AUTHOR
John Wilkes

ABSTRACT

he concept of ‘the public interest’ should form one element in the ethical responsibilities of software engineers and other IT professionals operating in a rapidly-changing global economy whose conventional enforcement procedures may be falling out of date. The public interest should be admissible in law where necessary in support of initiatives by professionals (acting through augmented professional bodies) who are attempting to raise ethical standards within the profession or protect the public from malpractice. IT professionals acting collectively are the most appropriate group to determine and enforce ethical standards and, if the traditional model of a profession is thought applicable to the IT industry, they have a duty to do so. It is likely that the status and power of software engineers would be augmented as a result. A practical means of enforcing ethical standards on software engineers is by a world-wide system of licences, embodying both technical and ethical elements, administered by internationally-recognised professional bodies whose legitimacy comes partly or wholly through their capacity to act in the public interest, rather than as the legal creations of particular nation-states.

AUTHOR
Ali Reza Kian Abolfazlian

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we entertain the notion of management of cultural differences in Organisations by Intelligent Software Agents. Especially we shall look at the differences that arise in organisations based on the new values that the introduction of new Information Technologies in these organisations generates. We start by looking at the concept of human values, understood as knowledge, through reconsidering knowledge as a social concept realised in the framework that was developed in [Abolfazlian, 1996f]. We shall look at the relationship between Information and the development of human values especially in connection with the introduction of new IT in an organisation. Then, we introduce the notion of Intelligent Software Agents as autonomous, social, reactive, proactive and subservient software computer systems. Organisations are introduced to new Technology as a natural consequence of the ever continuous stream of new tasks within the bounderies of organisations. We not only use and invent our newly acquired technologies to deal with our new tasks but in the same time and in duration of the same process we ourselves are changed by the very same instruments and the consequences of using them. As a natural consequence of this dynamic process, differences based on the conflicts between the newly introduced values in the organisations and the old ones arise. We shall see how Intelligent Software Agents can help human-agents to get a better understanding of these differences and how theses Agents can actively participate in the management of the problems concerning these particular differences.

AUTHOR
Peter Davies

ABSTRACT

This paper summarises and evaluates five theoretical approaches to Business Ethics and identifies their common themes. However, it is contended that none of them give due weight to the influence of globalising developments in technology. A brief examination of the literature of ‘Philosophy of Technology’, with particular reference to the work of Jacques Ellul, reveals important lessons for setting limits to technology in differing cultures. In this respect cultural and religious traditions are a vital means to humanising technology and its associated and industrial practises, particularly in relation to the local context. This counterbalances the unhealthy degree of laissez-faire technological determinism found in Western and other industrialised cultures.

AUTHOR
Duncan Langford

ABSTRACT

Today, most desktop computers and PCs are networked – that is, they have the ability to link to other machines, usually to access data and other information held remotely. Such machines may sometimes be connected directly to each other, as part of an office or company computer system. More frequently, however, connected machines are at a considerable distance from each other, typically connected through links to global systems such as the Internet, or WorldWideWeb (WWW). The networked machine itself may be anything from a powerful company computer with direct Internet connections, to a small hobbyist machine, accessing a bulletin board through telephone and modem.

It is important to remember that, whatever the type or the location of networked machines, their access to the network, and the network itself, was planned and constructed following deliberate design considerations.

In this paper I discuss some ways in which the technical design of computer systems might appropriately be influenced by ethical issues, and examine pressures on computer scientists and others to technically control network-related actions perceived as ‘unethical’. After examination of the current situation, I draw together the issues, and conclude by suggesting some ethically based recommendations for the future design of networked systems.

AUTHOR
Maria Angeles Nevado Llandres

ABSTRACT

The advent of information technology and computers in medicine three decades ago posed a new set of ethical problems. In recent years, these problems have been compounded by the increasing use of computers for supporting clinical decisions as well as record keeping and so on. And due to that, ethicist, lawyers, computer scientist, clinicians, and patients must confront a group of ethical problems: In what situations is it appropriate to use a medical computer program? Who should use these programs and how should they be used? What is the ethical status of computer program that provides medical advice? Can a proper balance be achieved between confidentiality of patient information and shared access to records by health care personnel? How can society, physicians, and patients determine if a program is safe for human use? Will programs be able to communicate with users well enough to prevent clinically harmful misuderstanding?. Because few if any definitive answers are yet avalaible it was defended that it is necessary to create Deontological Codes, taking as an example the HIDEC Health Informaticians Deontology Code in order to avoid or try to solve these kind o problems.

AUTHOR
Tom Gough

ABSTRACT

This paper is intended to focus the attention of information systems developers on the need to address health and safety issues throughout the development of information systems. The paper briefly reviews the issues which need to be addressed and assesses the general lack of attention paid to them across the range of information systems development methodologies. A brief review of recent legislation is followed by an assessment of the implications for information systems development and a discussion of agenda setting. The paper concludes by underlining the obligations of information systems developers to ensure that the health and safety issues are addressed effectively.