AUTHOR

Stephanos Androutsellis-Theotokis

ABSTRACT

Distributed computer architectures labelled “peer-to-peer” are designed for the sharing of computer resources (content, storage, CPU cycles) by direct exchange, rather than requiring the intermediation or support of a centralized server or authority. Content distribution is the dominant peer-to-peer application on the Internet, allowing personal computers to function in a coordinated manner as a distributed storage medium by contributing, searching and exchanging digital content.

A decentralized peer-to-peer content distribution network can be thought of as a community of users, not unlike any other social group of people with common interests or functions. In our case, each member of this community has two goals: A “personal” goal, which is to benefit the most from the services the community can provide for them (in our case by obtaining the most desired digital content at the lowest “cost”), and a “global” goal, which is to help the entire community to continue existing, prosper and proliferate, in part through the services they can provide to the other members (in our case the content, storage and bandwidth they own or control.

These two goals are often conflicting and, in the absence of any centralized authority, control or enforced rules, they govern the social behaviour of each member and ultimately of the entire community. The general rule (and paradox) here is that universal cooperation by all members is best for the overall good of the community, however if no specific incentives are enforced, the users who directly benefit the most are those who take advantage of the content provided by others without contributing anything themselves. The “prisoner’s dilemma” metaphor can be used to study the extent to which the owners of intellectual property are willing to share with others.

In the on-line content distribution community described above, one is afforded the opportunity to actively interfere by introducing and applying a variety of incentive mechanisms, to enforce a more collective behaviour and eliminate the “freerider” effect. We introduce and discuss the categories of incentive mechanisms that can be (and have been) used, the technologies on which they are based and ultimately the cost associated with such measures.

We proceed to focus our discussion on the issue of reputation mechanisms, which attempt to be technological solutions to the problem of controlling social behaviour in peer-to-peer content distribution networks, by ensuring that users with poor social behaviour will be less privileged and will have fewer rights than users who work more towards the common good. The two main problems these mechanisms are faced with in their application to peer-to-peer architectures is the lack of fixed identification for the users and the lack of a history of repeated interactions between users due to the typically large sizes of the networks. We discuss various reputation mechanisms, their related advantages and costs, and the way in which incentive mechanisms can be based on the private or shared history of users which is assembled by the reputation mechanisms. We finally examine in more detail the particular issue of anonymity, which presents an interesting “inverse incentive” mechanism for single users as, in order for their anonymity to be protected, they need to ensure that large crowds are maintained and operate within the content distribution network. They are therefore inherently motivated to work for the “global good”, since it will directly reflect on themselves by offering improved anonymity.

We conclude our arguments by reversing our metaphor, briefly comparing the “virtual” file sharing community of our discussions to a “real” social group of people, and discussing how corresponding incentive and reputation mechanisms work in the second.

AUTHOR

Alan A Andolsen

ABSTRACT

The movement of commercial business enterprises to the venue of the Internet and the development of virtual communities to transact business pose interesting and challenging ethical questions. This paper will investigate, from the perspective of a business practitioner, the characteristics in elements that are necessary and I virtual business community to permit its participants to judge whether the activities conducted within the community are, in fact, ethical.

Defined

The first section of this paper will investigate the different types and styles of emerging virtual business communities and identify the characteristics that validate a virtual business community and distinguish it from other, ad hoc business relationships. The investigation will focus both on those characteristics that serve to define a valid organization [in opposition to and association of individuals that has little permanence] and those that are associated with organizations from an ethical perspective. The role of corporate coats of ethics in a virtual business community environment will be discussed as well as the difficulties that arise when conducting business in an international or global context.

Participants

The second part of the paper will look at the human participants in these virtual business communities. Though they may represent commercial entities, existing virtual business communities relying on the specific actions of human participants. The focus here will be on the participants as actors and the characteristics that define them as responsible and ethical members of the virtual community. One part of the discussion will be about the tension that can arise among the personal ethical principles of the participants, the code of ethics of the business enterprise, and the ethical perspectives of the other corporate participants in a community.

Issues

The core of this paper will be an exposition and discussion of specific ethical issues that arise during the interactions of the human participants in virtual business communities. The examination of cases drawn from existing virtual business communities will focus on the turning points that frequently arise in business transactions. It is the thesis of this paper that those turning points provide the path to discern the ethical nature of the specific virtual business community.

Principles

From the case examples, the paper then will discuss the ethical principles that can be derived from an examination of the ethical turning points and their relationship to traditional ethical approaches of the deontological, utilitarian, and virtue ethics. A specific analysis will be focused on the role of character or virtue and whether, in a virtual business community environment, the ethical character of the human participants can be discerned and validated.

Judgments

The final section of the paper will move to a discussion of the manner in which ethical judgments can be employed within the context of a virtual business community. It will offer both a theoretical framework for the establishment of a mutually recognized ethical environment and practical approaches to validate, on a continual basis, the ethical nature of the virtual business community. The focus here will be on the ability of the human participants, and ultimately their business enterprises, to judge that the virtual community in which they are participating as a solid ethical foundation and continues to operate in an ethical manner.

Conclusion

The argument of this paper will move from examples of the real transactions occurring in virtual business communities to the characteristics necessary for the human participants to be able both to recognize the ethical character of a community’s actions and to judge whether the individuals’ business organization should maintain its place within that community.

AUTHOR

Jonathan P. Allen

ABSTRACT

This paper will analyze the potential social impacts of what has been called ubiquitous IT: extremely low cost computing, communication, sensing, identification and location-aware technologies that make information available from almost any place, at almost any time. Already, over 90% of all microprocessors are not used in computers at all (IEEE Spectrum, 12/01). Instead, they are embedded in the automobiles, appliances, and buildings through which people lead their everyday lives.

There have already been speculations about the potential social impacts of these technologies. Some of the more obvious include privacy and surveillance issues. Traditional concerns about surveillance in the workplace, or in public spaces, are expanding to include surveillance in almost any location. These concerns are being prompted by the upcoming adoption of technologies such as Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags by major retailers such as Wal-Mart in the USA. Security issues are another obvious area of concern. Using ubiquitous IT to create nationwide sensor networks for monitoring potential terrorist attacks could have dramatic social consequences. The potential security vulnerabilities of connecting automobiles, appliances, and buildings to the global internet create other societal risks. Usability questions have also been raised about ubiquitous IT. How can ubiquitous IT be designed to seem natural and helpful without being intrusive? And how can the workings of ubiquitous IT be made more visible, and more easily controlled, by individuals? At the same time, many have commented on the seemingly limitless potential of ubiquitous IT to make all kinds of products and services more effective, providing information and intelligence right at the point of use.

Our approach to exploring the social impacts of ubiquitous IT will be to draw upon the sociotechnical approaches that have been developed by sociologists of technology (e.g., Bijker 1995). Sociotechnical theories find it most useful to analyze both the material and symbolic aspects of IT (e.g., Orlikowski and Iacono 2001). IT has material properties that offer certain affordances, but these affordances cannot be understood in isolation from the goals, key performance criteria, potential problems, and potential solutions that designers and users employ as they interact with, and through, a technology. To consider these symbolic aspects of IT requires an analysis of the various technological communities that interact with the technology. In this paper, we will use this sociotechnical approach to examine the potential social impacts of ubiquitous IT not only in terms of its generic technological capabilities, but also in terms of how relevant technological communities are trying to shape the use of ubiquitous IT.

The simplest form of sociotechnical analysis requires a specification of the relevant technological communities related to ubiquitous IT. Each community brings to ubiquitous IT both its vision of the material aspect of ubiquitous IT, and its symbolic vision of what the technology is all about-what the technology is supposed to accomplish. The material vision can be described as a community’s exemplary artifact: what physical form a technology should take, and how should it be built. One important symbolic aspect is captured in the key performance criteria a technological community assigns to a new technology. As the analysis of exemplary artifacts and key performance criteria emerges, it often becomes clear that there is substantial disagreement over what form a technology should take, and what its purpose is. The diversity of interactions illustrate that the future form of ubiquitous IT, and thus its likely social impacts, are still to some degree in flux.

A preliminary sociotechnical analysis of ubiquitous IT reveals a number of different technological communities:

• The embedded computing community sees ubiquitous IT as inexpensive microcontrollers and web servers embedded in consumer products and control systems. Their key performance criteria for ubiquitous IT are small, cheap, and low power, with connectivity and custom built.
• The ubiquitous/pervasive computing community sees ubiquitous IT as anywhere, anytime devices that disappear into the background, yet offer intelligent assistance to users. Their key performance criteria for ubiquitous IT are ease of use, awareness of context, and comprehensive architectures that have knowledge of the environment.
• The mobile/wireless community sees ubiquitous IT as additions to mobile phones and wireless computers. Their key performance criteria for ubiquitous IT are to increase network traffic, and to support mobile commerce.
• The sensing community sees ubiquitous IT as a network of sensors that blanket a large geographic area. Their key performance criteria for ubiquitous IT are low cost and accurate sensing.
• The identification community sees ubiquitous IT as remote ID tags and swipe cards. Their key performance criteria for ubiquitous IT are low cost and identification accuracy.
• The location-based applications community sees ubiquitous IT as location-based services. Their key performance criteria for ubiquitous IT is simply that it takes advantage of location information.

In the end, we argue that a sociotechnical analysis will help us to better understand the social impacts that are likely to be of concern for ubiquitous IT, as opposed to an analysis which relies on generic statements about what social impacts might emerge. Because of the many forms that ubiquitous IT can potentially take, understanding the social impacts of ubiquitous IT requires making some claims about the forms that are likely to emerge, and how relevant technological communities will seek to apply ubiquitous IT to the real world.

LOCATION:
University of the Aegean, Syros, Greece

DATES:
April 14-16 2004

HOSTED BY:
Department of Product and Systems Design University of the Aegean
Department of Management Science and Technology Athens University of Economics and Business

IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, UK
Research Center on Computing and Society, Southern Connecticut State University, USA
Software Engineering Ethics Research Institute, East Tennessee State University, USA

CONFERENCE DIRECTORS:
Professor Terrell Ward Bynum, Southern Connecticut State University, USA
Professor John Darzentas, University of the Aegean, Greece
Dr Nancy Pouloudi, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece
Professor Simon Rogerson, De Montfort University, UK

SPONSORS:
International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT)
The Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS)
Microsoft
Troubador Publishing Ltd

Continue reading “ETHICOMP2004 – Island Of Syros, Greece”

AUTHOR
Terrell Ward Bynum

ABSTRACT

In the 1940s and early 1950s, MIT Professor Norbert Wiener perceptively foresaw the enormous social and ethical implications of information technology. “The choice between good and evil is knocking at our door”, he said. Remarkably, Wiener also foresaw many of today’s most pressing issues in ICT Ethics, even some of those typically associated with the Internet! The present paper begins with a brief summary of Wiener’s foundation of ICT Ethics as a university research subject. The primary focus of the paper, however, is Wiener’s challenge to society to develop answers to those questions and thereby make life secure and fulfilling to citizens in the coming “automatic age” (as he called the coming information era).

The Information Society Context — Wiener was keen to ask questions about “what we do and how we should react to the new world that confronts us.” (p. 12)*. He developed strategies for analyzing, understanding, and dealing with social and ethical issues that could threaten human values like life, health, happiness, security, knowledge and creativity. For example, Wiener described communications within a society as “the cement which binds its fabric together” (p. 27), and he noted the crucial importance of open communications in a democracy, where “blocks to communication among individuals and classes are not too great” and freedom is thereby strengthened. He pointed out that, in fascist and despotic societies, communication among individuals and groups is severely restricted and censored, and freedom is thereby diminished.

Even today, in this era of “global information ethics”, the concepts and procedures that Wiener developed in the 1950s can be used to identify, analyze and resolve social and ethical problems associated with ICT of all kinds. What are the major social and ethical problems that will arise? Who should tackle these problems, and how should they proceed? What tools and procedures are available to society to come to terms with these issues? The first part of this paper deals with these issues.

Individuals in the Information Society

To live a good life, as Wiener saw it, is to realize “the great human values which man possesses” through creative and flexible adaptation to the environment, made possible by sophisticated learning, reasoning and thinking. But one person’s achievements will differ from those of others, because humans have different levels of talent and potential. It is possible, therefore, to lead a good human life in a variety of ways – as a statesman, scholar, scientist, musician, artist, tradesman, farmer, and so on.

To enable human beings to reach their full potential and to live a good life, according to Wiener, society must uphold three “great principles of justice” and minimize the state’s interference in human freedom. Using Wiener’s own definitions of “the principles of justice” produces the following (pp. 105-106):

The Principle of Freedom – Justice requires “the liberty of each human being to develop in his freedom the full measure of the human possibilities embodied in him”.

The Principle of Equality – Justice requires “the equality by which what is just for A and B remains just when the positions of A and B are interchanged”.

The Principle of Benevolence – Justice requires “a good will between man and man that knows no limits short of those of humanity itself”.

Like Aristotle before him, Wiener viewed humans as fundamentally social beings that can reach their full potential only by active participation in a community. Society, therefore, is indispensable for a good human life. Society, however, also can be oppressive and despotic in ways that limit or even stifle individual freedom; so Wiener added a fourth principle, which could appropriately be called “The Principle of Minimum Infringement of Freedom” (Wiener himself did not give it a name.):

The Principle of Minimum Infringement of Freedom – “What compulsion the very existence of the community and the state may demand must be exercised in such a way as to produce no unnecessary infringement of freedom”. (p.106)

Given Wiener’s account of the purpose of a human life – to realize one’s full human potential in variety and possibility of action – it is not surprising that the Principle of Freedom is first on his list. And since, for Wiener, the purpose of a human life is the same for everyone, the Principle of Equality follows nicely from his account of human nature. The third principle of justice expresses Wiener’s belief that human freedom is best served when people sympathetically and helpfully look out for the wellbeing of all.

Wiener’s principles of justice have significant implications for ICT ethics that are familiar to us today — privacy, security, censorship, damage to human rights. He had much to say on many of these topics, including for example questions of ethics in the workplace.

Workers and Managers in the Information Society

In the early 1950s, Wiener predicted that the world would soon see the creation of “the automatic factory”, with an “ultra-rapid computing machine” functioning like a “brain” to control the production processes and monitor the quality of the factory’s output. The computer would be hooked up to “artificial sense organs”, like thermometers and gauges, enabling it to keep track of environmental conditions in the factory, as well as the progress of production runs. There would also be hardware “effectors” which would “act on the outer world”, functioning like the arms, legs and tools that human workers would have used on the assembly line. In the “automatic factory”, therefore, computer-driven hardware would replace the muscles and sense organs of human blue-collar workers; while the reasoning and calculating components of the computer would replace “low-level judgments” and actions of white-collar employees such as accountants, clerical workers, and factory librarians. The end result, said Wiener, might be unscrupulous factory owners getting very rich at the expense of laid-off workers and society in general.

To forestall such disastrous consequences, Wiener suggested that union leaders, business managers, and public policy makers should plan ahead and develop ways to deal with these problems before they happen. Wiener himself met with union leaders, business managers and public policy makers to discuss new rules and laws that should be put in place to minimize possible harm from automatic factories. This and other issues of ICT ethics in the work place are discussed in this section of the paper.

Note:
All quotations from Wiener are from his book The Human Use of Human Beings, Second Edition Revised, Doubleday Anchor, 1954.

AUTHOR
Jeroen van den Hoven (The Netherlands)

ABSTRACT

There are many optimistic views on the way the Internet may revitalize our democracies. Many experiments are under way. The first reports from around the globe give some reasons for concern. It has been observed that 1) there are inequities with respect to access to information and services, 2) people who would most benefit from being involved in the political process are likely to be excluded, 3) factors that limit political engagement in general are also the ones responsible for limiting forms of electronic engagement and 4) that the evidence to show that ICT will stimulate the interest in public affairs and enhance the political quality of communication, is bleak.

The experiments and scenarios with E-democracy are inspired and informed by different conceptions of democracy. It is important to investigate and articulate the basic conceptions underlying new forms of democratic politics and technologically supported democratic institutions, because it may be the case that we are trying very hard to implement inadequate conceptions of democracy.

According to the classical liberal view of the political process democracy is a technology of representation and aggregation of individual preferences. On the classical republican view of politics democracy is constitutive of a meaningful form of life and collective self-discovery. The liberal and the republican conceptions of the citizen and community also differ accordingly. The liberal citizen is characterized primarily in terms of individual rights and negative freedom, pursuing private interests, the republican citizen is characterized in terms of positive liberties, such as rights to expression, participation and communication, which serve the collective search for the common good.

Several alternatives have been articulated for both classical liberalism and classical republicanism in the theory of democracy. The deliberative conception of democracy is the most prominent alternative and has received a great deal of attention. It has recently been advocated because it is supposed to be congenial to the opportunities the new information and communication technologies offer. Another alternative conception of democracy has emerged -from different sources- which could also be said to be congenial to E-democracy. I have referred to it as the Epistemic Conception of Democracy. Ill argue that both the classical liberal and republican , and the deliberative and epistemic conceptions have problems of their own when thinking about E-democracy.

I will propose to investigate another conception of Democracy, suggested by Philip Pettit: Contestatory Democracy. I claim that in the context of E-Democracy it does not have the vices of other conceptions and has many of the virtues that E-citizens would expect a conception of democracy to have in the age of the Internet.