An overview of information ethics issues in a world-wide context

This article presents an overview of significant issues facing contemporary information professionals. As the world of information continues to grow at unprecedented speed and in unprecedented volume, questions must be faced by information professionals. Will we participate in the worldwide mythology of equal access for all, or will we truly work towards this debatable goal? Will we accept the narrowing of choice for our corresponding increasing diverse clientele? Such questions must be considered in a holistic context and an understanding of the many levels of information inequities is requisite. Beginning with an historical perspective, Buchanan presents Mustapha Masmoudi's seminal review of forms of information inequities. She then describes qualitative forms of inequities, such as information imperialism and cultural bias embedded in such practices as cataloging and classification. Following, a review of quantitative inequities is presented. Such issues as the growing commoditization of information and information services demand attention from the ethical perspective. And, finally, the Internet and implications surrounding the world-wide dissemination of information is discussed. The article concludes with an extraction form Richard Sclove's Democracy and Technology, and asks that we as information professionals actively examine the information industry around us and demand a more democratic process within which to work.     

Information technology, globalization and ethics

This paper illustrates the overlap of computer ethics and business ethics by examining two issues. The first is the lack of fit between digitalized information and copyright protection. Although there are moral arguments that can be used to justify protection of intellectual property, including computer software and digitalized data, the way that copyright protection has developed often reflects vested interests rather than the considered weighing of moral considerations. As a result, with respect to downloading MP3s, among other material, what is ethical is largely determined by the appropriately passed laws in each jurisdiction, and what is ethically permissible in one jurisdiction may be ethically impermissible in another. The second issue is the outsourcing of IT jobs from the U.S. While the practice has been politicized, examining it from an all-things-considered perspective, this paper argues it is ethically justified.I wrote this while I was a Resident at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and Conference Center and I am pleased to acknowledge the support of the Foundation. I gave an abridged version of this paper at the Third World Congress of Business, Economics and Ethics in Melbourne, Australia, in July, 2004.     

信息社会化知识经济化背景下图书馆建设理念的思考

探讨了信息、知识经济时代图书馆的建设。随着知识经济时代的到来,图书馆所处的环境发生了巨大变化,图书馆的发展方向是全新概念的、多功能的现代信息中心,通过网络服务来不断促进图书馆建设,促进现代化图书馆的发展。本文阐述了图书馆建设应与其发展变化趋势相适应,提出了图书馆建设的新理念。     

DUC in context

Recent years have seen increased interest in text summarization with emphasis on evaluation of prototype systems. Many factors can affect the design of such evaluations, requiring choices among competing alternatives. This paper examines several major themes running through three evaluations: SUMMAC, NTCIR, and DUC, with a concentration on DUC. The themes are extrinsic and intrinsic evaluation, evaluation procedures and methods, generic versus focused summaries, single- and multi-document summaries, length and compression issues, extracts versus abstracts, and issues with genre.     

论传统伦理的科学理性思维

当代的环境问题固然是近代工业文明资本主义工业化的恶果,但其深层原因却是传统伦理中的传统科学理性思维。传统伦理观念否认人与自然间存在伦理关系,体现的是人类中心主义的思维方式。     

Mapping the foundationalist debate in computer ethics

The paper provides a critical review of thedebate on the foundations of Computer Ethics(CE). Starting from a discussion of Moor'sclassic interpretation of the need for CEcaused by a policy and conceptual vacuum, fivepositions in the literature are identified anddiscussed: the ``no resolution approach',according to which CE can have no foundation;the professional approach, according to whichCE is solely a professional ethics; the radicalapproach, according to which CE deals withabsolutely unique issues, in need of a uniqueapproach; the conservative approach, accordingto which CE is only a particular appliedethics, discussing new species of traditionalmoral issues; and the innovative approach,according to which theoretical CE can expandthe metaethical discourse with a substantiallynew perspective. In the course of the analysis,it is argued that, although CE issues are notuncontroversially unique, they are sufficientlynovel to render inadequate the adoption ofstandard macroethics, such as Utilitarianismand Deontologism, as the foundation of CE andhence to prompt the search for a robust ethicaltheory. Information Ethics (IE) is proposed forthat theory, as the satisfactory foundation forCE. IE is characterised as a biologicallyunbiased extension of environmental ethics,based on the concepts of information object/infosphere/entropy rather thanlife/ecosystem/pain. In light of the discussionprovided in this paper, it is suggested that CEis worthy of independent study because itrequires its own application-specific knowledgeand is capable of supporting a methodologicalfoundation, IE.     

Machines and the face of ethics

In this article I try to show in what sense Emmanuel Levinas’ ‘ethics as first philosophy’ moves our ethical thinking away from what has been called ‘centrist ethics’. Proceeding via depictions of the structure of Levinasian ethics and including references to examples as well as to some empirical research, I try to argue that human beings always already find themselves within an ethical universe, a space of meaning. Critically engaging with the writings of David Gunkel and Lucas Introna, I try to argue that these thinkers, rather than clarifying, distort our ethical understanding of how we stand in relation to artefacts. Drawing a distinction between how pervasive our ethical relationship to other human beings, and living animals, is and how the nature of artefacts is tied to us, I conclude by indicating that the aspiration to give artefacts an ethical face suggests a fantasy to avoid ethical responsibility and generates what I call a ‘compensatory logic’.     

The relationship between the uniqueness of computer ethics and its independence as a discipline in applied ethics

A number of different uniquenessclaims have been made about computer ethics inorder to justify characterizing it as adistinct subdiscipline of applied ethics. Iconsider several different interpretations ofthese claims and argue, first, that none areplausible and, second, that none provideadequate justification for characterizingcomputer ethics as a distinct subdiscipline ofapplied ethics. Even so, I argue that computerethics shares certain important characteristicswith medical ethics that justifies treatingboth as separate subdisciplines of appliedethics.     

Timely detection and mitigation of IoT-based cyberattacks in the smart grid

The ongoing changes, updates, and upgrades of the Smart Grid infrastructure open up new cybersecurity challenges whose successful and satisfactory handling is a vital necessity for a viable future of these initiatives. The characteristic of the Smart Grid that leads to physical damage and cascading power failures amplifies the severity of security breaches. A set of recent successful Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks on the Internet, facilitated by the proliferation of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) powered botnets, shows that the Smart Grid may become the target and likely victim of such an attack, potentially leaving catastrophic outage of power service to millions of people. In this paper, under a hierarchical data collection infrastructure we propose a general and scalable mitigation approach, called Minimally Invasive Attack Mitigation via Detection Isolation and Localization (MIAMI-DIL), based on an online and nonparametric anomaly detection algorithm which is scalable and capable of timely detection. We provide a proof-of-concept by means of simulations to show the efficacy and scalability of the proposed approach.     

Consumer attitudes towards mobile marketing in the smart phone era

This exploratory online questionnaire-based study confirms the findings from earlier studies in the pre-smart phone era regarding consumers’ negative attitudes towards mobile marketing communications. This study shows that these attitudes persist despite increasing frequency of use and increased functionality of mobile phones in the smart phone era. Consumers perceive their mobile device to be for personal communication, and prefer to be able to exercise control over their interaction with organisations. Findings suggest that acceptance can be enhanced by permission marketing, trust-building, creating a sense of being in control, and useful and entertaining website content. Accordingly, pull technologies seem to hold particular promise for mobile marketing communications. This study, therefore, proceeds to explore use of and attitudes towards an important pull technology, QR codes. QR codes, two-dimensional bar codes, can be scanned to provide access to websites, information and applications. Despite their potential, uptake is low. Users in this study who had scanned a QR code had used them to access a variety of different content on different types of items and in different locations. The most frequently accessed type of content was information on a web site, the two most common locations for a scanned QR code were a newspaper or magazine advert, or outdoor advert or poster, and the two most common locations at which scanning was performed were in the street and at home. Ease of use, utility and incentives are drivers to continued use whilst lack of knowledge about how-to scan or of the benefits of QR codes may hinder adoption. Recommendations are offered for practice and for further research.     

Senior citizens and the ethics of e-inclusion

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…”. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the “digital divide”, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation. Among the older senior citizens, say those more than 80 years old, the main issues are mental and physical deterioration and assistive technology. An approach geared towards the protection of human rights could match the different needs of senior citizens and provide concrete guidance to evaluate information technologies for them.     

浅析竞技体育中加强伦理道德建设的必要性

随着竞技体育的快速发展,伦理道德呈现出复杂而矛盾的现象,竞技体育运行机制中类似假球黑哨和少数运动员弄虚作假、违纪肇事、辱骂殴打裁判、服用兴奋剂等不良事件时有发生.这些事件都与伦理道德有关,可见加强伦理道德建设迫在眉睫.