Is the Increasing Scarcity of Women in Information Technology a Social Justice Issue?

AUTHOR Caroline E. Wardle, C. Dianne Martin and Valerie A. Clarke ABSTRACT The well-documented scarcity in the U.S. of women studying computer science (CS) and pursuing careers in information technology (IT) has traditionally been studied from a perspective that supports workforce needs. In 1986 the number of baccalaureates awarded to women in CS peaked at […]

Privacy and human rights – 1984 revisited or simply the pursuit of a safer society?

AUTHOR Ciaran Ward ABSTRACT The digital age has created something of a “Big Brother” society in which the proliferation of modern technology has advanced the need for effective legislation to reconcile the right to privacy with the desire for a safer society where illegal or suspect activities can be adequately monitored. CCTV cameras are now […]

Being a good computer professional: the advantages of virtue ethics in computing

AUTHOR Richard Volkman ABSTRACT As illustrated by analogy to the recent scandals in the telecom industry, deontological and utilitarian approaches to computer ethics are unable to serve as good guides to action under circumstances of economic change or uncertainty about values. These circumstances practically define the cultural environment of computing. Indeed, it is a truism […]

Internet and mobile communication between health care from the citizen point of view

AUTHOR Pekka Turunen, Aapo Immonen and Jarmo Tähkäpää ABSTRACT In cases where businesses have been using customer based data systems for quite some time, health care customer type information and communication, ICT, services have only been emerging e.g. (Ragupathi 1997). In health care as a specific area, there are special social and ethical aspects that […]

Providing Graduate Computing Students with an Appreciation of Appropriate the Ethical, Professional and Legal Issues

AUTHOR Barrie Thompson and Helen Edwards ABSTRACT It is widely recognised that Information Society Technologies (IST) are changing the world. For example, in the documentation relating to the priority thematic areas for research within the European Union Framework 6 initiative, it is stated that: “Information society technologies (IST) are transforming the economy and society. Not […]

Patterns of ethical behaviour and decision making

AUTHOR Stanislaw Szejko ABSTRACT Computer ethics is about principles related to behaviour and decisions made by computer professionals and users, including software engineers, operators, managers, policy makers, as well as educators and students. This means all these people involved should be supported with some “policies for ethical conduct” i.e. policies that guide their actions and […]