IT Ethics

This section contains links to a variety of scenarios of ethical and unethical technology use by students. The scenarios will include discussion questions and brief commentary.

"There have long been doctored photos, and the advent of digital photography and computer programs taught some hard lessons in skepticism." (chicagotribune.com)

In this conversation we discuss Vic's experience of online communication and his recent use of Facebook in particular. We discuss ethical issues such as how such applications blur the lines between private, public and professional lives.

Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally \nwon't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative. Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed. (Newsvine)

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics offers the following resources on current ethical issues in technology:

"Every mean, vicious psychopath once upon a time, was an innocent young baby," said Dr. Adrian Raine, a neurocriminologist at the University of Pennsylvania

Information technology is changing many aspects of human endeavor and existence. This is beyond doubt. What are contested are the social and ethical implications of these changes. The source of these contestations is the multiple ways in which one can conceptualize and interpret the information technology/society interrelationship. Each of these ways of conceptualization and interpretation enables one to see the information technology/society relationship differently and therefore construe its social and ethical implications in a different manner. This entry is concerned with the phenomenological approach to interpreting information technology and its social and ethical implications. However, in order to understand the distinctiveness of the phenomenological approach some other possible ways of interpreting this relationship will also be outlined briefly.

"The neutrality framework doesn't mesh with technical reality: The Internet is too neutral in some places, and not neutral enough in others."

By Adam L. Penenberg - Slate Magazine

"This document is a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances." Center for Social Media at American University

Vietnam's government has issued several decrees in recent months to curtail blogging, as the number of Internet users soars in the communist country.\n\nThe campaign started in August, when the government published an edict giving police broad authority to move against online critics, including those who oppose "the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" and undermine national security and social order.

Here's an excellent discussion by Lawrence Lessig on the creeping nature of regulation through copyright. Quite apart from anything else it's an amazing use of presentation software. (Evolving Thoughts)

The purpose of this page is to provide resources for the various instructional units/cases presented in Information Technology Ethics. Because of the extensive references, these references will be segmented into indidivual pages.