Looking Back to the Future - the ETHICOMP decade

Abstract

This opening address is an analysis and review of the first ten years of the ETHICOMP conference series. Conference themes and papers are analysed thereby identifying trends in technology and the associated social and ethical issues which such trends create.

Full text

Looking Back to the Future
the ETHICOMP decade
Terry Bynum and Simon Rogerson

The ETHICOMP decade
95
05
04
02
01
99
98
96

Venues - Leicester, Madrid, Rotterdam, Rome,
Gdansk, Lisbon, Syros, Linköping
Papers - UK 163 27%
Rest of Europe 204 34%
All of Europe 367 62%
USA 159 26%
Rest of the World 75 12%
Delegates’ Continents - Europe, North & South
America, Australia/New Zealand, Asia, Africa
Totals at ETHICOMPs - 601 Papers, 34 Countries

1995 43 7%
1996 (in English) 46 8%
1998 74 12%
1999 (Rome) 98 16%
2001 83 14%
2002 78 13%
2004 (Greece) 97 16%
2005 82 14%
Average (8 conferences) 75 papers each
601 ETHICOMP Papers in Eight Conferences

The Nature of Computer Ethics
Teaching Computer Ethics
Data Protection and Privacy
Professional Responsibility
Ownership of Software
Computers and Security
Justice and Access to Computing
Computing and Human Values
Computing and Globalization
Computing and the Workplace
Computing and Business
Computing and Government
Internet Ethics
Broad Topics at ETHICOMPs 95 & 96

Wide Diversity of Topics Under
Broad Categories
Computers and Security
Computers and Crime
Hacking and Cracking
Viruses, Worms, Bombs
Computers and War
Software Ownership
Piracy of Software
Free Software Movement
‘Open Source’ Movement

Wide Diversity of Topics Under
Broad Categories
Justice and Access
Computers and Women
Persons with Disabilities
The “Digital Divide”
Workplace Issues
Unemployment
Surveillance
Teleworking

Wide Diversity of Topics Under
Broad Categories
Data Protection and Privacy
Privacy and Human Dignity
Electronic Medical Records
Data Mining
Data Matching
Professional Responsibility
Codes of Ethics
Licensing Professionals
Systems Design
Software Failures

the ETHICOMP decade
CD
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A framework that stood the test of time
Ethical Development (PRACTICE)
This is concerned with the use of development methodologies
and the consideration of ethical dilemmas, user education
and professionalism.
Ethical Technology (PRODUCT and SERVICE)
This is concerned with the advances in technologies and the
likely ethical issues they raise as they are applied to business
and societal problems.
Ethical Application (POLICY)
This is concerned with developing ethical strategies which
allow technology to be exploited in an ethically acceptable
way.
IMIS Journal Feb 1995

Practice
Activity participation
Function creep(95) Surveillance(98) Chinook
Helicopter disaster(02) Y2K(99)
Behaviour
Social responsibility(96) Gender(97) Poor
practice(04)
Processes
BPR(96) Teleworking(97) Risk Management(05)

Product and Service
Technology
Information superhighway(95) Internet(98)
Smart CCTV(02) mobile phones(03) RFID(04)
Information Systems
Ecommerce(98) Electronic patient records(00)
electronic voting(02)
Services
Healthcare sites(01) Auction sities(03) Online
learning(05)

Policy
Government
ID cards(95 & 03) Privacy(97 & 99) Information
integrity and access(05)
Organisation
Data matching (97) Surveillance(98) Civic
duty(01)
Society
Human values(96) Minority access(99) E citizen
rights(03)

Technological Context
Java is introduced
Amazon.com is officially opened
USB standard is released
Computer TouchPad offers substitute for
the mouse
Toy Story is the first full-length feature film
to be completely computer generated
95

Technological Context
WebTV is introduced
Netscape introduce the cookie
100,000 World Wide Web sites
45 million Internet users
Microsoft launches Internet Explorer
the Palm Pilot is available for consumers
96

Technological Context
computers that cost less than $1,000
TRUSTe organisation operating
3,250 newspapers, 1,280 TV stations have
websites
300 million World Wide Web pages
150 million Internet users
98

Technological Context
Victoria's Secret fashion show becomes
the first major webcast on the Internet
attracting over 1.5 million visitors
Iomega releases Zip plus
Melissa is first virus to cause problems
worldwide
800 million web pages
99

Technological Context
AOL membership surpasses 28 Million
Airlines begin to implement methods of
gaining Internet access while flying
USB 2.0 is introduced
PC shipments worst since 1986
58,000 computer viruses exist
PCs with CPUs in excess of 1.4 Gigahertz
01

Technological Context
PayPal is acquired by eBay
Pop-ups clutter computer screens
242 million active Internet users
Hewlett-Packard and Compaq merge to
form the second largest IT company
development of grids of super computers
02

Technological Context
phishing the big security story
pocket size iPod holds 10,000 tunes
Google gets 138,000 requests a minute in
90 languages
1.5 billion cellphones worldwide
296 million active Internet users
Cabir the first mobile phone virus
04

Technological Context
about four million Java developers and
1.75 billion devices run Java code
BBC makes 30 pod casts per day and
QE2 owns an iPod
Google indexes over 8 billion pages
Spam is more than 45% of e-mail traffic
IBM announces that all sales and support
for OS/2 will end in December 2005
05

Looking Back To The Future
5 associated challenges
Democratisation
Division
Vulnerability
Advancement
Pervasion

Internet users/1000 people
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
1995 1998 2000 2005
North America
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Asia-Pacific
South/Central America
Middle East/Africa
Source: Computer Industry Almanac

ETHICOMP2005
Looking Back To The Future
An Overview

Our challenge
The social and ethical impact of advances
in information and communication
technologies (ICT) on society,
organisations and individuals
What lessons can we learn from past
successes and failures to help us cope
with the future?

Elements
Papers and Keynotes
Workshops (Wednesday 11.30)
Question Time (Thursday 14.15)
Best Paper nomination
Feedback and overview (Thursday 15.45)