ABSTRACT
In a world that is awash in ubiquitous technology, even the least tech-savvy know that we must take care how that technology affects individuals and society. That governments and organizations around the world now focus on these issues, that universities and research institutes in many different languages dedicate significant resources to study the issues, and that international professional organizations have adopted standards and directed resources toward ethical issues in technology is in no small part the result of the work of Simon Rogerson.
– Chuck Huff, Professor of Social Psychology at Saint Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota
In 1995, Apple launched its first WWW server, Quick Time On-line. It was the year Microsoft released Internet Explorer and sold 7 million copies of Windows 95 in just 2 months. In March 1995, the author Simon Rogerson opened the first ETHICOMP conference with these words:
We live in a turbulent society where there is social, political, economic and technological turbulence … it is causing a vast amount of restructuring within all these organisations which impacts on individuals, which impacts on the way departments are set up, organisational hierarchies, job content, span of control, social interaction and so on and so forth. … Information is very much the fuel of modern technological change. Almost anything now can be represented by the technology and transported to somewhere else. It's a situation where the more information a computer can process, the more of the world it can actually turn into information. That may well be very exciting, but it is also very concerning.
That could be describing today. More than 25 years later, these issues are still at the forefront of how ethical digital technology can be developed and utilised.
This book is an anthology of the author’s work over the past 25 years of pioneering research in digital ethics. It is structured into five themes: Journey, Process, Product, Future and Education. Each theme commences with an introductory explanation of the papers, their relevance and their interrelationship. The anthology finishes with a concluding chapter which summarises the key messages and suggests what might happen in the future. Included in this chapter are insights from some younger leading academics who are part of the community charged with ensuring that ethical digital technology is realised.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter Chapter 1|10 pages
Introduction
part I|50 pages
Journey
chapter Chapter 2|4 pages
Cyberspace: The Ethical Frontier [1995] 1
chapter Chapter 3|5 pages
But IS IT Ethical? [1995] *
chapter Chapter 4|9 pages
Information Ethics: The Second Generation [1996] *
chapter Chapter 5|13 pages
A Review of Information Ethics [2010] *
chapter Chapter 6|14 pages
Towards a Chronological Taxonomy of Tourism Technology: An Ethical Perspective [2018] *
part II|68 pages
Process
chapter Chapter 7|7 pages
The Ethics of Software Development Project Management [1996] *
chapter Chapter 9|12 pages
A Practical Perspective of Information Ethics [2001] *
chapter Chapter 11|10 pages
Information Systems Ethics – Challenges and Opportunities [2019] *
part III|91 pages
Product
chapter Chapter 12|9 pages
The Social Impact of Smart Card Technology [1998] *
chapter Chapter 13|16 pages
A Moral Approach to Electronic Patient Records [2001] *
chapter Chapter 14|12 pages
Internet Voting – Well at least It's “Modern” [2003] 1
chapter Chapter 15|14 pages
Digital Existence -- The Modern Way to Be [2018] 1
chapter Chapter 16|13 pages
Is Professional Practice at Risk Following the Volkswagen and Tesla Revelations? [2017] 1
chapter Chapter 17|8 pages
The Dangers of Dual-Use Technology: A Thought Experiment Exposé [2019] 1
chapter Chapter 18|15 pages
Grey Digital Outcasts and COVID-19 [2020] *
part IV|29 pages
Future
chapter Chapter 19|6 pages
E.Society – Panacea or Apocalypse? [1998] *
chapter Chapter 20|8 pages
The Virtual World: A Tension between Global Reach and Local Sensitivity [2004] 1
chapter Chapter 21|13 pages
Future Vision [2015] 1
part V|46 pages
Education
chapter Chapter 22|3 pages
Preparing to Handle Dilemmas in the Computing Profession [1996] *
chapter Chapter 23|11 pages
Preparing IT Professionals of the Future [2014] 1
chapter Chapter 25|6 pages
Poetical Potentials: The Value of Poems in Social Impact Education [2020] 1
chapter Chapter 26|12 pages
Start a Revolution in Your Head! The Rebirth of ICT Ethics Education [2020] *
part VI|15 pages
Conclusion