BUSN 371:Chapters 4-6

Examples on how ethical, social, and political issues are connected

students can identify issues surrounding the five moral dimensions of the information age. These include: information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, accountability and control, system quality, and quality of life.

Risk Aversion Principle

. Take the action that produces the least harm or the least potential cost.

Explain why it is so difficult to hold software services liable for failure or injury.

1)In general, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to hold software producers liable for their software products that are considered to be like books, regardless of the physical or economic harm that results. Historically, print publishers, books, and periodicals have not been held liable because of fears that liability claims would interfere with First Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of expression. 2)Software is very different from books. Software users may develop expectations of infallibility about software; software is less easily inspected than a book, and it is more difficult to compare with other software products for quality; software claims actually to perform a task rather than describe a task, as a book does; and people come to depend on services essentially based on software. Given the centrality of software to everyday life, the chances are excellent that liability law will extend its reach to include software even when the software merely provides an information service.

Explain how ethical, social, and political issues are connected and give some examples.

1)Information technology has raised new possibilities for behavior for which laws and rules of acceptable conduct have not yet been developed. 2)Ethical issues confront individuals who must choose a course of action, often in a situation in which two or more ethical principles are in conflict (a dilemma). Social issues spring from ethical issues as societies develop expectations in individuals about the correct course of action. Political issues spring from social conflict and are mainly concerned with using laws that prescribe behavior to create situations in which individuals behave correctly.

No free lunch" rule

Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific declaration otherwise.

Explain how the Internet challenges the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property.

Data storage and data analysis technology enables companies to easily gather personal data about individuals from many different sources and analyze these data to create detailed electronic profiles about individuals and their behaviors. Data flowing over the Internet can be monitored at many points. The activities of Web site visitors can be closely tracked using cookies and other Web monitoring tools. Not all Web sites have strong privacy protection policies, and they do not always allow for informed consent regarding the use of personal information.

Golden rule

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Descartes' rule of change

If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all.

Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative

If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for anyone.

Describe the key technological trends that heighten ethical concerns.

Increasing computer power, storage, and networking capabilities including the Internet can expand the reach of individual and organizational actions and magnify their impacts. The ease and anonymity with which information can be communicated, copied, and manipulated in online environments are challenging traditional rules of right and wrong behavior.

Utilitarian Principle

Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value

List and describe the principal causes of system quality problems?

The software industry has not yet arrived at testing standards for producing software of acceptable but not perfect performance. Although software bugs and facility catastrophes are likely to be widely reported in the press, by far the most common source of business system failure is data quality. Few companies routinely measure the quality of their data, but individual organizations report data error rates ranging from 0.5 to 30 percent.

Identify and describe six ethical principles.

These principles are derived independently from several cultural, religious, and intellectual traditions and include: 1)Golden rule 2)Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative 3)Descartes' rule of change 4)Utilitarian Principle 5)Risk Aversion Principle 6)No free lunch" rule

Identify and describe six ethical principles

These principles should be used in conjunction with an ethical analysis to guide decision-making. The ethical analysis involves identifying the facts, values, stakeholders, options, and consequences of actions. Once completed, you can consider which ethical principle to apply to a situation to arrive at a judgment.

List and define three different regimes that protect intellectual property rights?

Traditional copyright laws are insufficient to protect against software piracy because digital material can be copied so easily. Internet technology also makes intellectual property even more difficult to protect because digital material can be copied easily and transmitted to many different locations simultaneously over the Net. Web pages can be constructed easily using pieces of content from other Web sites without permission.

liability

is a feature of political systems in which a body of laws is in place that permits individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems, or organizations.

accountability

is a feature of systems and social institutions. It means that mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible action.

responsibility

is a key element of ethical actions. Responsibility means that you accept the potential costs, duties, and obligations for the decisions you make.

Fair information practices

is a set of principles governing the collection and use of information about individuals. FIP principles are based on the notion of a mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual.

Define privacy

is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state. Claims of privacy are also involved at the workplace.

Intellectual property is subject to a variety of protections under three different legal traditions:

• Trade secrets • Copyright • Patent law

List the key technological trends that heighten ethical concerns.

•Computing power doubles every 18 months •Data storage costs rapidly declining •Data analysis advances •Networking advances and the Internet

The five steps in ethical analysis include:

•Identify and describe clearly the facts. •Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved. •Identify the stakeholders. •Identify the options that you can reasonably take. •Identify the potential consequences of your options.

Name and describe four quality of life impacts of computers and information systems

•Jobs can be lost when computers replace workers or tasks become unnecessary in reengineered business processes. •Ability to own and use a computer may be exacerbating socioeconomic disparities among different racial groups and social classes. •Widespread use of computers increases opportunities for computer crime and computer abuse. •Computers can create health problems, such as repetitive stress injury, computer vision syndrome, and technostress.

List and describe the principal causes of system quality problems? Three principle sources of poor system performance are:

•Software bugs and errors •Hardware or facility failures caused by natural or other causes •Poor input data quality