ICT and Ethics ... considerations and consequences

This post is meant to be my second posting!!! For some reason it never made it onto the blog until now.

Our first tutorial touched on the fragile topic of ethics and ICT. Let's define these terms to make sense of everything!

ICT:

The British Journal of Occupational Therapy (June 2008) states that information and communication technology is ‘online shopping, instant messaging, digital photography, computer games and mobile phones.

The Tech Terms Computer Dictionary (retrieved from http://www.techterms.com/definition/it) regards Information Technology as ‘anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the Internet, or the people that work with these technologies’. Furthermore, the website states that:

‘Many companies now have IT departments for managing the computers, networks, and other technical areas of their businesses. IT jobs include computer programming, network administration, computer engineering, Web development, technical support, and many other related occupations. Since we live in the "information age," information technology has become a part of our everyday lives’

‘ICT (information and communications technology - or technologies) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning. ICTs are often spoken of in a particular context, such as ICTs in education, health care, or libraries’ - http://searchcio-midmarket.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid183_gci928405,00.html

Definitions of Communication Technology on the Web:

Information and Communication Technology or ICTs allow users to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technologies.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_Technology

It is a process to store or deliver information using electronic and graphic means; Processes include encoding, transmitting, receiving, storing, retrieving and decoding
doe.sd.gov/contentstandards/nclb/documents/Glossary_000.doc

Here is my definition:

I particularly like the web definition highlighting that information communication technologies (ICT) allow people to ‘participate in a rapidly changing world’ in which ICT has become a dominant feature in most nations.

ICT as truly become a part of everyday life; offering and allowing many, many opportunities to those that use ICT.

But more importantly I think I should have a closer look at ethics and how they exist in the world of ICT.

According to good old wikipedia online dictionary ethics are:

" ... also known as moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice, etc."

I retrieved the following article from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html  :
 
What then, is ethics? Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well-founded reasons.
Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. As mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly examine one's standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.
 
This article appeared originally in Issues in Ethics IIE V1 N1 (Fall 1987) .

The following link provides a detailed review on ethics and ICT ... quite interesting! http://www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/ethic_in_asia_pacific/239_325ETHICS.PDF

OK ... so my thoughts?

I'll carry on in a second post, this one is big! (you can tell I like to write stuff!)