ABSTRACT
The book concludes with a series of overviews which reflect practitioner opinion at different points along the timeline covered by the book. Between 1998 and 2010 six surveys were undertaken to capture the opinions of professionals involved in digital technology regarding identifying and dealing with the associated ethical and social issues. These, together with a range of other articles, form a synthesis of how the digital technology industry’s actions and opinions have changed, or otherwise, during 25 years of technological revolution. The world has now become digitised leading to an ever-increasing range of applications. Thus, there now exists global deep-seated dependency on digital technology. This digitisation of everything requires a greater emphasis on, what we should now call, Digital Ethics. Everyone has moral obligations and responsibilities in ensuring the Digital Age is inclusive and empowering rather than exclusive and constraining. Established rules may offer some guidance as to the correct path, but such rules can easily become the instruments of blatant superficial compliance which at best is problematic and at worst immoral. It is virtuous action that promotes an ethical digital age. The Afterword which follows this chapter offers a way forward in pragmatically addressing the expanding ethical and social issues which surround digital technology and so to leading digital technology that is fit for purpose, accessible and acceptable.
