AUTHOR

Alan Hogarth (UK)

ABSTRACT

Group working and its sister technology groupware are currently gaining favour in the manner in which organisations conduct their activities. However, organisations tend to view groupware as a technical product to solve a technical problem and pay scant regard to the social, cultural and ethical requirements of introducing groupware to their organisation or institution. Moreover, there has been minimal research into the social and cultural effects of introducing Groupware technology. Neither has there been much interest in developing a framework or approach that would take such social, cultural and ethical requirements into account. However there is in one body of research called Social Informatics whose concepts, if utilised properly, may be able to alleviate some of the aforementioned problems. This paper will consider how group computing, facilitated by groupware, can be introduced into the educational environment. The paper will also discuss whether adapting some of the concepts advocated by Social Informatics, specifically those pertaining to Socio-Technical development approaches, can alleviate some of the aforementioned problems of introducing Groupware into the educational environment. In order to enhance this process a case study survey conducted by the author will be discussed.

Initially the role of group working and groupware in business and education is discussed. Consideration will be given to the importance of social and cultural aspects as well as technological ones when introducing groupware. To this end a discussion of Social Informatics will be undertaken with a view to using aspects of this approach to aid in the implementation of a groupware system. Specifically socio-technical design approaches such as those advocated by authors in the field will be considered. Further the findings of a survey undertaken by the author with several groups of students from Glasgow Caledonian University will be discussed. Based on the findings in the literature and the results of his survey the author will propose an initial approach for introducing groupware into the educational environment.

Social Informatics is an area of study that considers the social aspects of introducing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into an organisation. Such research includes the roles of ICT in social and organisational change and the way that the social organisation of information technologies are influenced by social forces and social practices. Social Informatics studies’ aim to ensure that technical research agendas and system designs are relevant to peoples lives. The key word is relevance, ensuring that technical work is socially driven rather than technology driven. Social informatics also refers to the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of ICTs that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts.

This definition of social informatics helps to emphasise that ICTs do not exist in social or technological isolation. Their cultural and institutional contexts influence the ways in which they are developed, the kinds of workable configurations that are proposed, how they are implemented and used and the range of consequences that occur for organisations and other social groupings such as universities.

The problem is that systems professionals tend to concentrate on technical aspects
when designing information systems whether it be traditional ICT applications or the introduction of Groupware technology. Good information systems are neither obvious nor effective when they are based on technological considerations alone. Early research showed that information systems were much more effectively utilised when the people who worked with them routinely had a contribution to make during the design. One approach called ‘participatory design’ built on this insight. Further, it was discovered that it was important to change work practices and systems designs together, rather than adapt work practices to ICTs that were imposed in organisations. Systems specialists and managers should not impose ICTs on people without involving them in shaping the new system and redesign of work or educational practices. Significantly, in recent years, there has been a noticeable shift in working and educational practices with both business organisations and educational institutions placing greater emphasis on team working and more participative approaches to working. This in turn has the obvious effect of altering the social and cultural structures of these organisations . Further, coupled with this increase in team-based working there has been a parallel increase in the use of ICTs and Groupware technology, particularly in the business world. Therefore, if team working has to be computerised then by its nature Groupware must necessarily be used for this collaborative type of working. Nonetheless research is showing that those organisations which introduce ICT systems while considering not only technical aspects but also the social, cultural and ethical impact are more productive than those who do not. It is apparent from the literature that, although many business organsiations now incorporate Groupware systems and have done so for many years, proportionately fewer academic institutions are availing themselves of this technology for teaching and learning purposes. Yet Groupware systems for project work in universities, if conducted in the correct manner, could prove to be a most effective learning medium. The case study referred to in this paper is the current phase of the author’s research for his PhD. The work is based on the general theme of this presentation in regard to collaborative working and the use of Groupware technologies in the educational environment. It was the author’s intention to compare the social and cultural issues that arise within the ‘manual’ group project with those that arise within the technology based group project. The study comprises of ten groups, 35 students in total. The groups have six weeks to complete the task and will be instructed to plan, control, schedule and organise the project themselves. Only in times of extreme disagreement have they to call upon the author to mediate. On completion of this first stage of the study the students will asked to complete a questionnaire. The results of this survey will also be discussed in the paper.

AUTHOR

Janusz Wielki (Poland)

ABSTRACT

Rapid changes have taken place in companies’ business environment at the turn of the century. Lowering differentiation of products, splintering mass markets, lowering effectiveness of mass media, shortening product life cycle, rising clients’ expectations, changes in their behavior patterns and attitudes, diminishing level of their loyalty and increasing competition accompanied by its rapid globalization are the most important factors.

Operating in this highly unpredictable and quickly changing business environment, where all of the competitors possess comparable professional competencies, puts pressure on companies to diminish continuously overall costs, increase effectiveness of all operations, achieve far greater flexibility as ever before as well as be able to faster response to customers’ expectations. In this situation enterprises commonly reach for information and communication technology, as a means which allows them to react almost instantaneously to changes in their business and become a “real-time enterprise”. Basing on ICT utilization, they try to implement new business models and establish new organizational forms.

Such a new business model, claimed by Venkatraman and Henderson as “twenty-first century business model”, is virtual organization. Although concept of virtual organizing, which is a response of contemporary enterprises to requirements of the marketplace, has been commonly discussed in recent years, not all aspects were given the same attention. The most frequently mentioned issues comprise: role of enabling technologies, stages of virtualization, strengths and weaknesses of virtual organizations, business network strategy, coordination aspects, communication across virtual teams or efficiency of VOs.

It seems that element which is very rarely considered, are socio-cultural implications of employees’ work in new business models based on ITC utilization, which virtual organization is the best known example. In fact it is very important and disregarded aspect of virtual organizing approach and attention of this the paper is focused on this issue.

In the first part of the paper business environment of contemporary companies operating in business-to-business segment, has been characterized and the most important trends, which can be observed there have been presented and discussed. Particular attention has been paid to the role of information and communication technology and its impact on enterprises’ functioning, their business processes, relations with business partners as well as with customers.

Second part of this article is focused on virtual organizing concept. It begins with defining virtualness as organization’s strategic characteristic and next various approaches to virtual organization concept are presented and discussed. Particular heed has been paid to Internet-based virtual organization. Also forms and types of VOs are characterized in this part of the paper. Three virtual organizing vectors are briefly discussed as well.

The following part of the paper concentrates on human aspects of virtual organizing. Since implementation of virtual organization concept with ICT placed in the center requires radical rethinking and redesigning numerous business process, in consequence many social and cultural implications emerge. They relate both to internal groups within a company (own employees) as well as to people outside the organization (vendors, subcontractors, customers etc.). The most important implications relate to changes in:

• skills (e.g. ability to operate in electronic environment, utilization of Internet-based tools)
• behavior on the job (e.g. changes in workers’ scope of responsibilities, work in cross-functional and cross-organizational teams, shifts in so far used procedures)
• employees’ knowledge (e.g. security issues connected with operating in electronic environment)
  organizational culture.

In case of implementing any changes in organization’s functioning, extremely important issue is people resistance. Since virtual organizing requires numerous deep shifts in many elements of company’s functioning and employees’ behavior, this aspect must be also taken into consideration. All those mentioned above issues are widely discussed and considered in this part of the paper.

The next part of the article presents the case study of the modernization company operating in the power industry along with analysis of possibilities of implementation a virtual organization concept in case of this firm. First, the current model of this enterprise’s functioning is briefly described. Next, the concept of Internet-based virtual organization is presented and socio-cultural implications connected with its implementation have been identified. Attention is especially focused on two issues, which seem to be the most important. First one are consequences arising from deep redesign of so far used business model. Although from technical point of view creating a virtual organization is a relatively easy process, socio-cultural consequences of radical shifts in the way the work is performed can be quite hard for people involved in it. And these aspects are considered in this part of the paper.

Second issue, which is discussed are psychological barriers connected with implementation of virtual organization concept. Generally three kind of such barriers can be identified and all of them are examined. Namely, they comprise:

• internal individual resistance
• internal group resistance (formal and informal)
• external resistance (i.e. performed by people outside the organization as customers or suppliers).

In the final part of the paper, the most important conclusions and suggestions are provided.

AUTHOR

Rafael Capurro (Germany)

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with the question of the relation between ethics and public policy in general as well as with the role of ethic bodies in democratic systems within a digital environment in particular. In the last years different kinds of ethic bodies have been created within the political system in order to give ethic advice particularly in the fields of biotechnology and information technology. The ethic discourse is thus not restricted to universities or research institutions remaining a theoretical one and more or less disconnected with the field of action but becomes part of the political, legal, and of a large social debate. What are the functions of such bodies? What is their relation to the Executive, the Parliament, the Legislative as well as to the mass-mediated public opinion itself? And how is it in its process as well as in its results integrated within a digital environment?

Some of these questions have a long tradition in Western philosophy. Aristotle situated ethics (techne ethike) within practical philosophy. His conception of the distinction and relation between ethics and politics or between man as rational being (zoon logon echon) and as an individual belonging to the city (zoon politikon) is opposed to Plato’s identity between both fields. Modernity created a disjunction between individual and civil society or between morality and politics. Mass media as well as the Internet brought new forms of mediation.

Ethic committees as political bodies may be considered as situated within the political system providing a reflection on the relation between the scientific, technical, economic, moral and legal foundations of political options. They have a deliberative character that is related but not identical to the parliamentary debate as well as to the creation and diffusion of opinions through mass media. Politically institutionalised ethic discourse provide a reflection on the foundation and application of moral standards as related to economic, scientific, technical, and political rationality. They neither predetermine or even substitute political decision making nor intend to just sanction a given morality. They are an instrument for policy counsel and public awareness. This does not mean that they owe per se a kind of specific moral authority although at least some of their members should be qualified by their ethical expertise. Their political legitimation is to be seen within the context of complex modern societies within a digital environment.

Modern science and technology challenges more and more basic philosophic assumptions and provokes thus directly or indirectly a crisis or at least a basic insecurity with regard to moral standards that were either sanctioned by law or remained tacit presuppositions. The rise of ethics within the political arena may be interpreted as a symptom of a moral crisis within modern societies.

The paper deals particularly with the role and activity of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) of the European Commission (http://europa.eu.int/comm/europan_group_ethics) as an example of how ethic discourse is established within public policy. It will address EGE present and future activities as a body providing different services within a digital environment.

AUTHOR

Anna Grabowska (Poland) and Prathiba Nagabushan (Australia)

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the experience of two teachers from Australia and Poland in building an online course on “Ethics” using ICT. The aim of the paper is to share the knowledge and skills acquired by these teachers in the areas of content, pedagogy and ICT. Starting with how this project has been conceived and developed after these two teachers met each other in the WCCE 2001, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, the paper unfurls the evolution of an online course on the philosophy of “Ethics” using ICT.

This online Ethics course developed together is intended to serve students in all parts of the world, with increased flexibility regarding time, place and pace of study and creating a highly user-friendly environment that is marked by ready access to information resources in the area of the subject.

This unit is designed to give students the opportunity to

• Discover ways of acting that are worthy of choice and of discerning those that are unworthy of choice.
• Answer the questions that open up an ethical issue for fruitful discussion, for example, what? Why? How? Who? When? Where? What are the foreseeable effects? What are the viable alternatives?
• Learn the ethical implications of traditional beliefs and observances.
• Establish a body of information about the ethical issues and the debates surrounding them.
• Learn the skills of research, analysis and discussion, appropriate to the study of ethical issues and decision-making.

Objectives of studying about ethics would enable the students to

• Exercise greater sensitivity, reflection and method in moral decision-making with regards to personal, professional, societal, national and global issues.
• Contrast ethical perspectives on selected issues.
• Analyse the contributions of religious beliefs and values to traditional and/or contemporary ethical debates.
• Understand the sources and role of authority in ethical debate and
• Learn and improve upon the skills of research, analysis and discussion about ethical issues and decision-making.

It should have been stressed that it will be the first course in the subject of Ethics offered for students from Gdansk University of Technology. We think that the course will have a great impact on moral attitude to personal and professional behavior and will influence an ethical approach to decision-making.

ETHICS ONLINE course is now opened for testing and adding comments on a BOARD at the address: http://dec.dec.pg.gda.pl/ethics/

AUTHOR

Christina Ölvingson, Niklas Hallberga, Toomas Timpkaaand Kent Lindqvista (Sweden)

ABSTRACT

1 Introduction

Public health is an information-intensive area where the electronic patient records have opened up for detailed surveillance on a population basis. By introducing geographically ref-erenced health data and geographic information systems (GISs) it is possible to study causal-relationships, dispersal patterns for diseases, etc. GISs have been identified as one of the “new core technologies in public health” [1, p xii]. In general, public health professionals are dependent on accurate information for studying trends and relations between different factors. However, the accuracy of the data and technical features are lesser constraints than the pub-lic’s concern for privacy. In spite of this, ethical issues are often neglected. Still, the aspect of confidentiality is of major importance in public health due to the sensitivity of the data in-volved and GISs have the potential to be more threatening to personal integrity than many other information technologies. Violation of privacy occurs when there is an intrusion into the private sphere, and when facts that could be considered sensitive to integrity are distributed. Confidentiality arises when a person is obliged or asked to hold a confidence. It cannot be breached unless it becomes necessary in order to protect the welfare of individuals or com-munity, or if required by law. The objective of this paper is to explore ethical conflicts that occur due to the resolution of geographically referenced data in public health in literature and reality.

2 Methods

This explorative study is based on a literature study and interviews with persons working ei-ther with the injury data or the (geographical) information infrastructure in the WHO Safe Community injury prevention program in Motala Municipality in Östergötland County, Swe-den. The interviews (n=6) were performed in order to explore how ethical issues are handled in public health projects. In the literature study topics of interest were identified. A synthesis was made in order to analyze differences and similarities between issues identified in the lit-erature and the interviews.

3 Results

Scientific literature study Data with a geographic reference could be an area or a point and, depending on what is stud-ied, the level of resolution varies. In general, as high a resolution as possible is recommend-able. However, as with all sensitive data there is a need to protect confidentiality. Leakage of sensitive data could result in e.g. embarrassment for individuals or loss of jobs. When adding a spatial aspect the problems could even affect large areas and groups of people living in these areas, e.g. redlining.

When using address-matched data it might be possible to backtrack and identify an individual from the information associated to the point. Confidentiality is then betrayed and often fol-lowed by an intrusion of privacy. By presenting data as area measures it is possible to main-tain the confidentiality of the data. However, there are several problems associated with area-measures. The value of subsequent analyzes are reduced if area data are used as original data and it is impossible to identify causal relations.

Interviews

Ethical problems due to resolution were found to arise if it is possible to identify a single in-dividual either by use of identifiable data or by re-identifying through local knowledge and backtracking. In small areas this problem is more pronounced than in large areas since small areas usually involve fewer cases. The severity of breaches of confidentiality is related to what the data is about. However, what is seen as harmless is individually, which makes it dif-ficult to develop a general policy.

If in-data are at area level, the uncertainty inherited in the data is immense and will only in-crease as analyzes are performed. An ethical dilemma will also arise if not the best data avail-able is used, and to get as valid results as possible in-data with the individual as the informa-tion carrier should be used.

Synthesis

In public health there is a need to address ethical issues in a more complete and rigorous man-ner. The use of GISs in public health will be affected by e.g. how issues like privacy will be resolved. The placing of address-matched records into areas is neither a rational nor efficient method of spatial data encoding, and the development of “new methods for protecting confi-dentiality of health records while conserving their geographic accuracy should have high pri-ority in future GIS-based research in health” [2, p. 65]. Not using the best data available will cause ethical conflict, especially if major errors are inherited in the data. However, the rights of the individual have to be balanced against those of the community.

Analysis

In terms of ethical issues, there was a significant overlap between theory and what could be observed in practice. The main difference was that in practice, policies were mainly devel-oped in response to articulated problems. However, overlooking ethical issues in the planning phase will systematically delay the progress of public health projects.

4 Discussion and Conclusion

Advances in information technology will increase the demand for more and better data in-cluding geocoded data. The wide array of data used and issues covered in public health result in difficulties in defining general policies on what resolution is suitable. As a result, to maxi-mize the potential benefit a case-to-case-evaluation is recommended. Further, if the results are reported in an appealing way, it will help keep the public’s confidence and hopefully create a positive opinion on the use of individual health data for public health purposes. Continuous research on how to protect privacy while preserving as much information as possible is of ut-most importance. What people desire is perhaps not absolute privacy but rather a reasonable assurance that sensitive information is treated fairly, that high security measures are provided and that the information is used for important health purposes.

REFERENCES

[1] Yasnoff WA and Sondik EJ: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Public Health Practice in the New Millennium. In J Public Health Management Practice 1999, 5(4), ix-xii.

[2] Gatrell A and Löytönen M 1998: GIS and Health. London, Taylor & Francis.

AUTHOR

Farinaz Fassa (Switzerland)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to question the “reality” of the changes that the introduction of communication and information technologies (ICT), coupled with teaching methods and school curricula reforms, generated in the school system of Vaud.

Many political discourses (OECD, UE) stress on the fact that the current changes are due to the development of the information and communication technologies. They claim that this supposed Information Age will bring a more democratic society while flattening hierarchical relationships. These discourses take very often for granted that the emerging knowledge and/or information society will be driven by a “knowledge economy”. From these views, school systems have to adapt. They have to build the computer skills that everyone will need in the future to avoid being a victim of the “digital divide”. Teachers are especially called upon to build these new skills. They are considered as the most privileged intermediary users of ICT. Therefore, they should master this technology and make it part of their daily work in order to transfer these skills to their students.

Mosconi (1994), Baudoux (1997) and other feminist researchers showed that besides explicit curricula, schools convey what they call “hidden curricula” that include learning the way a system is working through the experience of relationships between persons and organisational structure. Our hypothesis is that the way teachers are acting towards this technology is partially at the roots of students representations and practices. We focused our attention on the relationships between gender and technology. This question appeared, along the research, to be a good marker for understanding how tradition relates with innovation and for assessing the types of changes -linked to the so-called information society- that are implemented. We addressed a questionnaire survey to 15% of the teachers working in this area in the French part of Switzerland to understand what were their representations and practices of computer in their professional environment.

Results

1. While women use more the computers with their students than men, their know-how in this field are not acknowledged:
   • They are addressed only as basic users; they have rarely access to highly qualifying courses and are never considered as designers of these knew know-how.
   • They think of themselves as less qualified than their masculine colleagues.
2. More than men women link computer with social characteristics. They are not as their colleagues driven by the technical side of the machines. They insist less on efficiency than men, although they associate more than men the use of computers to professional activities.
3. Women adopt more than men determinist views about the relationships between technology and society.

Those results, among others, show that one denies competence to women in this field and that they agree with this view. Moreover, they believe that the technological field is of tremendous importance for social development and at the same time, they consider themselves as outsiders. These elements show that the representations of computer at school are as well clearly organized on a gender line, as they are related to the way power is dealt with. On one side, men aim to master the technology, they are the designers of school programs in this area ; on the other side, women put up with it.

In our view, these gendered images have influence on the students (we could not verify this hypothesis as the access to the students was not given to us by the school authorities) and will modify their view on technology. They may renew the traditional inequity between males and females, proposing to the first powerful positions and to the second executant’s roles, which is reinforced, since in the upcoming “information society” computer abilities are highly valued. The building of these specific relationships between women and technology is in the straight line of what anthropologists, such as Tabet (1998), point out while analyzing “traditional” societies : it is a way to reproduce the domination of women by male.

Those results raise social and ethical questions about the meanings of the changes induced by or related to IT, especially when there are taking place within an organisation in charge of building personalities for the future. They show that the school organisation, despite its assertion of neutrality and its claims to develop autonomous and responsible persons, is reproducing (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1973) the main inequities, even if it adorns this process with new discourses. They also point out that tradition and innovation mix on a particular way, such as the main traditional patterns, related to the dealing with power, stay stable.