Group items tagged

Situation: The article focuses on the extent of losses on industries which have been affected by digital piracy, such as major film and music industries. The article states that these industries have taken tremendous hits because their content is simply copied and illegally distributed, resulting in major losses of profit. It says that in our time, it is far too easy to get a hold of pirated content, and as a result, it is virtually impossible to punish every single violation. Social and ethical: The article relates to several social and ethical concerns. It links to security because it states that pirated content can often contain viruses and other forms of malware, and attempting to pirate content means that you are putting the information within your system at risk. Intellectual property is the main focus of the article, which is obvious because it focuses upon the control content creators should have over their works and how this control is violated by individuals who pirate content online. It also links to the issue of digital citizenship in that it seems to set an expectation for users of the online world to be just and reasonable with their activities online. It discusses why it is wrong to pirate content online, which further displays that the writer is trying to indicate the privileges of the digital world and why they should not be misused. It systems: The article does not discuss the IT system behind online piracy. However, it is rather simple. Firstly, original content is published on a domain which is approved of by the author. Often, the author will require money in return for his or her work, and this will be handled by the administrators of that domain. The content is then either bought or hacked by an outsider, and given away for free or cheaper on another domain which has not been approved of by the original author. Outside users may then access this domain and take part in the piracy chain. Application to applied

Scenario: The article I am analyzing focuses upon the disadvantages brought about by electronic voting. The article attempts to convince the reader that there are absolutely no advantages to e-voting when compared to traditional voting, and the chance of fraud is much higher in e-voting than it is in traditional voting. The article does give credit to the fact that traditional voting, especially in the US, can also be prone to acts of fraud and corruption, however, he seems to be inclined towards this being less likely than the possibility presented by e-voting. Social/ethical issues: The social and ethical issues that show up in this article are primarily security and reliability. The writer clearly does not seem to believe that the e-voting system is too secure, as he often states that there are many ways in which the e-voting system can be cheated and violated. He believes that e-voting often generates results that do not match up with the predicted results from the votes cast. He also does not seem to comfortable with the idea of fully trusting a machine to measure and calculate the result of the votes, as he seems to favor the idea of votes being manually counted and recorded by poll workers. IT systems: E-voting often takes place on a particular website or on a private network which specific voting computers are connected to. Here, voters can verify their identification before proceeding to cast a vote. After the vote is cast, the information is sent to a central server where it is stored and constantly recalculated by the system for an updated vote count. Stakeholders: Regionally, everyone is a stakeholder in electronic voting. All individuals in the particular area are effected by the results of a large-scale electronic vote, as these are usually to decide governmental leaders/officials. Local businesses might be the most impacted stakeholders, because they are heavily effected by the policies and laws that could be passed by the new official,

Situation : In the United States right now, we are in the process of choosing a new president. For those who do not know, the election process in the US consists of two conflicting opinions of two different parties (Democrats and Republicans.) The Republicans basically believe in lower taxes and less government intervention, while the Democrats believe in raising taxes and more government action. Based on the article, the current state of the US electoral process shows that electronic voting machines guarantee a Republican victory in 2016. Social / Ethical Concerns : Influence on Politiicans - The article claims (this article is VERY pro democratic and VERY pro Hilary Clinton) that the candidate who has the most votes won't in fact win. Rather, the article claims that unless Hilary wins each major swing state by 10% more than the Republican or the corruption of politics with online voting does not end, she will not win. Security issues - The machines may be easy to hack into with the right knowledge and tools, and a hacker could easily sway the country's votes. Influence on People - The best candidate with the most votes from the electoral college should win, so this is a major social and ethical concern because of the idea that America is all about the people deciding the future of the country, and if the right candidate isn't chosen, it could affect our future for generations to come. IT systems flaws: -sometimes the voters don't click on the right candidate and they are mad because the computer won't let them click on the candidate they actually want -machines can malfunction and freeze -some of the voting places are in major favor of one candidate and they may sway the votes after the tallied online -electronic voting machine may not even be present and paper ballots may be used (it's not fair to have some people with paper ballots and some with online voting ballots) -electricity dependency may cause a computer to shut down if there is a loss of power

Situation: This article pertains to the United States' Presidential Elections of 2008 that was won by Barack Obama and his usage of the Internet as well as Social Media. The reason he won the 2008 elections was not just because of his presidential policies, but however due to his personal reach and trust that the Internet will help fund and run a primary part of his campaign. Social and Ethical Significance: This article talks about how online campaigning is the key to 90%+ of political campaigns of the future and how they function. The article takes the (obvious) example of Barack Obama's presidential campaign of 2008 that was a historic campaign for multiple reasons. The article [published in 2008], claims that the primary reason that Obama succeeded because he "understood the potential of social media to communicate and raise funds - leaving his 72-year old opponent floundering." This campaign is the first election where all candidates utilised online social networks like Facebook [and still popular then, MySpace] to send forward their messages. This article also talks about personal knowledge of a person can be gained by reading a candidate's personal details such as favourite musicians and pastimes. Obama was successful on Facebook, rather than other competition, because he was engaging to people younger to him on his online campaigns, who appreciate casual behaviour, online and offline[while his competition kept it overly professional online]. "At 47, he may be older than the average user there, but Obama is a natural Facebook politician. On his personal profile there - which featured his "Our Moment is Now" motto - Obama named his favourite musicians as Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Dylan, and listed his pastimes as basketball, writing, and "loafing w/kids" " Stakeholders: Candidates - They are the people relying on the Internet and their campaigns, that he can get the kind of reach he needs to move forward in his own elections. Voters - They

Summary of the Article: Major newspaper companies such as the NY Times, and Al Jazeera, emphasise on the need for websites for their articles, to give news under a good amount of time. Stakeholders: Those companies who now need to spend more money and resources in order to provide both paper print and online copies of their news articles. The people who used to read the North Adams Transcript on a daily basis. Social and Ethical Significance: Reliability and Integrity - The fact that news outlets now work on a globalised, 24/7 and instant response system, means that they need to be able to take the risk to upload or run an article about certain news, that a random person must have claimed. As a result, if the news is unreliable, the news publisher is at risk and fault for running a story without backing their facts with suitable evidence. Intellectual Property - Usually there are videos or images online that are taken and uploaded by a person and the news outlets find it as the best feed for the certain news article or live upload. The person responsible for capturing the video or image has the right to reclaim the image from the news outlet if he/she deems necessary. That way, news outlets have to be very cautious about using images and videos, about the certain live news. Application to various scenarios: There are many examples about how news outlets have been warned yet not fined for using copyrighted or unreliable information.

Summary of the article: With technology, criminals and terrorists can use media to send threats, images and can even broadcast their crimes. 2 stakeholders: The criminals who use media and the viewers who end up watching their broadcasting. 2 social/ethical issues: With this technology, it is easier for terrorists to create a propaganda and they can easily spread fear by broadcasting their killings. For example, ISIS' videos include the killing of journalists, aid workers, government soldiers, etc. They would post this on the internet uncensored so anyone can watch everything that happened and may be unethical to certain cultures. We probably can't stop them from continuing to post these videos but there should be at least a program or a person who would censor the more gruesome parts. In the example of Mohamed Merah used in the beginning of the article, he used a Go Pro camera, his laptop and a USB drive to create a video documentary of his killings.

Scenario: This article from the guardian focuses upon the positives to online campaigning, and states that citizens should drop the criticism they impose upon online campaigning. Instead of stating the possible concerns alongside online campaigning, the article mentions Barack Obama and the success he has achieved through extensive online campaigning. The author seems to firmly believe that online campaigning should simply be accepted and embraced instead of criticized. Social and Ethical significance: With the widespread use of digital technology all over the globe, it is not a surprise that many political candidates have understood the power of the online world, and have played it to their advantage. As mentioned in the article, Barrack Obama spent a generous amount of capital on his online campaigns, and this eventually led to his success in becoming president. Above all, online campaigns can give candidates a voice which extends far beyond the reach of their rallies or campaign areas, a voice that all citizens who are involved in the voting procedure may then acknowledge and be influenced by. IT Systems: Online campaigning can be accomplished through many varying methods. However, one popular form of online campaigning involves candidates publishing advertisements/campaigns on popular media websites, such as youtube. Anyone who then watches a video on youtube will have to watch the advertisement campaign before proceeding. There are very few IT systems which are involved in accomplishing this step. First, the candidate approaches the website giant and forms an advertisement contract. Then, the candidate provides the corporation with a form of advertisement. This can be in text, image, or video format. The corporation then uploads this form of advertisement onto their servers, and the advertisement is incorporated into their ads section and in some form affiliated with their website so that users of the website may also experience the campa

Scenario: Different US states are taking different approaches to voting. Maryland is enforces paper voting, with some digital use by scanning a copy of each vote to have on record. On the other extreme, Utah Republicans are embracing technology by having everyone vote over the Internet. Social Ethical Issues: Security: James Evans, Utah GOP Chairman, thinks "the risks associated with Internet voting aren't worse than the current system". Learning Curve: Maryland bought new machines for voting and there was some concern about people being confused when using them. IT Systems: Optical scanner for a digital record of votes Electronic Voting Machines Internet Stakeholders: Voters - Do they care about the convenience of online voting or the more reliable security of paper voting? State - Depending on what method of voting, time and money will be used more or saved. Applications to Specified Scenario: The article questions why there is so much concern with voting electronically when we already do so many important things online. We do our banking and buying online, giving out personal information, so why not elections? The article answers, "e-commerce expects and is comfortable with a certain level of fraud. Our electoral process, however, has zero tolerance for fraud". With banking and e-commerce, the costs aren't as high as with elections. Any risks also outweigh the benefits. Elections have also historically never been electronic until now. So there is a certain security and assurance that comes from the traditional paper ballot votes.

Situation: Robots are now being invented to aid in farming. This particular farm built a robot to prune and de-sucker grapes. Social and Ethical Significance: People and Machines - People being replaced by technology is a reality that we must face as it is a reality that we are beginning to see. Obviously when machines replace people, jobs are lost which is never a good thing. But that's not all we should be worrying about. When machines start to perform human tasks, we lose the skill and knowledge that comes with completing those tasks. So technology taking over tasks could either lead to depletion of common knowledge that humans have but it could also go be good because it will leave room for humans to focus on more important issues and knowledge, while machines take care of the mundane chores. IT Systems: GPS Gyroscope - Part of security. The robot knows when it has been lifted off the ground Artificial Intelligence - grape recognition Plant recognition Hard drive Synchronization of cameras Built in security - The robot won't start if it is an unknown area and can self-destruct Stakeholders: Farm Owners - The way their business is conducted could change Farm workers - They could lose jobs or have to learn new ones Robotic Engineers - They are interested in the new technology being used Applications to Specified Scenario: Changing how companies function is only one piece of what technology is changing. Technologies like this robot in the article could be applied to many different areas in the world. One example is security and surveillance. The robot in the article watches plants all day. It wouldn't be hard to alter the cameras to recognize people too. These robots also have tools that they are able to use. Wouldn't it then be possible to give the robots weapons and have them enforce the law? Or go to war? What would that mean for us humans? The upbringing of Artificial Intelligence will induce lots of change and raise various ethical considerati

An article relating to targeted advertising through the use of installed cameras within billboards. These tiny cameras gather details about passer-by - their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. Social and ethical significance: 1)Privacy and anonymity - although Quividi claims that the process is completely anonymous, the details of the camera's recordings must be stored in a central database which, if not protected properly, could be susceptible to hackers and other perpetrators of crime. 2) Security - the safety of the data stored in the central database will be in danger if not properly protected. The data will most likely contain details of a person's identity. 3) Surveillance - the cameras must be connected to a network in order to to function to its full capacity. Once again, these cameras could be hacked into and used for surveillance purposes, which leads back to the issue of privacy and anonymity on the street. The general public, who are one of the stakeholders, are deeply involved in this matter as it is their identity that is being scrutinized by a small camera - in most cases the public are unaware that the billboard is identifying who they are and their presumed interests. The company, Quividi, is another stakeholder in this issue as they are responsible for this new technology. The advantages of this kind of "ultra-targeted advertising" is that companies can now know for sure what kind of advertisements to place and where, without the need of analysing the kinds of people that live in the particular area of interest etc; the camera installed in the billboards have the ability to do it themselves. Also, as the billboard is digital, there is no manpower involved in constantly changing the large billboard every other week or so. The main disadvantages to this is of course the invasion of privacy for the public but also the maintenance that would be required to keep the camera clean as well as updated

Situation: Digital Piracy can be publicly and officially classified as an offence or a violation of intellectual property. However, there are many violations in the present time, that people don't think are morally wrong. Social and Ethical Significance: The article takes the opening example of the new Game of Thrones episode which comes out on HBO, and how millions of individuals who wouldn't be able to watch it during the screening time, would download the episode illegally to watch it. It's true, that at some point or the other, people would tend to use means of digital piracy to receive what they cannot without it. Now, it's true, that all assets, ideas and artistic creations be held in common, and kept free for all. They believe that intellectual property, in the form of copyrighted information restricts that idea and creation. There exist these individuals that consider illegal downloading a crime, and that it wouldn't impose any sort of cost on anybody. However, there do exist "fundamentalist protectors" that would believe that illegal downloading equivalent to theft. This article speaks about the ethical considerations of why digital piracy occurs and why it's an issue not very publicly criticised upon. Stakeholders: Producers - Those who take countless hours creating the movie/audio that would be pirated. End users - Those people who would like to watch/listen to the movie/audio clip so that they receive more public entertainment.

I enjoyed reading the article you selected and your analysis of it. The thought that when stealing an object, your gain is their lost, but when stealing a movie or music, the cost is not the same as the gain, is an interesting perspective. Do you agree more with the "fundamentalist libertarians" or "fundamentalist protecters"?

The company that ran Swindon's 2002 e-voting pilot is sued amidst allegations of flaws in its software.

The company that ran Swindon's 2002 e-voting pilot is sued amidst allegations of flaws in its software. ____________________________________________________________ In this article, the author describes how an employee of a voting software company was fired because he was going to expose the flaws of the software. This shows that some software is not reliable, and in fact easy to hack. The one that Daniel Spillane worked for obviously had integrity problems. It also shows that no one is trustworthy of software malfunctions, even employees of the company.

Situation: Marketing has been transformed by technology. Ads are found everywhere and there are specialized ads that target a specific group of people. Businesses need to keep up with new marketing techniques by gaining new skills. Marketers must have sufficient experience with dealing with technology. Technologists in combination with marketers are becoming key to successful marketing. Social and Ethical Significance: With marketing expanding to the Internet and mobile devices, some of the limitations that marketing used to have are now diminished. No longer are ads confined to billboards and flyers. Now there is a whole other world of possibility. Markers can affect people through their phone, laptops, tablets, watches and even glasses. This open up so many doors for marketing. One aspect of marketing that has been expanded is the reach that campaigns can have. More places to put ads means more eyeballs on the ads. Companies can also target market. Using data from people, companies can target ads to specific people whom they believe the ad will be most effective. The article mentions that some marketing people believe that targeted marketing is not improving and companies are just wasting their money. This is something that the business owners need to think about when making marketing decisions. Stakeholders: Marketers: People who work as a marketer now have to think about other aspects of marketing like how the technology works and what type of online marketing would be most effective. Marketing business owners: Business owners will have tough decisions on deciding who to hire to market. Employees will be expected to be more than just a create advertiser. They will have to know how to work with technology in real-time. Owners will also have to determine to what extent to they want to advertise online. IT systems: Although no systems were specifically identified in the article a few technologies that marketers use for research and to reach people inc

Situation : Lots of other popular musicians are trying to make it harder to pirate music online because they believe that the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law that governs intellectual property on the Internet, is too lose and needs to be reformed. Social and Ethical Significance: Influence on regular people who are law abiding citizens: This does not have that much of an impact to these people although it is important to consider that they are law abiding most likely because they believe that the musicians deserve to make money from the music they produce, so they are happy that people are speaking out. On the contrary, some people just follow the law and will not be affected by this article. Influence on regular people who are not law abiding citizens with pirating: This is important to these people because as the issue and pressure on the government is brought up more and more by popular musicians, laws may have to be passed and these people will not be able to pirate music any more. Then again, there are always loopholes to this, but at least big musicians are speaking out to raise awareness. Musicians : This is an important step for musicians trying to protect their industry. As technology increases more and more, so does the rising threat of pirating and the many loopholes people are finding with new apps. So, if enough musicians put more and more pressure on the government to change laws, then they may see action in the future with laws preventing piracy. Stakeholders: Musicians - They are trying to make as much money as possible, as they rightfully should, so their finances and career depend on their popularity and music being bought abiding by the law. Non-law abiding citizens - If these people can't buy music illegally, then they will have to follow the law and buy music/support the musician the right way.

This article discusses artificial intelligence, and the extent to which it is a) realistic and b) can be used as a replacement for humans in the case of chats -- in other words, it analyzes the question of how and when any such bots will be ready for usage in a manner that will be realistic enough for chatting with an actual human being. This development emerged due to the immediate need of firms such as customer service centers to use less work force and yet satisfy customers with solutions to trivial (to them) problems. The advantages for the stakeholders are immediately obvious -- less workforce will be needed because the computers will be in charge of answering most questions, and fewer questions will be eventually directed to an actual individual. However, the immediate ethical disadvantage is the loss of job openings in the area of customer service, along with many other areas, since intelligent machines will soon be the preferred alternative to complete such tasks; this provides the impacts concerning the economic and psychological aspects. Furthermore, through the loss of jobs, it is likely and very possible that legal issues may arise. The solutions to these problems is that the human workers work in tandem with each other; that way, both the machines are put to good use and the aspects involving the loss of jobs and the ethical/moral issues that arise with these points will be solved. Through the analysis of this article, it is immediately and readily obvious that the IT systems involved in this wide range of scenarios includes but is not limited to computers/computer servers, robotic mechanisms (e.g. robotic arms, etc.).

One of the articles for network threats

Article about Network Threats

IBM made a very wise comment regarding businesses in the age of technology, and how things are changing radically for all businesses, and in the long term, for all consumers as well. The IT system and issue at stake here is the future of businesses who choose to not adapt to new technologies, and transform their businesses in the world of technology in our day. Specifically, the article refers to "digital transformation," but does not touch upon an important topic we have discussed in ITGS, being the ethical implications involved in making such a transition. Beginning from the positive aspects of such a transformation, and specifically in the long term, these include: - more buyers - no data loss - better data management/analysis - improved business models through online systems - better quality marketing -- more effective So, in terms of these factors, one could say that such a "digital transformation" would definitely be worth the effort in the long term. However, ethical implications must also be considered, which include potential spreading of data to the wrong people, "filtering" the minds of consumers through online marketing, but also violating the consumer's privacy by noting down what they purchase each time and exchange a list of the consumer's interests to other businesses. In conclusion, we can see that such a digital transformation in terms of technology in relation to businesses can be both good and bad; this entirely depends on the effort that is put in the creation of this system, how well the system is maintained, and to what extent the system is targeted for attacking.

Hello! I liked how you incorporated that one of the biggest technology companies in the world has the same changes as some smaller companies; and the one thing that they have in common is the change of technology. I also think that your article choice was linked nicely to ITGS because it develops on the idea of Information technology changes throughout many societies.

In the article, the author describes how the music label, Sony, was creating an anti-piracy software to try and stop piracy in 2001 with Michael Jackson's song. They were unsuccessful in the beginning of their studies, because of a radio company played the song without being authorized. Sony was hoping that recent online piracy websites would not destroy the sales of Jackson's album. Even today, their are many record companies that have the same worries. Today, piracy is even more severe, because once a copy of a song is released on the internet, it is readily available to everyone to listen to and download. The hackers used a software/website called Napster to create MP3s (converted from the CDs), and send them across the internet. A way artists are trying to stop this problem, is to not allow free streaming networks to play their songs without pay. This allows the artists to be successful, and also is a way to try and stop illegal downloading of songs and albums. It is expensive to create an album, Jackson's took $28 million and 3 years; the artist should at least be able to have success, and not have to worry about trolls pirating their music.