AUTHOR
Eliany Alvarenga Araujo, Marcos Antonio Alexandre Bezerra

ABSTRACT

The information technology and digital communication, present in our globalized society – The Information Society – come imposing new challenge for the reflections in the several areas of knowledge. A new system of communication that speaks a language with more and more universal character, through digital processes, stimulates either the global interaction of production and distribution of words, sounds and images as it personalizes them according to the preferences, identities, uses and gratifications of the individuals. We are talking about a singular environment; a new social-cultural scenery where the social acts happen with dynamic and inedited formats: the Internet. This environment – named cyberspace – challenges the studious of the social questions to create new theoretical tools that take care of these new phenomena of social interaction. The internet flows at a speed and in quantities not imagined only a few years ago, assuming fundamental economic values and, at the same time, provoking ethic conflicts and consequent necessity of new reflections. Although some studies contribute to launch lights about this virtual reality, the virtual social nets are still a field that still needs deeper reflections. Thus, in this environment we have the challenge of reflecting about ethic questions, which are unsociably connected to the social phenomena, intrinsically connected to the human being. In this sense, this study aims to reflect about the Orkut, a virtual social net linked to the Google, created on January 19th 2004, with the objective of helping its members to create new friendships and keep relationships. Its name is derived from the chief designer, Orkut Büyükkokten, Turkish engineer from Google. At the moment, the Orkut has all over the world, more than 80 million enrolled users, which establish links of professional and personal relationship. The term ethics talks deals with a phenomena of social existence that was born with the humanity, from the moment the man gets conscious of him with the other. The ethics, this way, is related to the initial moment of the human being in the exercise of realizing himself and feeling himself towards the other being that is similar. This conscious of being and to be among equals requires the formulation of principles that preserve the individuality and its integrity in the collective, conceiving to everyone of the same origin as being equals in the relation with the world. If the fundamental function of the ethics is to explain, clarify or investigate a determined reality, elaborating the corresponding concepts, we intend to reflect about the Orkut as an informational phenomenon. As long as we are talking of a phenomenon that uses the information flows and that requires an ethic reflection, we will use the concept of the ethic of the information, proposed by the thinker Rafael Capurro. According to this thinker, the ethics of information designs questions related to the ambit of the processing and by the transmission of information, as well as the management of this information. From an ethics of information as an emancipatory theory we will try to reflect about the liberty of expression and access which the individuals in the context Orkut use. This way we ask: Would it be possible we think in an ethics that investigated, explained or clarified this virtual reality, as a “new” form of experience or human behavior, base don the information mode, based on the information phenomena as a re(connection) element? To do this reflection, we are going to focus the category sociability. The concept sociability was proposed by Georg Simmel. For this thinker the sociability is related to the perspective that the social is a group of relations. The social totality (being “society”, “group” or “community”) is constituted by a relational total, result of a group of relations that the parts which compose it establish dynamically each moment. From this comprehension of the social, there would be only the individual in the society and society in the individual. Society and individual build reciprocally. To Simmel the individuals meet, in the crossing points of the social circles, establishing interdependent relations. From these considerations we ask: In the context of the Orkut the concept of sociability proposed by Simmel could really be applied? The social relations that occur then are analogical reproductions of the ones already existent and in action in the society (sociability)? On the other hand, we can also consider that the subjects (social actors) that are part of the Orkut are establishing a new form of interaction, is this, a new sociability that is not based on the laces of social construction, but in a “Narcisic” sociability, based uniquely on its wishes? Could we consider that in the Orkut we would have a non-sociability? If this consideration is possible, we must reflect about the consequences of such configuration for the human living. We are impelled for these questions to reflect this moment that takes away the point and that requires a new look.

AUTHOR
Francesca Arcelli Fontana, Ferrante Formato and Remo Pareschi

ABSTRACT

The Web is the most important information framework of our generation and probably the next and the Semantic Web is a project to make the Web fully “understandable”. At the current stage it stays very much a “project” shared by academic institutions and research centers. On the other hand, the primeval Web (so called Web 1.0) has evolved on its own into something completely different, Web 2.0. Without getting into a protracted argument over the exact definition of “Web 2.0”, there is a general consensus that it is all about people: it doesn’t care only about technology or standards, just make sure that it is people-oriented by letting and enabling people create, collaborate, share and interact. More than that, and curiously enough, the Web 2.0 has boosted a thoroughly unexpected concept muted by biology and complex systems : co-evolution. In fact, while the nitty gritty of Semantic Web -ontologies and RDFs- still fight their way through the niche of academic and educational institutions, the hottest sites of the Network are no longer mere content containers, but lively Web communities that live their metamorphosis within global social networks like MySpace.

Complex networks are everywhere, from molecular aggregation of amynoacids to telephonic networks and motorways. It seems that complex networks are necessary characteristics of life itself, in the sense that without a complex network no form of life can be developed. One of the most bewildering things is that complex networks are never alone. For any complex network, there is another complex network somewhere that creates it, reflects it and co-evolves with it. For example the thought is a (complex) networks of concepts reflected into a (complex) aggregation of communities of neurons that reflects upon a (complex) community of people. But the most amusing thing is that the converse is difficult to deny. Therefore, any explicit specification of knowledge -according to Tom Gruber’s definition of ontology- to make sense must reflect an explicit distribution of minds that share such knowledge. As a consequence, the Web graph is the reflection of a social network which in turn is the reflection of a complex cognitive map. Thus, although the quest for semantic clarity remains high, the context and the scope of a “Semantic Web” has dramatically changed. Knowledge is no longer poured from heaven into ontologies but is negotiated through Web communities. In fact, our assumption here is that the relationship between conceptual networks (ontologies) and people networks (Web communities) is reciprocal and dynamic: ontologies identify communities and communities, through their practices and interests, define ontologies and determine their evolution. By applying proven constraints techniques for querying conceptual languages in the style of KLONE and coupling them with community detection algorithms from the tradition of complex networks, in this paper we want to show, given an ontology, how to extract a set of Web communities by matching each part of the ontology with the kernel of Web community. Furthermore, we will propose an extension of the layer cake road map for the Semantic Web, that keeps into account the relationship between people and content underlying the evolutionary step from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0.

AUTHOR
Mirja Liisa Airos

ABSTRACT

Theoretical Foundation and Conceptualization

Managers and leaders have remarkable impacts on firm’s behaviour and communication with the overall society. Ordinary daily business life presents and opens up many ethical quandaries at which they have to decide what to do. Quandaries are moral binds between competing good and bad considerations (Smith 2002), which may also be called as critical incidents (Velasquez 1998) and moments of truths (Mason, Mason & Culnan 1995). In this study the phenomena has working name “critical moments”. Managers/leaders are balancing the conflicting needs and interests in the context of power relationships (Castells 1997), they also ought to analyze, identify and resolve ethical and responsible dilemmas (Laudon & Laudon 2000).

Frame-working of the managerial and leading activities and decision procedures in the sense of examining the “critical moments” as individual managers/leaders are facing them is lacking or inadequate in prevailing Finnish researches of information and communication technology enterprises. These issues have been the target in only a few tangential academic researches (see Vartiainen 2005, Siponen 2005, Tiainen 2002 etc.) The main interests in this paper are to widen the theoretical and applicable knowledge of these situations, which cause “praiseworthy”, “right”, “wrong”, “bad”, “unjust”, “unethical” or “illegal” decisions and behaviour in the context of the Finnish ICT firms.

Research Strategy, Methodology and Nature of Data

This study is in relation to qualitative research tradition (Additional information on the paradigmatic stance: interpretative and radical humanistic sense. see Burrell & Morgan 1989) and the focus is in public discourses of “critical moments” in decision-making of selected managers/leaders (approximately five persons representing separate firms) as cases. Written textual discourses (about textual studies see Bazerman & Prior 2004) are viewed with traditional content (Carney 1972, Krippendorff 1980, Weber 1990 etc.) with the notions of discourse (van Dijk 1997, Wetherell & Taylor & Yates 2001, Wodak & Meyer 2001, Johnstone 2002 etc.) and case (Yin 1989, Gomm & Hammersley & Foster 2000, Gerring 2007 etc.) analytical methods. Traditional content analysis seems to have in this time-span more productive way of exploration. Interviews are not used as data.

The rewarding and fruitful data, for the research of this kind, consists of former scientific literature and discourses, which illustrate the empirical findings. As for the former scientific literature it is worthwhile to look through academic writings, such as books and refereed articles (Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics: A European Review, Business Ethics Quarterly, Information, Communication and Society and Ethics and Information Technology etc.). As practical indications enterprises-based discourses (annual reports, press releases, news bulletins, stakeholder magazines, web pages) and other publicly reachable materials (main Finnish business and information technology newspapers: Talouselämä, Kauppalehti, Taloussanomat, Tietoviikko and Tekniikka & Talous etc.) are of huge potential. This contemplation has surely fertile ground for other future investigations.

REFERENCES
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Burrell, Gibson and Morgan, Gareth. 1989, Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis: Elements of the Sociology of Corporate Life. Aldershot. Gower

Carney, T. F. 1972. Content Analysis: A Technique of Systematic Inference from Communications. London.

Castells, Manuel. 1997. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Volume II: The Power of Identity. pp. 6-12.

Gerring, John. 2007. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Gomm, Roger & Hammersley, Martyn & Foster, Peter. 2000. Case Study Method: Key Issues, Key Texts. London. SAGE.

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Laudon, Kenneth C. & Laudon, Jane P. 2000. Management Information Systems: Organization and Technology in the Networked Enterprise. 6th Edition. pp. 130-131, 150.

Mason, Richard O., Mason Florence M. & Culnan, Mary J. 1995. Ethics of Information Management, Thousand Oaks, California, SAGE Series in Business Ethics. pp. 11-19.

Siponen, Mikko T. 2005. Use of the Universalizability Thesis in Computer Ethics: A Pragmatic Perspective. Joensuu. University of Joensuu, Publications in Social Sciences 74. pp. 32-42.

Smith, H. Jeff. 2002. Ethics and Information Systems: Resolving the Quandaries. ACM SIGMIS Database Volume 33 Issue 3 pp.8-22.

Tiainen, Tarja. 2002. Information System Specialist Predispositions. Tampere. University of Tampere, Department of Computer and Information Sciences. pp. 149,160-162.

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Vartiainen, Tero. 2005. Moral Conflicts in a Project Course in Information Systems Education. Jyväskylä, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä Studies in Computing 49. pp. 79-87.

Velasquez, Manuel G. 1998. Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases. 4th Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. pp. 36-37.

Weber, Robert P. 1990. Basic Content Analysis. Beverly Hills, California. SAGE.

Wetherell, Margaret & Taylor, Stephanie & Yates, Simeon J. Discourse as Data: A Guide for Analysis. Milton Keynes. Open University.

Wodak, Ruth & Meyer, Michael. 2001. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London. SAGE.

Yin, Robert K. 1989. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Revised Edition. Newbury Park, CA. SAGE.

Baase, Sara. 2003. Gift of Fire: Social, legal, and ethical issues, for computers and the Internet. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, New York. N. J. Pearson Education cop.

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Forester, Tom & Morrison, Perry. 2001. Computer Ethics: Cautionary Tales and Ethical Dilemmas in Computing. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.

Johnson, Deborah G. 2001, 1994, 1985. Computer Ethics – 3rd Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall.

Johnson, Deborah G. & Nissenbaum, Helen. 1995. Computers, Ethics & Social Values. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Prentice Hall.

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Werhane, Patricia H. 1999. Moral Imagination and Management Decision Making. New York. Oxford University Press.

AUTHOR
Malik Aleem Ahmed, Jeroen van den Hoven

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the responsibilities of freelance web developers. Much of the literature on responsibility in the IT field addresses the responsibilities of members of the IT profession. In this paper we investigate to what extent the responsibilities associated with IT professionals apply to freelancers.

Poorly developed and managed web applications and systems may cause harm to the users, clients and others groups in the society. Among the causes of poorly developed web applications are (1) ad hoc approaches, (2) the lack of proper standards and (3) usage of code without proper understanding. M.J. Taylor et al. (2002) carried out a survey of 25 UK based organizations regarding website development methodologies. They found that ad hoc approaches to website development are widespread. Development activity was not formalized or structured, there was an apparent lack of coding standards, resulting in impediments to adequate future website maintenance activities. Gotterbarn, D. (2001) noted that the ‘crossword puzzle solving approach’ for the development of applications taken by developers poses ethical problems. In the crossword puzzle approach the primary goal is to solve the problem exactly as it is presented to the developer. Freelance web developers have the tendency to take this approach. A survey of informal and professional web developers showed that only one respondent mentioned testing of security (Rosson, M.B. et al. 2005).

Polls posted on different freelancing web designing and development communities confirmed that more than 80% of the respondents (freelance web developers) have used free code for the development of web applications on one or more occasions. Re-usage of freely available malicious or bugged code in web applications and systems by freelance web developers without proper understanding, modifying, testing and/or debugging may give rise to many problems. There is a chance that the code was developed for malicious purposes and once used in live web applications and systems; users, client and others in the society may become vulnerable as a result. Even if the code was not developed for harmful purposes, it may still contain bugs and security vulnerabilities which may be exploited at a later stage by others.

Threats and vulnerabilities of using free code include hacking, identity theft, unauthorized access and use of private information, spamming, spread of harmful programs and server side problems which will be discussed in this paper.

This paper discusses the responsibilities of freelance web developers. We claim that freelance web developers are not only morally responsible for their work, but also that they have specific responsibilities which are usually only associated with members of well entrenched and institutionalized professions.

The relevant moral question is not “are they professionals?”, but “are they agents of responsibility and can they contribute to harm?”. It is obvious that they can. In order to justify this claim we will show in detail how the actions or inactions of freelance web developers affect the users, clients and others in the society and which types of responsibility are associated with them.

Suggestions for improving the situation comprise the following: (A) We emphasize that having a better understanding of the relationships with different entities (Employer-Employee, Client-Professional, Society-Professional and Professional-Professional as for example discussed by Johnson, D.G. 1995) helps freelancers to realize their responsibilities and perform their duties better. (B) We argue that a process of proto-professionalization is important and it is important for freelancers to become a member of an international association or community of computing or web development for freelance web developers. This may furthermore help to build the trust of clients and increase the credibility of freelance web developers. (C) Working in accordance with a four step model (i.e. 1. Search and download the code from reliable resources, 2. Scan, understand and analyze the code, 3. Modify, integrate, test and debug the code, 4. Upload, maintain and evaluate) elaborated in this paper also contributes to the development of safer and more adequate web applications and systems.

AUTHOR
Giampaolo Azzoni

ABSTRACT

In order to develop the civil and economic potential of social media, not only operators, but also governments and international institutions, should operate towards the construction of a blogosphere conceived as a spontaneous order (in the sense of Hayek), an open society (in the sense of Popper) and a plural space of public opinion (in the sense of Habermas). Social effectiveness of a social medium is narrowly linked to the capacity to abandon a monologic and narcissistic dimension and attain a dialogical and relational form. Social media operators (especially professional operators) are invited to elaborate not only codes of conduct, but even structures of social media from a point of view which is inter-subjective, dialectic and ethically engaged (in the sense of Hegel).

AUTHOR
Janusz Wielki

ABSTRACT

The development of the Internet and its interest as a business platform, caused deep changes in the conditions, functioning and competing of organizations at the end of the twentieth century. The global character of the Internet and its open character as well as the availability of numerous, internet technology-based, easy to use tools that allow for simple navigation through this global network and access to the diverse resources available were undoubtedly the key elements of its rapid success. It meant that utilization of the Internet provided organizations with numerous, previously unknown, opportunities with regard to new business models, ways of functioning and reaching their customers.

Hence, most of the analysis to date of the impact of the Internet on the functioning of organizations has been focused on the possible ways to operate in this global computer network, the utilization of Internet technology-based tools and its impact on individual elements of the task environment as well as on the sectors generally in which they operate.

Because of this, most of the analysis is first and foremost devoted to ways of operating in new conditions and utilizing new business models, the impact of the Internet environment on behavior and attitudes of consumers, issues connected with barriers of entry and the possibilities of new competitors appearing or establishing new kinds of business relations.

But there is another, and it would seem increasingly more important, dimension of the Internet’s impact on the functioning of contemporary organizations. Namely, its global and open character has meant that around the Internet (understood in a purely technical way as a global network infrastructure allowing for the easy communication of computers and exchange of data) mobile infrastructure has emerged and has been continuously developing a very complex, extremely dynamic and not entirely predictable e-space. An e-space in which not only a company’s suppliers, competitors, and increasingly powerful customers operate, but where various substitute products or services start to emerge, and where new entrants can start conducting their business activities easier than elsewhere.

In fact with the “crystallization” of the e-economy, it has become increasingly clear to see that e-space is also an area where numerous, hard to identify and “capture” entities operate, realizing their own different goals and exerting more and more influenced on the functioning of an organization. As a result, understanding the manners of their influence is crucial for contemporary organizations in the context of their increasing involvement in the utilization of the Internet as a significant business platform.

The paper is composed of four parts. In the first part an overview of the situation connected with the Internet (and mobile infrastructure) development and the consequences of this process is briefly provided.

The second part is focused on defining of e-space and separating its core components. Two basic sub-spaces forming it has been identified and characterized there. They include:

• Internet-space (with its most important part Web-space),
• m-space (mobile-space).

The following part forms the core of this paper. First, three basic groups of entities operating in e-space has been isolated and characterized. They include:

• a group of known and identifiable entities operating in cyberspace, affecting an organization,
• a group of identifiable and unidentifiable entities operating in cyberspace, neutral from the point of view of an organization,
• group of unknown and/or difficult to identify entities operating in cyberspace, affecting an organization in a real way.

Next the taxonomy of the impact of entities belonging to each of mentioned above groups is presented, analyzed and discussed. It is hypothesized that there are two basic forms of influence i.e. direct and indirect. It is also hypothesized that in case both of them there can be identified four types of the impact. They include:

• “physical” impact of entities operating in e-space aimed at tangible assets of organizations,
• “physical” impact of entities operating in e-space aimed at intangible assets of organizations,
• “non-physical” impact of entities operating in e-space aimed at tangible assets of organizations,
• “non-physical” impact of entities operating in e-space aimed at intangible assets of organizations.

Above mentioned types of influence are defined and discussed. In all cases special attention is concentrated on social and ethical challenges and implications connected with e-space development and the impact of entities operating them on organizations All these issues are supported by numerous examples from various sectors.

In the final part of the paper, the most significant conclusions and suggestions are offered.