Computing Computing Ethics And policies that enforce behavior

General information  Ethics address right and wrong. People learn ethics.  Because the use of computers is fairly new for many people and purposes, ethics for computer use are not always clear, and not always learned properly.  Information professionals are leaders in the uses of information technologies and need to be informed about computing ethics and related issues.

Definition of Ethics – 1: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation – 2a: a set of moral principles or values – 2b: a theory or system of moral values – 2c: the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group – 2d: a guiding philosophy

Overlap between ethics and policy It's unreasonable to assume that everyone has learned the same ethics, or how to apply them. Therefore, we use rules, policies, laws, procedures, punishments, training, certification, etc. to communicate and instrument ethics. In information organizations, products and services, written policies communicate what is right and wrong, allowed and disallowed, believed and avoided.

Examples of instruction for ethics These try to communicate what is right and wrong:  Ten commandments of computer ethics Ten commandments of computer ethics (  MU MU (

IT Overview

Information Technology ( just one definition) Information technology refers to the collection of products and services that turn data into useful, meaningful, accessible information. The information technology industry has several major facets: computer hardware, software and services. Often, telecommunications hardware, software and services are also included in the definition...."

Put another way IT includes Hardware Software System(s) Telecommunications Network Information

Those IT services can be Informational Educational Recreational Or any combination of the above

In today’s world: Every information consumer can also be an information “publisher” Previously established patterns of communication are changing rapidly Links that worked yesterday are gone today No one is quite sure what authorship or copyright really means, much less

Let’s remember More change in past 50 years than since the time that language began Next 10 years will make the last 50 appear to be standing still

Information Technology —(more changes) Wealth is created more by information than manufacturing and services – Information increasingly seen as a valued commodity—libraries need to leverage this – Copyright and rights management issues rise with question of ownership Convergent technology (hardware & software) Changing role of information professionals

Stephen Abram

Our Students ( based on Beloit College Mindsets – Class of 2012) Students entering college last fall born in 1990— Headlines the year they were born – Rising fuel costs, a Pres. Bush increasing troops in the Middle East, Big 3 car companies in trouble -- They don’t remember when ‘cut & paste’ involved scissors Never had to distinguish between the St. Louis Cardinals baseball and football teams Jimmie Carter has always been an elder statesman— but Cher has not aged a day

Our Students They have always had & voice mail They had the WWW for every high school year They did most of their search for a college online– checked roommates out on Facebook, MySpace They will live wirelessly on the web almost all their lives

Research tells us Library professionals must work with others to implement strategies to meet new expectations of students who: – Prefer web access from home – Naturally gravitate towards popular web tools – Prefer single-point access – Want assistance any way at all—prefer face-to-face – Want access to resources irregardless of who owns or where they are From OCLC white paper, June 2002

Changes mean Opportunities “With new technologies, we’ve tended to do the same things more efficiently when what we need to do is different things more effectively.” (Christopher Dede)

History of computing Faster, Smaller, Cheaper

The Computer Revolution or Evolution Revolution – a period of great change or transformation Evolution – a gradual process of change & development that something goes through, usually becoming more complex and sometimes better

A Brief History of Computing Pre-Automation Era (mechanization 1880s- 1940s) Focus on Host/Systems (1930s-mid ‘60s) Focus on Networks (1960s- early ‘90s) User Centric Periods (1980s to today) – Focus on Desktop Movement (mid-’80 to today) – Focus on End Users (mid- ‘80s to today)

Pre-Automation Era 1880s s Based on punched cards and tabulating machines (example)(example) Herman Hollerith (U.S. Census) Typically routines and procedures Automated existing tasks(not new services)

Focus on Host Systems 1940s Invention of tube-based computers (Bush’s memex) 1954 Mass production of transistorized computing systems Internal memory (RAM) and programming languages 1964 DEC and the “minicomputer” Creation of large distributed networks based on single shared “host”

Focus on Networks—’60s-’80s 1969 beginnings of the “Internet” and TCP/IP (NSFnet) 1977 Apple II ships to schools 1982 IBM PC debuts mid 1980s - beginnings of networked PCs (called “LANs”) – focus on communication between systems (pictures from book)

User Centric Period (both Desktop Movement & End Users) 1992 WWW opens new doors for end users mid-’90s GUIs (Lisa, then Mac, then Windows) Internet connectivity comes to the home Distributed, personalized computing for everyone Web goes commercial Rise of expectations

Spectrum of Change in Focus of Computing Systems: SYSTEMS ----> FUNCTIONALITY ---> END USERS ---> ??? Faster, Smaller, Cheaper