argue that all the aforementioned cyberwarfare not
actively denied and pursued by the government should be counted as government-done acts of war.
During the last months, the discussion about the Chinese cyberattacks has been a topic of discussion
both in the media and in diplomatic discussions. In this paper, however, they are not discussed any
further. That is because of the sporadically revealing nature of cyberwarfare activities.
3. Societies Participating in Information Warfare
-security] that our concerns have moved to the forefront of our
agenda. I am not talking about ordinary cybercrime or hacking. And, this is not solely a national
security concern or a concern of the U.S. government. Increasingly, U.S. businesses are speaking out
about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information
and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented
scale. The international community cannot afford to tolerate such activity from any country. As the
President said in the State of the Union, we will take action to protect our economy against cyber-
209
sory to the President of United States of America (The
White House, 11.3.2013.)
The world of information warfare can be divided in four major powers of the world. These IW
superpowers make a most if not all of the known information warfare. The three superpowers of
the world, China, Russia and USA (together with their allies), are obviously represented in this
notorious four, which is completed with the new information age superpower the residents of the
Internet.
As mentioned earlier, only China (F-Secure, 2011) has shown their might in information warfare to
their citizens, whilst the more open democracies in the west have been as silent as a grave, with the
exception of Stuxnet for which the US government finally took responsibility in 2012 (NY Times
1.6.2012). Russia openly uses cyberwarfare during different crises (The Guardian, 17.5.2007, Ottis,
2008) while still denying its use. Still, with all these (and other) countries keep their full capability as
a secret.
One interesting point with the aforementioned superpowers is the difference in governance. While
China is a communist oligarchy, Russia struggles with its image as a democracy and USA is acting as
a representative democracy, a part of the Internet organisations like the Anonymous are anarchistic
organisations (while some can have a governance of any sort). This anarchistic, somewhat leaderless
discussion-based acting of anonymous bodies in governance enables the transparency of the decision-
making and the immediate knowledge about the cyberattacks being done. Analysing this kind of
activity is the most common way for the citizens of the world to understand what might be possible
with the IWWSs.
As the world is now awakening to the need of cyberdefence and to the fact that cyberoffense being an
important part of a military strength, the knowledge about the capabilities is as mentioned before
still largely a secret. This “security through obscurity” while possibly strengthening the capabilities
for acting is alarming in the view of a common citizen. They can be assured for their security by the
military might against them, but to trust to or to protect oneself from something they do not know
exist is a much harder requirement.
4. Critique on Justifications for Information Warfare
As pointed out by the US Department of Defense (2011) any attack by the use of information warfare
tself is understandable.
Unfortunately, the US is not in the habit of accepting the same for the opposition (see e.g. Chomsky,
to self-
(whatever those might be) to stop the US from using IWWS, such as Stuxnet on them, I doubt the US
would agree on their own definition (again, see e.g. Chomsky, 2002).
An argument for IWWS is that they (can) save lives compared to traditional weapons. It can even be
argued, that we have a duty to develop weapons which save lives compared to traditional weapons
(De George, 2003), and IWWS could be seen as prime examples of such weapons. The main problem
with this argument is apparent again in the USA vs. Iran Stuxnet case, but also visible in the late
Chinese use of IWWS against the USA neither of these attacks would have likely been made at all if
IWWS was not available. A similar argument has been pointed out by Andy Bissett (2003) in relation
at all ly
IWWS attacks eventually.
Hactivist argument for using IWWS is that it is the only way to effect the situation. This of course is
partly true. In the democracies the society should provide a channel to influence without resorting to
extra-parliamentary actions. The validity of these claims is of course relative to the existence and
210
quality of these channels in the location these accused terrorists or praised freedom fighters reside.
Without a doubt this validation is harder because the international nature of hactivism.
We are stronger and we can, thus we do (might makes right) is a normal policy from the
aforementioned superpowers of the world. The enactment as a world police requires this policy to be
extended to any means
occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia or Tibet. Understandably this sort of reasoning lacks the
basic principles of ethics (cf. Rousseau).
Although the usage of IWWS is usually considered as military intelligence and thus under a veil of
secrecy. Therefore the aforementioned justifications in a context of governmental-based information
warfare are per se secret black-ops operations with the deniability or possible scapegoats hanging in
case the operation is a failure. Only in few cases e.g. Stuxnet the governments have been open in
their usage of IWWS, but only after the mission has been a success. Failed missions and the unethical
actions have not been admitted.
The justification for the NGOs, e.g. the aforementioned Anonymous, LulzSec, and various terrorist
organisations is clear: it is the only way. Without this possibility the organisations would be either
massively less powerful or not been founded at all. The acts are usually justified with common sense
and the necessity of the response to immoral behaviour (by their definition).
The states however have few optional approaches, e.g. traditional military activities and surprisingly
for some politicians diplomacy.
5. Discussion
The cyberattacks and methods presented in this paper represent a specific part of information warfare
technologies. The enabler to the ethical discourse about this topic lies not within the capabilities of the
IWWS, but within the current secrecy of the arms race and the usage of these weapons compared to
the traditional warfare. These weapons differ from all other arms we have seen so far by the
possibility of secrecy internal to them. The procedures and policies of the IWWS usage is not public
due to their history of being weapons for intelligence agencies. As shown with the Stuxnet case, they
can be targeted towards specific targets doing large havoc, and hence the citizens should have more
possibilities of knowing and deciding whether they are used and when, especially when official war is
not declared. That ethical decision should not lie within the obscurity of a secret military actor.
To use information warfare defensively, that is, actively responding to potential external threats seems
to be morally acceptable, at least if no loss of life is caused through doing so. Attacking during official
peace is, however clearly more problematic. The citizens, through their representatives have typically
not agreed upon initiating a war against a foreign nation, yet, in practice (as according to US DoD)
using information warfare is an act of war.
In information warfare, as in a lot of government information systems usage, the citizen has no
recourse to an option on whether the IS is used by the government or not, as no viable (or legal)
alternatives exist. Information warfare is nowadays considered as military intelligence and thus these
actions are being classified on a need to know basis, with relevant facts possibly to be revealed later
(at times decades later). Thus when the acts of information warfare are conducted, the government
should have a mandate of the citizens and thus the secrecy of the military intelligence should be lifted,
for the primary required knowledge to seize, to end or to prevent the wars is to be aware of them.
References
BBC 23.10.2010, Stuxnet worm 'targeted high-value Iranian assets',
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11388018, accessed 7.12.2011.
BBC 22.11.2010, Stuxnet 'hit' Iran nuclear plans, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11809827,
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18324234, accessed 13.8.2013.
Bissett, A. K. (2003), Carl von Clausewitz and high technology war, in proceedings of CEPE 2003, Boston
College, Boston, June 25-27, 2003, pp. 1426.
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501465_162-20073139-501465.html, accessed 7.12.2011.
Chomsky, Noam (2002), Distorted Morality: America's War on Terror? Talk delivered at Harward University,
February 2002, available at http://www.chomsky.info/talks/200202--02.htm, accessed 18.3.2013.
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213
RESPONSIBILITY IN ACQUIRING CRITICAL
GOVERNMENTAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS: WHOSE
FAULT IS FAILURE?
Olli I. Heimo, Jani S. S. Koskinen and Kai K. Kimppa
Abstract
In this paper we aim to show that a responsible party for acquiring critical governmental information
systems should be nominated and that the expected consequences must be analysed before the project
is started. This is to prevent loss of human life, to enhance well-being, to secure a democratic process
and civil rights and to save resources. Our approach is to increase public participation as well as the
participation of different interest groups derived from the critical governmental information system
development on enhancing these systems. We use Habermasian discourse to enhance the process of
procuring, developing and implementing these systems and apply it to the idea of responsibility
towards the society.
Keywords
eGovernment, System Procurement, Responsibility, Habermasian Rational Discourse, Information
Systems
1. Introduction
Governmental information systems (eGovernment systems) have been in an increasing development
during last few years. As private sector has increased their profits with increased and centralised
information systems there has been pressure for the public sector to utilise this same behaviour for the
diminished resources allocated to it. Unfortunately, the effectiveness intended has not always been the
result. In this paper we concentrate on the governmental information systems defined as critical their
definition, the responsibility around them and the possible ways to improve the procurement,
development and implementation of these systems.
The responsible actors in this context must be defined to verify the underlying responsibility in the
information systems that can compromise the health, security and wellbeing these kinds of systems
should provide. This responsibility, as well as the base functionalities, we argue, can be defined best
through a rational Habermasian discourse.
The current status quo, as is shown below, is a situation where the current infrastructure cannot
function efficiently, economically nor ethically. Thus we require new ways to determine the
functionalities, responsibilities and requirements for the critical governmental information systems
guarding the health, safety and wellbeing of the society at large.
2. A critical governmental information system
A critical governmental information system (CGIS), by definition, is an information system developed
for governmental needs including data or functionality which is critical in nature to the security or
wellbeing of individuals or the society as whole. It is a system where something invaluable can easily
be compromised. These kinds of systems include eHealth, eDemocracy, police databases and some
information security systems e.g. physical access right control.
Numerous studies show that due to poor eGovernment solutions lives have been lost, for example in
case London ambulance due to the new information system ambulances were sent to wrong targets,
causing several deaths and injuries (Avison & Torkzadeh 2008, p. 292-293), usage of dysfunctional
radiation treatment machines caused at least six deaths (Fleischman 2010) and elections have been
compromised numerous times worldwide (Mercuri 2001, p. 13-20, Heimo, Fairweather & Kimppa
214
2010, Robison 2010). Simultaneously huge amounts of resources (Larsen & Elligsen 2010) are
wasted, while the systems are either inoperable or end up being discarded
(Wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet 2007, Verzola 2008, Heimo, Fairweather & Kimppa 2010, Heimo,
Hakkala & Kimppa 2012, Koskinen, Heimo & Kimppa 2012). Thus, while developing critical
governmental information systems, there has been major problems, in situations where there is little
room for error.
3. Responsibility revisited
To verify a secure system a specific party has to be responsible for the system development and
upkeep process. That is a job the society as a whole has given to a third party, as not everyone can
participate to the process. This responsible party has to see to it that the system works as it should.
Four different interest groups can be found in eGovernment system development process: 1) the
government office, whose task is to formulate the solutions to fulfil the needs of the society, 2) the
producer, who delivers the requested system, 3) the end-user group consisting of people using the
system and, 4) the citizens, who are the targets of the system usage. Any or all of the groups can
overlap.
The power to decide how to design and whether to implement the system lies within the government
and the supplier; the user and the target of usage are in weaker positions, for they have little or no
power in designing the system. We agree with Rawls (1997) that any change in the procedure must be
to the advantage of the weakest parties. And as with the power to decide for the public comes the
responsibility to the public. That responsibility has to be either with the subscriber or the supplier. The
responsibility with the supplier lies in fulfilling the requests of the customer, i.e. the governmental
office. If this task fails, the supplier is responsible to the authorities for their failure of not fulfilling
the requirements agreed upon.
The authorities have a monopoly in supplying certain services like critical eGovernment products.
Due to this, they are in the supplier role in relation to the citizen. That role brings with it the
responsibility of a functioning product. If the system is taken into use the responsibility lies with the
last supplier of the system: the government office.
The eGovernment system producer produces a system according to the specifications they receive
from the ordering party, i.e. the government office. Even if the product is faulty and does not fulfill
the specification, the authorities are responsible to audit the product. The responsibility for showing
that a product is faulty, cannot, however rest on the end-user, but the provider or the distributor must
provide sufficient proof that the system is safe.
Obviously the people auditing the systems must be accountable for their work and the government
office must select a party able to successfully complete the auditing (internal or external). They have
to be trained and given the accountability for what methods of auditing are required and how the
results have to be interpreted. Either the security of the system itself has to be greater than the
least the added value the system provides to the citizen must be together
with an adequate level of security considerable to justify changing systems. A method to gain the
necessary skills and specifications is to use a rational discourse, e.g. the Habermasian rational
discourse.
4. Requesting reasonable communication – the Habermasian discourse
In this paper the topic is approached from a Habermasian (1992) rational discourse perspective, which
denies strategic games so common in current political systems. The Habermasian view is considered
an acceptable way to share responsibility and thus justify rationally decided actions in eGovernment
procurement.
As mentioned earlier, the current situation is problematic because many governmental actions are
commonly lacking the support of the citizens. Reason for that can be that people cannot be fully active
part of political system. In current political system the decision making is moved to different
215
organisations or stakeholder groups which are not in public sphere, like Habermas (1962) was already
pointing. There seems to be less and less culture of participating in political activities thus the
within the lack of proper argumentation (clearly and defined) through the voting. Therefore we call for
bringing the rational discourse back in politics and, in addition to that, put it generally into use in
society at large.
Habermasian rational discourse sets a demand for all the subjects of legislation to be subjects of
discourse. Additionally, the discourse must be constructed in such a way that it is based solely on
rational arguments (i.e. no strategic games allowed) and every attendee has an equal possibility (may
need information and education) to take part in the discussion with proper argumentation.
Without the possibility for all the subjects to be a part of defining the rules or legislation there will be
lack of justification of rules or law. For example, in the Finnish legislation there is usually no
possibility or right for citizens to appeal to Market Court on cases of procurement of public sector
(Heimo, Koskinen, Kainu & Kimppa 2013). This is problematic, because the public sector is acting
for the people, and thus it should be responsible to the people. The contradiction between the law and
the sense of justice is not strengthening the legitimacy of the law.
If the Habermasian rational discourse would be taken as a procedure in procurement, development,
implementation and evaluation of critical governmental information systems, many of the
aforementioned problems could be prevented. For example, the different stakeholders should be
involved and decisions could not be made only as an official duty by a bureaucrat. When all parties
are heard and taken into the active participation process, the outcome (consensus) of the discourse
would be more likely applicable and fulfil the interests of society.
Thus we have different levels in society where the rational discourse should be implemented: political
level, administrative level and the level where things are realised. It has been argued that
implementing rational discourse in law making is impossible in such way that the demands set by
Habermas would be fulfilled (see e.g. Mezirow et al. 1990). Thus, the rational discourse is an ideal
situation impossible to reach in reality. Nevertheless, we argue that with implementing a rational
discourse, even with
society of their own and thus improving democratic (participatory) system and strengthen the
justification of the regulation of the society.
5. Discourse on discourse
In many countries (e.g. in Finland, Ireland, Netherlands and the USA) the end-users (specialists,
citizens, NGOs, etc.) have been able to show that there are critical problems with the system, but only
ijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet
2007, Heimo, Fairweather & Kimppa 2010, Heimo, Hakkala & Kimppa 2012). In these cases the
producers and the government officials are defending their position against the end-users and the
public (and the aforementioned rational discourse denies this strategic game). Because of the
government monopoly, the obvious responsible party is, maybe counter to intuition, the subscriber,
not the producer of the system.
We propose as a way to spread the responsibility is Habermasian discourse because in that case
different stakeholders have equal possibility to take part in the process. Laws, regulations and codes of
conduct should be made to prevent any strategic games and deception. What kind the aforementioned
laws should be is out of scope of this paper and will not be discussed here.
Certainty Trough to all technology.
Pantzar claims, that the salespersons of the product the representatives of the producer are denied
their right to be uncertain of the product they are selling. In a modern society there is a risk, that this
reflects to the suppliers representatives so, that even they cannot appear to
be uncertain of the product when introducing it to the citizens. In a situation where this risk actualises,
the information the government officials give to the public is misleading.
216
For preventing a situation where officials have ended up in a position where they are giving
misleading information to secure their own status, we must bring forth discourse on discourse. The
Habermasian discourse must be introduced to implement such conditions where public decisions are
brought into public, Habermasian discourse. Hence, we must have the processes of: procurement,
decision, development, implementation and evaluation of critical governmental information systems.
By bringing discourse to be a part of all stages of the process we can more likely avoid a situation
where the problem is a problem of missing responsibility. It is a necessity to have a discourse for
having reasonably allocated responsibility when developing critical governmental information
systems.
If the aforementioned discourse on discourse is implemented, it is harder to cover up mistakes made in
the process. Moreover, mistakes which are made are not so easy to pour on for some, unlucky scape
goat or just endlessly tossed around. This way the organized process is more transparent, just and
verifiable.
Thus the Habermasian discourse is not to be implemented only to verify the quality of the CGIS, but
also to protect the rights of the individuals and the interest groups; to create improved rules to make
the game fair; this of course in addition to the value created by the participatory democracy.
6. Conclusions
It is obvious that the development of critical governmental information systems should be done
responsibly. This responsible development however is impossible without the definition of who the
responsible actor is.
From the four basic interest groups, the government office, the producer, the end-user group and the
citizens, it seems clear that the fundamental responsibility rests with the authorities. They hold a
monopoly to the services they have been nominated to produce, control and upkeep and are in
superior position in relation to others and thus with great power comes great responsibility.
Therefore the final responsibility lies with the government representative, but, in how the
responsibility before the system is released and who is responsible for fixing possible mistakes must
be defined through a Habermasian discourse. Also, in cases where the government officials have been
purposefully mislead, the responsibility can be repositioned.
Because of the human life is an end in itself (cf. Kant), it seems impossible to actualise the
responsibility towards one person or even a group of people as a means to repay the mistakes.
Therefore we need a Habermasian discourse on how the responsibility should be realised and for what
ends. Also we need to modularise the responsibility with various actors in various fields of the
lifecycle of the IS.
should be constructed in the first place. To guarantee the quality of these systems and to minimise the
need to actualise the responsibility thus promoting health, security and wellbeing we should embrace
the Habermasian discourse. When, however, the procurement, development and implementation of
CGIS is done without the responsibility and accountability of anyone and without the required level of
rational public discussion, it can and has already endangered these fundamental values we hold dear.
References
Avison, David and Torkzadeh, Gholamzeza (2008), Information Systems Project Management, Saga
Publications, California, USA, August 2008.
Fleischman, William M. (2010), Electronic Voting Systems and The Therac-25: What Have We Learned?,
Ethicomp 2010.
Habermas, Jurgen (1962). Originally Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. Translated as The Stuctural
Transformation of the Public Sphere by Thomas burger, First MIT Press paperback edition 1991.
Habermas, Jurgen (1992). Originally Faktizität und Geltung. Beirtäge zur Diskurstheorie des Rechts und des
demokratischen Rechtsstaats. Translated as Between Norms and Facts by Rehg William, Published by Polity
Press 1996.
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Harris, Bev (2004), Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century, Talion Publishing, free internet
version is available at www.BlackBoxVoting.org, accessed 7.2.2011.
Heimo, Olli I., Fairweather, N. Ben & Kimppa, Kai K. (2010), The Finnish eVoting Experiment: What Went
Wrong?, Ethicomp 2010.
Heimo, Olli I., Hakkala, Antti & Kimppa, Kai K. (2012), How to abuse biometric passport systems, Journal of
Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Volume 10 issue 2, pp. 68 81.
Heimo Olli I., Koskinen Jani, Kainu Ville & Kimppa Kai K. (2013, accepted) Problem of Power: The Missing
Agent. CEPE 2013.
Hobbes, Thomas (1651), Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and
Civil, edited with an introduction by C.B. MacPherson, Published by Pelican Books 1968
Koskinen Jani, Heimo Olli I. & Kimppa Kai K. (2012) A viewpoint for more ethical approach in healthcare
information system development and procurement: the four principles. The 4th International Conference on
Well-being in the Information Society Exploring the Abyss of Inequalities. Turku, Finland, August 22-24,
2012.
Larsen E. & Elligsen G. 2010. Facing the Lernaean Hydra: The Nature of Large-Scale Integration Projects in
Healthcare. In Kautz K & Nielsen P. Proceedings of the First Scandinavian Conference of Information
Systems, SCIS 2010. Rebild, Denmark, August 2010.
Mackenzie, Donald A (1990), Inventing accuracy, A historical sociology of nuclear missile guidance, MIT
Press, Cambridge Massachusetts.
Mackenzie, Donald A. (1990), Inventing accuracy, A historical sociology of nuclear missile guidance, MIT
Press, Cambridge Massachusetts.
Merirow, Jack (1990), Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood: A Guide to Transformative and Emancipatory
Learning, Jossey-Bass, 1990
Mercuri, Rebecca (2001), Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks and Balances PhD thesis, University of
Pennsylvania. http://www.cis.upenn.edu/grad/documents/mercuri-r.pdf
Pantzar, Mika (2000), Teesejä tietoyhteiskunnasta. Yhteiskuntapolitiikka. No 1. pp. 64 - 68.
http://www.stakes.fi/yp/2000/1/001pantzar.pdf, accessed 7.2.2011.
Rawls, John (1997), The Idea of Public Reason, Deliberative democracy: essays on reason and politics, edited
by James Bohman and William Rehq, The MIT Press, 1997
Robison, Wade L. (2010), Voting and Mix-And-Match Software, Ethicomp 2010.
Verzola, Roberto (2008), The Cost of Automating Elections. http://ssrn.com/abstract=1150267, haettu
24.11.2010
Wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet (2007), Rop Gonggrijp and Willem-Jan Hengeveld - Studying the
Nedap/Groenendaal ES3B voting computer, a computer security perspective, Proceedings of the USENIX
Workshop on Accurate Electronic Voting Technology 2007
http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/images/c/ce/ES3B_EVT07.pdf, accessed 7.2.2011. (see also
http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English)
218
COMPUTING FUTURES: MIRACLES, PROPHECY AND
PREDICTION
David Sanford Horner
Abstract
This paper argues that the reasons for rejecting any particular prediction about the possibilities and
impacts of emerging technologies will always outweigh the reasons for acceptance of such
predictions. The first move in the argument is to question the distinction between prophecy and
rational forecasting. The paper then moves to argue that prophecies and predictions are like miracles.
Using David H
evidence must always be against the veracity of prediction. This position is then supported by a
number of subsidiary arguments concerning human credulity and fallibility.
Keywords
Anticipatory Ethics, Forecasting, Epistemology, Hume, Miracles, Prediction, Prophecy
1. Introduction
The aim of the paper is to show why the reasons for rejecting any particular prediction about the
future of emerging technology, together with its ethical implications, will always outweigh the reasons
why we might accept such a prediction as evidence of future states of affairs. If this argument carries
developi An Enquiry concerning
the Human Understanding
never be accepted as proof of the existence of God. In his discussion of miracles Hume provides us
with a profound methodological reflection on the nature of historical evidence (Flew 1961). These
methodological reflections it seems to me are equally applicable to the endeavours of forecasters and
futurists. Notably, but often overlooked, Hume towards the end of Section X writes that the same
here is to show that prophecies (meaning religious prophecies) can never constitute compelling
the case of technological forecasting. What are forecasters trying to do? They are attempting to
suggest that their predictions provide evidence for belief in some future states of affairs even if these
enough to help decision--
show have direct (logical and epistemological) parallels with a belief in miracles and prophecy as
foundations for a true belief in a deity.
2. Overview
In Section 3 a distinction is drawn between prophecy and rational forecasting. There are in the
literature persuasive arguments for the utility of anticipatory technology ethics. Strenuous research
efforts are made to provide decision-makers with evidence robust enough to sustain policy. However,
I claim that this leads to a number of paradoxes which undermine the utility of prediction especially in
relationship to policy making. Policy makers may want an evidence base for their decisions but can
social and technological forecasting really provide it? My argument is that the distinction between
infamous argument against the possibility of miracles this is fundamentally a question of evidence. In
Section 4 the case is made for logical and empirical connections between miracles, prophecies and
An Enquiry
219
concerning the Human Understanding
the possibility of miracles. This argument he
parts to be discussed in corresponding sections of the paper. In Part I Hume argues the practical
improbability of miracles as a matter of principle and some commentators (see Swinburne, 1970) have
dubbed this an a priori
testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it
a
posteriori
arguments to illustrate that rational forecasting is more like prophecy than we might care to admit and
anticipate the possibilities of ethical ICTs
3. A Case for Rational Technological Forecasting
The theme of this paper is the continuance of a belief that it is important to predict possible futures for
emerging computing technologies in order that we might better exert moral control over their
development. But the evidence is overwhelmingly that our confidence in such an endeavour is deeply
problematic if not utterly misguided. If we are thinking about forecasting the future of computing
technologies and their social and ethical impacts do the methods we use produce accurate predictions?
, 2004; Seidensticker,
2006; Sherden, 1998; Taleb, 2007)
Now it might be argued that this must be going too far and too fast. Empirically surely there is
evidence of successful technological prediction? Ray Kurzweil of MIT, for example, claims much
successful anticipation of developments in computing technologies (Kurzweil, 2005) and surely we
thing but the ETICA study, for example, is altogether different (Stahl, Rainey and Goujon, 2011)! But
where does this difference lie? The philosopher A.C.Grayling (2001) argues that prophecy and
rational f
beyond the present temporal horizon into a pre-existing future. In contrast forecasting studies assume
that in some sense the future is open and the object is to provide an assessment of possible alternative
futures. Such rational assessments are essential for planning. It is assumed that by the careful use of
current data and past experience (i.e. observation and testimony) we can predict the (probable) course
anything else must be to surrender ourselves to passivity and hopelessness in the face of events.
help decision- -proofing
technology ethics, 2011,
aims to truth that the project
raises are not strong or comparable with those arising from traditional scientific research. Instead the
point of the project is to give input into societal, research-oriented and policy discourses about how
technologies can
presented.
There are several paradoxes embedded in this belief about the possible visualisation of possible
futures. The first paradox is this: on the one hand if the predictions of future states of the world are to
be helpful to decision-makers then they must provide genuine evidence of what will happen but on the
other hand most serious technological forecasters recognise to some degree the difficulties and
uncertainties of prediction, or even more strongly, recognise that our technological futures are
fundamentally unknowable (Brey, 2011; Stahl, 2011). A second paradox is that to the extent that
technological forecasts have a social function as part of a decision-making process they may be either
220
self-fulfilling or self-defeating. But the extent to which forecasts are self-fulfilling or self-defeating
undercuts their cognitive status as truths about some future state of affairs. If we are not right we make
in the idea that anything may be known to be true in advance? Rightness or wrongness in relationship
to prediction is logically retrospective (Ryle, 1973, p.27).
4. ‘All prophecies are real miracles’
In what follows my intention is to show that rational forecasting is pretty much like prophecy and a
deity falls into two parts. In the first part Hume (1902, pp.108-116) provides what he believes to be a
miracles and thus the possibility of using an argument
from miracles in support of a belief in a deity. In Part II of Section X Hume goes on to outline four a
posteriori
argument and its link to prophecy and prediction.
4.1 Section X: Part I: The a priori Argument
Technology predictions are based on the testimony of experts (the Delphi technique, for example) or
on experience (the extrapolation from what we know of the past into the future). Observation and
testimony are notoriously fallible and must always be weighed against contrary observation and
testimony. Now the problem with miracles, and as we will see prophecies and predictions, is that by
has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the nature of the fact, is as entire as any
argument from experience can possibly be imagined. Why is it more than probable, that all men must
die; that lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in the air; that fire consumes wood, and is
extinguished by water; unless it be, that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature, and
1902, p.114)-115)
In other words by their very nature miracles must run directly against the grain of our knowledge and
attested experience of the world: to believe that a miracle has occurred is to believe an event has
happened which runs directly contrary to the weight of (inductive) evidence underpinning a law of
nature. From his discussion of the nature of evidence, proof and probability Hume goes on to
establish a miracle unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more
miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish; and even in that case there is mutual
destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of force,
, 1902, pp.115-116). If confronted with two
miracles (!) then we must always reject the greater miracle according to this maxim!
but that we can never be in a position to positively know that they have occurred (Flew, 1986, p.80).
(But, of course, Hume in Section X leaves us in no doubt that his own belief is that miracles have not
argument of this kind which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition, and free
us from their impertinent solici
check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world
miracles and to (religious) prophecy. It is not often noted that Hume, towards the end of Section X,
221
ar
nature to foretell future events, it would be absurd to employ any prophecy as an argument for a
human nature to
event. The predictions of Old Testament prophets as to the coming of the Messiah, for example
partake as much of the miraculous as Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
and technological future as to as on the claims of prophecy and miraculous. The distinction between
prophecy and rational forecasting is not tenable. As Stahl (2011, pp141-
too obvious to state, but in order to avoid misunderstandings, it may be nevertheless be necessary to
underline that we do not know the future. The future is fundamentally characterised by being
of the future are predictable and, in fact, much of the organisation of societies is based on the
predictability of the future. Commercial and administrative activities rely on recurrence of activities
er
than prediction? And look how often even such expectations are dashed. More tellingly an important
point is that when we are talking about technological and social innovation we are precisely not in the
realm of regularity but in the realm of novelty and creativity, of things we have not known before.
the union of humans and machines, the next step in evolution predicted to occur in 2050. Kurzweil
certainly claims this is a rational prediction based on multiple extrapolations of some current
technological trends. But the question here is the status of evidence. The claims about the Singularity
are neither true nor false at the time they are made and the weight of evidence must always be in
favour of such claims turning out to be false; the larger the claims the wider the scope for falsification.
No testimony is sufficient to establish a prophecy unless the testimony is of such a kind, that its
falsehood would be more miraculous, than the future fact, which it endeavours to establish. Our
default position must be always be to reject a prophecy as unbelievable. And in that sense we should
never accept forecasting as a basis for policy-making!
4.2 Section X: Part II: the a posteriori arguments
subsidiary, supporting arguments. Having apparently left the door slightly ajar to the possibility of
miraculous occurrences Hume moves swiftly to slam the door shut. Part II of Section X presents four
empirical observations all tending to demonstrate the credulity of human beings and the susceptibility
to believe what is all too frequently against the evidence. The fourth argument is a logical point about
conflicting evidence. Again I believe these arguments about human credulity are equally solvent
against claims to foretell our technological and social future.
number of men, of such unquestioned good sense, education and learning, as to secure us against
delusion
Most predictions about the future trajectories of technologies will have many and often contrary,
variants. For example, there are widely differing views about the future trajectory of nanotechnology
and its social impacts (Horner, 2005). Experts contradict each other, are frequently mistaken, and
frequently deluded (Gardner, 2010). The RAND Corporation in the 1960s, the archetypal bastion of
rational forecasting and futurism predicted that a permanent base would have been established on the
moon before the year 2000 and that men (sic) would have flown past Venus and landed on Mars
(Gardner, 2011, p.10).
222
Secondly, Hume observes that our ordinary ways of common sense reasoning are easily subverted.
We draw the contrary conclusions to those we ought to draw and are too readily apt to be seduced by
new technology will sweep all before it. Whilst at the same time we fail to identify what is truly
the proof of its veracity. The fact that some claim is out of the ordinary and conflicts with our
common experience and k
the spirit of religion join itself to the love of wonder, there is an end to common sense; and human
testimony, in these circumstances, loses all pretensions to authority. A religionist may be an
enthusiast, and imagine he sees what has no reality: he may know his narrative to be false, and yet
-
118). The spirit of credulity still wal
we forget claims for atomic power that it would produce electricity that would be too cheap to meter?
Or the claim that automated production would bring in an age of leisure? Or the current claims of
Trans- -
expresses its very contrariness to our everyday frames of reference.
consider a highly prejudicial and politically incorrect claim? Hume as a protagonist of the Scottish
Enlightenment and later, of course, the great historian, takes an evolutionary view of social
development. He suggests that when we read the histories of nations we imagine ourselves to have
been transpor
few natural events that are intermingled with them. But as the former grow thinner every page, in
proportion as we advance nearer the enlightened ages, we soon learn, that there is nothing mysterious
or supernatural in the case, but all proceeds from the usual propensity of mankind towards the
marvellous, and though this inclination may at intervals receive a check from sense and learning; it
can never be thoroughly ext
philosophic naturalist that he is, Hume is pointing out that even in so called enlightened times human
beings are subject to the allure of tall tales and exciting prospects. We must thus always approach any
fashionable new technology that will transfor
is some emerging technology.
testimony for any [miracles], even those which have not been expressly detected, that is not opposed
by an infinite number of witnesses; so that not only the miracle destroys the credit of testimony, but
whatever is differen
contrary facts, and the evidences of those prodigies, whether weak or strong, as opposite to each
will have a great multitude of predictions about our technological futures. And this variety of
predictions of trajectories will be overlaid by an equally rich variety of possible social and ethical
desirable ones. But what we have then is
contrary versions of the future which may cancel each other out.
5. Conclusion
technological forecasting. In the same way that miracles can never provide evidence for the existence
of a deity (or deities) social and technological forecasting can never provide evidence of future states
the idea that
223
predictions can provide useful evidence for policy- a priori argument must
provide a powerful check against beliefs in the efficacy of prediction. The weight of evidence is
always going to be against a prediction turning out to be true. This is far from being a negative
message; it is rather a liberating one. Do we need really need predictions to make (morally) good
and that we must act appropriately and with humility in the face of an unknown future? It seems to me
References
Brey, P. (2011), Anticipatory technology ethics for emerging IT, in J. Mauger, ed., CEPE2011: Crossing
Boundaries: Ethics in Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Relations. Milwaukee, USA, June, 2011. Inseit, 13
26.
Flew, A. (1961),
Future-proofing technology ethics, (2011), The Magazine of the European Innovation Exchange, Issue 6, 4-5.
Gardner, D. ( 2011), Future babble: why expert predictions fail and why we believe them anyway, Virgin Books.
Grayling, A.C. (2001), The Meaning of Things: applying philosophy to life, Phoenix.
Horner, D.S. (2004), The error of futurism: prediction and computer ethics, ACM SIGCAS Computers and
Society, 32, January.
Horner. D.S. (2005), Anticipating ethical challenges: Is there a coming era of nanotechnology? Ethics and
Information Technology, 7, 127 138.
Hume, D. (1902), Enquiries concerning the Human Understanding and concerning the Principles of Morals, ed.
L.A. Selby-Bigge, 2nd edn., Oxford University Press.
Kurzweil, R. (2005), The singularity is near: when humans transcend biology, Duckworth.
Ryle, G. (1973), Dilemmas, Cambridge University Press.
Seidensticker, B. (2006), Futurehype: the myths of technology change, Barrett-Koehler Publishers.
Sherden, W.A. (1998), The fortune sellers: the big business of buying and selling predictions, Wiley.
Stahl, B.C. (2011), IT for a better future: how to integrate ethics, politics and innovation, Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society, 9, 140-156.
Stahl, B.C., Rainey, S. and Goujon, P. (2011), How to address ethics of emerging ICTs: A critique of human
research ethics reviews and the search for alternative ethical approaches and governance models, in
Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference: The Social Impact of Social Computing, ETHICOMP
2011, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK 14 to 16 September, Sheffield Hallam University, 435 444.
Swinburne, R. (1770), The concept of miracle, Macmillan.
Taleb, N.N., (2007), The black swan: the impact of the highly improbable, Random House.
224
ETHICAL ASSESSMENT OF GUARDIAN ANGELS
TECHNOLOGY SCENARIOS
Veikko Ikonen, Eija Kaasinen, Päivi Heikkilä, Barbara Simpson and
Andrea Leu
Abstract
In this paper we present the feedback that we have gathered to Guardian Angles scenarios from
application field experts, from consumers and from ethics experts. Feedback was gathered from
application field experts at VTT with individual interviews and focus groups. Feedback from
feedback from four different student groups. Also 11 experts on different fields of ethics assessed the
scenarios. In this paper we present the results of these three activities.
The application field experts helped us to identify most potential usage potentials and they also
proposed several new application possibilities. The initial feedback from consumers towards GA
possibilities to monitor their health, wellbeing and environment. People could see usage possibilities
in their own lives especially for health and well-being applications as well as in GAs embedded in
consumer products. However, concerns were raised especially regarding access to information, digital
division and overall whether the society would be working better without too much technology,
knowledge and measurements. The ethics experts gave lots of valuable feedback to GA technology in
general as well as to the scenarios. The ethics experts identified numerous issues that should be
studied in more details before going to the real-life experiments: privacy issues of course are the most
obvious but also issues related to the autonomy, user control, freedom, medicalization and human
existence were raised up. Some less obvious issues are also accessibility, affordability and
accountability: will these solutions be available for those who could need them or are these only for
elite and who will be responsible if these solutions do not work? The technology can lead to
infantilisation and patronising of people, and medicalization is not always a good thing. Trade-offs
need to be considered in security solutions as security often limits liberty. Once an information
resource exists, there are multiple interest groups that may have interest to exploit the data. Thus
measuring and storing data needs to be assessed in a wide scale.
Keywords
Ethical Assessment, Scenarios, Future Emerging Technologies, Human-Driven Design
1. Introduction
Guardian Angels technology will enable very small size sensor and computing units to monitor the
well-being of us and our environment. The Guardian Angels units will be self-sufficient with energy,
and thus suitable for long term use without maintenance. Several usage possibilities are foreseen in
health, well-being, safety, sustainability and empathic user interfaces. (Guardian Angels 2012)
This paper introduces a collection of future visions of different possibilities to utilise Guardian Angels
technology. The visions are based on scenarios gathered from Guardian Angels partners in a web
survey and via email. In this paper we describe the most potential application fields for Guardian
Angels technology and describe some promising usage possibilities for each field in the form of usage
scenarios. The following application fields have been identified: health, well-being, support for the
elderly, extending human abilities, empathic human-technology interaction, safety, traffic and green
solutions. (Guardian Angels 2012)
Physical Guardian Angels have a lot of usage possibilities in health and well-being. The small size
and energy-efficient solutions provided by Guardian Angels technology facilitates versatile and long
225
term monitoring, thus giving more insight to the status of the user and the trends. In many cases
emotional Guardian Angels provide additional information of the status of the patient. Another wide
application area is safety. Guardian Angels solutions enable early warnings of possible hazards, thus
leaving time to prepare. Some of the safety related applications are based on monitoring the emotions
of people in a crowd. These scenarios may be both technically and ethically doubtful. (Guardian
Angels 2012)
In human-technology interaction, Guardian Angels technology may enable empathic user interfaces
that adapt according to the emotional status of the user. These kinds of systems are currently studied
quite a lot but the lack of easy wearable sensors systems has prevented wider implementations and
trials. (Guardian Angels 2012)
We have discussed the visions and scenarios with experts and potential users of the identified
application fields to further improve our vision of the future possibilities of Guardian Angels
technology. This paper shares outcome from those discussions and the organisation of this kind of
assessment procedure for the FET (Future Emerging Technologies) -project.
2. Ethical assessment of future technologies
Ethical challenges of future technologies are multifaceted, almost infinite when considering different
possible contexts and stakeholders and in many cases also quite hard to predict and vision more
concretely. The technology should be safe and secure as such, the applications should be safe and
secure, and human values such as privacy, autonomy, trust etc. should not be violated by the
technology or the applications. These ethical issues have been frequently raised as important factors in
user requirement definition process. (e.g. Kosta et al., 2008, Rotter, 2008) but ethics has also reached
much more visibility as a more important general view to the research and innovation (e.g. Stahl et al.
2010, Wakanuma et al. 2011).
One of key element of our design approach is to take into account ethical issues in our project as
much as it is possible. We have also built up ethical guidelines and ethics by design approach for
designing of various applications and services in our daily project work. (e.g. Topo et al. 2004, Ikonen
et al 2006, Kaasinen et al. 2013) Our latest attempt to build up concrete guidance on ethical issues
was in MINAmI project. There our focus was to take into account ethical perspective when designing
applications and services that utilise MINAmI platform for mobile-centric Ambient Intelligence. The
guidelines also cover issues related to implementing the MINAmI platform itself. The aim of the
guidelines is to motivate and influence all who are involved in the design and utilisation of mobile-
centric ambient intelligence technologies, applications and services. Those guidelines were based on
earlier research, on the ethical assessment of MINAmI scenarios, on the user evaluation of the
scenarios, on feedback from two workshops with ethics experts, as well as on comments and
contributions from the Ethical Advisory Board of the MINAmI project. (Ikonen et al. 2009)
The guidelines are divided to impact on design solutions: what kinds of solutions are
ethically acceptable and impact on design process: how to design ethically acceptable
solutions. Impact of ethical principles on design solutions is analysed on two levels: 1) general
technical features of mobile AmI and impact of ethical principles on them and 2) impact of ethical
principles on application field specific features of mobile AmI. In the latter the focus is on MINAmI-
specific application fields: health care, assistive technology, housing and everyday life. During
different phases of the technology design process, required ethical considerations are different. The
perspectives of different stakeholders should also be taken into account. A holistic perspective is
required to consider the challenges, threats and opportunities in advance when designing new
technologies for our future everyday environments. (Ikonen et al 2009)
Ethical guidelines were built on six ethical principles that are selected based on the ethical assessment
of MINAmI scenarios (Ikonen et al 2009):
Privacy: An individual shall be able to control access to his/her personal information and to protect
his/her own space.
Autonomy: An individual has the right to decide how and to what purposes (s)he is using technology.
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Integrity and dignity: Individuals shall be respected and technical solutions shall not
violate their dignity as human beings.
Reliability: Technical solutions shall be sufficiently reliable for the purposes that they are being used
E-inclusion: Services should be accessible to all user groups despite of their physical or mental
deficiencies.
Benefit for the society: The society shall make use of the technology so that it increases the quality of
life and does not cause harm to anyone.
We also proposed a preliminary procedure for ethical assessment in early concept development phase
in Minami project. In GA we are utilising our previous experiences and taken steps further on to build
up more comprehensive governance model for responsible research and innovation of future emerging
technologies. (Ikonen & Kaasinen 2008)
3. Guardian Angels
autonomous electronic personal companions that will assist us from infancy to old age. These devices
will be private and secure systems featuring sensing, computation, and communication beyond human
capabilities. There will be three families of GA devices, all based on the concept of a smarter life: a
lifestyle that benefits from the instant availability of relevant information, whether that information
comes from within our own bodies (heart rate, insulin level, the amount of stress we feel, our attention
or distraction levels) or outside them (pollutants, pollen, obstacles in our way). The three GA families:
(1) Physical GAs, which can give us information about our physical and physiological status, for
purposes including health care, rehabilitation, or sports. If we choose, the information will be
communicated securely with doctors or others in our sphere of health care providers. These devices,
with their strong focus on disease prevention and early diagnoses, will help keep healthcare affordable
and accessible to all. (2) Environmental GAs will focus their sensing on environmental conditions,
serving as a sort of 6th sense to allow us to know what is in the air around us. For visually impaired
Physical GAs, it will be possible to correlate our physical state with the environmental context. (3)
Emotional GAs will be able to perceive emotional or affective conditions such as stress or attention
level, so that we become more self-aware in situations where it can work to our advantage, whether
we are driving a car or are in a learning environment. (Guardian Angels 2012)
Security and privacy are top priorities in the GA project. The data gathered will be yours; it will
always be your decision to keep or to share it. In addition, the ethical aspects of GA applications will
be assessed from the beginning of the project, through interactions between researchers, an ethics
board of experts, and end users. (Guardian Angels 2012)
4. Feedback to Guardian Angles scenarios
Feedback was gathered from application field experts at VTT with individual interviews and focus
groups. Feedback from
gathered feedback from four different student groups in face-to-face meetings. In addition, 11 experts
on different fields of ethics assessed the scenarios.
4.1 Feedback from application field experts at VTT
We organised 3 different Expert groups and additional individual interviews. Here we present as an
example the results from Ambient Intelligence group. Feedback from other discussions is summarised
as general feedback to scenarios.
227
Expert group of Ambient Intelligence
We organised a 1 hour focus group in Oulu, Finland in 4th of January 2012. Totally 10 researchers
were experts of ambient intelligence and ubiquitous computing. The scenarios were presented to them
as a slide set and then they were asked to assess in pairs the following questions:
- Do you see some other application areas than the ones presented?
- Which of the presented applications you consider credible? Why?
- Which applications are not credible? Why?
- Can you see some other application possibilities?
Additional application fields
The following new applications fields were proposed:
- Home monitoring moisture, toxins, allergens
- Retail there is a need to monitor the clients: how they move, what items they study, identifying
unwanted behaviour. Also guiding the behaviour of the clients.
- Predicting catastrophes and crisis situations (partly included in security scenarios)
Figure 1. Guardian Angels are smart, autonomous systems that are beyond wireless sensor networks in
terms of functionality and powering, and include a higher complexity than the simple sensor nodes
foreseen today for the internet of things.
Feedback to scenarios
Safety and health related as well as life cycle management scenarios were seen most credible. Most
doubtful scenarios were black box of body and all scenarios including emotion measurements. The
participants raised privacy as a crucial issue with emotion monitoring. They were wondering if people
could sense the emotions of other people. Extending human senses was pointed as the most interesting
application field. However, the participants were wondering how the extended senses should be
coupled
reality at least in research but GA will bring additional value with small size and energy efficiency.
228
Health and user interaction scenarios were considered bold. Safety and life cycle scenarios from many
parts were claimed to be existing technology. Sustainability of the GA solutions was also questioned
even if they a cheap they cost and may have environmental effects.
4.2 Feedback from consumers (VTT open web lab study)
Purpose of the study
The main purpose of the study was to open a conversation channel where GA visions could be
introduced and consumers could give their feedback and express their ideas and opinions regarding
the topic in the early phase of the projec
expectations, concerns and fears towards GA technology, and getting insight which application fields
seem to be most useful, doubtful or interesting based on web conversations.
Method
Consumer feedback was gathered in VTT Owela (http://owela.vtt.fi/), which is an open web
laboratory for user-driven innovation and co-design. Owela supports active user involvement in the
innovation process from the first ideas to piloting and actual use. Owela has over 1000 registered
users who represent society at large. In this study Owela was used for gaining user feedback and
insights on different GA visions and scenarios. Registered Owela users were invited to discuss and
comment seven GA application fields. The topics were related to GA technology in general, health,
well-being, wellbeing of loved ones, measuring emotions, safety and consumer products. Besides
commenting the topics, users were asked to evaluate the potentiality of ideas with a simple poll and
ideate on other ways of usage for GA technology. The study was open in Owela tool for two weeks:
11.1.2012-25.1.2012. The content of user comments was analysed qualitatively.
Each conversation topic included a short one or two chapter description of the vision, a couple of open
questions to encourage discussion and a poll with three options to evaluate the topic. In the poll the
users were asked whether they find the topic useful, doubtful or whether they could use the
technology in the described way themselves.
Participants
Study participants were recruited by sending an invitation email to participants of previous Owela
studies (for those who have allowed storing their contact information in a user register and contacting
them when new studies are starting). After one week response time, the users were sent a reminder
email to encourage them to participate in conversations, create own ideas and respond to the polls. In
total, 110 persons registered to participate in the study. 54 persons participated in the conversations
and around 30 people (27-34 depending on the topic) took part in the polls. The participants
represented different age groups and were almost equally males and females.
Findings
GA technology raised lively discussion and evoked both enthusiasm and concerns. The most active
conversation topic was health, gaining more than sixty comments. All the other application areas
raised a lot of discussion as well, gathering 40-49 comments. Participants had a rather positive view
towards different application areas. With the exception of one area, all the use cases were seen useful
and not very doubtful. The exception case was emotions; measuring emotions was an area which had
considered it
doubtful. Health, well-being and consumer products were the areas which participants saw most
potential for using the devices themselves.
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Figure 2. Poll results
Besides commenting use cases, participants proposed novel ideas for using the technology. 16 ideas
were posted to an idea section, and they also raised discussion between the writer and other
participants (most of them gained 5-15 comments or additional ideas). The study seemed to raise
neral; they did not only get more information about it,
but some searched for new information themselves. One participant even posted a link to an
international nanotechnology report.
Summary feedback from Owela study
GA technology was regarded as an interesting conversation topic, creating both optimism and
concerns. Some of the participants emphasised that these solutions have been expected to come to
market for years and would make a significant enhancement especially in health care. On the other
hand, many of the participants found the technology doubtful and were concerned of the technology
gaining too much control of our lives. This might reflect in the threat of misuse of information, lack of
health care personnel, missing social contacts and stress caused by constant measurements.
health, wellbeing and environment. However, the increasing power also creates concerns whether
the power is given for right people, whether some are excluded without their will, whether some are
included without their will and in the end - whether the society would be working better without too
much technology, knowledge and measurements. Even though GA technology would be beneficial for
many use cases, the extension for almost all the fields of our life seems to create concerns.
Owela participants were clearly interested in the opportunities and threats of GA technology, and the
forum could be utilised also for future studies related to specific application fields, new use cases or
specific target groups. It would be interesting to gather feedback and ideas for example from people
suffering from chronic diseases or from people working in demanding work situations. It would also
be interesting to invite the participants of this study to comment on further developed ideas or
scenarios. (Heikkilä & Kaasinen 2012)
4.3 Feedback from student groups
Senarclens gathered feedback to the scenarios from four different student groups. The results are
presented in the following.
230
Presentation and discussion with PhD students and postdocs
5 July 2011
Participants:
15 PhD students and postdocs from IBM Research, all male.
Method:
Presentation of the GA concept by Kirsten Moselund, IBM Research
Moderated Q&A and discussion
Results:
A high concern was with the security of the devices. Data security was deemed paramount and
extremely difficult to achieve. The main questions in this context affected the access, the control and
participants welcomed were mainly health-related. The participants stressed that they, at the moment,
did not feel the need for a GA device, but could imagine using one with weakening health. The
implantation of devices, however, was declined in every stage of life.
Presentation and discussion with high school students
EPFL Lausanne
Participants:
- group of 22 high school students from Lausanne, 14 male, 8 female, aged 16-20 (17 November
2012)
- group of 17 high school students from Neuchâtel, 15 male, 2 female, aged 16-19 (15 December
2012)
Method:
- Presentation of GA technologies through lab visits and experiments
- Presentation of GA - Moderated Q&A session and discussion
- First, students were introduced to technical and scientific developments and their potential. They
produced their own basic Graetzel cells and learned about the future possibilities of photovoltaic
energy. They tested heart beat sensors with Bluetooth connection to their smart phones. A detailed
presentation informed them about the possible ways these future technologies could be applied.
Results:
The students were extremely receptive to ultra low power technologies. Green technologies are
welcome on all levels energy efficiency, sustainability, green manufacturing / production, reduction
of material consumption were some of the possible applications they mentioned. Traffic was a second
field of applications they favoured. They were very positive about the benefits of GA devices in this
area -
intelligent cars, engine efficiency or secure and effective transportation systems were some of the
ideas they approved. They high school students fully supported the development of GA devices.
However, they were very cautious when it came to collecting and transmitting data and did not trust
any possible future data security solutions.
Creative workshop with scholarship students
ETH Zürich
13 December 2012
Participants:
23 scholarship students aged 19-28 years, 13 male, 10 female, different degree courses
Method:
- Creative brainstorming methods
- Presentation by Christofer Hierold
231
Summary:
- Only basic information on the GA devices was available at the start of the workshop, like basic
functions, physical, environmental, emotional application etc.
- Then the participants gathered different inspirations and ideas on the possible target groups, possible
collaborators, and application scenarios.
- In a next step, this information was made available the whole group. The task was to combine these
idea snippets to form concrete application scenarios.
- Finally, they thought about the kind of device they themselves would like to benefit from.
- After the brainstorming session, Christofer Hierold explained the technological challenges of the
project.
Results:
Target groups identified included scientists (social scientists, psychotherapists) who would benefit
native,
nonsettled, migratory lifestyles due to the flexibility and autonomy it offers. Concerning application
scenarios, the students were in favour of immediate emergency calls. While augmented safety was one
bonus, a big majority was also interested in behaviour monitoring, expecting positive changes in their
behavioural patterns. A device they personally would like to use included exactly these features.
Women seemed more concerned also with nutritional behaviour and expected better data on their food
intake. Equally, a further data storage possibility seemed attractive. Again, the biggest concerns were
with data security and possible negative implications of permanent traceability.
4.4. Feedback from ethics experts
We gathered feedback to the scenarios from experts of different fields of ethics. The aim of the study
was to identify the most crucial ethical issues related to Guardian Angels technologies. By identifying
those issues early, we can then take them into account in planning the activities of the forthcoming
flagship project. Another aim was to familiarize the tentative members of our Ethics Advisory Board
with Guardian Angels technology and our ideas of usage possibilities.
We asked external experts of different fields of ethics their willingness of joining the forthcoming
Ethical Advisory Board (EAB) of Guardian Angels (GA) project. We also asked the experts to
comment Guardian Angels White paper, which included our scenarios. 13 individuals from 11
different organisations went through the paper and commented the scenarios as well as Guardian
Angels applications in general. They were also asked about their preferences and recommendations of
organising the work of the EAB in the forthcoming GA project.
The task we ask them to do is described below:
We send you our Deliverable 3.1 for feedback:
What are the most critical issues you identify in these scenarios from ethical or social perspective?
2) Do you find some obvious trade-offs/tensions between some groups/stakeholders when utilising
these technologies and can you somehow justify those trade-offs when comparing
opportunities/benefits and threats/ disadvantages in these scenarios from different perspectives
(economical, ecological, social)?
You can assess all the proposed application fields or only those ones that you feel familiar with.
Feedback to Guardian Angels vision
We presented the vision of Guardian Angles as following:
Guardian Angels technology will enable very small size sensor and computing units to monitor the
well-being of us and our environment. The Guardian Angels units will be self-sufficient with energy,
232
and thus suitable for long term use without maintenance. Several usage possibilities are foreseen in
health, well-being, safety, sustainability and empathic user interfaces.
The wide set of scenarios will be used to further refine Guardian Angels vision and to represent it in a
selected set of futuristic, scientifically valid scenarios that have high business potential and significant
societal impacts. The scenarios will be discussed with experts of the selected application fields to
further improve our vision of the future possibilities of Guardian Angels technology. The scenarios
will also be presented to ordinary people to get their feedback and suggestions.
We have classified Guardian Angel sensor systems into three classes:
1. Physical Guardian Angels facilitate long-term monitoring of health parameters to predict and
prevent health problems
2. Environmental Guardian Angels monitor the natural environment, buildings and traffic for
increased safety
3. Emotional Guardian Angels are based on monitoring physical signals but the signals are analysed to
identify human emotions. Emotion monitoring can be utilised in empathic technology.
Trade-offs
The experts were asked about trade-offs/tensions between different groups/stakeholders when utilising
GA technologies. They were also asked if they could somehow justify those trade-offs when
comparing opportunities/benefits and threats/ disadvantages in the scenarios from different
perspectives (economical, ecological, social).
Conclusions
The tentative members of the Guardian Angels Ethical Advisory Board gave us thorough feedback to
the vision of the project and the foreseen application possibilities. In general, from ethical point of
view, the least sensitive solutions are those based on Environmental Guardian Angels and most
sensitive are solutions based on Emotional Guardian Angels. The most obvious issue is privacy as
Guardian Angels will enable continuous monitoring of data. Once data has been generated, issues
related to access rights, protection for misuse and user control of his/her own data are raised. It is
crucial that the user can turn off the monitoring whenever (s)he wants. Regarding health and well-
being applications, an important ethical issue is whether knowledge, e.g. about early symptoms of
diseases really improves the quality of life. People may get addicted to monitoring wellbeing
parameters. Implanted devices are a very sensitive issue. These solutions will require informed
consent and the dignity and autonomy of the user must be protected. It is crucial that the users
themselves are involved in the design of the systems; already in the very initial stages and that the
opinions and concerns of potential users are taken into account. Physical
Guardian Angels can be used to extend human performance above normal. Is that acceptable and in
from learning from the potentially negative effects that failing to control the emotions may have.
Empathic technology can be used in marketing to persuade people and this raises several ethical
concerns. With security systems a common ethical issue is that when security is increased, privacy
and autonomy may be decreased. In security solutions, there are risks that a complex management
tasks are delegated to technology alone.
The ethics experts stressed that there is already a good collection of research, recommendations and
public opinions that could be utilised in ethical assessment. EGE (European Group on Ethics in
Science and New Technologies) has published opinions about implants and ICT in general. (i.e.
Opinion n°20 - 16/03/2005 - Ethical aspects of ICT Implants in the Human Body and Opinion n°26 -
22/02/2012 - Ethics of information and communication technologies). Also research projects have
interesting results that can be applied in this field (ethics of ICT). However as world in general, people
on these issues (i.e. impact on society) in all levels of society.
On project level it means strong emphasis on discussing all these issues and building up tools for
empowering different stakeholders to be involved to this discussion by various means. Governance of
societal issues in this kind of project has to be prioritised but it also needs to be enabled and
233
accomplished through the project and also for the wider audience. Guardian Angels technology and
applications have been introduced in the scenarios in a very positive way and inevitably they have
potential to benefit society also in global level. However, there are lots of threats and weaknesses that
should be taken into account from the very beginning when designing these technologies. The ethics
experts identified numerous issues that should be studied in more details before going to the real-life
experiments: privacy issues of course are the most obvious but also issues related to the autonomy,
user control, freedom, medicalization and human existence were raised up. Some less obvious issues
are also accessibility, affordability and accountability: will these solutions be available for those who
could need them or are these only for elite and who will be responsible if these solutions do not work?
The technology can lead to infantilisation and patronising of people, and medicalization is not always
a good thing. Trade-offs need to be considered in security solutions as security often limits liberty.
Once an information resource exists, there are multiple interest groups that may have interest to
exploit the data. Thus measuring and storing data needs to be assessed in a wide scale. The
descriptions of technologies and their usage in the scenarios were mentioned to be too general. As
technology itself is not bad, good or neutral it has to be studied always in context: same technology
can be used in a good way or in a bad way depending on who is defining good or bad. Different
frameworks are needed to enable assessing the impacts of GAs in different application fields and in
different contexts. More detailed scenarios are needed to study more deeply different perspectives
from various angles: the same application may benefit one person or a group and have negative effects
to the other ones. Besides more detailed scenarios and scenario analysis of course more detailed
experiments and real-life studies should be conducted for same purposes: developers, designers, users
and all the other possible stakeholders should be involved and informed about potential of these
technologies good or bad. Potential users need to be involved in the studies but also technology
developers need to participate in considering ethical application of the new technologies.
5. Conclusions
We have gathered feedback to Guardian Angles scenarios from application field experts, from
consumers and from ethics experts. The application field experts helped us to identify most potential
usage potentials and they also proposed several new application possibilities. The initial feedback
from consumers towards GA technology was very positive. GA technology was seen as an
People could see usage possibilities in their own lives especially for health and well-being
applications as well as in Gas embedded in consumer products. However, concerns were raised
especially regarding access to information, digital division and overall whether the society would be
working better without too much technology, knowledge and measurements. The ethics experts gave
lots of valuable feedback to GA technology in general as well as to the scenarios. The ethics experts
identified numerous issues that should be studied in more details before going to the real-life
experiments: privacy issues of course are the most obvious but also issues related to the autonomy,
user control, freedom, medicalization and human existence were raised up. Some less obvious issues
are also accessibility, affordability and accountability: will these solutions be available for those who
could need them or are these only for elite and who will be responsible if these solutions do not work?
The technology can lead to infantilisation and patronising of people, and medicalization is not always
a good thing. Trade-offs need to be considered in security solutions as security often limits liberty.
Once an information resource exists, there are multiple interest groups that may have interest to
exploit the data. Thus measuring and storing data needs to be assessed in a wide scale.
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235
A MULTIMEDIA LEARNING TOOL TO DEVELOP ETHICAL
AWARENESS
Suzy Jagger
Abstract
nd undertaken this
year (August 2012-August 2013), which involves the design of a pedagogic framework and
accompanying web-based game to support and develop ethical decision-making skills in professional
business and IT contexts. The project involves the creation of scenarios, designed by undergraduate
students on a third year business ethics module, as they identify and evaluate ethical issues from the
perspective of different stakeholders and determine possible outcomes. The scenarios will form the
content for an interactive computer game, which will depict resulting outcomes using animation. The
tool will provide a resource for teaching Business Ethics at undergraduate and postgraduate level, with
capability for continual development. The paper discusses the evolution of online teaching methods
and the increasing relevance of computer games as a teaching tool. It discusses issues in the project
milestones from initiation to final stages and, if available, will include a demonstration of the
prototype.
Keywords
Teaching Ethics, Professional Ethics, Games-based learning, Moral Sensitivity, Online Learning,
Teaching Business Ethics, Business Ethics
1. Introduction
As teachers and lecturers in Higher Education, we will all have noticed that a fundamental shift has
taken place over the last decade in terms of the way students think, interact and communicate. The
computer is no longer seen as just a word processor or number cruncher to help people to improve or
convey their intellect, it is now seen by many as an extension of themselves often of their physical
they look to it when bored, lonely
As
experiences that they hope will change their ways of thinking or will affect their social and emotional
(Turkle, 1995 p.26) - it involves a space
where people explore and tinker to uncover new worlds and possibilities. Young people now develop
their identities from multiple influencers some traditional in the form of family and friends, but
many via navigation through online space.
Whether one considers this social phenomenon a good or a bad thing the fact remains that this
connectedness will continue and become increasingly more pronounced as those born into this new
culture of simulation - those born after 1982 (Dede,
2005) - reach the age of maturity and attend our universities. As educators we have an opportunity to
adapt to this new connected approach and utilise it positively to ensure we remain (or perhaps get) in
touch with our students and their methods for thinking, interacting and learning. For those of us who
are not digital natives this can seem a daunting task requiring us to reflect on the way we teach to
embrace methods of learning, which utilise media more familiar to our students than perhaps to us.
-
effective if used correctly. There is little that could replace the field trip, the guest expert lecturer, the
non-academic text, and the competitive classroom debate to spark interest and curiosity. But it is to
say that developing online methods of teaching at the very least could be an adjunct rather than a
disruption to existing methods to help ensure a more holistic approach in meeting student needs.
236
of social media to
Graduate School of Education discusses the new learning styles of millennial students and reflects that
ct on civilisation of these new
my view is this is indeed occurring in the UK fuelled by economic developments
(ibid p.7).
In his book Grown-Up Digital, Tapscott makes the argument that the net-generation of students are no
longer content to sit back and just listen to a teacher expound on a topic (2009 p.134). Fuelled by their
they reject didactic lectures in which the teacher is represented as the fount of all
knowledge a role now allocated to the Internet - and this has changed the teacher-student dynamic.
Teaching this type of student is less about providing content and more about guiding in ways to
discover for themselves
book, TV programme or lecture note (Dede, 2005 p.7). However access to too much information
carries with it new dangers, which need mediation to ensure students are more equipped to navigate
the resources without experiencing cognitive overload and ineffective use of them. It stands to reason
that technology alone will not bring about quality learning and creative development.
2. Computer Games in Teaching
To accommodate these new learning styles, one area gaining momentum amongst teachers is the use
of computer games to interest and engage students. This development has been encouraged by the
increases seen in the use of computer games in general increases largely fuelled by advances in the
commercial computer game industry such as the rise of the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms and the
development of games on diverse platforms such as online and mobile (Klopfer, Osterweil, & Salen,
2009); and software development which makes it now far easier for anyone to design and build their
own game. Between 2008 and 2011 the number of gamers in the US rose 241% (56 million to 135
million) (Macchiarella, 2012). This new audience provides greater potential for the reach of
educational games as technology expands conceptual possibilities. Computer games are no longer
seen as the domain of geeky teenagers, holed up in their bedrooms and cut off from everyday life and
a
availability and increasingly affordable costs of these new types of games (often free) means they are
now being used across new markets: from small, free applications for all age groups; for schools,
libraries, and museums; to advanced virtual reality packages for business training programmes.
-
user, virtual reality environment. Students are transported back to 19th Century America where they
experience a virtual town and achieve a number of tasks such as taking water samples to examine the
effects on pollution, or measuring population density (Dede, 2005). Other examples include alternate
reality games whereby users take part in both online and real world environments, typically blending
on-line interactive fiction with social networking communities (Brackin, 2000). In fact there is
growing research evidence supporting the use of digital games for learning at all levels (Afari,
Aldridge, Fraser, & Khine, 2013; Annetta, MengTzu Cheng, & Holmes, 2010; Whitton, 2012).
Past and Current research on the pedagogic impact of computer games in education focus on a number
of areas:
Microworlds and simulations use virtual reality to allow users to construct their own realities based on
choices they make and from these choices they gain an understanding of the consequences of different
mental constructs related to past and present experiences and are required to be active participants in
the process. Papert coin
research that children learn better when involved in constructing actual tangible products. His ground-
breaking work utilised ICT in the classroom to teach maths to children using microworlds (Papert,
1991).
Based on his work with children and video games, Gee (2003) identified a number of principles for
good learning which are endemic in good game design which he sorted into three categories: firstly,
237
empowered learners, as they experience the freedom within the structured environment of the game to
make decisions and choose their own paths to follow. Environments in which they are free to fail,
experiment, fashion new identities, and develop their own interpretations, at their own pace. Secondly,
problem solving, where they are presented with tasks in increasing order of complexity, having
completed the previous level, to develop scaffolding that remains within their zone of proximal
development. And thirdly, understanding, as students work within the context of a distinct system
with its own embedded characteristics and values which they are required to utilise as they choose
pathways, in order to achieve the desired objectives. These principles are less likely to be experienced
14). A
number of research studies point to the benefits of blended learning to complement traditional lectures
(Kiili, 2005; Tan, 2007).
The exponential increase in gamers and the dedication and commitment many show in the playing of
games has (1981) work
explores theories of intrinsic motivation within the context of highly motivating games to determine
the characteristics of intrinsically motivated environments. Building on the work of other theorists
(Berlyne, 1965; Bruner, 1965; Csikszentmihalyi, 1979; Moore & Anderson, 1969; Piaget, 1951),
Malone discusses three distinct areas: challenge (which will involve goals of different levels, hidden
information and randomness), fantasy (primarily intrinsic - which can cater to emotional desires and
learning and concludes that all three elements are apparent in well-designed games. His suggested
framework for the development of intrinsically motivated learning environments is a useful
companion when creating educational games.
Related to motivational learning is the importance of affective learning in which the learner
experiences a level of emotional attachment to the subject or task. The importance of the affective in
learning is often underplayed and yet there is evidence to show that when students are stimulated
emotionally, particularly in the teaching of ethics, a higher level of learning takes place (Jagger,
2013). The studies of Bredemeier and Greenblat (1981) show levels of attitudinal change to support
the view that, for certain students, computer game simulations are more effective than traditional
methods in changing attitudes towards the topic and its purpose.
(2005) research with physics students identified the importance of the instructor to ensure
students reflect on what activities are taking place in the game. He noted that some students became
fixated on the score and this had a negative impact on th
engage in reflection of their learning of physics. Experience without reflection is detrimental to
learning.
participants wer -up research
included short explanations embedded into the game (using both text and animation) and this led to an
fact those students who were
given graphical explanations with short text, outperformed those who had received only textual
explanations. He maintains that adding the explanations throughout the simulation helped students to
which the level of complexity progressively increased as students mastered the necessary skills and
that, when a simulation builds progressively in a structured manner, textual explanations no longer
become necessary. Although students showed insecurity in not having the tutorials to guide them,
their test scores showed they had learned just as much as those given the tutorial.
In this work Rieber discusses the importance of structure in game design whilst at the same time
acknowledging that, from a constructivist perspective, a learning environment that is more open with
less direction would lead to more exploratory discovery by the user, and thus would be of greater
benefit. Despite this, he contends that his research pointed very much to the need for a clear structure
in game design and concludes that a balance needs to be found in providing a level of instruction
whilst still ensuring exploration and discovery are key components. Thus the question as to the role of
one would predict a teacher or more capable peer should be able to offer much richer and more
238
meaningful explanations than the few studied in this research. But the point deserves restating that
(p.563).
3. The Project
In response to the changing economic and technological environment brought on by a worldwide
recession Business School academics are rising to the challenge to find ways to teach business ethics
in a way that is effective and engaging (Institute for Global Ethics UK Trust, 2011). With funding
received from the UK Higher Education Academy, the aim of this project is to provide a method for
teaching Business Ethics by utilising technology to engage students with real-life scenarios, presented
in a 3D game. This project represents the first stage a prototype from which further scenarios can be
built. Students were and are involved at every stage from the design of the content, through to the
development of the software, and evaluation of the product. The project is halfway through
completion at the time of writing.
Advocates of educational computer games purport that games help students develop conceptual skills
to explore and think for themselves as they experience through playing out roles within a virtual
identity. An important component in the teaching of ethics is for the student to develop moral
sensitivity a combination of being able to identify an ethical issue, with an understanding of and
in which virtual identities explore and experience the consequences of actions taken. As I watched my
son encounter serious dilemmas which required sound decisions to progress, as he navigated terrain
through immersive power games such as Heavy Rain and Skyrim, it occurred to me that if we could
harness this level of dedication and deep involvement to the task of learning ethics, we may be able to
provide a level of experiential learning only matched by reality itself. This way of engaging students
in a media they understand combined with lecturer instruction and peer discussion of their own
experiences whilst playing the game, could be a motivating, engaging and therefore effective
approach in the teaching of professional ethics.
One method used in teaching business ethics is to develop skills in ethical reasoning whereby students
identify ethical issues associated with specific professional scenarios and weigh the options based on
the perspectives of different stakeholders. The active deliberation around ethical judgements is crucial
to an effective learning process - the idea being that the development of reasoning skills will
ultimately have an impact on the chosen behaviour. The use of moral decision-making exercises is a
rationalist approach, which encourages students to identify relevant ethical issues an important
element of moral sensitivity, which can be a foundation for moral judgment (Jagger, 2011). Utilising
through the game, they are presented with a number of dilemmas based on the story. The story for this
role is as the marketing manager and he/she is presented with a range of options, which require some
ethical decision-making. There are also a number of challenges which get progressively more difficult
as the user makes further progress through the game designed to evoke through a virtual experience,
an understanding of what a real-life ethical dilemma could be like and how different decisions lead to
different outcomes.
1.1 Methodology
The project utilises a design experiment methodology in that it seeks not just to develop a pedagogic
intention of contributing to theory on how to teach Business Ethics effectively. Thus the broader
theoretical goal for this project is to develop a psychological model of the process by which students
develop a deep understanding of ethical issues using virtual reality games within an instructional
framework.
239
The project involves the development of a prototype utilising theoretical principles with an iterative
design process whereby formative feedback received throughout the design phase informs and
contributes to the design and theoretical framework. Utilisation of this methodological approach
should allow for adaptation of the theory to other contexts. The project is seen as a collection of
activities set within the context of an undergraduate Business Ethics module the game being a
component supported by instructor guidance, classroom tasks and peer discussions. Cobb et al refer to
a combination of activities as the learning ecology -
interacting systems rather than as either a collection of activities or a list of separate factors that
(2003 p.9). Thus the computer game is not to be seen as an ethics teaching tool to
be used in isolation from the other activities. The strength of this methodology is the iterative process
which leads to continual improvement as Cobb et al co
methodologies, the theoretical products of design experiments have the potential for rapid pay-off
because they are filtered in advance for instrumental effect. They also speak directly to the types of
problems that practitioners address in the course of their work (Ibid p. 11).
1.2 Current Progress
As mentioned earlier, the project is in the middle of development. A storyline for the game has been
created and developed in collaboration with two student software designers and three experts two
staff members, one involved in research in serious games and game programming; the other
conversant in 3D design environments and myself as designer of the pedagogic content. After
developing the storyline and creating the script, building of the prototype has begun and version 1 will
be presented in June at 2 events: an HEA funded dedicated event at Roehampton and the ETHICOMP
conference in Denmark. From these events feedback and comments will be collected to aid in further
development after which version 2 will be uploaded and presented to the incoming ethics class for
analysis in September. This will involve researchers evaluating patterns of how students think about
ethics and relate their thinking to how this was supported and organised by the teaching intervention.
Research from this session will be used in development of version 3 for upload to the website.
A number of issues have already presented themselves during the design process.
Story Creation
A key requirement and indeed a valuable component of the project was the use of students in the
design and development of the storyline and the software. To facilitate this, for their first assignment,
working in groups, management students in the Business Ethics class were required to write their own
stories about a work-based ethical dilemma either they, or friends/family had experienced.
The task created a lot of discussion amongst them as they shared their experiences with each other
about what dilemmas they thought represented ethical issues. Interestingly, I had thought they would
find this assessment quite simple, as it did not require any deep theoretical expertise but was more a
reflection on practice and yet a number of them were completely thrown by it having had what they
described as little or no experience in writing a story. This was in itself enlightening it concerned me
that teaching using the standard essay and report based on theoretical knowledge as the method for
assessment has resulted in students who are flummoxed when asked to create something original,
from themselves. However, after a great deal of support and encouragement, the resulting stories
proved to be very worthwhile for me as an educator and hopefully worthwhile for students in
developing a personal understanding of ethics formal feedback from them is currently being
analysed. From my perspective, it led to a deeper knowledge about the experiences of these
individuals, and who they are which enabled me to relate more directly to them when discussing
deeper ethical concepts. So although initially an assessment designed to help students develop a
deeper understanding of personal ethics as well as provide content for the game storyline, it had the
added benefit of helping the lecturer gain a deeper appreciation for the experiences of the students.
In terms of the software, the timing of the assessment made it impossible to incorporate one of the
stories into the game and so six of the stories have been included in the website as additional teaching
material for dilemma analysis purposes and future software versions.
240
Technological Issues
The issue of which software to use required more research than initially anticipated. This was because
between the time of writing the funding proposal, and the start of the project (which was only a space
of six months) technology in the design of 3D games had improved considerably and so we changed
the software choice for a new, open source solution. This created an issue for the student developer
who was required to now learn a new software product a steep learning curve. However, due to the
vast improvement in functionality combined with less cost, it was felt the decision to change was
justified.
Re-evaluation of the project timeline was required not just because of the change in software but also
because I was unprepared for the work ethic of many students who leave all to the last minute. In the
future, it will be necessary to allocate specific, detailed milestone deadlines throughout the year to
ensure the project remains on schedule. This is of course a project management issue and has made
me question whether it is feasible to utilise a third year undergraduate for such a task even if it is part
of a dissertation. However it may be just that I misjudged the capabilities of the student to adjust to
new software. In any case, the back-up plan in the form of professional developers will come into
operation if necessary, to ensure the initial prototype deliverable should be available by 1st August.
Due to the iterative nature of the design, further development will be occurring throughout the autumn
term after feedback from the new ethics class.
4. Conclusion
An essential component in the teaching of professional ethics is the development of moral sensitivity.
values. This often requires reflection on what those values are or would be within the context of a
dilemma within the workplace - to see the impacts of decisions they may have to make in the course
of their working life and how those decisions impact on others. We cannot create real-life situations to
develop experiential learning, but we can do the next best thing - we can utilise technology to help
bring about a virtual learning environment using media and interactive elements to challenge, engage
and motivate, where users are free to act, experiment and explore as they choose their own decision
paths and reflect on possible consequences that result from the ethical choices they make. From this
virtual experience, we can create a talking point for class discussions and theoretical analysis. It is
hoped that this prototype is just the beginning in the development of a series of game stories, which
will span different ethical situations and disciplines, as useful components within a broader pedagogic
framework of instruction.
If you are interested in knowing more about this project or wish to be involved in some way, please
contact s.jagger@roehampton.ac.uk
References
Afari, E., Aldridge, J., Fraser, B., & Khine, M. (2013). "Students perceptions of the learning environment and
attitudes in game-based mathematics classrooms". Learning Environments Research, 16(1), 131-150. doi:
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Annetta, L. A., MengTzu Cheng, & Holmes, S. (2010). "Assessing twenty first century skills through a
teacher created video game for high school biology students". Research in Science & Technological Education,
28(2), 101-114.
Berlyne, D. E. (1965). Structure and direction in thinking. New York: Wiley.
Brackin, A. (2000). Tracking the emergent properties of the collaborative online story "Deus City" for testing
the standard model of alternate reality games. Doctorate, University of Texas, Dallas.
Bredemeier, M. E., & Greenblat, C. S. (1981). "The educational effectiveness of simulation games: A synthesis
of findings". Simulation & Gaming, 12(3), 307-332.
Bruner, J. S. (1965). Toward a theory of Instruction. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University
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Cobb, P., Confrey, J., diSessa, A., Lehrer, R., & Schauble, L. (2003). "Design experiments in educational
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Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1979). "Intrinsic rewards and emergent motivation". In M. R. Lepper & D. Greene (Eds.),
The hidden costs of reward. Morristown, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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Macmillan.
Institute for Global Ethics UK Trust. (2011). Promoting Cultures of Integrity: Six Ethical Issues for Business
Education, Windsor Castle. Institute for Global Ethics Research Trust and Institute of Business Ethics,.
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Education, 8.
Jagger, S. (2013). "Affective Learning and the Classroom Debate". Innovations in Education and Teaching
International, 50(1).
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Education, 8, 13-24.
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Openness". The Education Arcade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Creative Commons.
Macchiarella, P. (2012). "Trends in Digital Gaming: Free-to-Play, Social, and Mobile Games". Dallas, Texas.
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Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning: Cambridge University Press.
Tan, K. H. (2007). "Comparing games and case methods in enhancing student learning". International Journal
of Innovation and Learning, 4, 224-236.
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10(2), 249-256.
242
THE ETHICS OF USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN DISCUSSED
BY THE TERMS OF APATHY, SYMPATHY, AND EMPATHY
Thessa Jensen and Peter Vistisen
Abstract
This article is a proposition to discuss user experience design in the light of ethical implications
depending on how the designer regards the user both during the design process and the intended use of
the design once it is finished. There has been a lack of discussions surrounding the ethical dimensions
of creating and maintaining an empathic point-of-view on the users, and the responsibility the
designer thus holds for the users experience with a given system. This article will define the
empathetic dimensions of user experience design by discussing its counterparts: apathy and sympathy,
and the difficulties of avoiding these points-of-views in the user-centred design process. Exemplifying
the differences and ethical implications for the designer in the interaction with the user through the
design of interactive digital systems.
The article does not offer solutions, but poses questions on how ethics, designer, and users can interact
through and influence on the design and the design process, and thus hopes to initiate a discourse in
which the importance of ethical stance the designer takes in the design process is acknowledged.
Keyword
user experience design, design ethics, Løgstrup, empathy, sympathy, apathy
1. The Importance of a Design Ethic
certain paths. Those of us who design such things need to make the best efforts to make sure that those
paths conform to our ethical compass. Of course, that implies that we have to have some sense of what
Design is important especially when digital interactive media are involved. Given the specific nature
Stolterman 2006), and namely its total lack of boundaries and form, but having infinite possibilities of
content, the first aim of the designer is to create the boundaries by defining the design problem, give it
form, and adjust it to fit the intended content. Furthermore, the movement towards a user-centred
and scholars such as Suchman (1987),
Greenbaum & Kyng (1991), and Bannon & Bødker (1989) has emphasised the iterative process, the
dialog with- and observation of the user, and the problem-oriented approach to the design process as a
core aspect of creating the best possible future scenario for the user.
In recent years a lot of design discourse has added the concept of empathy as a central aspect to how
the designers within the user-centred design process established a deep understanding of the users, and
thus informing what the optimal user experience should be (Merholz et al 2008, Kolko 2012). It can
be said that empathy is a core interest for contemporary explorations of user centred design, and
experience design. Yet, few designers stop to discuss what values and ethical demands such an
approach to design entails. As Buxton points out in the above citation, it is most important for the
technology, which
his design as user centred or experience design, he has to choose an ethical approach which enables
him to see the user as the end and not the means of the design and the design process.
In other words, when the designer claims to be user-centred or to be designing the context of the user
experience he also implicitly commits to shape and form certain aspects of the experience for a group
of human beings, and thereby also adopting the responsibility for these experiences, and their
243
task, enhanced by a given design, or it can be a life changing experience, brought about by an all-
encompassing design strategy which catapults the user out of his everyday life (Hassenzahl &
Tractinsky 2006).
Thus, the three main concepts of this problem space are; the designer, the user, and the experience. In
this, the relationship between the user and the designer is the fulcrum of the design process and the
subsequent design. Because of established responsibility for the designer towards how to frame the
experience for the user it follows that taking responsibility involves taking an ethical stance towards
both the user, the experience, and the design itself, since the design will affect the way the user
perceives the world around him.
The common denominator being the relationship between designer and user, we choose to look at the
problem pose
-centred
design concept of empathy, and its counterparts sympathy and apathy.
2. The Ethical Demand
-delivered
directives. His claiming that the directives are radical really makes no difference. Thinking and
imagination become equally superfluous. Everything can be carried out quite mechanically; all that is
needed is a purely technical calculation. There is no trace of the thinking and imagination which are
The Danish theologian and philosopher K. E. Løgstrup developed the idea of an ontology-based ethic
For Løgstrup the starting point of ethics is not universality or laws on morals and ethical behaviour.
His starting point is the specific meeting of two people. This meeting places demands on the two
and a
they will, according to Løgstrup, always be present when two people meet each other. The sovereign
expressions of life can be seen as an undercurrent in the meeting. Even though the life expressions are
present, they will never be met fully. As Løgstrup says:
interest. It says that but nothing more. What this means in a given situation a person must discover for
himself in terms of his own unselfishness and in the light of his own understanding of life. This is why
in the very nature of things it is impossible to obey the radical demand on the basis of motives which
With this Løgstrup emphasises the human being as the fulcrum for our acting. In a design perspective
we could see user needs, scenarios, and user generated design as a way to centre the focus on the
human being. Thus the design becomes either sympathetic or empathic.
determines what is in the best interest o
interaction between the two persons, the actual outcome is by no means given. Løgstrup does not
apply rules, norms, or laws. Yet he explains, why people in general are likely to demand laws, rules,
and norms:
and what we shall refrain from doing. We are usually able to conform to these directives without even
having to consider the other person, much le
As Løgstrup points out the person as such becomes unimportant as soon as rules and laws are applied.
The same can be said of a design process, which solely looks a specifications and requirements made
by the requisition or requirements found by looking at the system instead of the people in it.
244
Socially accepted rules makes living and interacting with people easier. People do not have to think
about what would be in the best interest of the Other, since all they have to do, is follow rules. But
as long as the rules are obeyed.
2.1 The sovereign expressions of life: life manifestations
But what are the expressions of life and when do they become visible? And how do they relate to the
design of user experiences? Løgstrup talks about different expressions and is not always clear on what
is an expression and what is just acting on behalf of the expression. This can be explained by the very
nature of his ethics, not being rule- or norm-based, thus being heavily dependent on actual situations.
These situations are also the basis for user experience design, since the design must focus on the
framing of a given experience for a given user.
Life manifestations can easily be suppressed, but they will then turn into something else. According to
Løgstrup, suppressed life expressions can turn into wants. Hence the ever growing wants of people
can be explained by a society which suppresses life expressions.
In other words, life expressions cannot be created, but they can be nurtured. Life expressions are
underlying every kind of interaction between people, but are only visible when in fact being violated,
negated, or suppressed. Failing to develop life expressions during upbringing may turn the missing
expressions into ever growing wants, as can be seen in western society at the time being (Pahuus
1991).
3. Relationship: Sympathy, Apathy, and Empathy
How can this relationship be expanded to a framework for discussing and elaborating the relationships
between designer and user? We suggest using the following three frameworks presented in the title of
experience with.
In short, we propose the concepts of apathy, sympathy, and empathy within the following definitions:
Apathy is the strict adherence to a system or a procedure.
Sympathy is the reaction to an effect.
Empathy is the reaction to a cause.
3.1 Apathy: system over user
Designs, which puts the system before the user, are often seen in both the development and the final
designs typically conducted by large institutions or governmental organisations.
The design usually takes the system itself into account, while regarding the user as someone who has
to learn how to use it. The needs of the systems are not adapted to the needs of the user, who is viewed
as a part of the system itself.
The user is left to his own devices, and the design does not help the user understand how it works or
what is expected from the user. The user has to adapt to the system and create his own understanding.
are within the boundaries of correct ethical conduct. Following these rules, regardless of the given
situation or the users concerned with the final design product, relieves the designer from any
245
responsibilities for the actual design. The responsibility lies solely on the system itself. In this regard,
the designer takes the ethical stance of apathy (Csikszentmihalyi 1997), were indifference and
suppression of motivation or engagement helps distance the designer from both the stakeholders and
the end-users.
This approach can be problematic since the user would have to adapt to the new design, often
resulting in major changes of the way a situation is perceived.
is historically the one deciding what functions something will have, because they assume the financial
risk of failures (Krippendorf 2005). But a designer is not a mindless agent producing a product from a
blueprint. There may be specifications, but the designer is the one drawing the blueprint. This is where
The client hired the designer because of his
expertise in understanding how a particular medium functions. It is assumed that he has a body of
designer because the client does not have the expertise that the designer does. The client can plead
ignorance but the designer cannot, and the apathetic stance therefore implies that the designer chooses
to adhere to the clients requirements alone, and see the user a component in the systems as a whole.
3.2 Sympathy: giving the user what he wants
A sympathetic approach to design envelops the user and places the design responsibilities on the user.
s sympathetic to his users. In this
sense, sympathy means something akin to pity (Schauer & Merholz 2008). This maintains a distance
between the designer and the user and does not necessitate understanding of the course of the problem
- just the current problem setting. The design tries to take the user needs and demands into account
and forcing the system to yield to the user instead of vice versa.
The designer uses the user demands as his explanation and justification for choices and rejections thus
places success or failure of a given design in the hands of the user.
is, means
sympathetic stance towards design is therefore also to overcome the fallacies of incomplete logic
(Walton 2008) that often arises when not understand
the wants. A contemporary example is the trend of the app-
- like for
example a better restructuring of the existing IT-
3.3 Empathy: giving the user what he needs
An emphatic approach to design puts responsibility for the resulting design in the hands of the
designer himself. He has to take both the system and the user into account when designing. And while
he does listen to the user and does undertake user-centred design, this does not entail that he gives the
user what he wants. Quite contrary, the designer has to make his design decision by looking for the
real problem - not what symptoms the user is pointing out.
This places far more demands on the designer than any of the other approaches, because the designer
compassion, but without naivety. At the same time the designer has to be aware of the demands placed
by the system, in which the design has to work.
The designer has to have a wider understanding of all the involved components of the design, since it
is his responsibility to make the experience work. As the products and services we create become ever
more complex and intertwined, he cannot possibly explore all of the contexts and situations in which
the user may end up in. Even if he could, a catalog of observed behaviours is not sufficient to craft
cohesive and compelling experiences. He needs to develop an intuitive understanding of the
246
motivations behind these behaviours. Having an empathic stance helps the designer grasp the
mechanisms that drive behaviour, as opposed to just the observed external actions.
- not
in interviews or questionnaires, but through observing and interaction. The ethnological approach to
4. Contribution
All three of the above are viable approaches for design. We are not judging whether one approach is
better t
we would like the designer to take deliberate choices, depending on which design stance is the most
appropriate in a given situation and with a given user group. A design process continues in the final
design, thus a user who has been seen as a part of a bigger system will always have to fit into that
system, while a user who has been handled like the end of the design will have a much greater
influence on how the system has to adapt to his needs.
As designers in practice we pick and choose our battles, and throughout our different design processes
a professional identity emerges. How this professional identity emerges is not as much a question of
educational, technical, or economical choices, but rather an ethical issue of approaching design by the
point-of-view we find suitable for our responsibility for the users experience. After all, we are all end-
users of products that someone else is designing.
References
Bannon, L. & Bødker, S. (1989): Beyond the Interface: Encountering Artifacts in Use, Aarhus University Press
Buxton B. (2007). Sketching User Experiences -
Kaufman
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding Flow the psycology of engagement in everyday life, HarperCollins
Publishers Inc.
Greenbaum, J., & Kyng, M. (Eds.) (1991). Design at work: Cooperative design of computer systems, Hillsdale,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hassenzahl M., Tractinsky N. (2006). User experience - a research agenda, Behaviour & Information
Technology Vol. 25, Issue 2 2006
Kolko J. (2012) Thoughts on Interaction Design, Morgan Kaufman
Krippendorf K. (2005). The Semantic Turn - a new foundation for design, Taylor & Francis
Kranzberg, M. (1986). Technology and History: "Kranzberg's Laws", Technology and Culture, Vol. 27, No. 3
Löwgren J., Stolterman E. (2006). Thoughtful Interaction Design, MIT Press
Løgstrup K.E (1997). Den Etiske Fordring, Gyldendal
Paahus M. (1991). Holdning og spontaneitet - pædagogik, menneskesyn og værdier, Kvan
Suchman L. (1987). Plans and situated actions : The Problem of Human-Machine Communication, Cambridge
University Press
Walton, D. (2008). Informal Logic: A Pragmatic Approach, Cambridge University Press.
247
A DISCUSSION OF ETHICS IN WEB BASED KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Jesper Jensen
Abstract
With the advent of the social and the semantic web our options for it- and web-mediated knowledge
management have steadily become more numerous and complex. This paper seeks to present some of
these options and subsequently discuss a number of related ethical questions and potential problems.
The paper argues that companies and organizations must take great care when handling personal
information and information about employee competency, and ensure that individual employees have
extensive control over how, to what extent, and in which contexts such information is presented. The
paper also argues that any use of semantically related representations of knowledge should be handled
in such a way that individual employees are not dependent on semantic-web-savvy experts, but
instead are given the necessary tools that can allow them to create and relate knowledge resources in
ways that reflect their own understanding of the topic at hand.
Keywords
Knowledge management, privacy, the semantic web.
1. Introduction
In this interdisciplinary paper I will initially be presenting a short overview of the potential of web
based knowledge management, and in particular, how semantic web technology can be used to
enhance the accessibility of knowledge resources and people in possession of knowledge. The main
objective of this paper is then to discuss and draw attention to a number of ethical issues in web based
knowledge management. As the ethical implications of web based knowledge management are many
and varied, I do not intend to cover the full pallet of issues, but instead choose to focus my attention
on issues related to personal privacy. As such, I present some initial thoughts on the importance of
privacy, and then move on to discuss privacy in relation to some of the new possibilities that are
brought into the realm of knowledge management by the semantic web. In addition, I will also discuss
some privacy related issues in web based knowledge management connected to competency mapping.
2. Knowledge management and the semantic web
Knowledge has, for some time now, been an increasingly important competitive factor for many
companies, especially in the western part of the world. As such it seems only natural that companies
seek new ways to develop, preserve, and share the knowledge of its employees within the company.
Another predominant reason to consider knowledge management solutions is the increased
geographical distance between company departments and employees.
With the emergence and constant development of the many different kinds of web based technologies,
it becomes increasingly enticing to look to the web for new possibilities regarding knowledge
management. Later generations of web technology allow for more advanced ways to share, combine
and use data and information on the web. With web 3.0 technologies such as microformats, microdata,
Linked Data standards and ontologies we can even give a computer some form of relational
understanding of our data and information, which can facilitate faster, more effective, and more
advanced searches as well as other automated tasks. Benefits such as these can prove quite helpful in a
knowledge management context since finding relevant data, information, and knowledge can be a
major challenge, especially in more expansive knowledge management systems (Bäck et al., 2003,
p.270). But how well does knowledge, in its many forms, translate to the web? In the remainder of this
section, I shall discuss how well certain web technologies can be used to facilitate such a translation of
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knowledge. In the sections that follow, I will be discussing some of the ethical implications related to
this process of translation of knowledge in web based knowledge management.
Knowledge cannot simply be defined exclusively as propositional knowledge i.e. symbolic
representations (Wackerhausen, 1999, p.222). Some forms of knowledge are difficult, if not
impossible, to transform directly into propositional knowledge in the shape of words and numbers.
Tacit knowledge comes to mind, as does some of the hidden participatory elements of practice and
communities of practice. Thus, knowledge is not always something tangible or easily described
(Polanyi, 1966, p.25). The way we perceive the knowledge and skills we possess, in relation to the
things we do and the context in which we do them, as well as the way said knowledge is continuously
shaped in and by the social practices we are part of (Wenger, 1998; Wenger 2004), is something that
might prove too complex and intangible to formalize in such a way that it can be represented in a
knowledge management system or any other propositional representation. If one cannot exhaustively
describe certain tacit parts of participation and interaction processes, how then will we formalize these
aspects of our knowledge and input them in a propositional knowledge representation?
One could argue however, that some web 2.0 technologies, such as the wiki, might have some
potential when it comes to such seemingly problematic it-mediated representations of the hidden
processes or tacit elements of practice (Tazzoli et al. 2004, p.6). The reasoning behind this claim lies,
at least partially, in the collaborative nature of web 2.0 technologies. Creating a web-mediated
community or community of practice by using a wiki, could arguably allow not only the creation and
constant modification of reificatory propositional knowledge representations, but also, at least to some
extent, enable social participation in the practice that unfolds itself in the discussion area of the wiki.
Companies and organizations might have a strong interest in finding ways to formalize the knowledge
of their employees, partly in an effort to keep this knowledge from leaving when an employee either
finds new work or retires. And while this pursuit seems logical, though potentially difficult, it also
raises a number of ethical questions that should not blindly be disregarded.
Over the course of the following sections of this paper I intend to direct my focus at identifying and
discussing some of the ethical repercussions of web based knowledge management related to personal
privacy. For instance, how does an attempt at formalizing the knowledge of an employee, and
subsequently making it visible to co-workers and management, influence the individual employee?
What are the ethical implications of such an increased level of visibility and transparency?
Consequently, I intend to address the issue of whether or not such a desire to formalize, manage, and
display knowledge across an organization or company risks causing altered employee behaviour,
dishonesty, fear of losing face etc., potentially due to a feeling of being monitored.
Another potential ethical issue warranting further study, concerns a possible shift in or loss of control
of one's own knowledge. This becomes painstakingly apparent when considering the potential of using
semantic web 3.0 technologies as an interlinking component in a web-mediated knowledge
management system. The use of such technologies could possibly facilitate meaningful linking and
interweaving of individual knowledge representations and web-mediated communities of practice.
However, since the use of semantic mark-up and the like are often handled by a limited number of
experts, the semantic models of knowledge that are created risk being nothing more than an imitation
representation of knowledge that the employee has no direct ownership or control of? These are
among the questions I wish to take a closer look at over the cause of this paper. Before I get to that
however, I will start by presenting some views on why personal privacy is so important to us, as these
considerations will act as a foundation for the discussion that follows.
3. The importance of privacy
Privacy as a concept is complex, and is often viewed and defined in varying ways, whether it be
through the use of a spatial metaphor or through an understanding of privacy as a quantitative
substance that can be diminished or eroded (Tavani, 2008, p.130). As a result, views on privacy often
take into account key important elements such as non-intrusion, non-interference, and informational
privacy. James Moor encapsulates these elements of privacy in his definition of privacy as an
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expression of the core value of security. In this conceptual framework, privacy is not considered an
intrinsic value in and of itself, but rather as a necessary condition for our ability to fulfil our need for
security. According to Moor, privacy is essential because "Individuals and societies that are not secure
do not flourish and do not exist for long." (Moor, 1997, p.32).
Privacy also appears to be closely connected to our social life and the social relationships we are a part
of. Furthermore it often seems as if we have a sense of privacy that gives us an intuitive feeling of
what is my own business (Rachels, 1975), and therefore "Simply knowing that someone knows
personal information about you can feel invasive or violating." (Hartman, 2001, p.10). According to
Rachels, privacy is important to us because it is "[...] necessary if we are to maintain the variety of
social relationships with other people that we want to have [...]" (Rachels, 1975, p.326). Social
relationships are defined by the different patterns of behaviour we choose to exercise in them. And
should our ability to freely decide with whom, and to what extent, we wish to share information about
ourselves be partially or fully taken away from us, we would also lose our ability to engage in social
relationships in the way we want to. Thus, Rachels states that "[...] if we are to be able to control the
relationships that we have with other people, we must have control over who has access to us."
(Rachels, 1975, p.331). This alone, is according to Rachels "[...] one of the most important reasons
why we value privacy." (Rachels, 1975, p.329).
As already mentioned, the exact nature of privacy is difficult to define, and the views on privacy are
many. "Some argue that privacy can be reduced to other concepts such as property or liberty; some
argue that privacy is something in its own right and that it is intrinsically valuable; yet others argue
that while not intrinsically valuable, privacy is instrumental to other things that we value deeply
friendship, intimacy, and democracy." (Johnson, 2004, p70). While it is possible that privacy should
not necessarily be considered an intrinsic value in and of itself, there is little doubt, that even as an
instrumental value or as a necessary condition for security, autonomy, intimacy or meaningful social
relations and friendship, privacy is a key ethical issue that should always be taken into account
because "[...] failure to protect privacy may lead to an inability to protect personal freedom and
autonomy." (Hartman, 2001, p18).
For these reasons, and others still, privacy has often been a topic for research in relation to human-
computer interaction and information technology overall. In what follows I will be discussing a
number of potential ethical problems in relation to the issue of privacy in web-mediated knowledge
management.
4. The issue of privacy in web based knowledge management
Previously I described how the use of semantic web technology can facilitate deeper and more
advanced interconnectedness between different knowledge representations and the people responsible
for their creation. Similarly such technology allows for new ways of creating more accessible profiles
of employee competencies. While such initiatives might create a foundation for more efficient ways of
sharing information and spreading knowledge within an organisation, there are a number of serious
ethical implications related to privacy that should not be overlooked.
4.1 Respecting individual autonomy when interlinking information and knowledge
resources
As mentioned earlier, structuring and describing information resources and semantic data with
semantic mark-up and in complex information architectures, is most often handled by information
architects who are experts in the use of semantic web 3.0 technology and in structuring and
categorising information and data in semantically meaningful ways. Though information architects
typically make extensive use of experts in the given field of expertise for advice on how the
information and data in question should be viewed, there is still a considerable possibility that the
final information- or knowledge-representation will be more or less influenced and characterized by
the information architects' understanding of the subject. As such there is a substantial risk that
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semantic representations like these will not fully represent the understanding of the person who is
responsible for the given resource and the one who actually possesses the knowledge in question.
For these exact reasons, the use of semantic representations of information- and knowledge-resources
intended for web based knowledge sharing and knowledge creation, and handled by third-party
experts, can be rather problematic from an ethical point of view. By limiting an individual's ability to
control how the knowledge representations she has created are represented in relation to other
resources in an overarching knowledge management system, we risk limiting her autonomy, and
thereby limiting her ability to freely shape and define how she views and understands herself in
relation to the many different social contexts and practices she is a part of.
As stated in my introductory thoughts on the subject of web based knowledge management, it seems
unlikely that the use of semantic web technology alone is enough to create a working foundation for
sharing and developing knowledge on the web. Key aspects of social web technology are essential in
order to facilitate the social interaction and relations that are essential to human learning.
in ways that allows individual holders of knowledge to create and semantically represent and relate
information- and knowledge-resources on their own and by their own initiative. If we intend to utilize
the remarkable and considerable possibilities of the semantic web in a knowledge management
perspective, while still respecting personal autonomy, it would be worth investigating the possibility
of developing tools that could empower individuals and communities of practice within the
workplace, by allowing them to seamlessly create semantically related representations of information-
and knowledge-resources, without needing to possess the expert-knowledge of an information
architect.
4.2 The issue of privacy in regard to competency mapping
Thus far I have primarily directed my attention towards aspects of knowledge management that
involve attempts at creating semantically related web based representations of knowledge. Now
however, I intend to make a slight shift in focus, as I take a look at some of the ethical issues related to
a more traditional form of knowledge management. The type of knowledge management in question
could be broadly described as competency mapping. Through this approach to knowledge
management companies and organisations attempt to document and highlight the competencies of
individual employees. Regardless of whether such measures of competency mapping take place as an
integrated part of a larger and more comprehensive semantic knowledge management system, or
exists as a self-contained system exclusively designed for handling employee competency profiles, it
raises several interesting and significant ethical questions, which I would like to draw some attention
to.
One of the main objectives of competency mapping and other similar forms of competency-focused
knowledge management is typically to create an overview of, and give insight into, which
competencies are available within a company or organisation and, more specifically, where they are
located. Knowledge of employee competencies can facilitate more efficient use of resources, and can
provide a more informed basis for putting together working groups. Furthermore, a deeper and more
detailed understanding of employee competencies can be useful when determining how to invest in
training and skill development. On a different note, detailed competency profiles can also be used
during wage negotiations or even as grounds for dismissal.
Another main objective of competency mapping is to facilitate easier access to employees in
possession of relevant knowledge. As such, competency profiles can also be considered a tool for
employees to use when searching for someone to learn certain skills from, or for someone to help with
a specific task. In this light it seems relevant to touch on the use of personal information in relation to
employee profiling. The relevance of personal information in relation to knowledge management in
general can certainly be questioned. It does however, become a little less surprising that certain
personal information might be of relevance when we also look at knowledge management, and
competency mapping in particular, as a way of highlighting employee competencies and facilitating
access to people. For instance, if an organisation is profiling or mapping employee competencies, it
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could be relevant to include information about previous jobs and educational history. Information like
this could help create a clearer picture of how the individual employee has gained some of his or her
competencies. Presenting information about the fact that an employee has spent several years working
in another line of business could easily be beneficial, as it might make other employees aware of an
otherwise hidden resource of experience and knowledge. The use of personality tests, such as Belbin
tests (see: www.belbin.com), that seek to identify personality traits and raise self-awareness, and then
use this information to increase effectiveness and develop high-performing teams, is another good
example of how personal information can appear in relation to knowledge management.
While making personal information and information about the competencies of individual employees
easily accessible and visible to employers and co-workers may facilitate faster and easier access to
relevant knowledge and people in possession of knowledge, it can also create a work environment that
encourages employees to be more focused on performance and self-promotion rather than actual
mastery of their given field of expertise. Furthermore, such extensive visibility and transparency
might also be perceived by employees as a form of monitoring. This could have a number of negative
repercussions, ranging from strategies of avoidance, where employees simply stop using the
knowledge management system, for instance because they have noticed that their co-workers are no
longer keeping competency profiles up-to-date, to adapted behaviour, where we no longer see "[...]
show." (Peissl, 2003, p.22). Thus we risk mainstreaming employee behaviour and potentially causing
a substantial loss of spontaneity and creativity. This issue of "mainstreaming" is also applicable in
relation to personality and competency templates that are updated either automatically or by a
knowledge management coordinator, because employees are aware of what is being noticed, and thus
might be inclined to act accordingly.
In continuation of this point of performance versus mastery, I would also like to draw attention to
another issue that has to do with how systems for competency mapping can potentially act as negative
limiters in relation to the individual employees' ability to freely and autonomously decide with whom
they wish to share their personal information. By gathering personal information and information
about employee competencies and subsequently making this information visible to employers and/or
other co-workers, it could easily be argued that we are creating a form of directly or indirectly forced
self-disclosure , potentially placing the individual employee in a highly uncomfortable dilemma.
Employees might then be faced with having to choose either to truthfully disclose information about
competencies or lack thereof, notwithstanding how they feel about doing so, or alternatively feel
forced into either withholding information or even lying about their competencies in order not to lose
face or because of fear of being sacked.
It is a core part of being human, that we live in a sort of mutual self-surrender. This self-surrender is
not to be understood as disclosing every part of your being to the world and the people surrounding
you. Instead it is a fundamental and vital expression of life based on trust, and expressed through a
dynamic of mutual baring and response (Løgstrup, 1956). Arguably it should follow, that it is of
equally vital importance, that the individual should have a basic right to decide when and how such
self-surrender takes place, no matter its shape or form. Also, considering Rachels's points regarding
the necessity of privacy in connection with our ability to form social relationships, the potential
dangers of competency mapping are underlined even further. I would argue that if a company or an
organisation wishes to gather and use personal information and information about the competencies of
employees, great effort should be made to take the individual employees' rights to freely control
personal information into consideration. Laura P. Hartman proposes an outline for a compromise that
meets both the employer's need for information about employee competencies and the employees'
need for informational autonomy. Hartman suggests the use of a "[...] monitoring program that is
developed according to and guided by the mission of the firm, [...] [and] implemented in a manner that
is accountable to the employees [...]" (Hartman, 2001, p.22). Hartman indicates that the needs of
employees and their right to autonomy can be accommodated by giving employees access to the
gathered personal information and rights to edit and keep it up to date at any time. Additionally
Hartman suggests that any sort of monitoring should be designed for and directed at personal skill-
development, rather than for identifying and revealing unwanted behaviour or mistakes (Hartman,
2001, p22). Even though Hartman's suggestions are not specifically targeted at knowledge
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management or even competency mapping, but instead act as a general outline for handling personal
information of any kind within a workplace, they still seem highly relevant from a knowledge
management perspective and might provide us with a more ethical approach to web based knowledge
management.
5. Concluding remarks
With the use of semantic web technology as a way of organising and visualising information- and
knowledge-resources, the possibility of sharing information and knowledge within companies and
organisations via the web becomes an increasingly attractive option. The prospect of being in
possession of a semantically interlinked web of information resources, knowledge representations, and
employee competency and personality profiles promises new and useful ways of providing employees
easier access to information and knowledge that is relevant to any specific task at hand. But while the
advantages seem quite apparent, there are also issues that should be considered when employing web
based knowledge management. This paper has sought to draw attention to the importance of
respecting individual employees' rights to freely and autonomously control how personal information,
competency profiles, and knowledge-resources are presented within such a semantically interlinked
knowledge management system. Subsequently this paper also suggests that tools, which allow
employees to manage how personal information and knowledge resources are semantically linked to
other resources, should be designed and developed so that they limit the influence information
architects have on how resources and the relations between resources are represented. In addition, it is
suggested that employees should be given extensive editing rights in regard to all representations of
their personal information in order to preserve individual autonomy.
References
Bäck, A. et al. (2003), Semantic Web Technologies in Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the 7th
international ICCC/IFIP conference on electronic publishing, elpub 2003. Guimares, PT, 25 - 27 June 2003.
Universidade do Minho. Guimaraes, Portugal (2003), 268-277.
Belbin, M. (2012), online at http://www.belbin.com/ accessed 18.03.2013.
Hartman, L. P. (2001), Technology and Ethics: Privacy in the Workplace, Business and Society Review, Vol.
106, Issue 1, 1-27.
Johnson, D. G. (2004), Computer Ethics, The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and
Information, Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Løgstrup, K. E. (1956), Den etiske fordring, Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag A.S., Copenhagen.
Moor, J. H. (1997), Towards a Theory of Privacy in the Information Age, Computers and Society, Vol. 27, Issue
3, 27-32.
Peissl, W. (2003), Surveillance and Security: A Dodgy Relationship, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis
Management, Vol. 11, Issue 1, 19-24.
Polanyi, M. (1966), The Tacit Dimension, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Rachels, J. (1975), Why Privacy is Important, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 4, No. 4, 323-333.
Tavani, H. (2008), Ethics & Technology ethical issues in an age of information and communication
technology, John Wiley & Sons, inc.
Tazzoli, R. et al. (2004), Towards a Semantic Wiki Wiki Web, 3rd International Semantic Web Conference
(ISWC2004), 7-11 November 2004, Hiroshima, Japan.
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praksis, edited by Klaus Nielsen and Steinar Kvale, Hans Rietzels Forlag.
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communities of practice, Ivey Business Journal, January/February 2004.
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CURBING THE RHETORIC: HOW WEB 2.0 FURTHER
OBFUSCATES THE LEGAL LIMITS OF PROHIBITED
SPEECH
Ville Kainu and Toni Värttö
Abstract
Criminal law is
means that a citizen will need to critically assess their actions and consider whether there is a need for
them to change their patterns of activity lest they risk criminal culpability.
Web 2.0, user generated content, and social networking sites are changing the way citizens interact.
Much that was previously private has been made public, but not by the citizens themselves. Our
patterns of thinking have not kept up, and consequently our behavioural patterns may put us at risk of
criminal culpability.
On the other hand, protection of minorities is not only a legitimate goal of the law, but a critically
important safeguard if our societies are to be ethical. This paper takes a look at how using social
networking sites puts ordinary citizens at risk of committing a hate speech crime, what the legal
interests and constructs in Finnish hate speech crime criminalizations are, and whether the legislation
meets requirements of ethicality and clarity.
The conclusions are that a lack of clear definitions and the highly abstract legal interests mean that
citizens are put to risk of criminal culpability for acts that have little, if any, causal links to actual
harm, even in the form of being emotionally offended. Furthermore, the citizen is very unlikely to be
able to evaluate the legality of their acts beforehand.
Keywords
Hate speech criminalization, freedom of speech, Rawls, Duff, culpability, Habermas
1. Introduction
Free speech is not absolute: public utterances are subject to criminalizations. Recent changes in
communications technology have granted citizens and would-be politicians access to a much wider
audience than before. As such, the opportunity to commit a hate speech crime has never been as
readily available as today. The central issues in this paper are: what are the legal interests protected by
or a good law?
This paper will first take a look at Rawlsian protection of minorities, Habermasian deliberative
process and a third alternative, a development on evidence-based policy presented by Kainu and
Koskinen (Kainu and Koskinen, 2012).
This paper then goes briefly over recent research papers indicating that communication on social
networking sites tends to disengage our critical thinking.
This analysis brings to fore the need to develop a deeper understanding of the workings and
rationalizations of hate speech criminalizations. This paper attempts to detail Finnish hate speech
criminalization via a model derived from Melander and Duff.
In conclusion, this paper argues that given the difficulties in even being aware of how public a social
networking site is, the extreme complexity of hate speech criminalizations, it is practically impossible
for a citizen to evaluate the legal consequences of their actions. Such a state is both ethically
problematic and impractical.
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2. Being human, rational discourse and criminalizations
2.1 Habermas and Rawls
While any act passed by the Parliament is law, something more could be demanded of legislation. We
could demand, e.g., that the law should aim to maximize the utility to society, or that the law should
seek to better the lot of those least well off. Kainu and Koskinen formulate a model, based on
is concept, ethics can inform us of a desirable state towards which the society ought to be
steered. Second, wide range of expertise, is to be employed to engineer a law that, according to our
best knowledge, should have the least negative consequences while being effective in attaining the
desirable goal. Third, after the law is implemented, social sciences must then be employed so that we
know how the society has changed and why. Finally, ethics must then be applied again to evaluate the
consequences as a and Koskinen, 2012)
It is not clear that Habermasian rational discourse can ever be realized when it comes to discussions
regarding criminal law, as Habermas states that a necessary condition for rational discourse is that all
those who would be subject to the legislation are given an opportunity to participate in the rational
deliberative process that precedes legislation. (Habermas 1996) Marxist sociology, e.g., gives rise to a
credible doubt that such a deliberation will to take place. While the Kainu and Koskinen model may
not be as inclusive as the more theoretical veil of ignorance and rational discourse models are, it has
the benefit of being actionable. Sometimes and in this paper henceforth, a similar approach is called
evidence-based policy.
Rawls
It could be argued that following Rawlsian thinking to its logical conclusion would lead to a society
where any expression that offends someone would be prohibited. Since the veil of ignorance prevents
us from knowing whether we would be part of the disadvantaged, it would be to our advantage to
others more highly than being safe from verbal attacks).
From a Rawlsian point of departure, affording minorities special protection is not only grounded, but
necessary. (Kymlicka, 1992). However, minority protection taken to an extreme disregards the value
of free speech. A society without free speech is a dystopia made famous in fiction. Clearly, we cannot
accept such an extreme policy implementation.
Habermas
Habermasian rational discourse would seem to lead to similar conclusion by different arguments.
What would be the rational argument for allowing expressions that vilify the least well off? Would the
marginalization of disadvantaged groups and the subsequent erosion of social capital be offset by the
utility of less restricted public discourse?
While the empirical question must remain unsettled, it is not impossible that policies a and b, the
salient difference of which is the level of protection from spirited public discourse, have equal
aggregate utility after the policy has been in place for some time, if the repression of public discourse
leads to less optimal policies in other policy sectors. Thus, Habermasian rational discourse would
seem to direct us to weigh the costs and benefits and rationally choose a level of protection. However,
actual policy setting does not exclude strategic games nor is the public discourse conducted in such a
way that all legal subjects are able to understand and take part in it.
Conclusions for criminalization
While Rawlsian thinking, taken to an unrealistic extreme, offers a clear policy recommendation, the
recommendation must be rejected due to the value of free speech. Habermasian rational discourse
would allow citizens to select an optimal level of free speech among themselves, but rational
discourse itself is nigh impossible to bring about.
Having shown that the ethical background is not clear cut, this paper will next take a look at human
neurology, the Internet and how neurology affects justifiability of punishment.
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2.2 Human neurology and Web 2.0
Criminal law works on the presupposition of compatibilism. That is, criminal law works on the
supposition that we have a degree of free will and that there is simultaneously some determinism at
work in the functioning of human mind. This could be called the common sense view of human
agency. (Greene and Cohen, 2011).
The use of social networking sites is linked with a trait called low need for cognition. (Zhong, Hardin
and Sun, 2011) This, taken with the fact that humans in general have an aversion for using the critical
thought processes (Vihriälä, 2012) seems to point at a conclusion that human beings are not very
likely to operate with much critical thought and self-reflection on social networking sites.
These sites are created to foster social interaction much like meeting with a friend in person. However,
disclosure of very private information is more likely to happen on a social networking site than in a
face-to-face interaction. (Nosko, Wood and Molema, 2010). Taken with the above, it seems plausible
that when a person uses a social networking site, they are not well placed to realize that what they do
happens in public as far as culpability is concerned.
This is not as problematic for culpability for acts such as hacking, file sharing, identity theft, etc. as it
is for culpability for crimes without clear victims, such as utterances classified as hate speech.
2.3 Synthesis
While Rawlsian thinking would seem to, prima facie, require that the minorities are protected against
hate speech to the ultimate, in the light of the previous chapter on the working of human
consciousness whilst engaged with social networking sites we can posit another desirable state.
Namely, since we are likely to end up in the majority, we would probably want to avoid a state of
legislation where we could never disengage our critical faculties lest we face criminal punishment.
Habermasian thinking would seem to lend itself quite naturally to consequentialist thinking with the
caveat that minorities ought to be protected to some empirically grounded extent.
As positive retributivism requires that the action is a wrong against universe per se, (Mackie, 2011)
the fact that human beings have difficulty perceiving the moral wrongness of an action would seem to
rule out positive retributivism as grounds for punishment in the crimes under discussion. Thus we
must turn to consequentialism and keep in mind the ethical problems with justifying violence
rendered on a person on grounds of the common good to justify punishing those engaging in
prohibited speech on social networking sites. Harsh punishments for that which is not readily
perceived as a grave offence obviously erode the legitimacy of the legal system, which is not a
generally desirable consequence. This paper will next take a look at weighing the goals of protecting
minorities and free speech.
3. How Web 2.0 makes “hate speech” criminalizations problematic
3.1. Starting point and background
Social networking sites have made certain crimes in Finland more likely to happen. Considering the
previous chapters, these specific crimes should also be evaluated from the perspective of the
these criminalizations, at least supposedly, protect? How can the defendant understand the equivalent
causal connection between his/her action and the harm or the risk of that harm that is (supposedly)
likely inflicted upon the protected interests?
Additionally, according to Finnish Criminal Law (39/1889) and Finnish case law there are also several
factors t
elements of the pertinent crimes might also give rise to problems in this context. Is it reasonable to
expect that the defendant, who is almost certainly a layman, is capable of performing valid rational
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decision making based on everything that is essential considering the criminal liability while operating
in Web 2.0?
In this section, the theoretical basis is the harm principle. It is not the purpose of this article to
participate in the discussion on the validity of legal moralism or the harm principle or finding any
harm principle in some of its forms Duff 2007, and Duff & co 2010).
Nevertheless, the less the criminalization matches the criteria of the harm principle (any of its forms),
the more difficult it is for the defendant to notice the seriousness of his/her act. Thus, even if the
defendant understands the moral wrongfulness (an argument for a subjectivist position can also be
made) of his/her action, he/she may have major difficulties understanding the facts that may lead
him/her being criminally liable for something. The defendant might just think that his/her act is mostly
distasteful.
accurately in the type of which are realized through verbal expressions (in the Web 2.0). In this article
the criminal of
3.2. “Hate speech crimes”: Essential elements and objects of legal interest.
Essential elements and systematic view
According to the Finnish criminal code:
1) A person who publicly blasphemes against God or, for the purpose of offending, publicly defames
or desecrates what is otherwise held to be sacred by church or religious community, as referred to in
the Act on the Freedom of Religion shall be sentenced for a breach of the sanctity of religion.
[Emphasis here] Finnish Criminal Law, Chapter 17, Section 10, paragraph (1)
2) A person who spreads statements or other information among the public where a certain national,
ethnic, racial or religious group or a comparable population group is threatened, defamed or insulted
shall be sentenced for ethnic agitation. [Emphasis here] Finnish Criminal Law, Chapter 11, Section
10
The reason that these criminal offences are more likely to be committed on social networking sites is
that in both criminal offences the condition for punishability is that the expression is made in public.
The structure of the essential elements, as well as certain concepts in the criminal offence of breach
of the sanctity of religion is strongly subject to interpretation. First we have to notice that the
criminal offence has two separate modus operandi
explicit requirement of i
requirement of intention (mens rea) at all.
According to Duff, endangerment offences can be categorized in to the groups of consummate v
nonconsummate and explicit v implicit. Endangerment offences are consummate if their commission
requires actualization of the relevant risk, and nonconsummate
(Duff, 2005). As we can see from the essential elements of the pertinent crimes, the commission of the
crime doe is offended, or that there even is a risk of anyone being
offended.
hypothetically be offended, is even aware of the existence of such expression. Therefore, they are
nonconsummate endangerment offences. It could be argued that the commission is actually an attack.
But then it should be possible to find a direct causal connection between the act and the protected
interest, and this paper will later consider that issue. Duff also states that an endangerment offence is
implicit explicit if it does. Thus, logically the
crime is implicit in its systematic nature.
257
From the defen
liability compared to an endangerment offence that is consummate and explicit in its systematic
nature. The act itself, immediately, fulfils the requirement of actus reus.
The requirement of mens rea is also problematic. First of all, the first modus operandi (blasphemy
against a god considering the fact, that there are no preparatory works as a source of law to help in
interpretation of the essential elements, this cr
even require any kind of mens rea. Therefore, the commission of blasphemy against a god could, in
theory, happen even were the defendant unaware of the fact that he/she has committed it.
consider amusing, but which, is interpreted by some standards, as a blasphemy against a god.
Adopting a secularist position regarding justifications for criminalizations, it is unreasonable that
he/she could, even in theory, be held criminally liable for a crime such as this paper discusses that
he/she is not even aware of committing. Therefore, this modus operandi is a pure malum prohibitum.
(For more on mala prohibitum, see Husak in Duff and Green, 2005.)
The other, second, modus operandi is more complex. At first glance it seems that there is a clear
requirement of mens rea. But how is it possible, in practice, to show proof of intention if the act takes
place in Web 2.0? According to Finnish Supreme Court, the offending nature of the expression is a
clear implication of the offending intention of the expression. The Supreme Court reasons that
because the defendant could have made his statement without the offending nature in the text, the
offending nature was intentionally in the expression. (Finnish Supreme Court decision 2012:58,
statements of reasoning, paragraph 23) Thus, failure to discern the offending nature becomes intent to
offend.
Therefore, because the offending intention is derived from the offending nature of the expression, it is
quite difficult for the defendant to deny the offending intention. Of course it is context based, but this
vague legal situation causes uncertainty. It is difficult to evaluate what is appropriate and what is
forbidden e.g. in political discourse.
There are also several concepts in the second modus operandi which are open for interpretation. For
which clarify these concepts. (Unfortunately it is not possible to clarify these concepts in this article.
For more, see Finnish Government proposal 6/1997 5/7, preamble specific to section 10)
Nevertheless, it is clear that these concepts are vague and unclear, even though the preparatory works
give some guidelines.
In the offence of ethnic agitation, the same systematic notions apply as in breach of the sanctity of
religion. Thus, ethnic agitation is nonconsummate and implicit endangerment offence.
The requirement of mens rea is slightly different in ethnic agitation compared to the second modus
operandi of the breach of the sanctity of religion. Intention to threaten, defame or insult is not the
requirement of criminal liability. However, it is not either pure malum prohibitum offence. The
to threaten, defame or insult. The defendant must be aware of the threatening, defaming or insulting
nature of the statement or information. (Finnish Government proposal 317/2010, preamble specific to
section 10)
This kind of mens rea is problematic. Consider someone sharing, on a social networking site, a biting
joke in which a member of said or comparable groups is insulted or defamed, without intending to
defame or to insult. Usually in those kinds of jokes some kind of insulting or defaming impression is
built-in, so that it even is recognized as a joke. We have to ask whether it is a matter of criminal law to
prohibit pure jokes, even if they are distasteful. Or is it reasonable at all to hold anyone criminally
responsible for sharing something that is not intended to be negative but can be interpreted as negative
according to some standards?
leave room for interpretation. Defining these terms is outside the scope of this paper. (For more, see
Finnish Government proposal 317/2010, section 10)
258
Objects of legal protection
If we neglect the pure form of legal moralism, we have to be able to detect the protected interests,
because otherwise it is impossible to evaluate, even hypothetical, causal connection between the
action and the harm or the risk of harm brought to the protected interests.
According to the preparatory works the interests that are protected by the offence of breach of
sanctity of religion
right of the freedom of religion and freedom of worship in the society in general. Explicitly is stated
even more prone to critic) (Finnish Government proposal 6/1997 5/7, preamble specific to section 10)
How does this offence harm these protected interests? Or are those protected interest at all in a need of
protection? What exactly are religious feelings
ese need protection as well? Protecting some general feelings is
taking a step towards legal moralism, which should be avoided.
It is hard to argue how, in practice, some offending expressions could restrict the possibilities of
anyone to exercise his/her religion. Even if someone is offended, and even emotionally hurt, it is
unclear how this restricts his freedom of religion? Though, it can be argued that if person experiences
that he is offended through his religion, it could reduce his willingness to exercise his religion. On the
perspective of pluralistic and open political discourse if the expressions should be forbidden just
because someone could hurt th
Most importantly, is it reasonable to predict that the defendant understands that, when he/she is about
to perform an act that might fulfill the requirements of criminal liability, she/he is, in fact and at least
hypothetically, a
In the preparatory works of ethnic agitation there is also a discussion about the protected interests
considering this offence. The main function of this offence is to protect minority groups. To be more
specific, the human value of the population of minority groups. (Finnish Government proposal
317/2010, preamble specific to section 10) Duff states that this kind of criminalization can be
grounded on the recognition of the symbolic importance of assured citizenship for groups which are in
various ways vulnerable.
We can accept the view that it is acceptable to protect minority groups from hatred and violence.
fficiently direct impact
or even makes them more pr
gh to protect
the interests?
3.3 Weight of freedom of speech and defendant’s role to criminal liability
The fundamental rights collision that arises from these offences is between freedom of speech (It is
not possible to deal all the elements of freedom of speech in this article) and freedom of
religion/human value and minority groups.
speech in this context?
In Finnish Case law the importance of certain fundamental right is measured case-specific. It is a
Viljanen 2001 and Virolainen & Martikainen 2010) The importance of freedom of speech is at its
highest in political discourse. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for the defendant to perform that kind
259
Finnish Supreme Court stated in a specific case that the defendant was a municipal mandate. And
actual political debate, (
but in his blog, the issues were part of his political agenda. This
fact had to be taken in to account. (Finnish Supreme Court decision 2012:58, statements of rationale,
paragraph 16)
It is not clear how much the Finnish Supreme Court gave weight to the fact that the defendant was
understood to be a political actor. It is a legitimate interpretation that the Finnish Supreme Court made
of speech.
This raises many questions. E.g. who is considered as a political actor? Is it only political mandates?
have any political position or even interest in politics in general, but wants to participate in the
political debate causally. Does he have less protection in the perspective of freedom of speech? Thus,
the defendant must also take into account the role and position that he currently is, to be able to
evaluate his criminal liability.
3.4. Duff and responsibility as a relation
Duff perceives the responsibility as a relation. For example a defendant is (criminally) responsible as
Y for X to A. (Duff, 2007). In this context this means that the defendant has to be aware of all these
facts to understand his criminal liability.
The factor Y in this context means that the defendant must be aware of his position as a political actor
or just as a regular citizen. Factor X means that the defendant must understand the nature of his action.
Factor A is unclear, because in this context it means that the defendant is responsible either to the
is quite an abstract entity after all. Alternatively, the defendant is responsible to the individuals whose
protected interests are harmed or at least in a risk of being harmed. In the latter case the factor X is
closely related to the factor A. As it has been argued, it is neither easy for the defendant to perceive
the factor A even if it is an individual human being.
4. Conclusions
The problems with both Rawlsian and Habermasian models mean that neither can be applied in real-
world legislative process. The limits of free speech or, conversely, the limits of hate speech need to be
set via evidence-based policy, possibly using the Kainu-Koskinen process.
As research literature shows, the users of social networking sites tend to not be preselected for
preference to engage in deep reflection and using social networking sites tends to put one into a state
of deep personal interaction with others, which, obviously, is not in general linked to acting in public
sphere but private sphere.
r research. It is,
however, obvious that while the commendable and ethically justified goal of protecting the minorities
has been taken seriously, the citizen is not well placed to evaluate the legality of their actions on social
networking sites.
An effort to clarify legislation would benefit both the protection of minorities and citizens belonging
to the majorities. All the models for good legislation used in this paper would seem to agree that this is
a good thing.
References
Cohen, J. E. (2008). Privacy, Visibility, Transpareucy [sic], and Exposure. University of Chicago Law Review
75(1).
District Court of Helsinki 09/8225
Duff, R. A. & Green, S. (eds.) (2005). Defining Crimes: Essays on the Special Part of the Criminal Law, Oxford
University Press.
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Duff, R. A. (2007). Answering for Crime: Responsibility and Liability in the Criminal Law, Hart Publishing.
Finnish Criminal Law (39/1889) 19.12.1889.
Finnish Supreme Court KKO 2012:58
Green, J. and Cohen, J. (2011). For the Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing and Everything. In Why Punish?
How Much? Oxford University Press.
Habermas, J. (1996). Between Facts and Norms. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kainu V & Koskinen J. (2012). Between public and personal information not prohibited, therefore permitted?
5th International Conference on Information Law (ICIL) 2012 "Equity, Integrity & Beauty in Information Law
& Ethics".
Kymlicka, W. (1992). The Rights of Minority Cultures. Political Theory, Vol. 20 No. 1, 140146.
Mackie, J. L. (2011) Morality and the Retributive Emotions. In Why Punish? How Much? Oxford University
Press.
Melander S. (2008). Kriminalisointiteoria Rangaistavaksi säätämisen oikeudelliset rajoitukset, Vammalan
kirjapaino Oy.
Nosko, A., Wood, E., and Molema, S. (2010). All about me: Disclosure in online social networking profiles: the
case of FACEBOOK. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(3), 406418.
Tala, J. (2005). Lakien laadinta ja vaikutukset, Edita.
Venice Commission Report AD (2008) 026
Viljanen, Veli-Pekka (2001). Perusoikeuksien rajoitusedellytykset, WSOY
lakitieto.
Virolainen, Jyrki Martikainen Petri (2010). Tuomion perusteleminen, Talentum.
Vihriälä, H. (2012). Tahallisuuden näyttäminen, Faculty of Law of University of Helsinki.
Zhong, B., Hardin, M. and Sun, T. (2011), Less effortful thinking leads to more social networking? The
associations between the use of social network sites and personality traits, Computers in Human Behavior, 27,
12651271.
261
DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION OF IT
PROFESSIONALS – ENGAGING IT STUDENTS IN THE
PRACTICE OF IT PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
Terence N Keefe and Lynn Cinderey
Abstract
This paper describes the approaches taken to teach IT Professionalism and Professional Ethics to IT
students in Sheffield Hallam University. The aim is to help students develop their awareness of the
issues around professionalism in IT to the point where it becomes one of their career considerations.
We describe how we have worked with three different year groups, basing teaching on IT ethical
issues as the core engagement tool. We describe some of the teaching techniques and support tools,
and conclude by identifying areas of practice which may be of value to other teachers.
Keywords
Professionalism. Ethics. Values. IT. Teaching.
1. Introduction
The "possibilities of ethical ICT" are likely to remain possibilities rather than realities unless those
entering the IT industry do so with some level of commitment to the value and desirability of IT
Professional Ethics, and more generally, professionalism in IT. In this paper we discuss how we are
responding to the challenge of instilling within our students awareness of, and commitment to, IT
Professional Ethics. The paper will describe the development, practice and outcomes of teaching,
learning and assessment activities focused upon building IT students' commitment to a professional
ethos in terms of their future behaviour, personal development and working practices.
1.1 Background
Students entering a Higher Education institution intent on destinations in Medicine, Law, Teaching or
any other recognised profession will understand that in doing so they are making a commitment to a
set of professional standards, codes of practice and ethics. This is not the case in Information
Technology. It is notable that leading writers (Adams, 2008) (Johnson, 2009) (Quinn, 2011) focus
their discussions on explaining and justifying the case for professional status rather than treating it as a
basic, established fact. Our experience with new IT students is that their understanding of a future in
IT is focused on technologies, skills and employability, but rarely upon notions of professionalism or
ethical behaviour.
Information Technology, in the eyes of those seeking to build careers in it, has a degree of fame, if not
infamy, about it. It has legends and famous personalities. IT personalities are seen more as role
models of entrepreneurial achievements rather than models of professionalism. It is these IT
celebrities who create perceptions among the next generation of IT workers of what will be expected
of them and what life working in the industry will be like. Innovative technologies, varied jobs, and
being part of a fast moving, global industry are all features which make IT such an attractive and
exciting career aim, but these come with other less desirable and potentially damaging features such as
a lack of accountability for product quality, and acceptance of irresponsible, unethical and even illegal
behaviour as a norm.
The challenge then for those engaged in the process of preparing new entrants to IT is twofold: first to
build their awareness and understanding of IT Professionalism and Professional Ethics; and secondly
to encourage the transference of that understanding to their perceptions of how they will work and
what will be expected of them in their future IT careers. In short, the aim of the teacher and lecturer is
262
to foster in IT students commitment to careers which adhere to the codes of practice, standards and
behaviours appropriate to an IT Professional.
1.2 Teaching IT Professional Ethics
In Sheffield Hallam University the teaching of Professionalism has two features. It is distributed
across all IT courses, the aim being to achieve a level of integration where "Information Technology"
and "Professional" are seen as parts of the same package. Secondly, Professionalism is linked closely
and consistently with employability, the message being that professional behaviour and standards are
supportive of successful career building.
In this paper we will focus in detail on what could be seen as the first, and possibly the most important
element of responding to this challenge, that is to generate a realisation among Information
Technology students that Professionalism and Professional Ethics are concepts which have a direct
and immediate relevance to them. While the supporting literature is excellent, it naturally tends to use
as its examples headline cases which are either extreme situations or which relate to the decision
making of those leading the global giants of the industry. Our experience is that the study of this
material is very effective in creating awareness, along with opinions and indignation, but it tends to
reinforce a perception that IT Professional Ethics do not have a direct impact on the behaviour of the
ordinary IT worker. The approach developed in a number of our Professional modules is aimed at
making the issues real and immediate to each student.
The approaches and methods used differ depending on the level and makeup of the student target
group, though the objectives are the same. Post-graduate classes contain students from a wide range of
countries and cultures, and there are usually a significant number with IT industry work experience.
For Final year Undergraduate students thoughts about careers and work in the IT industry will be
growing in importance as they enter the employment market and many will have completed a
placement year as well, whereas new entrant students will typically not have thought beyond the
technology they expect to encounter in their learning.
2. The Case Study
In this paper we describe how activities such as role play and formal debates are used in conjunction
with analytical framework tools to focus student reflection and understanding on what Professional
Ethics means to them individually, and the impact it has on their career decisions and future working
life. Two analytical framework tools have proved to be effective in helping students relate concepts of
Professionalism and Professional Ethics to their personal career planning. One helps students explore
the role of personal and professional values in their career planning. The other examines the wider
impact of Information Technology using the four SLEP modalities (Social, Legal, Ethical and
Professional). The rationale, content and use of both frameworks will be described in detail.
2.1 Year 1 - Revealing the norms of first year IT students with respect to IT
Professionalism and Ethics
The first challenge for staff at SHU is to introduce and investigate the idea of professionalism with
first year students studying a range of IT related courses as part of the Professionalism and
Communication module. This section describes how a newly devised framework was trialled with first
year student teams in this module.
Small student teams of around 4 or 5 members were asked to investigate and report on an IT related
issue and to consider the social, legal, ethical and professional aspects of their chosen subject. This
task required the development of a number of skills including searching, filtering and evaluating the
quality of information from a variety of sources, and synthesising and presenting the outcome of the
investigation. Along with tutorials to instruct in the use of search and information evaluation tools we
needed to provide a tool to help students investigate their chosen topic from different perspectives and
from the social, legal, ethical and professional viewpoints in particular. The tool/framework (Tables 1
263
& 2) (Keefe, 2012) was developed and used with two general computing tutorial groups over a
number of tutorial sessions. In the first session the use of the framework was modelled by the tutor
and the question under investigation was;
The framework requires students to first of all identify any stakeholders that could be affected by this
question. The students were then asked to comment on any issues, positive or negative with respect to
a given IT issue, from the point of view of these stakeholders and to categorise them as social or legal
issues. Other strands of the framework would lead towards the identification of appropriate
professionals associated with the issue and gradually towards the development of an ethical stance.
During the first session the students worked initially in their teams to identify stakeholders, which
were recorded onto a master copy of the framework. The teams then discussed the various possible
viewpoints, which were captured during a round robin and recorded on the grid. The framework was
projected and the tutor recorded the issues raised by the students as positive or negative along with the
final framework was very similar to a tutor populated grid based on published research on peer to peer
users' ethical stance (Shang, 2008) and conceptions of Napster (Spitz & Hunter, 2003) which was
shown to the students at the end of the first session.
During the following weeks the teams ran a shortened version of the first session for their particular
issue under discussion and with help from the tutor followed the process modelled in the first session.
Due to time restrictions, the students focussed on collecting the social and legal issues for multiple
stakeholders. Teams would be responsible for generating the professional and ethical standpoints to be
presented in their assignment.
Results
There were two interesting outcomes from the tutor led session. The first was that with respect to the
question;
Students who expressed an opinion about the ethics of the statement were generally in agreement with
the idea that peer to peer sharing was a good thing despite having identified copyright infringement as
illegal. Students who had voiced an ethical viewpoint appeared to align themselves with the peer to
peer users, and indeed many of them were currently peer to peer users. Typical comments included
e benefits to be gained from sharing than abiding by
simplistic world view in ethical terms despite having the cognitive ability to identify multiple different
viewpoints.
-position scheme of intellectual and ethical development in which each stage
represented a different set of assumptions about knowledge and values. He begins with a very
simplistic world-view in stage 1, in which everything tends to be polarised in terms of we-right-good
against others-wrong-(Lochrie, 1989)
The second interesting outcome was that first year students were able to generate the different
stakeholder positions and viewpoints, but they had difficulty in identifying IT workers, in this case
peer to peer application developers, as professionals relevant to the scenario, and tended to identify
the record companies and recording artists as the only workers to be classed as Professionals. This
difficulty in identifying IT workers as professionals relevant to the issue was also apparent when the
students conducted the same exercise on their chosen issue in the following tutorial sessions.
2.2 Final Year – Preparing to work as an IT Professional
The original work to develop the SLEP Analytical Framework took place over the two years
preceding its application to the Year 1 classes described above. It was conducted simultaneously with
similar work with Postgraduate cohorts.
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Teaching of IT Professionalism had been unpopular with students. The module aim was to develop
students who generally struggled to understand what it was trying to achieve. The module focused on
the process of creating an academic standard discussion paper for an assignment, but with little
development of the content and issues. Students were asked to conduct their research and analysis
away from the class. In 2010 a new teaching team restructured and refocused the content.
For the Final Year classes, comprising around 120 students each year, the learning process was
essentially delivered in two parts, the first of which was part of the employability awareness teaching.
The learning objective for this element of the module was to enhance students' career decision making
ability by encouraging them to focus on their aspirations, competences and values. The first two
clearly support job-seeking activities. The third acknowledges the importance of personal values in
developing career decision criteria. Using a simple assessment instrument based upon the work of
Lovell and Fisher (Fisher & Lovell, 2009) we asked the students to consider what aspects of working
and employment were important to them in deciding what careers and jobs they wanted to pursue, or
to avoid. The ? He Values reflective tool was first used in the context of IT Professionalism with
Postgraduate students who responded well to it, as described in the next section.
The Values assessment provided a reference point to the second part of the module which addressed
Professional Ethics. The changes introduced were designed to generate engagement in the issues by
making the analysis of issues a class activity and by focussing on issues which the students perceived
as being of interest and relevance to their lives and career situation. The purpose in changing the
teaching methods and learning content was to re-connect students with the module aim of building
Information Technology professional, with the hope that this would lead to personal commitment.
For the class exercise the discussion focused upon an IT related current news item. We found that the
important criteria for selecting a subject was that it was something about which the students would
have an opinion. Initially debate was unstructured and views expressed were one sided and narrow in
focus. The use of the SLEP analytical tool encouraged students to take a holistic view of the issue, to
explore the range of opinions, and to consider the implications for those working in the IT industry,
that is, for IT Professionals. The results were consistently successful. There was a clear progression in
thinking and understanding evident during these class sessions. For example; one popular discussion
(Hudson, 2011), an item specifically chosen for its potential generational bias scope for polarised
views. The flow of this and other classroom discussions typically went through four phases:
Initial reaction - expression of personal views, often in defensive or emotional terms;
Analysis - using the SLEP process to take a more holistic view by identifying stakeholders and
defining their concerns;
Critical exploration - moving into a more objective understanding of different viewpoints and
appreciation of concerns;
Discussion of responsibilities - an unexpectedly successful conclusion in which students discussed the
role and contribution of IT practitioners to the issue in question.
At the end of the module each student produced a written paper analysing and discussing an IT related
issue of their choice. For the teaching team this was a particularly rewarding exercise as students
consistently exceeded expectations both in terms of commitment to the work, and quality of the end
product. Many students went beyond the class content into the philosophical aspects, relating
viewpoints to utilitarian and Kantian perspectives for example. In module feedback many students
welcomed the opportunity to discuss issues they felt important.
Further developments (Final Year continued - ethics in strategic analysis?)
Recently the SLEP Analytical tool has been introduced to a Final Year Class studying Business and IS
Strategy, the aim being to demonstrate it as a useful technique for strategy analysis, but also as part of
the process of embedding the teaching of IT Professional Ethics in to mainstream IT teaching. To
demonstrate how the process works the contents of the analysis are contained in the tables below. The
265
Table 1: First Phase Stakeholder perspective
Stakeholder
Concern
Issue
General Public
Misuse of personal data
Low public trust in IT
IT Student
Not a meaningful status
No professional recognition
IT Practitioner
Competing with unqualified
jobseekers
Career opportunities and
progression
IT User
Reliant on unreliable IT
No controls over IT industry
Table 2: Second Phase SLEP Analysis
Issue
Social
Low public trust in IT,
Society reliant on uncontrolled IT providers
Legal
Data Protection and other IT laws unclear and
often flouted.
Ethical
Abuse of trust and specialist knowledge
Customer users not always respected
Professional
No formal recognition of IT status
Low motivation to embrace professional standards
Third Phase – Discussion and conclusions
Although this session was essentially a demonstration, the short discussion which followed indicated
that the students had recognised some of the issues as being relevant to them. They pointed out that
professional status was meaningless without some form of regulatory authority. They recognised why
there should be public distrust in IT and that it related to day to day contacts between IT practitioners
and the public, not just those corporate failings usually highlighted as case studies.
2.3 Post-graduate
The majority of postgraduate students at Sheffield Hallam, as with most UK universities, come from
overseas, many with extensive work experience, though many are also fresh from the undergraduate
studies. The aim of the module is to develop understanding of IT professional practice and skills. The
focus is on professionalism and the ethos of the module is to deliver it in a way which reflects practice
in the workplace. Consequently it is delivered as a block week long training course, and includes
examples of developmental activities frequently experienced during in-work training, but not the norm
in academic teaching.
As with the undergraduate students the approach was based upon students reflecting upon their own
attitudes and values in the context of ethical and behavioural responsibilities expected of an IT
Professional. Two very different approaches have proved consistently successful over the last three
years and 6 occasions that this module has run. The first has been a formal debate aimed like the Final
Year exercise described above at getting students to identify and consider different perspectives on an
IT ethical issue. The second was intended to help students to recognise a personal relationship
between their career aspirations and the professional issues discussed during class. Students were
asked to create a role play or other performance which would demonstrate an aspect of IT Professional
behaviour in practice. To emphasise the human nature of the subject the event had to be entirely
analogue. These performance events have been successful on two levels. First they have clearly
demonstrated that students had developed a level of empathy between themselves as IT Professionals
and their imaginary clients or members of the public. Secondly the level of engagement to the learning
process has been extraordinarily high, particularly bearing in mind the wide range of cultures and
nationalities represented in these classes. The lesson might be that to teach concepts as intangible as
ethics and professionalism it might be valuable to introduce some fun into the process as we have had
presentations which have included drama, mime, song, dance, and one delivered in full Bollywood
style.
266
Student reflection and feedback has again been positive. Statements like “I could not see the point of
this module when I started, but now I think it is one of the most important modules of the course
not uncommon. The assessment work submitted after the teaching event indicates a high level of
understanding of the learning content, and possibly more importantly, its relationship to future career
paths and professional behaviour.
3. Observations and Conclusions
eration of IT Professionals engaging IT students in
three different year groups with the aim of identifying where we may have been successful in
instilling within our IT students a sense of professionalism and professional ethics to go alongside the
knowledge, skills and expertise on which they will build their careers. Most of this examination is a
reflective account rather than a report of research, but nonetheless we feel our observations and
suggestions are valid and, we hope, helpful.
For education colleagues challenged with the task of adding IT Professionalism and Ethics to the
career toolkit IT students take away with them into the IT industry, and indeed into the world at large,
our reflection points to a number of practices you might consider including in your teaching.
First, a participative approach built around discussion of issues to which the students relate creates
interest in the deeper concepts. It was notable that the Final Year groups, having engaged in topics
which they felt were relevant to them, and then moved on the study some of the case studies which
they had originally seen as remote and irrelevant.
Second, an analytical framework was valuable on two levels: first, as a classroom demonstrator;
second, as a model of the logical flow of thinking along which students could progress.
something which could backfire if mistimed or done at the wrong pace, as had been the case at
Sheffield Hallam. However, we felt there were positive indicators among both the undergraduate final
year students and the postgraduates that they were including thoughts about values and professional
ethics in their career thinking. Arguably they were already doing this at a subconscious level and it
may be that our contribution was to help them articulate their thinking.
In his recent paper on Philosophy in the Workplace Professor Mark Addis discusses the value of
philosophical disciplines and thinking to those in traditionally non-philosophical occupations, for
example construction (Addis, 2013). While we have not gone as far as to specifically introduce
philosophy into our teaching of Information Technology subjects, we have adopted a similar approach
for teaching students about professionalism and professional ethics. That is we have attempted to
demonstrate that there is a positive value in understanding the relationship between concepts, ethics
and professionalism in this case, and occupational behaviour. In examining the teaching of IT
Professional Ethics at three levels of study, First Year, Final Year and Postgraduate, we have observed
indications of learning and progression from a state of unawareness, through recognition,
understanding, engagement and, we believe, to a point where the issue of commitment is
acknowledged. We hope this will lead to actual commitment to the principles and disciplines
associated with IT Professional Ethics as careers are developed.
References
Adams, A. A., 2008. Pandora's Box. s.l.:Wiley.
Addis, M., 2013. Philosophy in the Workplace. Philosophy Now, March.
Fisher, C. & Lovell, A., 2009. Business Ethics and Values. 3rd ed. s.l.:Prentice Hall.
Hudson, A., 2011. BBC News - Why do people play music in public through a phone. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13749313
[Accessed November 2011].
Johnson, D. G., 2009. Computer Ethics. 4th ed. s.l.:Pearson.
Keefe, T. N., 2012. Professional Ethics Analytical Framework. Sheffield: s.n.
Lochrie, J. S., 1989. Perry revisitedA fresh look at Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the
college years.. Studies in higher education, 14(3), pp. 347-350.
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Quinn, M. J., 2011. Ethics for the Information Age. 4th ed. s.l.:Pearson.
Shang, R.-A., 2008. Ethical decisions About Sharing Music Files in the P2P Environment. Journal of Business
Ethics, pp. 349-365.
Spitz, D. & Hunter, S., 2003. The Social Construction of Napster.. MIT Sloan School of Management, MIT
Sloan No. 4445(03).
Tavani, H. T., 2011. Ethics and Technology. 3rd ed. s.l.:Wiley.
268
RETHINKING EDUCATION: STEM BECOMES A STEAM
PROJECT
Shalini Kesar
Abstract
This paper describes an on--of-
Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics movement championed by Elementary School is the
first of its kind within its district. The school is located in a rural and geographically isolated
community in the United States.
Keywords
STEM, STEAM, Computer related activities, Elementary School.
1. Introduction
Recognizing the importance of adding the element of arts and creativity into Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum is now gaining importance in schools. This is based
on two claims. First, it is believed that arts as a subject is perceived and known to use different tools
when dealing with the world than what of science and engineering. Hence, STEM with arts can
actually provide a useful tool to make the engineered world or object more appealing and thus
acceptable and useful to people. The second claim is based on the limitations of scientific research,
ly selective STEM specialty schools encourage their
students to pursue the arts, be that poetry, music, theatre, or any other aspect of it. Both claims have
led researchers to attribute to the shrinking pipeline of STEM field, particularly computer science in
girls. Some efforts is under way, including some at the National Academies, that mean to explore
whether education can benefit, just as research already does, when the four are somehow linked with
arts. Consequently STEM acronym has now moved to STEAM.
Effort towards STEAM movement championed by North Elementary (NE) School is the first of its
kind within its district. It is, located in a rural and geographically isolated community in the United
States. NE has transformed school policy to place art plus design at the center of STEM; encourage
the integration of Art plus Design at elementary level education; and influence teachers (with the
support from university faculty) and guide teachers to drive innovation. The researcher of this paper is
the faculty of the university where STEAM partnership with NE was recently established. To further
-of-
2012. The intent of this STEAM project as an -of-hands-on/minds-on activities.
This formed a starting point in creating a learning environment that helps in formulating computing
problems in a way that enable and integrate arts and creativity to use a computer and other tools when
solving these problems. Consequently, this will allow students, particularly girls, to engage in and
enhancing computer science skills.
Against this backdrop, this paper describes an on-going project designed and implemented by the
-of-
it will help in creating an environment where students can engage and observe the ways that artistic
perspectives and computer activities/ concepts are intrinsically related. The paper is divided into four
sections. After a brief introduction in section 1, the paper discusses the emerging themes from various
studies in section 2. This is followed by the details of the on-going research project in section 3. This
is then, followed by conclusion in section 4.
269
2. Main Emerging Themes
In the context of focus of this paper, three main emerging themes in the current literature studies are
discussed below.
One, researchers argue that there is a need for recruitment of computer professionals. Ladner and
Vandegrift (2011), for example, in the special issue of ACM Transactions on Computing Education
(TOCE), pointed out that there is a critical need for more computer professionals because the
computing field is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy in the United States and world-
wide. Hence, this problem needs to be tackled at school and university level. This is because current
statistics indicate that the shortfall will pose a problem for the future if the numbers stated by National
Center for Women in Information Technology (2007) are correct. They indicate that by 2018 there
will be 1.4 million CS specialist job openings and if this problem is not addressed, then universities
will have only generated graduates to occupy 1/3 of these openings. Hence, it can bring an under-
production of the CS work-force and also longstanding under-representation of many segments of the
population that include gender and ethnicity (Abbiss, 2008).
Two, not only there is a shortage, the disparity between the number of females and males in the field
is large. Literature also shows a pool of studies highlighting different viewpoints on women in
computing and the shrinking pipeline (for example, see Kekelis et al., 2005; Klawe et al., 2009). The
2000 ACM SIGCSE Bulletin-Women and Computing published articles where researchers echoed the
importance of increasing minorities and under-representative groups in CS (NSF, 2004, 2007). They
argue that increasing the participation by more than half the population currently represented by these
groups is vital to the growth and sustainability of the field (also see, Alper, 1993; Camp, 1997, 1999).
In sum, the CS workforce is crucial to the United States innovation capacity and global
competiveness. Yet, women and minorities are vastly underrepresented in the CS jobs.
Three, shortage of CS skills has led researches to echo the belief that art is the key to building a strong
economy. In other words, art and design are poised to transform our economy in the 21st century like
science and technology did in the last century. Therefore, it is significant to integrate art and design
into STEM. Hence, it has been argued that innovation and elements of art is still seems tightly
coupled with STEM (the acronym STEM needs to become STEAM
1
the 21st century actually apply to a larger, broader segment of the workforce than STEM skills. For
example, the Conference Board and Americans for the Arts, in association with the American
Association of School Administrators (AASA), conducted a survey of executives and school
demonstrated that more and more companies are looking for skill sets in their new employees that are
much more arts/creativity-related than just science/math-related. Companies want workers who can
brainstorm, computing problem-solve skills, collaborate creatively and contribute/communicate new
hard look at the steps required to revise curricula and restructure training programs to develop
More recently, on February 6, 2013, Congresswoman Bonamici
2
and others voiced their opinion on
the importance of STEAM education before a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Science,
Space and Technology. Witnesses at the hearing, entitled "American Competitiveness: The Role of
Research and Development," included Richard Templeton, President and CEO, Texas Instruments;
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and, Dr. Charles Vest, President,
National Academy of Engineering.
This pathway, is believed to, increase the USA economy competitiveness. Many examples reflect the
importance of the STEAM movement. For example, The national network for Sciences, Engineering,
1
For example, http://stemtosteam.org/
2
See video coverage http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GU425V3NSkE
270
Arts, a& Design (SEAD)
3
, headed by Carol LaFayette, associate professor of visualization at Texas
A&M, is advancing the STEM to STEAM movement by adding art and design components into
teaching and learning. Further,
Engineering, Arts and Design has gained an international groundswell of interest and enthusiastic
support for creative, innovative research and practice through exchanges across traditional
how it can be nurtured. Contributors include educators, researchers, artists, scientists, engineers,
Indeed arts are seen as providing a significant contribution to creativity and cultural development In
their study of nineteen international schools, Sharp and Le Métais (Sharp and Le Métais, 2000), point
out that many educational systems are exploring the extent to which they need to: develop a clear
rationale for education in creativity, cultural education and the arts; find effective ways to embed these
educational aims within the curriculum and its delivery; monitor how well the aims are being
delivered; identify and act upon the factors that facilitate/impede their realization.
There is no doubt there are challenges in adding arts and creativity to science education curriculum.
The challenges mentioned in the international study mentioned earlier are also similar on arts
education in science. Interestingly, some of the main emerging themes reveled in this study are no
diffe
challenges include where there is a:
A recognition that creativity is important, and that its development should be encouraged in
schools;
A realization that cultural education is an essential component in helping pupils feel included
and valued;
An acknowledgement of the key role of the arts in the curriculum in developing creativity as
well as cultural understanding;
A concern about how to organize and manage the arts in the context of the demands of the
whole curriculum, including the necessary emphasis on literacy and numeracy;
A need to find effective ways of raising the profile and status of the arts in education.
In general, studies show a new recognition of the key role of creativity in contributing to economic
competitiveness. Many countries facing cultural pressures as a result of globalization are accepting
that cultural education is important to preserve diversity and promote inter-cultural understanding.
3. Hands-on/Minds-on Computer Club
Elementary School (ES) began its journey as a STEAM/Partnership school in August of 2012.With
support from its neighboring local university. The school aims to offer an enriched, integrated
curriculum that focuses on science. Language arts, technology, engineering, fine art, and math skills
will be used as tools to teach science in a way that encourages inquiry, communication, collaboration,
discovery, and enthusiasm for learning.
Taking examples from leaders such as the president of the Rhode Island School of Design
4
spearheading this movement, ES aims to move the same direction. In general, the objectives of the
STEAM movement
5
are to:
3
See http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/ also see white paper http://seadnetwork.wordpress.com/white-paper-
abstracts/final-white-papers/
4
Also see, http://www.artofsciencelearning.org/index.php and
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/08/john-maeda-steam.html
5
See http://stemtosteam.org/
271
Transform research policy to place Art + Design at the center of STEM;
Encourage integration of Art + Design in K20 education;
Influence employers to hire artists and designers to drive innovation.
-of-
part of the STEAM movement. This a
rich research base by combining the existing related literature with the findings of the pilot study; 2)
Provide opportunities with in CS education incorporating arts and creativity to motivate and engage a
diverse group of students; 3) Create an interest from under-representative groups, specifically
Hispanic, Native Paiute, and young women to engage in hands-on/minds-on activities, which allows
them the ability to engage in computational critical thinking. This in turn, will provide them
opportunities to communicate and work with others to achieve a common goal. Also, the findings of
this study would help to develop or modify existing inter-disciplinary curriculum and pedagogy at ES,
which would give students a well-rounded base of knowledge that prepares them for the future.
The researcher facilitated a weekly computer club as part of the after school activity at the elementary
school. This school is unique as it is the only school in the district that has pushed towards the
STEAM effort. This school has made an effort to add creativity and arts into their science curriculum.
With this in mind, the Hands-on/Minds-on Computer Club aims to address by reaching out to students
who are female, diverse in ethnic backgrounds and from disadvantaged homes, and offering them fun
and creative ways to learn about hardware and software.
In 2012, six weekly sessions (starting October 10th) were conducted for an hour and half. Student
audience included third to fifth grade. Initially, five students enrolled that increased to eleven. The
success of first program has led to an enrolment of 19 students in the February 2013 program. The
club aimed to engage students, particularly girls and minority groups who otherwise may appear to be
out of the computer science radar. Hands-on/minds-on computer related activities were designed to be
fun, creative and engaging. It is hoped that, that, in turn, will contribute towards creating interest and
increase participation & self-confidence for young students in the field of computer science (Alper,
1993; Pearl et al., 1990). This is significant, as it has been argued that it is the best way to create
awareness and raise a curiosity within young students enabling them to pursue areas of study within
the field of computer science in the future. Interestingly, students who enrolled in the club later
admitted they were hesitant to join the computer club because they perceived it would boring and
difficult. However, after hearing from their friends in class how much they learnt in a fun and
enjoyable environment, they decided to join this after school activity.
Based on the goals of Elementary School, the underlying research questions around both current and
future project designs is:
-
on/minds-on computer related activities? What could be improved?
To what extent does exposure to the most up-to-date technologies and technological tools
contri
pursuing a career in computer science field?
How can we best disseminate this important information to the appropriate public elementary
schools or/and school district?
Overall hands-on/minds-on activities focused on:
Exploring inside a computer and then researching the computer hardware chosen;
Creating a poster using Pages software;
Using iMovies to create a movie where students describe their findings;
Using different tools (e.g. NBC learn) to find interesting videos about computer hardware;
Using gmail and google docs to write reflection papers.
responsibilities included:
272
Developing and editing videos of students using programs such as iMovies and Vegas Movie
Studio;
Creating guidelines using software (iWorks) to teach elementary students how to effectively
create posters using Apple Pages and Keynotes;
Researching the hardware components that are put inside of a computer such as the mother
board, graphics cards, and the central processing unit.
4. Conclusion
The success of the computer club has led to an on-going after school activity every semester. The
benefits of this on-going project are several: 1) A committed relationship between the researcher and
the school has resulted in conducting a summer workshop for all children from other elementary
schools. 2) The researcher has been invited to facilitate such programs in other schools. 3)
Recognizing the importance of reaching as many minority students as possible and exposing them
computers as led the researcher to be invited to work with the Multi-Cultural Center. 4) Given that the
researcher herself is a female and from international background, she has acted as a important mentor
6
; 6) The findings of this on-going study
will continue to examine the extent of program scalability to increase the participation of all students
at elementary level. This is vital to the growth and sustainability of the CS field, and the future of the
To conclude, this paper contributes by reflecting the on-going pilot project in the context of STEAM
movement. This pilot project has not only promoted awareness, motivation, and participation of
under-representative and minority groups, but has also addressed other barriers that researchers
attribute towards the shrinking of the pipeline in CS. These all are significant that directly or indirectly
impact the CS area in general and its effort in reducing the gap between male and female enrollment
in such fields.
5. References
AGender
and Education 20(2).
Alper, J. (1993)"The Pipeline is Leading Women All the Way Along", Science, 260, pp. 409-411.
Camp, T. (1997). The Incredible Shrinking Pipeline. Communications of the ACM, 40(10), pp. 103 110.
Camp, T., MillerAssociation
for Computing Machinery Committee on Women in Computing Report:
http://inside.mines.edu/fs_home/tcamp/
Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, pp. 26.
Klawe, M., WhiCommunications of the ACM, 52,
pp. 68-76.
on the Creative Readiness of the U.S.
Workforce?,http://www.artsusa.org/pdf/information_services/research/policy_roundtable/ReadytoInnovateFull.
pdf
National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics (NSF). 2004. Women, Minorities, and
Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2004. NSF 04-317. Arlington, VA.
National Science Foundation (2007), Division of Science Resources Statistics Women, Minorities, and Persons
with Disabilities in Science and Engineering–2002 Arlington, VA. ( NSF07-315).
National Center for Women & Info
Diversity. Women and Minorities on Fortune 100 Boards.
6
See http://www.utahwomenandeducation.org/resources/best-practice/southern-utah-university-and-north-star-
elementary-stem-initiative/
273
Pearl , A., Pollack , M.E., Riski
Communications of the ACM, v.33 n.11, pp.47-57, Ross, J., Litzler, E., McGrath, J., Sanders, L., (2012),
Communications of the ACM, 55 (4), pp. 29-31
doi>10.1145/2133806.2133817
Sharp, Caroline and Le Métais, Joanna, 2000, INCA Study. This is a series of thematic studies, published as part
of the International Review of Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks project, carried out by the National
Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales (NFER) on behalf of the Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority (QCA) in England.
274
USING TRIPLE LOOP LEARNING IN CONTEXT OF
MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS SECURITY
Shalini Kesar
Abstract
Taking into account various studies on the increasing problem of computer crime within
organizations, the researcher argues that management of such crimes requires an equal focus on
technical, formal and, informal (social) issues associated with Information Technology (IT). This is
because focusing on the technical issues only provides a partial solution while managing such crimes.
While understanding management of computer crime, this paper contributes to provide a different
perspective by using the organizational theory, Triple Loop Learning (TLL).
Keywords
Information systems security, computer crime, technical, formal and informal controls, triple loop
learning.
1. Introduction
Taking into account various studies on the increasing problem of computer crime within
organizations, the researcher argues that management of such crimes requires an equal focus on
technical, formal and, informal (social) issues associated with Information Technology (IT). This is
because focusing on the technical issues only provides a partial solution while managing such crimes.
Consequently, the complexity associated with such crimes within organizations can be fully
understood when the context of the work place is also taken into account (see Dhillon 2000; Audit
Commission 2005, Kesar 2005).
Computer crimes involving theft are very diverse. The gaining of access and removal of property
through the use of electronic resources generally defines computer crimes. According to Rushinek &
Rushinek (1993), this property may include money, service, programs, data, or computer output, and
computer time (also see Haugen & Selin, 1999, CSI/FBI reports). In addition, altering computer input
or output without authorization, destroying or misusing proprietary information, and the unauthorized
use of computer resources (theft of computer time) can be considered theft-related computer crimes.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) broadly defines computer crimes as "any violations of criminal
law that involves knowledge of computer technology for their perpetration, investigation, or
prosecution".
While understanding management of computer crime, this paper contributes to provide a different
perspective by using the organizational theory, Triple Loop Learning (TLL). Learning organizational
theories are based upon a "theory of action" perspective. An important aspect of such theories is the
distinction between an individual's espoused theory (organizational goals and mission, formal
documents, such as policy statements) and their "theory-in-use" (what is done in practice). The
efficacious use of TLL is to strengthen the argument that awareness and training is a key ingredient of
management of computer crime that needs to take into account technical, formal, and informal aspects
The paper is divided into three sections. After a brief introduction, section 2 briefly discusses the
theoretical framework of TTL in the context of the focus of the paper. It uses the key factors of the
TTL framework to understand the problem of computer crime within organizations. Conclusion is
presented in section 3.
275
2. Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework of the triple loop learning by Argis and Schön (1996; 1978; also see
Argyris, 1997), can be explained as double-loop learning about double-loop learning (see Diagram
below). Yuthas et al (2004) define triple-
process, the contexts within which learning occurs, and the assumptions and values motivating the
nt
situation and try to avoid ad hoc manner (see diagram below).
Figure 1: Triple Loop Learning
In brief, single-loop learning is based on the assumption that problems and their solutions are close to
each there in time and space. Hence, in this sense, it involves doing things better without necessarily
examining or challenging our underlying beliefs and assumptions. Double-loop learning works with
major fixes or changes, like redesigning an organizational function or structure. Whereas, TLL
framework challenges the structural context and factors that determine underlying assumptions and
beliefs. Therefore, the triple-
form of learning goes beyond
insight and patterns to context.
In the context of management of computer crime, TLL framework can provide a deeper understanding
of the nature of the problem. Subsequently, it can facilitate a shift in the perceptions of previous
mindset reflected in various studies that perhaps have provided a partial solution to the current
er is so crucial to any kind of planned
change. This can be a better way to understand "managed learning" as part of a comprehensive
solution for computer crime. Against the backdrop of the above diagram and discussion, management
of computer crime in the context of TLL is discussed below.
2.1 Results
To turn the tide in the fight against such crimes, it is important to know its true impact on the world
economy. Various sources (CSI/FBI 2011) suggest that incidents of computer crime are increasing in
number causing significant concern among organizations across the globe. Statistics may
underestimate the real situation as many organizations may be unaware that the information security
of their systems has been actually compromised. It is clear that the growing problem of computer
crime is further compounded by the fact that such cases are not restricted to one particular country and
are rarely reported. What is even more alarming is that it is the employees who pose one of the
greatest threats to organizations today. Hence, computer crime could have a greater impact than the
276
conventional crime. The CSI/FBI (2011), for, example, outlines key findings from July 2009 through
June 2010:
Malware infection continued to be the most commonly seen attack, with 67.1 percent of
respondents reporting it;
Fewer respondents than ever are willing to share specific information about dollar losses they
incurred:
Slightly over half (51.1 percent) of the group said that their organizations do not use cloud
computing. Ten percent, however, say their organizations not only use cloud computing, but
have deployed cloud-specific security tools;
Similarly, the 2011, IC3
1
on computer crime reflected demographics that showed approximately 51.76
percent are male and 48.24 percent were female. Whereas in 2010, 53.10 percent of complainants
were male and 46.89 percent were female. These numbers reflect a trend in recent years where the
number of male and female complainants interestingly is equalizing. Recent published report (Second
Annual Cost of Cyber Crime Study
2
) by the Poneman Institute; a U.S. based information security
policy research center also reflects alarming statistics. The report states that "over the past year, the
median cost of computer crime increased by 56 percent and now costs companies an average of $6
million per year." This statistic was compiled using a self-report survey of 50 U.S. based businesses.
Findings from other countries reflect just as alarming statistics. For example, in 2002, the cost of
identity fraud in Australia was estimated at A$1.1 billion (Cuganesan & Lacey 2003). Other countries
include Canada, the United Kingdom, and India.
2.2 Actions
In dealing with minimizing computer crime, most organizations implement only technical safeguards
(see Kesar, 2005 for detailed literature review). As mentioned earlier, Mattia (2011) uses double loop
learning to argue that using learning loops in information security are crucial to change mindset of
employees about such crimes. Further, enhancing awareness about loop learning is especially relevant
to decision making skills that are necessary for security related management controls (strategic
decisions). This is because it focuses on analysis of the assumptions and implicit rules underlying the
organization and setting the security objectives and goals. According to her, loop learning is an
effective strategy for managing the two forms of theory of action. Mattia, further points out that loop
learning awareness theory has three basic steps that are initiated when a mismatch occurs in the
process of loop learning in the context of management of computer crime. These are: awareness;
identify vulnerabilities; and efforts to manage vulnerabilities. Although, these steps relate to double
loop learning, yet
leads to greater understanding about organizations and employees regarding beliefs and perceptions
about management of computer crime. As mentioned earlier, triple-loop learning might be explained
as double-loop learning about double-loop learning. Hence, triple-
Awareness: It is clear that there is still a lack of awareness about the tools need to minimize the
occurrence of computer crime. Researchers argue that management of such crimes is now evolved
from having a purely technical focus, to incorporating other equally important aspects of information
security such as behavioral and economic ones. To enhance awareness about such issues, Mattia and
information security. Other information systems researchers have echoed that awareness is a key
component of information systems security and have looked at various perspectives (for example, see
Pahnila, et al., 2007; M. Siponen, 2001; M. T. Siponen, 2000).
1
See http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2011_ic3report.pdf
2
See http://www.hpenterprisesecurity.com/collateral/report/2011_Cost_of_Cyber_Crime_Study_August.pdf
277
Vulnerabilities: Statistic mentioned above already reflects on the seriousness of the problem of
computer crime. A recent report (2011)
3
conducted by independently conducted by Ponemon Institute
reflected on the key vulnerabilities organizations facing today. The companies in their study
experienced 72 successful attacks per week and more than one successful attack per company per
Another problem identified in the CSI/FBI report (2011) is that the information security community
right now is not that but that the
our defenses moot. Further, cloud computing increases vulnerability as it blurs the locality of data and
running processes. No doubt dependency on technology makes organizations more vulnerable to
threats occur mainly from within.
While examining vulnerabilities, there seem to be a gap between the use of technology and the
understanding its implications inherent in its use by the employees in general (Dhillon, 2000, Kesar
2005). This also perhaps explains why figures representing the number of information systems within
organizations that have been successfully penetrated without detection are startling (for example, see
CSI/FBI 2011).
Efforts to manage vulnerabilities: The CSI/FBI surveys always take a special interest to examine
how many respondents information security awareness training as a non-technical way when
addressing some of the most common vulnerabilities. Their recent report (2011) shows that one hand,
it seems only logical that educating employees would prevent problems such as poor password. But
while training programs abound, it is difficult and hard to prove that they actually accomplish
anything and harder even than that to describe what the effect might be in quantitative terms. The
report reflects that only 14.9 percent of respondents reported that their organizations had no awareness
training. Ap
effective, which dropped to 34.1 percent in 2011 survey.
4
points out there is a significant
disconnec
security methods or spending due to a lack of measured information, presents a grave danger to the
well- measures and performance
benchmarks will significantly reduce this information gap between security and executive leadership
in organizations. This in turn, will help formulate more cost effective defense strategies against
computer crime. Consequently, better detection rates of attacks, faster responses to incidents, and
sounder policy formulations will make companies more secure and consequently more competitive in
the global market.
To manage vulnerabilities related to information technology in their paper, Sharma et al (2008)
recommend:
Effectively deal with insider threats;
Establish good management practices so that internal employees do not get a chance to
subvert internal controls. Also establish normative controls in line with the cultural context;
Establish a security policy that reflects the organizational context in which it is implemented;
Establish clear structures of responsibility;
Inculcate a security culture, where responsibility, integrity, trust, ethicality are considered
important;
Focusing solely on rules will not be of help in the changing business scenarios (such as of
today), because they do not apply to unpredictable circumstances.
3
See http://www.hpenterprisesecurity.com/collateral/report/2011_Cost_of_Cyber_Crime_Study_August.pdf
4
See http://www.ewi.info/statistics-and-cyber-crime-epidemic
278
Discussion so far, strengthens the argument focus only on technical measures, seems to be the main
focus within organizations, which can provide only a partial solution when dealing with computer
crime.
2.3 Assumption
business today implies that it is no longer possible to maintain effective security by technical controls
(see Audit Commission 2005). This is because researchers and practitioners comment that
opportunities for computer crime within organizations may well be spread within an organization
where different responses arise from work pressures and working conditions conducive to computer
crime (Kesar 2005). Therefore, such crimes are dependent on organizations creating a climate that
through inadequate and/or lack of understanding of basic security policies and procedures (Audit
Commission, 2
within organizations for employees to exploit.
Few researchers in their studies echo the claim that computer crime is predominantly the result of
disregard for basic information security. Hence, equal importance to formal, technical and informal
controls should be given (Kesar, 2005). Formal controls within organizations relate to physical access
controls, systems development, maintenance controls, changing of passwords, library controls, and
system performance measurement aids. These controls play a prominent role in the management of
computer crime. This is because such controls are not mandated by law or by any external
commission or government bodies but it is the responsibility of the management to define, administer,
monitor and enforce controls on employees. Whereas, informal controls can be within a system, which
is dynamic in nature and where people have capacity to meet changing circumstances. Indeed, by
sustaining informal systems, organizations can respond to computer crime threats that may occur from
within. Thus, people working in an informal system within organizations have the adaptability and
flexibility to recognize new conditions (Liebenau and Backhouse, 1990). Both formal and informal
controls are important systems because the characteristics of an organization cannot simply be
represented by formalized rules.
Safeguards to minimizing computer crime within organizations, researchers have used the general
deterrence theory from criminology to predict the use of deterrent security countermeasures (for
security polices and guidelines, security awareness programs and preventative security software).
Information systems researchers have relied on deterrence theory, which although useful, has been
above, uses learning awareness theory to indicate that people within organizations need to become
aware through their own or group evaluations of their behavior that they are acting inconsistently
and/or unfairly. Efforts to manage this vulnerability (computer crime) vary, depending on the
about not only management of such crimes but also employees attitude about the consequences of
such crime. It is important that, as the feedback loops indicate, those who actively inquire into and
reflect on their actions tend to l
framework can draw attention to the integration of organizational behavior, actions into management,
operational and technical controls in the context of management of computer crime.
2.4 Context
which was primarily developed for the US military. Such measures catered more for structures context
that were hierarchical where they had centralized information processing. The structures and how
information is processed within organizations today is different. Today, organizations are much flatter
279
structures of government and more autonomy and delegated financial powers to employees exist
is hard to achieve a
technical controls alone will not be enough to combat cybercrime in a transforming business context.
In light of the above discussion, what
Triple loop learning framework provides a strong framework to reflect on a different perspective that
takes into account various factors necessary to examine while addressing the increasing problem of
computer crime within organizations. Gorden et al (2004), for example, adapted
Routine Activities Theory, which stresses when understanding crime in general, suitable target, a lack
of capable guardians, and a motivated offender needs to be considered. In their interpretation,
posses
3. Conclusion
It is clear that equal consideration of technical, formal and informal controls need to be taken into
account while managing computer crime. In other words, mere implementation of state-of-art
technical mechanisms as part of managing computer crime will not alone be adequate in minimizing
provide a rich theoretical perspective to understand management of computer crime by using TLL, to
minimizing the increasing problem of computer crime within organizations.
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281
FROM SEAFARING PROFESSIONALS TO IT
PROFESSIONALS
Kai Kimppa and Norberto Patrignani
Abstract
This is a story telling session with no written paper associated. It opens with an introduction covering
the use of fiction and readings from fictional short stories. An indication of the progress made in this
work will be given. This is followed by a series of readings. There will is an opportunity to discuss
this work afterwards.
282
PROBLEMS IN THE USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF RELATIONSHIP
MARKETING
Hiroshi Koga
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to verify the marketing paradigm for utilizing the purchase history data of
the customer from the viewpoint of personal information.
To that end, this paper is organized as follows. First, the author reveals the significance of the
marketing paradigm, which is based on the use of purchase history data and argues about the pitfall of
the new marketing paradigm. Second, the concept of privacy/personal data is re-examined and it is
discussed that the right of self-information control accelerate the trap of relationship marketing.
Finally, it points out that the re-orientation of a privacy concept is required in order to conquer the
pitfall of relationship marketing.
Keywords
Personal information, Privacy, Customer Relationship
1. Introduction
Recently, acquisition of individual purchase history data can be acquired by combining RFID (radio
frequency identification) devices and POS (point of sales) system. RFID devices provide personal data
of customer. POS system provides when and what items customer bought and how many items they
bought. As a result, effective and efficient merchandising based on individual purchase history data
can be realized now. Then, the capability of data handling has come to be recognized to be a source of
a sustainable competitive advantage nowadays.
Furthermore, it is said that the data driven marketing strategy (relationship marketing) can build the
win-win relation between a customer and a seller. The customer can enjoy various services instead of
offering their personal information.
However, there are some pitfalls in relationship marketing.
Especially the confusion involving the concept of relationship is considered to lead the misuse of data.
And this confusion is not unrelated to the personal information concept which recent years extend: for
example, form the right of leave me alone to the right of self-control. That is, it can be said that
conceptual extension of personal information is promoting misunderstanding of the concept of
relationship.
Then, I would like to verify the marketing paradigm for using a customer's purchase history data from
a viewpoint of personal information in this paper. Therefore, the research question of this paper is
twofold: First, is the prevention factor of personal purchase history data confusion of a concept of
relationship? Second, is misunderstanding of personal information promoting confusion of a dealings
concept?
And, the composition of this paper is as follows.
First, the author reveals the significance of the marketing paradigm, which is based on the use of
purchase history data and argues about the pitfall of the new marketing paradigm. Second, the concept
of privacy/personal data is re-examined and it is discussed that the righ