Cyberethics – Chapter 44

Book: Cyberethics – More Specific Professional Responsibilities

Library References:  N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Understanding of the code ethics among an individuals.”

What I expect to learn:

• To apply the code of ethics in my life and to meet several forms of ethical issues.

Chapter Review:

Harmful actions include intentional destruction or modification of files and programs leading to serious loss of resources or unnecessary expenditure of human resources such as the time and effort required to purge systems of “computer viruses.”

Well-intended actions, including those that accomplish assigned duties, may lead to harm unexpectedly. In such an event the responsible person or persons are obligated to undo or mitigate the negative consequences as much as possible. One way to avoid unintentional harm is to carefully consider potential impacts on all those affected by decisions made during design and implementation.

To minimize the possibility of indirectly harming others, computing professionals must minimize malfunctions by following generally accepted standards for system design and testing. Furthermore, it is often necessary to assess the social consequences of systems to project the likelihood of any serious harm to others. If system features are misrepresented to users, coworkers, or supervisors, the individual computing professional is responsible for any resulting injury.

In the work environment the computing professional has the additional obligation to report any signs of system dangers that might result in serious personal or social damage. If one’s superiors do not act to curtail or mitigate such dangers, it may be necessary to “blow the whistle” to help correct the problem or reduce the risk. However, capricious or misguided reporting of violations can, itself, be harmful. Before reporting violations, all relevant aspects of the incident must be thoroughly assessed. In particular, the assessment of risk and responsibility must be credible. It is suggested that advice be sought from other computing professionals.

What I learned:

In this chapter I have learned the following:

• Perception of people about code of ethics
• Understanding and awareness
• Different responsibilities to applied

Integrative Questions:

1.    What are professional responsibilities?

2.    How do you applied code of ethics in your life/

3.    What type of behaviors you have in moral values/

4.    What are your perceptions about the specific professional responsibilities?

5.    How to prefer the contracts agreements and assigned responsibilities?

Cyberethics – Chapter 43

Book:  Cyberethics – Code of Ethics and Professional Ethics

Library Reference:  N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“The Code shall be supplemented by a set of Guidelines, which provide explanation to assist members in dealing with the various issues contained in the Code. It is expected that the Guidelines will be changed more frequently than the Code.”

What I expect to learn:

• Positive side of code of ethics
• Application to our daily living
• Possible solution to the problems

Chapter Review:

It should be noted that although computing is not mentioned in the imperatives of Section 1, the Code is concerned with how these fundamental imperatives apply to one’s conduct as a computing professional. These imperatives are expressed in a general form to emphasize that ethical principles which apply to computer ethics are derived from more general ethical principles.

It is understood that some words and phrases in a code of ethics are subject to varying interpretations, and that any ethical principle may conflict with other ethical principles in specific situations. Questions related to ethical conflicts can best be answered by thoughtful consideration of fundamental principles, rather than reliance on detailed regulations.

This principle concerning the quality of life of all people affirms an obligation to protect fundamental human rights and to respect the diversity of all cultures. An essential aim of computing professionals is to minimize negative consequences of computing systems, including threats to health and safety.

When designing or implementing systems, computing professionals must attempt to ensure that the products of their efforts will be used in socially responsible ways, will meet social needs, and will avoid harmful effects to health and welfare.

In addition to a safe social environment, human well-being includes a safe natural environment. Therefore, computing professionals who design and develop systems must be alert to, and make others aware of, any potential damage to the local or global environment.

What I learned:

The following lessons I have learned in this chapter are:

• The value of life
• The morality of human persons
• Application of code of ethics in computer world

Integrative Questions:

1.    What are the learning experiences of the people with other people?

2.    What is the Code of Ethics in the computer world?

3.    What is quality of life?

4.    What are the cons and pros of the code of ethics?

5.    How to apply this code of ethics in your life?

Cyberethics – Chapter 42

Book: Cyberethics – The Practitioner from Within: Revisiting the Virtues

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“It is difficult to get from youth up a right training for virtue if one has not been brought up under right laws; for to live temperately and hardily is not pleasant to most people especially when they are young. For this reason their nurture and occupation should be fix by law.” by Frances S. Grodzinsky.

What I expect to learn:

I intend to learn in this chapter all the information where is its title is all about.

Chapter Review:

Traditionally the study of computer ethics involves taking students who are not philosophically trained, exposing them to action-guiding theories, presenting them with the codes of ethics of several companies and professional organizations and asking them to make ethical decisions in scenario-based cases. This approach is deliberately action-based and focuses on doing. “What would you do?” is the traditional question we ask our students. While this pedagogical methodology forces them to examine situations and argue from a particular point of view, it does little to influence their character. They see the utilitarian or deontologist as someone other than themselves.

There seems to be very little internalization of these action-based theories. Virtue Ethics offers character-forming theory that has been more successful with my students than the action-based theories of computer ethics texts. Why? Virtue Ethics is directed toward character development. The focus is on being rather than doing. It presents a good heuristic or approach to the problem of moral agency. Virtue ethics offers a way of teaching self-reflection through narratives that focus on core values, heroes and moral exemplars.

It is grounded in practical wisdom. It is experiential, learning to care about the self, others, the community, living the good life, flourishing and striving for moral excellence. It offers a model for the development of character and personal ethics which will lead to professional ethics. Yet, the strict Virtue Ethics espoused by Aristotle has its limitations. This paper will explore the need for a more integrative approach to contemporary moral theory, one that may be found by revisiting the virtues through the works of Aristotle and Kant. It will offer insight into translating theory into practice for students of computer science and information technology.

What I learned:

              
               I have learned that much of the data that is mined is public or semi-public
in nature what we purchase at the supermarket, where we surf the Web, where we work, our
salary. This data can be used to construct profiles and customer categories that can be
used to target advertising. In addition to data privacy issues, data mining raises other
social concerns.  

               For example, Danna and Gandy (2002) argue that data mining and the use of
consumer profiles can actually exclude groups of customers from full participation in the
marketplace and limit their access to information. Thus, there are major ethical and
social issues that arise from the practice of data mining.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What ethics offers character-forming theory?

2.    What are Sherman’s books of discussion?

3.    What does ICT means?

4.    What does Louden states about ethics?

5.    Who asserts that carrying out rules is a sole concern of ethics?

Cyberethics – Chapter 41

Book: Cyberethics – Ethical Issues in Business Computing

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Essentially, computers are used in business to solve problems. An individual manager, focused on use of a computer for the task in hand, may understandably lack specialist awareness of wider ethical issues.” by Duncan Langford

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn how computer become useful in a business.

Chapter Review:

Business, Legal and Ethical Issues is the first of the core subjects undertaken by Computer Professional Education Program (CPeP) students in their ongoing professional development. Professionalism is a risk management strategy and in this subject the emphasis is on applying professionalism in the business context.

Because of our new hi-tech technology, computer nowadays was very useful in many ways. It can also used in business. That is why there are so many businessmen that have the newest model of computer to use for their businesses.

On the other hand the ordinary data protection regime generally applies to non editorial activities performed by the media. Data protection supervisory authorities when applying data protection law recognize the particularity of the media both where a special legal regime exists and where it does not.

The effective extent of the derogations furthermore cannot be assessed in abstract terms but it is dependent on the overall structure of the data protection legislation in each given country. Clearly the extent of the derogations needed is dependent on the extent to which the substantive rules would effectively have a bearing on the activities of the media.

The differences as to the application of data protection law to the media may also be explained by changing perspectives both on the role of data protection law and on the use of information technology by the media. In the early days of data protection the attention tended to focus on large mainframe-based databases. In those days the media seemed hardly concerned by such rules and no derogations from them therefore seemed necessary. The shifting emphasis of data protection law towards the notion of processing and the extensive use of information technology by the media has fundamentally changed the situation.

What I learned:

I learned that all companies of whatever size, should consider their use of computer systems. If a policy on computer use has not already developed, it is not just sensible but essential that urgent consideration is given to the ways in which systems are currently being used.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is the smallest scale of business computing?

2.    Here business organization is larger, what is it?

3.    At this level a business is large enough to employ a designated computer specialist, what is it?

4.    At this level there will be at least one team of computer specialist, what is it?

5.    What is used by business computer systems falls into two distinct and equally important?

Cyberethics – Chapter 40

Book: Cyberethics – Subsumption Ethics

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“The different between computers and simple machines is the extent to which computer systems subsume design and development decisions over which users have little or no control.” by David H. Gleason.

What I expect to learn:

I intend to know in this chapter the meaning of subsumption ethics.

Chapter Review:

Subsumption ethics is the process by which decisions become incorporated into the operation of information technology (IT) systems, and subsequently forgotten. There are four axioms of subsumption ethics: A. Information systems subsume design, policy and implementation decisions in programming code and content; B. Subsumed objects have determinate moral value; C. Subsumed objects have a high “invisibility factor;” and D. Subsumptive complexity increases over time. These axioms can be applied to practical problems in IT by using them in conjunction with established ethical frameworks.

Information systems subsume design, policy and implementation decisions in programming code.

The right to privacy is similarly guaranteed by article 8 of the ECHR. Data protection comes within the scope of the protection of private life guaranteed under this article. Derogations to the principles of data protection and to article 8 of the ECHR must be in accordance with the law and must respect the principle of proportionality. Equally limits to freedom of expression, such as the ones that might derive from the application of data protection principles, must also be in accordance with the law and respect the principle of proportionality.

The differences between these three models should not however be over-estimated. In most cases, independently of any express derogation that may exist, data protection legislation does not apply fully to the media because of the special constitutional status of the rules on freedom of expression and freedom of the press. These rules place a de facto limit on the application of substantive data protection provisions or at least their effective enforcement.

What I learned:

In this chapter, I learned that the difference between computers and simple achiness is the extent to which computer subsume design and development decisions over which users have little or no control.

I also learned that there is a close relationship between computer systems and organizational policy. Some example is the state motor vehicle.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is subsumption ethics?

2.    What does IT means?

3.    What are the four ethical principles that have roots in antiquity?

4.    What do we call the third ethical principle?

5.    This is a part of an ancient Hindu Text called Mahabharata, what is it?

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Getting Real (Chapter 1-2)

Reading the 2 chapters of getting real is something; I’m able to pick up a lot of information on how businesses are doing using a software or having a web application. The claims of Getting Real about their products overwhelms and excites me; after reading chapter 1 and 2, I’m more curious on how their products work, its appearance, is it really that good – Campfire, Basecamp, and Writeboard.

The views of the 37signals are quite weird but I like it. For instance is the build less, it is somewhat of non-sense but then again it has point. How can you compete and win over your competitors if you have less? I guess the answer is how to work on the “less” and make it your advantage. Whatever is the making of the “less” of 37signals, I say it is a good idea. Also, the ideas of Getting Real and Getting Real itself are of the other side – not the usual stuff that is why I see it as somewhat new. But then again at the back of my mind, it is not new; it is just the opposite of what people follow today. What you think? I guess it is new in someway.

I agree to the “passion thing” that they talk about; everything is true for me and for me having the “passion” does not only apply in either making a web application or software for the business; but in everything I or YOU or WE do.

I like the straightforward, concise, and easy to understand look of the book. Nice!

Getting Real (Chapter 3)

The concepts under Chapter 3 says something about seeing problems emerging from projects in a positive way; be nice to accept and love them which in reality is really hard to do. For instance, embracing constraints and love changes as the 37Signals says.

I agree to the concept of less mass. It has a good point of view. However, doing changes is not that easy to do as it is easy to say. I think when it comes to doing changes, no matter how small or big it is and the team number involved; somehow it is still hard. The only difference is how quick to shift to the changes. Changes is always present; that is one thing everyone should bear in mind. But then again, having small people to work things out and a small scope is an advantage. I find the concept of ‘emergence’ appealing. The “Keep it small. Keep it simple. Let it happen.” words by the 37Signals is true; it is easy to create and work things if it is small and is not yet that complicated. The 3 person in a group is easy formulate; just merge 3 persons. But, choosing what kinds of people to group with is hard just like the 37Signals said.

Quoting the 37Signals words, “Small companies enjoy fewer formalities, less bureaucracy, and more freedom.” This is true; for instance, “sari-sari store”; it is more oriented to customer, everything in it is simple for instance are the activities and processes and free in a sense that not bounded by strictness.

Getting Real (Chapter 4)

Overall, I agree with the viewpoints of Chapter 4; talking about simple but strong ideas. I like the quote “If you try to please everyone, you won’t please anyone” by 37Signals; it is weird but I guess its talking about reality. Do not waste your time and effort just for you to be good to everyone’s eyes because reality does not permit you to do so. You are dreaming if you think you can actually befriend your customers or other people. As for what I learned in this chapter aside from what I mentioned above, it is not to be paranoid; like what 37Signals said, do not think of the future problems yet when building a system or software. Although it is good to prepare to yourself for what lies ahead, somehow it is impractical because all you have are assumptions of what to happen in the future.

Similarly, do not easily jump into conclusions as what people says. In creating systems or software, for now, think of the present things you can do. It means only do things that is needed for the mean time and later are the future needs. And the last thing that sticks to mind while I was reading Chapter 4 is that being a perfectionist at the beginning is bad; I guess even in reality whether it is beginning or ending, being a perfectionist all the way is just bad. Perfectionist means focusing on the details first instead of the big picture. I can relate to this, I am a perfectionist in one way or another; I get easily bugged or frustrated when small things are not in their proper places or is not working the way it is supposed to be. With that, now I know what to concentrate on first when working a system or software and that is not on the details; pretty much I learned my lesson and try not to be a perfectionist.

Getting Real (Chapter 5)

The concepts surrounding Chapter 5 refers to handling application features and feature request of customers. I agree to the bottom line that 37Signals are saying “Build products and offer services you can manage. It’s easy to make promises. It’s much harder to keep them. Make sure whatever it is that you’re doing is something you can actually sustain – organizationally, strategically, and financially.”, this quote is something one should always remember because in reality, it actually make sense. When you create or do something, you should prove to people that you can actual succeeded in it or work with it all the way. I also like the idea of ‘asking people what they do not like’, it is simple and I think it is worth to try it. Similarly, the topic highlighting the purposes of having simple features in an application, I guess it is alright to build simple applications that will also encourage people or users to think a little.

One of the things that I learned from Chapter 5 and leave me surprised is the way 37Signals handle hundreds of feature request from customers. For this kind of people, they advise their readers to somehow ignore those suggested features of an application by the customers and to say the word ‘no’ to them. I agree that it is really hard to be filled and bombarded with orders like insert this, do this, include this, can we incorporate it; it is not easy to create and create features of an application. Although, it is really hard to say ‘no’ especially to your customers who gives you money. In addition to, I now knew what is a “feature loop” is, I admit that it sounded new to me. As for the “It just doesn’t matter” answer by 37Signals; it is entertaining. My only comment is: Sorry to the customers if the features they suggest is not permitted because after all it is not important to the application – sounds like 37Signals.

Getting Real (Chapter 6)

Chapter 6 – Process taught me to a lot of things; first is to get the idea and work that idea in reality. Second, I learned to expect that one way or another in the development of the system or software, one will have to work in iteration as 37Signals says. Be ready to work and work and work out that application and do not be a perfectionist. Next, I learned that it is a good thing to release beta features because then you have a dry-run of the application and you can easily change things as compared to a real release; and doing small things is advisable whether in programming or other matters because there you will feel that you have accomplished something rather than doing things in bulk. Lastly, as much as possible decide in replace for the customers, especially the where the details of any application or system.

As for my comments, quoting 37Signals – “Running software is the best way to build momentum, rally your team, and flush out ideas that don’t work.”; I have not try this before becauase it seems like a nonesense move to build and build for the sake of having a running software. Another, the “i don’t know” answer is somewhat funny, I do not know why but it is entertaining. I agree that it is right to solve problems which are right then and are present than finding solution to the other future problems. Derek Sivers – “Do it quick” advise is good and I like it.

Getting Real (Chapter 7)

After reading Chapter 7 – The Organization, I learned that it is not healthy to separate developers from designers and vice versa or other staff. It is advisable that each employee can see and be in contact with each other; because in that way, they can help and understand the flow of work each other’s work. I also learned the rules to be implemented in a meeting and not to be used on calling meetings; and try to hold meetings using the technology. Although, I do not believe in conducting meetings over email or instant messenger; I still think that having a face to face, person talk is much better.

As for the concept of “small victories” by 37Signals, I like the idea of celebrating the small successful things that one has done. No matter how small the achievement is on the project, it is not an excuse to be happy and celebrate about it. When a person’s good work, meaning the fruit of his or her labor, is acknowledged; it boost one’s effort to do more and to do great. Similarly, I also agree to this, quoting the 37Signals – “When you have a long stretch when you aren’t bothered, you can get in the zone. The zone is when you are most productive. It’s when you don’t have to mindshift between various tasks. It’s when you aren’t interrupted to answer a question or look up something or send an email or answer an im. The alone zone is where real progress is made.”; when I am alone and is only concentrated on what is supposed to be done – more or less I get things done. I can relate to the situation wherein, I think a lot of things and I do not know where to start; it is nice to work when you only problem a single thing. I agree to Joel Spolsky, it is really hard to get that concentration set all the way and to be able to do it, it requires a lot of time being alone and avoidance of destruction.

Getting Real (Chapter 8)

Chapter 8 – Staffing, taught me about being ready to the test, for the part of potential employees; I should expect dry-runs to be given by my employer if ever. The concept of testing developers, designers, and other IT related personnel is actual good; both parties would get to have the chance to see how each other handle things and work together. Also, this chapter tells something about learning to work with just a few people; after all they are easy to manage and do not rely on having a lot of people to do things. Another, I learned such thing about “open source programmers” and how good they are in terms of developing an application.

Likewise, I also learned that in anything you do, you got to have that “passion”; when everything is so tiring and getting on your nerves, having that passion will save you. Next, it is good to be familiar or knowledgeable at least with other things; it helps being a “well rounded” person especially in work and to practice having a good writing/communication skills. Last, I learn that asking questions is not bad at all; do not be shy to ask about anything. Asking questions shows more or less that a person is interested to that thing.

Getting Real (Chapter 9)

After reading chapter 9 – Interface Design, I can say that there are a lot of things that I learned; first, one must do the design first before anything else. Of course, the design should not be strict enough – meaning, do not try to perfect it yet and polish the design at once. Do concentrate on designing the big picture first and later on are the small details. Remember, designs can change and be modified. Second, I learned about ‘defensive design’, which is continually finding ways to improve the application; in other words, look for possible bugs and do the maintenance. Another one, consistency is not always consistent – there are times that you actually have it or have not. Sometimes, you need to show inconsistency in application designs. I also learned that Interface Design does not only concern button, color of screen, or graphics but also good labeling of each design element for users to understand what is happening to the application. Next thing, I learned the ‘epicenter design’; it is to design in progress starting from the very important element down to the other elements. Last, I now know that it is better not to separate application for customers and administrators. It is because to avoid double problems, and double applications to maintain and think about.

I agree to 37Signals that designs are what the customers or users see; that is why you have to make it good as possible. Actually, designs somewhat represent the application – from programming to testing and other stuff that makes up the application. Now, I know the real purpose of designs – it is not only about making the user feel excited about the application; but it also guides the developers in creating the application. The story about the ‘orange pen’ is interesting. Further, the lecture about ‘blank state’ is good; now I know what a blank state should be. More or less, a blank state gives the user a hint of what the application is.

Getting Real (Chapter 10)

This chapter taught me about the concept of building ‘less software’. With this, I learned that ‘less software’ does not only refer to an application with less and simple features but it also about less maintenance, less code to write, and minimal bugs to deal with. I agree that the more codes the application has the more complex it becomes. If one will ask me, I really prefer building something with general or average features – those that are only needed, and having everything simple from design to codes, because after all it is much easy. Likewise, the advice on thinking first the present problems instead of the future actually makes sense; why push your brain in thinking of a solution to the might-to-be-problems. You’re only making it hard for yourself to focus on problems of the present, at the same time, the future.

I didn’t know that there is such thing as debt in building an application. The Manage Debt topic has a good explanation and logic onto it; the way 37Signals relates the debt as money to the application debt. Quoting 37Signals, “Your code can guide you to fixes that are cheap and light. Pay attention when an easy path emerges. Sure, the feature that’s easy to make might not be exactly the same as the feature you originally had in mind but so what? If it works well enough and gives you more time to work on something else, it’s a keeper.” – this is something worth to remember. I learned that codes are not just codes; they can talk and guide the developer. Moreover, I agree to the concept of ‘Optimize Happiness”, putting that ‘love’ on the anything that you do or use.

Getting Real (Chapter 11)

I cannot believe that there is such thing as ‘product personality; its kind a fun and cute though – a product being treated as a person that has characteristics and personality. Anyway, I learned that writing ‘functional specs’ beforehand is not a good practice; although I see a lot of people still writing functional specs before writing the actual codes. Now, I learned that ‘functional specs’ are enemies; they just limit the developer from creating an application with a reality touch; a tool to develop misunderstandings among co-developers and designers; leaves developers and designers in a no choice situation especially when everything is already planned and set; and it create illusions or a make-believe functions for an application.

Aside from the 101 on ‘functional specs’, I also remember that in developing an application; you always need to ask if what you are going to do will get you into reality; do not dig into things that will not give you real output. Further, I learned that what one needs to do is to write code instead of writing on paper. The advised is to not concentrate on paperworks first but on delivering the actual and working application. The ‘lorem ipsum dolor’ or ‘dummy text’ is the one that caught my attention; the term is quite intriguing. At first, I do not know what ‘lorem ipsum dolor’ is, but after seeing the example text; I suddenly recognized it. The funny thing here is that I personally sometimes use a ‘dummy text’ but I am not aware of its term or the way it is called. I learned my lesson, that is, not to type whatever words or letters that pops into my head while testing an application.

Getting Real (Chapter 12)

The concept of ‘advance notice’ is a bit funny and I did not know that here is such thing as ‘grandfather clauses’. But both of them, I think are worth to try with. Likewise, the idea behind the ‘free samples’ are intelligently a wise move; the logic there is to let the users try and get a feel about the application and if they want more, they can get it but now with payment.

What a crafty strategy!

Most users are really lured by this kind of gimmicks; who would not one a freebie only that it is a limited free terms. How we all wish there is an all-time free application being offered. Everyone is happy when something is given away for free.

On the other hand, I learned that it is a rule that user must be able to sign-up and log-out to n application without hassle. I have come across with a couple of sites that will let the user play a hide and seek game, because it is hard to find the sign-up, log-in, and log-out buttons. This chapter taught me that a good application provides user a good, clear, and hassle-free entry and exit point as much as possible. Also, go away with cheap and dirty stuff just to earn more profit; be considerate of your users. I learned that charging users with unnecessary fees is a coward thing to do and so do not ever do it. Developers who do that should be ashamed of their self and to that application.

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Getting Real (Chapter 13)

From this chapter, I learned that when it comes to making your application stand-out and/or saleable, having those unique and new features is the key. Those applications that defy innovation, user-friendliness, sense in its creation, and technology most likely make success. In my opinion, applications are supposed to really introduce something good, new, one-of-a-kind, and can be of help to the customers or users; those are their purpose that is why they are created. Another thing that I discover is that when it comes to upgrade, the right approach in proposing to a customer/user is to explain them about things – include the benefits that they can get.

I like the idea or tips about setting-up a promotional site. I did not know that there is such site or I am not just aware of the term it is called. I wonder if it is similar to website where products are also featured and functionalities of the product are explained and there is even quick-run through about it. Anyway, I fully understand every idea and I like it – from overview to weblog. I learned how important it is to promote your product just by blog – application for real.

Quoting the 37signals, “That said, don’t go adding the latest obscure technology just to gain some notice. But if you are using something new or noteworthy, go ahead and spotlight it for special interest groups.” How I wish most companies who create not just applications but also products will get to read this. It is frustrating to deal with companies who are either introducing features that are of no sense at all or the features are too limited or separated to other products.

“Teaching is all about good karma. You’re paying it forward. You’re helping others. You get some healthy promotion. And you can even bask in a bit of nobility.” (37signals). What an advocacy! How I wish most of the companies would be like this or do this. Most of the companies, they leave their users in a lost mode; it is like finding your own way to go through the application kind of situation. Yes, they sometimes hold seminars and the like; but most of the time, one will have to pay for it. Or, there is nothing much to learn on posted sections of their site; topics are the same information that one already knows – there is no new stuff to learn and/or details are not explained fully. Sometimes, they do not want to share tricks, and tell tips. How frustrating.

I also learned that listening to the users/customers is a good way to know how they are feeling with your application. Having an application sold is not enough, tracking onto if or paying attention to the after sales is another step to take. The three tips for launching a site – teaser, preview, and launch seems a nice plan that will work. To make a sense of buzz is important; so that the product will keep on going.

Getting Real (Chapter 14)

The topics about being able to answer quickly your customers/users concerns and show even a little concern; it seems hard to find companies like that especially here in the Philippines. Most of the big companies here, lack this kind of customer loving aspect.  Quoting 37signals, “Customers don’t expect your product to be perfect and they don’t expect that all of their features will be implemented. However, customers do expect that you are listening and acknowledging that you care, so show that you care. This is one area where most large companies show a huge deficit so develop a sense of community early.”; customers want to feel that they are heard and cared for.

“You, and your whole team, should know what your customers are saying. When your customers are annoyed, you need to know about it. You need to hear their complaints. You need to get annoyed too.” (37signals). Yeah! It is like saying you (developers and designers) must have to experience the problems of the customers. It is like being there at your customer 24/7 – the support, incase problems occur or bugs attack the application. Personal communication with the customer is the key to really improve the performance of your application; that is what I learned. There goes the again the ‘voice’ of your customers. Sounds familiar huh?

On the other hand, I see, gone are the days were programmers sit in one corner and do the coding. What is the need of today are programmers who not just code but can talk to customers and solve their problems. “If you want your steak cooked just how you like it, would you rather talk to the bus boy or the chef that’s actually cooking it?” -David Greiner. The logic is nice; I like it – programmer and the mad customer.

With regards to forums, I personally think that they are great and helpful. I usually check forums for product reviews and the like. Talking about hearing someone’s opinion or experience on something. On the other hand, about letting your customers know the bad news and also a bit good news; I think it is cool, saying to public that your company is not perfect; it experience problems and down-time. As they say, honesty is the best policy especially in dealing with your customers.

Getting Real (Chapter 15)

Based with the discussions of Chapter 15 – Post-Launch, application release is not that simple that release and then it is done. It is all a continuum process – release, maintenance, support, and blog. I am not aware of product blog; product review, yes. Also, there is the sort of benchmarking your competitors involved so to have a clue on what are their plans, products and the like.

Enough with the introduction, quoting 37signals, “All software has bugs – it’s just a fact of life.” indeed true, it seems like there are good and bad bugs. Funny! Anyway, I learned that it is not good to panic around if you found a bug in an application; it will just make things work, if you do not treat the situational bug right. Quoting again the 37signals, “Private betas are fine, public betas are bullshit. If it’s not good enough for public consumption don’t give it to the public to consume.” I see, and I agree public betas, most of the time is hard to understand or control. Sometimes, it even carries a bad bug in it and is intended for short-use only. A release talks about a real application to be available and used by the customers for a long-time and is much safe. I guess. The same goes with reactions of users to updates; be calm, do not panic – provide users first, room to feel the update or changes. Everything is just a reaction; initial, shocked reaction.

Modus-operandi – adding new features in a same name application, so that it would be saleable; the only difference is the version. Bloating is a cheap and is not a cool way to just make an application noticed by people. The “go with the flow” discussion is simply about being flexible and hearing out your customer.

Getting Real (Chapter 16)

The last chapter of “Getting Real”; anyway, I learned a lot – getting real with an application from plan, building, release, and support. It is about providing or building real-working has sense application. Further, I agree that some of the advices here can be put to life’s issues and situations. There is more to getting real than just about managing an application.

As for the execution part, it can be equated to the stage of building the application up to it release and after release. Also, it involves, promoting the to-be-released application not in a blunt manner, which means, blogging about it instead of having those annoying advertisement.

With people, one needs to pick good staffs to work on. Good means knows what he or she is doing; knows how to speak, can work without supervision, and has passion for his or her craft. Likewise, people also denote customers; somehow one needs to notice them, listen to them, try to get them involved and be honest to them.

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A Brief History of Hackerdom

The Prologue: The Real Programmers is interesting. It’s funny that the author even described the appearance of ‘real programmers’, it is actually a good idea; I get to imagine the ‘real programmers’. Quoting Raymond, “A few pieces of revered hacker folklore date from this era, including various lists of Murphy’s Laws and the mock-German “Blinkenlights” poster that still graces many computer rooms.” This is cool, computer rooms of these people back then, even have geeky posters – I remember Murphy’s Law and it is still alive today. As for Blinkenlights, I do not know anything about it – but the name sounds good. Anyway, about the term ‘Batch Scientific Computing’, I wonder what that is and it seems hard to do. Likewise, MIT keeps on to be discussed, sad to say I am not familiar with it.

The history of hacker culture started on 1961 – that was way, way back then. My gosh! More or less, ARPAnet have something to do with the existence of the early hackers at the same time, there are the universities who houses them. It is nice to know that these early hackers have their dictionary during that time, Jargon File or The Hacker’s Dictionary. Cool huh! The terms for this chapter are so dinosaur, I only know a few stuffs. DEC, PDP-10, MACRO-10, LISP are very much alien but still it is fun to at least know them. Another set are, SF-LOVERS, CompuServe, GEnie and Prodigy – their names are weird too. At any rate, the SF-LOVERS mailing list is quite intriguing. The EMACS, if I am right, is a developer’s application for Macintosh – it can be considered a counterpart of Notepad++. It is the one who has the ‘E’ logo in it and has this purple background and pen in it.

So he is the inventor of Unix – Kevin Thompson and for C  – Dennis Ritchie. These are olden technologies that are even used today, I must say. The ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ philosophy is straight to the point and has a humorous tone to it.  I just want to comment on the joint force of UNIX and C – the plan of having these two together is a successful collaboration since the idea or purpose behind them are the same.

Talking about the GNU (Gnu’s Not Unix) – the way the acronym stands is really weird. Wow, even ‘workstations’ have its humble beginnings in hackerdom. I see so this was the start of it all, this bad notion about hackers, quoting Raymond, “It was also around this time that serious cracking episodes were first covered in the mainstream press-and journalists began to misapply the term “hacker” to refer to computer vandals, an abuse which sadly continues to this day.” It is nice to know that the term ‘hackers’ is not bad at all – that is in the past. Right now, it is sad to hear how the term is misused.

What an interesting scoop! “The proprietary-Unix players proved so ponderous, so blind, and so inept at marketing that Microsoft was able to grab away a large part of their market with the shockingly inferior technology of its Windows operating system.” (Raymond). What a sloppy move from Unix and frustrating news for the readers. It is because of their greed to earn profit that is why Microsoft came to steal the spotlight. After the most likely fall of some Unixes, it is the time when Linux came into place – great timing for Linus Torvalds. Honestly, Linux operating system is intriguing, I am eager to try it soon.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Ok, the cathedral is more of the other software – those that are of highly, organized, and sophisticated. Cathedral includes only few developers, serious bugs, and slow and long release. Bazaar, on the other hand, are more of the informal ways, bugs are treated lightly and is quite fond by developers/users.

Anyway, the lessons for this chapter are good enough and there are some tips that I really like which is why I am having it here so that I will not forget them. By the way, some of them sound familiar – sound like ‘getting real’. Here are the words of Raymond:

“Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’s personal itch.”

- Its like saying one has to be bugged out first or something; in order to start something.

“Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse).”

- Nice one! The classic open source! The explanations for this tip are very interesting and I like the words ‘constructive laziness’.

“When you lose interest in a program, your last duty to it is to hand it off to a competent successor.”

- I did not know that there is such thing like this. It seems like giving the ‘key of responsibility’ – the one that happens in political social gatherings.

I just want to say something about the Release Early, Release Often part, one of the reason I think that made Linux or Unix have a faster release or deployment is through the open source thing – since users are allowed to tweak the codes, remove the bugs, enhance the software, in short, everybody is helping one another, then there is also the quick release.

Based from the reading, I am amazed of the strategy of Linus Torvalds, the idea of open source building for Linux. The funny thing though is that as the readings said, people see Linus Torvalds as something genius because of Linux, when in fact, everything there in Linux is just from collaborations, open codes, and developers working together. In connection to, its kinda fun to know that there is such thing too as ‘Linus Law’. “Linus demurred that the person who understands and fixes the problem is not necessarily or even usually the person who first characterizes it.” (Linus Torvalds).

Enough with Linus Torvalds, ‘Brook’s Law’ does have a point. The more programmers there are, the harder it is to organize and communicate with them; also, outputs have a tendency to become random. From the fetchmail topic, the one thing I learned is to push someone else’s ideas to the edge to create something that can be considered your own. I realized that open source is something that is geared towards the spreading of ideas at the same time respect for copyright.

These seem interesting even if I do not know it – pseudo-secrets, English-like syntax, Kropotkin. And whoa! There is even square numbers discussion for this chapter.

“One can test, debug and improve in bazaar style, but it would be very hard to originate a project in bazaar mode.” “To make the bazaar model work, it helps enormously if you have at least a little skill at charming people.” – Raymond

Homesteading the Noosphere

This is exciting – hacker culture! It is fun to know these stuffs about hackers. I very much appreciate the comparison examples for each hacker characteristics. The zeal and anti-commercial software topic are good, I even find myself thinking where I am in those categorize and the verdict is – honestly, I am still not in the really, outmost hacker level. Open source are good, they interest me; actually, I am still finding my way to these open source thing.

The “General Public License” (GPL), it’s quite odd and yet cool that there are licenses for public things. Guess, one must have to copyright his or her own stuff even if it is part of the open source community. On the other side of the discussion, there is some sort of conflict between Torvalds/Hackers and Stallman/Puritans. Honestly, I do not quite understand the issue – commercial versus open source or GPL over open source. Anyway, it is good to know the transitioning of labels from free software to open software.

Back to the hacker customs, the forking, modification, and distribution rules. Quoting Raymond, “These customs regulate who can modify software, the circumstances under which it can be modified, and (especially) who has the right to redistribute modified versions back to the community.” I get to feel the seriousness and the depth of the (hacker) customs. The three bulleted rules seems scary, incase someone disobeyed from it. Guess, the payment for using the free software is to acknowledge its creator. “The owner of a software project is the person who has the exclusive right, recognized by the community at large, to distributemodifiedversionsdistribute modified versions.” (Raymond). And so, that is the pattern in distinguishing to whom the property for the software is. I did not know that in this kind of topic, there is also the need to have ‘public notice’.

Alright, ‘publicpublic’ or straight to open-source community – that is how a software travels and judged. This is exciting – guide to software ownership, the third one caught my attention I must say; the ‘public legitimacy’. This reminds me of politics and/or business protocols.

Now I know why the title is ‘homesteading’; and what it is. It is self-acquiring something that is already abandoned and/or orphaned. It is a racing for ownership. As for the ‘noosphere’, it is like the circle of ideas.

Quoting Raymond, “Imagine your beautiful program locked up in a drawer and never used again. Now

imagineitbeingusedeffectively and with pleasure by many people. Which dream gives you satisfaction?” It actually a makes sense.

I learned the term ‘official’ and ‘rogue’ patches. I also learned that open-source activities do not really guarantee millions of money; open-source is not about it, rather its effects are more of those intangible ones. Not most people or businessman can understand the effects; it is only the hackers who can really appreciate it. By the way, I noticed that the author or the hackers themselves are fond of repeating terms like ‘publicpublic’.

Introduction – Why You Should Care

The question in the introduction part – why you should care is striking. Come to think of it, I find myself repeating the question. And my answers to the question of why should I care reading about this are: 1) I am an IT person, 2) I like technologies, 3) Hacking is interesting, and 4) It’s a requirement from a subject.

Enough with question topic, the introduction gives an overview about The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which focuses on open-source development and software. It straightly briefs the reader about the open-source history and the ‘good’ contributions of the hackers to the society. Also, the author states that this is a collection of essays about the hacker culture and community.

The introduction of this reading transports me back to the place where jungles are still abundant, Indians or barbaric people perhaps, and some kind of castle or renaissance setting. The words used are set to that timeline or places.

From this overview/introductory part, I learned that the meaning of the term ‘hacker’ is totally different from what it is referred today. Quoting Raymond, “… an enthusiast, an artist, a tinkerer, a problem solver, an expert.”  ‘Hacker’ can be referred to as a genius and passionate person when it comes to software development and IT technicalities.

The Magic Cauldron

Open-source = Magic?!

People can help but be amazed of how open-source does it’s thing for free. More or less, I, myself, also scratch my head on this topic. How can one survive just by using and developing open-source products? Well, maybe it’s not the money that is the main subject here, as the ‘Homesteading the Noosphere’ said, it’s about the glory, passion, and other emotional fulfillment.

Anyway, this chapter speaks about monetizing and advertising software. I did not know that there are two different set of monetizing software – the to-write and the to-sale value. As for the issue of software developing as a manufacturing industry, more or less, I am starting to be convinced about it. Software building quite resembles manufacturing from establishing the idea to the selling of the product. Quoting Raymond, “Therefore the logic of the factory model most strongly rewards vendors who produce shelfware-software that is sufficiently well marketed to make sales but actually useless in practice.” I like this quote – fits very well to the today setting. In connection to, I agree that vendors/suppliers either provide a hard-to-get support or no support at all. And when this happens, it become frustrating for the part of the customers; after paying big for software, it does not end there. This is what you call modus operandi – ‘the brutal truth’ about suppliers! They will try to hold down consumers and businesses at the same time, burn their pockets.

The discussion about the business models of open-source would be helpful to anyone who is interested to be engaged in open-source development. It is good that the author include the pros and cons of each business models. It is surprising to know that there are quite a number of business models for open-source software development.

“the only rational reasons you might want them to be closed is if you want to sell the package to other people, or deny its use to competitors.” – Raymond. I like this quote, a very courage one. I agree – it’s all about being selfish and a money monster. And the issue of confidentiality of feature is not really an issue at all since a good user interface design, great functionality, and a security expert can solve it. This is a compelling comparison: use value for open-source and sale value for closed ones.

From this chapter, I learned about the concept of in-house created software, the factory-model which is what people are experiencing now. I also learned that patches could be referred to as FAQ. Further, whether it is open source or closed/proprietary source you are developing, both have development costs to compute.

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Revenge of the Hackers

My initial reaction for this chapter is somewhat war-like; I expect that the word ‘revenge’ in the title really refer to revenge. Anyway, the Beyond Brooks’ Law discussion made me realized that Linux is likely the classic example of open source software development. It is a full-blown open source thing that has surpassed time and is establishing itself today.

Revenge of the Hackers talks about the situations encountered by Linux and Netscape, the author narrate the experience he had with this article. It’s a good thing that ‘The Cathedral and the Bazaar’ unexpectedly help Netscape to finally make up their minds and pursue open-source development. Now I understand what is ‘the shot heard ’round the world” – the announcement of Netscape venturing to the open source path.

I agree, the task being put to Raymond’s shoulder, the author, by Netscape is big and difficult. Being the spokesperson and leading man perhaps. This indirectly represents the whole hacker community. Quoting Raymond, “If Netscape’s gamble failed, we hackers would probably find all the opprobrium of that failure piled on our heads. We’d be discredited for another decade.” It’s been a long waiting time for hackers out there and this is their chance to prove their culture and beliefs. But, this chance will put them to test and they will have to give their best in order to succeed and finally be recognized.

It is clearer to me now why the term ‘free software’ is not used but rather the term ‘open source’. ‘Free’ as the author said connotes two different things and creates confusion. Setting-up their domain name, site, and certification really means that these open source people are serious about what they are doing. Talking about security and establishing one’s self – “This would allow us to scare off potential abusers with the threat of legal action.” (Raymond).

The tip on ‘working top-down’ is good, but is a hard thing to do especially if the top management do not care that much about the project. At any rate, having the top management support is an advantage. It is a wise move to target Fortune 500 as for marketing, I must say.

I like this trick – “The trick is to sound challengingly weird but convey a reassuring aura of honesty and simplicity.” – Raymond. I think this trick can be applied in demonstrations/reports/presentation of some kind of product or project or proposal. I learned that the language that the author is referring to is no other than the open source language.

I just want to share an article I have read about Microsoft being ’scared’ about the growth and popularity of open source.

NOTE: Sir Dave, this is a good piece of advice/encouragement to tell for your future class – quoting Raymond, “May the Source be with you!” Funny but cool!

Afterword: Beyond Software?

Whoa! ‘ambassador’ of open source, I cannot believe that their is such title.

Back to the topic, quoting Raymond, “I am often asked if I believe the open-source model can be usefully applied to other kinds of goods than software. Most usually the question is asked about music, or the content of some kinds of books, or designs for computer and electronic hardware.” Yes, there should also be ‘open music’, ‘open movies’, and so on. Right now, there are already ‘open stuff’ – one can freely download music or movies, although, there are still some issues about it like restrictions, not-that-good, and so on. I guess the situation is quite similar to open source software.

On the other topic, I agree to the author’s principle of ‘one battle at a time’. You cannot do all and different things at the same time – to a point that you do not even know where to start. I learned about sticking to what is planned to do and achieved it, and later on are the other things when you’re done with the first commitment.

As for the success of open source as mentioned in this chapter, in my opinion, it’s all up to how the community or the members managed themselves and the things that they do. One thing that should not be forgotten also, is the idea that open source is a collaborative work and effort.

With regards to the stand of open source software development today, I think open source and proprietary is not that far with each other as for the percentage. Open source software are being used, people and companies are considering it as an alternative.

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IT-Ethic Reader

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Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 1

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Foundations of Information Ethics

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“We begin this chapter by considering the mission of the librarian as an information provider and the core value that gives this mission its social importance. Of course, librarians face the standard ethical issues that arise in any profession, but our focus here will be on those issues that arise in relation to the role of the librarian as an information provider.” by Luciano Floridi.

What I expect to learn:

In this chapter I expect to learn what is this all about.

Chapter Review:

Information Ethics is one of the newest fields in the field of applied ethics, in the sense that applied ethics deals with and tries to resolve the conflicts between advances in technology and people’s life in the modern society. The remarkable development of computer and network technology has given rise to so unprecedented and so diversified a set of ethical and moral problems that attempts at solving these problems undoubtedly will take philosophically focused and technologically well-informed intellectual efforts.

The problems we are facing include the ethical status of “unauthorized” uses of computers and networks, the cultural and economic imbalance between groups with different historical, regional backgrounds in the globalized information infrastructure, the new dimensions of human rights like privacy and copyright in the digitized world, and the moral obligations and duties as professionals in information technology. The researchers working on the project are well aware of the urgency and imminence of the tasks and decided to collaborate.

Here is a part of the chapter that explained library profession involves not only books but also consideration of its drawbacks with the actual retrieving of information related to it: But one drawback of the list approach is that it fails to explain how these different values are related to each other. This is particularly problematic given that it is possible that pursuing some values, such as confidentiality or preservation, may conflict with others, such as access.

One would need to understand how preservation is related to access in a structure of values in order to know how such conflicts should be resolved. A second drawback is that some values are not on this list, such as a respect for the intellectual property rights of authors and creators. Finally, in listing values, the theoretical framework that explains and supports these many values is often left out. Thus, such lists may serve as a starting point, but they do not take us very far in serious reflection on the core values of librarianship.

What I learned:

In this chapter I have learned that this paper presents, firstly, a brief review of the long history of information ethics beginning with the Greek concept of parrhesia or freedom of speech as analyzed by Michel Foucault. The recent concept of information ethics is related particularly to problems which arose in the last century with the development of computer technology and the internet.

A broader concept of information ethics as dealing with the digital reconstruction of all possible phenomena leads to questions relating to digital ontology. Following Heidegger’s conception of the relation between ontology and metaphysics, the author argues that ontology has to do with being itself and not just with the Being of beings which is the matter of metaphysics.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What name do we call our society?

2.    What does ICT’s means?

3.    What ethics usually grounds its analysis of the moral standing?

4.    What does IE means?

5.    What term refers to the morally informed construction of the environment?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 2

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Milestones in the History of Information and Computer Ethics

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Cybernetics takes the view that the structure of machine or of the organism is an index of the performance that maybe expected from it.” by Terrell Ward Bynum.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn from this chapter the things that have a role in the history of information and computer ethics.

Chapter Review:

The more specific term “computer ethics” has been used to refer to applications by professional philosophers of traditional Western theories like utilitarianism, Kantianism, or virtue ethics, to ethical cases that significantly involve computers and computer networks. “Computer ethics” also has been used to refer to a kind of professional ethics in which computer professionals apply codes of ethics and standards of good practice within their profession. In addition, other more specific names, like “Cyberethics” and “Internet ethics”, have been used to refer to aspects of computer ethics associated with the Internet.

During the past several decades, the robust and rapidly growing field of computer and information ethics has generated new university courses, research professorships, research centers, conferences, workshops, professional organizations, curriculum materials, books and journals. Given the physiology of human beings, it is possible for them to take in a wide diversity of information from the external world, access information about conditions and events within their own bodies, and process all that information in ways that constitute reasoning, calculating, wondering, deliberating, deciding and many other intellectual activities.

Wiener’s account of human nature presupposed a metaphysical view of the universe that considers the world and all the entities within it, including humans, to be combinations of matter-energy and information. Everything in the world is a mixture of both of these, and thinking, according to Wiener, is actually a kind of information processing. Consequently, the brain does not secrete thought “as the liver does bile”, as the earlier materialists claimed, nor does it put it out in the form of energy, as the muscle puts out its activity. Information is information, not matter or energy. No materialism which does not admit this can survive at the present day.

What I learned:

After I have read this chapter, I learned that today, the “information age” that Wiener predicted half a century ago has come into existence; and the metaphysical and scientific foundation for information ethics that he laid down continues to provide insight and effective guidance for understanding and resolving ethical challenges engendered by information technologies of all kinds.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is Cybermetics?

2.    Who is Deborah Johnson?

3.    Who is Walter Manner?

4.    Who is Norbert Wiener?

5.    Explain the four principles mentioned by Wiener.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 3

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Moral Methodology and Information

Technology

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“The commonalities in the moral questions pertaining to these topics are more important than the differences between them.”

What I expect to learn:

• To learn more about moral methodology

Chapter Review:

This chapter talks about cyber ethics with a computer concept. In short, this is called the computer ethics. From the moral questions mixed up with computer related topic through development, and application. Professionals and other people who are involved in computer technology have many questions on what is right and what is wrong on particular ethical issues or ethical questions. It is hard to identify which is which and specifically it is hard if there are no references justifying the ethical or moral values. If you are an I.T person, it is hard to identify your point of view. Even you cannot identify it. Justifying answers is hard to formulate because you must know also the basis of a particular topic is.

In the field of IT, it is everywhere. Information technology department is a must for a company today in order to survive simply because we are in the 21^st century and companies must be innovative as much as possible. What if a problem occurs regarding the ethical values? What would be the basis of this particular problem? Well, it is all indicated here. As we review this chapter, we will learn how moral methodology and information technology works.

Moral methodology is hard to define one by one but it will eventually result to a more broad discussion on how it can be related to information technology. Let us first think of ways how to surely define morality because once that is done, then it is all a matter of time before you figure out and relate why information technology has something to do with it. As mentioned in the quotation, there are a lot of concepts that we need to understand about piracy and other zealous actions towards information technology and as technology continue to grow not only in a single part of the world but universally affect us, more and more ways are determined to prevent moral contradictions against information technology.

What I learned:

I learned lot in this chapter, Applied Ethics, Generalism, Particularism are one of the knowledge I get.

I don’t really think people have objections regarding information technology because of the unbelievable changes it promoted for us to utilize. The properties of IT may require us to revisit traditional conceptualizations and conceptions of privacy, responsibility, property; but they do not require a new way of moral thinking or a radically new moral methodology, which is radically different from other fields of technology and engineering ethics

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is applied ethics?

2.    What is generalism?

3.    What is particularism?

4.    Explain the concept of reflective equilibrium.

5.    Define PACS.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 4

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Value Sensitive Design and

Information Systems

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“One part of a conceptual investigation entails a philosophically informed analysis of the central value constructs. Accordingly, Friedman et al. began their project with a conceptual investigation of informed consent itself. They drew on diverse literature, such as the Belmont Report, which delineates ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects to develop criteria for informed consent in online interactions. (Belmont Report, 1978; Faden and Beauchamp, 1986)”

What I expect to learn:

• To know more about value sensitive designs.

Chapter Review:

I have to be honest here, I have no idea what value sensitive design meant until I read this part of the book and of course, when I googled it. Here is a definition I found online which pretty much, similar to the definition given in the book: Value Sensitive Design (VSD) is a methodological design approach that aims at making moral values part of technological design, research and development.

It assumes that human values, norms and moral considerations can be imparted to the things we make and use. It construes information technology (and other technologies for that matter the idea of Value Sensitive

Design has a wider application in all engineering and design disciplines, but was first proposed and discussed in connection with information and communication technology and that is still its main area of application.) as a powerful force which can be used to make the world a better place, especially when we take the trouble of reflecting on its ethical aspects in advance.  Based from that definition from Wikipedia, value sensitive design is literally being sensitive to the value of what you are developing.

It is taking consideration to the moral consideration of both the developer and the society because it was always taught to us that developing a system is not for money alone but for the common good. It should be something that will aid the society and not just a company to accept its benefits like getting people’s money without them being totally concerned about it etc.

What I learned:

I have learned from this chapter the following:

• Vale sensitive design
• Definition of value
• Related Approaches to Values and System Design

Integrative Questions:

1.    What value is defined in the chapter?

2.    What is value design?

3.    Define credibility, openness, and accountability.

4.    Differentiate the three factors.

5.    What do you mean by empirical investigations?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 5

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Personality-Based, Rule-Utilitarian,

and Lockean Justifications of Intellectual Property

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Intellectual property is generally characterized as nonphysical property that is the product of cognitive processes and whose value is based upon some idea or collection.” by Adam Moore.

What I expect to learn:

• To learn basically the intellectual property
• To learn the purpose of this aspect in computer ethics,
• Why do we need to adopt intellectual property?

Chapter Review:

This chapter is focusing on three aspects. These are the personality-based, rule-utilitarian and Lockean Justifications. The first one is the personality-based where an individual is just focusing on his/her personality. He/she has own ideas on a particular perspective. Only him/her can understand it and no one can interfere his/her ideas. Once it is shared to other person, there is surely a conflict between ideas. The intellectual property has now conflict. We can’t fight against it because, as explained, each one of us has an intellectual property. The analogy is that you can’t dive to the intellectual property of others because it is private and only he/she can only understand it. That’s for personality-based.

The next one is the rule utilitarian. This is where utilitarian of intellectual properties used. Once the idea is passed to another person, then the person who will be receiving it is considered to be a utilitarian. He/she just use the intellectual idea of a particular person for the benefit for him / her. That’s absurd! Because making use of an individual’s idea is considered to be a utilitarian. It can give both positive and negative effects for the people. It will now depend on us if we use the utilitarian point of view. The last one is Lockean Justification where the justifications of human are more sensitive. Because it is where the human correct or justify his/her humanity in terms of his/her ideas in life.

The first part of this chapter discusses about what is intellectual property. It is explained at introduced here that intellectual property are all based on individual personality. Since each one of us has a individual personality, we assume that we have also intellectual property as well.

We must be knowledgeable to develop ourselves. Innovating ourselves is one way of changing our lives. It is explained here that we must fight our strength and weaknesses. We have strength, then maintain it and make you good as possible. On the other hand, weakness is your fear as an individual, therefore fight your fears. This is to justify yourself to be intellectual person.

What I learned:

I learned how to utilize my intellectual ideas in such way that applying these aspects in my life. To be honest, it is complicated. In determining your own personality, you must be knowledgeable about yourself first. Knowing yourself is one of the most important things in life. Therefore the ideas you are thinking are also important and also part of your intellectual property.

The rule-utilitarian can give us positive and negative effects because your ideas or intellectual property can be beneficial to others. The justification is also important because the dignity of one person is relying to it.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is personality based?

2.    What is rule-utilitarian?

3.    What is justification?

4.    What are the purposes of these aspects to an individual?

5.    How can we use this correctly?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 6

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Informational Privacy: Concepts,

Theories, and Controversies

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“The conception of privacy in terms of physical nonintrusion or being let alone has been criticized because of its tendency to conflate two different concepts that need to be distinguished-namely, having privacy and being let alone. To see this flaw, consider a situation in which one might not be let alone and yet enjoy privacy.”

What I expect to learn:

• To know the concept of non-intrusion.

Chapter Review:

We all know what privacy is but just if you don’t, Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude them or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. With that given attention to, it is as though when people hear that something is for private use or privacy, they will get more curious about it. That is where hackers or crackers come in. They try to retrieve private information from different organizations or even single or home workstations just to get a hold of what you might have. Also mentioned in Wikipedia,

This paper expands upon an earlier work in which we analyzed the implications of the Verizon v RIAA case for P2P Networks vis-à-vis concerns affecting personal privacy and intellectual property. In the present study, we revisit this case by analyzing the privacy implications in light of the theory of privacy as contextual integrity (Nissenbaum, 2004). We then analyze some implications for intellectual property by drawing some analogies from the ruling in the MGM Studios v. Grokster case, which, among other things, demonstrates that the debate over sharing copyrighted material in P2P systems has not been limited to copyrighted music files. In particular, we question whether the Verizon and Grokster cases advance the interests of copyright owners at the expense of preserving privacy for individual users? We also question whether the rulings in these two cases threaten new technologies in order to advance the interest of copyright owners?

What I learned:

I have learned that Privacy as Nonintrusion Involving One’s Physical Space: Physical/Accessibility, Privacy as Noninterference Involving One’s Choices: Decisional Privacy

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is the concept of privacy?

2.    Explain the control theory.

3.    Explain the restricted theory.

4.    Explain the restricted access theory.

5.    What is privacy as contextual integrity?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 7

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Online Anonymity

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Anonymity may be deliberately sought or something that occurs spontaneously from the sheer complexity of modern life. The idea of a kind of naturally occurring, “spontaneous anonymity” is embodied in characterizations of someone as a member of an anonymous mass or in expressions such as “the logic of anonymity in modern life.” There are two ideas at work here.”

What I expect to learn:

• To be aware of online anonymity.

Chapter Review:

Being anonymous online is definitely possible because you don’t really know who the person chatting with you across the borders of the pacific just with a click of a button. Being online affects how we see other people and how we interact with them in this technological era where people from china can talk with people from Poland without having to pay tons of money for a single hello.

Like I said in my previous reviews, I find the Web very helpful with our generation because it allows us to be connected to anyone without boundaries – unless that person doesn’t have a connection in their place. Just look at me, right now I am at the hospital waiting for my CVC result and that doesn’t seem to stop me from connecting online to finish my book reviews right. Also, I can be anonymous in the Web.

For example, I can simply change a little preference in my yahoo messenger for me to activate the chat room feature and change my nickname to something like “bored_keyboard” or “sissy_daisy” and no one will even know it is me because one, people in that chat room are from all over the world meaning someone from New Zealand can read my messages even without knowing that it is me, that my real identity is not my nick name in yahoo messenger.

What I learned:

I have learned the following:

• The concept of anonymity
• Data Mining
• Tracking
• User’s Presumption of Anonymity
• Anonymity and Attribution Bias.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is anonymity?

2.    What is anonymity as a feature of complex social structures?

3.    Define data mining.

4.    Define Tracking.

5.    Explain globalization of online activity.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 8

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Ethical Issues Involving Computer

Security: Hacking, Hacktivism, and Counterkacking

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“At first glance, it might seem obvious that hacking is wrong. Although the more malicious of these acts involve serious wrongs because of the harm they cause, all are wrong because they constitute a digital trespass onto the property of another person. Unauthorized entry into some other person’s computer seems not relevantly different than uninvited entry onto the land of another person.”

What I expect to learn:

• To know ethical issues involving computer security

Chapter Review:

Wow, I don’t even know where to start with the ethical issues involving computer security because there are so many of them. Let me just clear up that there is a thing called ethics if you guys out there are not familiar because ethics should be inclined with what you are doing in life. A situation where you can apply this is with your life alone.

If you tend to do things without thinking about ethical concerns the you are screwed up because in the first place, we need some guidelines to follow knowing that freedom is not absolute for if it is, then we will all be bombing each other’s countries arguing who should have own. Obama or Mc Cain.

Intense concern with my files and my workstation occurred to me after reading this chapter because it made me realize that there are so many people that can just hack your private files even when your computer is shut off – yes, it does happen – so I made a promise to myself that I have to be more careful with where I place my files, how I transfer them, how strong I encrypt them and how accessible they are because you will never know what might happen.

We cannot really attack someone just because we think he or she hacked us because hacking is a skill that people master first before doing it big and publicly so a mere knowledge about computers like opening programs and deleting files is not enough. Knowledge about IP addresses, ports, cables, LAN, and other network related functions of your computer should be well thought of and watched because it can be their access point.

What I learned:

I have learned the following:

• The Social Benefits of Benign Intrusions
• Benign Intrusions as Preventing Waste
• Benign Intrusions as Exercising the Right to a Free Flow of Content

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is Hacktivism?

2.    What is hacking?

3.    Enumerate the social benefits of benign intrusions.

4.    Is Hacktivism moral?

5.    What is The Active Response Spectrum?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 9

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Information Ethics and the Library

Profession

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“librarians face the standard ethical issues that arise in any profession, but our focus here will be on those issues that arise in relation to the role of the librarian as an information provider. In particular, we will be focusing on questions of the selection and organization of information, which bring up issues of bias, neutrality, advocacy, and children’s rights to access information.”

What I expect to learn:

• To define information ethics and its connection with library profession

Chapter Review:

At first, I did not really think that this chapter will focus on the librarian’s profession but then the first paragraph related it to the rest of the chapter. but why the library profession? That I can’t really defend but it has something to do with keeping track with information, knowing what information to retrieve, and managing information.

Here is a part of the chapter that explained library profession involves not only books but also consideration of its drawbacks with the actual retrieving of information related to it: But one drawback of the list approach is that it fails to explain how these different values are related to each other. This is particularly problematic given that it is possible that pursuing some values, such as confidentiality or preservation, may conflict with others, such as access. One would need to understand how preservation is related to access in a structure of values in order to know how such conflicts should be resolved.

A second drawback is that some values are not on this list, such as a respect for the intellectual property rights of authors and creators. Finally, in listing values, the theoretical framework that explains and supports these many values is often left out. Thus, such lists may serve as a starting point, but they do not take us very far in serious reflection on the core values of librarianship.

What I learned:

• THE CORE VALUE OF THE LIBRARY PROFESSION
• SELECTION
• BIAS
• NEUTRALITY
• CLASSIFICATION
• LABELING
• CHILDREN’S ACCESS TO INFORMATIO

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is the core value of library profession?

2.    What is selection in the chapter?

3.    What is bias in the chapter?

4.    What is neutrality in the chapter?

5.    What is labelling as mentioned in the chapter?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 10

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Ethical Interest in Free and Open

Source Software

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-ComputerEthics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Learning and understanding the ethical interest in free and open source software.”

What I expect to learn:

I am expected to learn more about this subject for better understanding.

Chapter Review:

In the United States, rapid growth occurred in information and computer ethics beginning in the mid-1980s. In 1987 the Research Center on Computing & Society (RCCS, www.southernct.edu/organizations/rccs/) was founded at Southern Connecticut State University. Shortly thereafter, the Director (the present author) joined with Walter Maner to organize “the National Conference on Computing and Values” (NCCV), an NSF-funded conference to bring together computer scientists, philosophers, public policy makers, lawyers, journalists, sociologists, psychologists, business people, and others.

The goal was to examine and push forward some of the major sub-areas of information and computer ethics; namely, computer security, computers and privacy, ownership of intellectual property, computing for persons with disabilities, and the teaching of computer ethics. More than a dozen scholars from several different disciplines joined with Bynum and Maner to plan NCCV, which occurred in August 1991 at Southern Connecticut State University. Four hundred people from thirty-two American states and seven other countries attended; and the conference generated a wealth of new computer ethics materials – monographs, video programs and an extensive bibliography – that were disseminated to hundreds of colleges and universities during the following two years.

In that same decade, professional ethics advocates, such as Donald Gotterbarn, Keith Miller and Dianne Martin – and professional organizations, such as Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (www.cpsr.org), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org), and the Special Interest Group on Computing and Society (SIGCAS) of the ACM – spearheaded projects focused upon professional responsibility for computer practitioners.

Information and computer ethics became a required component of undergraduate computer science programs that were nationally accredited by the Computer Sciences Accreditation Board. In addition, the annual “Computers, Freedom and Privacy” conferences began in 1991 (see www.cfp.org), and the ACM adopted a new version of its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct in 1992.

What I learned:

I have learned so many things about the open and free source software.  I get to knowing how to operate the software effectively.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is open software?

2.    What is free source software?

3.    What is software?

4.    What is the use of software in open and free source?

5.    What is the relationship of software to the open and free source?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 11

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Internet Research Ethics: The Field

and its Critical Issues

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“A truly ethical model of Internet research ethics would acknowledge such outcomes and encourage a variety of histories and disciplines.”

What I expect to learn:

In this chapter I expect to learn the critical issues in the field of the internet.

Chapter Review:

Academics from varied institutions and countries are engaged in the important task of articulating ethical guidelines for those who research the Internet. However, they have failed to provide users and researchers with important information because they do not address the ways that Internet material is mediated and constructed. The ethical issues and dilemmas involved in Internet research include researchers who ignore the screen, varied icons, repetitive motifs, and produced content.

Addressing constructed material is important because Internet settings abound with ageist, classist, homophobic, racist, and sexist imagery and ideas. The current writing about ethical Internet research behaviors can enable such intolerant conceptions by encouraging academics and other users to presume that Internet settings provide access to the truth about individuals or are a direct conduit to people. In other words, conceiving of Internet material as people and human subjects without foregrounding the constructed aspects of users’ proclaimed “self-representations” makes it seems like Internet material is exacting and natural.

Many Internet users shift between describing Internet settings as a conduit to the self and as artistic or cultural production. Acknowledging the highly mediated and representational aspects of this material and considering the ethical codes of research disciplines that engage with culturally produced material suggest a very different set of research strategies. When Internet material is viewed as cultural production then the models for Internet research might be Art History and Visual Culture, English and Literary Studies, Film and Media Studies, Music and Sound Studies, and Theatre and Performance Studies.

A more complete integration of these approaches into Internet Studies-either as a sole investigatory strategy or in tandem with other forms of inquiry-would change researchers’ ethical questions. It would also change the ways that the material is seen and addressed because different academics and users understand Internet material through distinct lenses.

What I learned:

In this article, I employ the Humanities method of close textual analysis in order to interrogate the ways that Internet material becomes people and is linked to guidelines for human subjects. I begin with a synopsis of the ethical debates about Internet research. The problems with these overarching guidelines and conflicts between the ethics of different areas of study are considered. A brief study of how graphical avatars function as art objects demonstrates the limits of discussing Internet material only as human subjects.

What I learned:

I explore the different research strategies that can be employed when material is coded as both personas and cultural production. Understanding how conceptions of human subjects are related to writing about an animate and spatial Internet is an important part of this project.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What does the IRE means?

2.    What does ICE means?

3.    What does DOPA means?

4.    Who are the special population in the internet?

5.    Who argue that research with minors is fraught?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 12

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Health Information Technology:

Challenges in Ethics, Science, and Uncertainty

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Without a credible promise that privacy and confidentiality will be safeguarded, the task of fostering trust is frustrated. If for instance a patient believes that a physician will disclose interesting or salacious diagnostic data to others, the patient might not disclose information the physician needs to render an accurate diagnosis in the first place.”

What I expect to learn:

• To be aware of the challenges being faced by the health information technology.

Chapter Review:

Isn’t it cool how we can be a part of some kind of experiment? No, I don’t mean being guinea pigs of some new medical experiment but this, technology. Being the ones to test new technology that continues to develop nowadays is an honor because once we are a part of something that will be great in the future for the next generation.

The chapter even included privacy in health information technology. Privacy is, most generally, as discussed in the chapter, the right entitlement or reasonable expectation people have that they are and will be secure from intrusion.

Given the example in the chapter, it is obvious that society values both personal privacy and the law enforcement but in some cases, the police officer investigating a crime may and, in fact, must take steps to justify that her official need is worth the intrusion. “Put differently, privacy rights are not absolute, but may be balanced against other values.

The same is true for confidentiality, which applies to information-medical records, for instance. Where privacy is customarily about people, confidentiality applies to information about people. Privacy is also sometimes regarded as including within its scope people’s concern about protecting confidentiality.

Privacy is a broader concept.” – indeed as a broader concept yet privacy still serve as one of the most studied factor in information technology and one that is most protected.

What I learned:

• Privacy and confidentiality
• CLINICAL DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
• Diagnostic Expert Systems
• Prognostic Scoring Systems
• The Standard View” and ”Progressive Caution”
• PERSONAL HEALTH RECORDS
• Decision support
• Status of the professions

Integrative Questions:

1.    Define confidentiality as explained in the chapter.

2.    What is a clinical decision system?

3.    What is a diagnostic expert system?

4.    What is a prognostic scoring system?

5.    Differentiate the standard vie and the progressive view.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 13

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Ethical Issues of Information and Business

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Information is becoming increasingly important in most aspects of our lives, and this is particularly true for our economic activities”

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn the ethical issues that involving business.

Chapter Review:

Within legal boundaries, what you say and do in the privacy of your own home is your business. Particularly when it comes to digital information, that privacy and moral flexibility does not extend to the workplace. Common sense dictates that your actions in a public place are no longer private. People by nature consider their surroundings before saying or doing something that would embarrass themselves or offend others. When it comes to the workplace, the burden of maintaining a politically and morally correct environment falls on the employer as well as the employee.

As access to the Internet becomes more prevalent, businesses must take increased care to clearly define what content is legal, allowable and appropriate. Something as simple as a verbal warning will often suffice, but documented sensitivity training is becoming the standard for most businesses. Human resource departments have established comprehensive rules for conduct and often simple tests are administered to make sure the employee understands and his or her responses are recorded.

In the digital age, the record of an the discussion can be important. If an employee views a website that another employee finds offensive, the record of that site visit can become hard evidence in a court of law. It’s an attorney’s dream to build a case with such evidence. Because the employee was not only at the workplace when the offence took place, but using the employer’s equipment to commit the offense both will be held liable for the action. Only unambiguous evidence of the fact that the employee clearly understood stated rules against such conduct will limit the employer’s liability.

What I learned:

I have learned that business and economic system working together to have an important influence on ethical issues that now arising from information and communication technology.

I also learned the big value of information in our society and inhuman being especially in getting knowledge. There are so many workers that do not have the knowledge, that is why companies nowadays is really strict in choosing employees.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What does ICT’s mean?

2.    It is the widely used approach in business ethics, what it is?

3.    What does ISCT means?

4.    Who are Donaldson and Dunfee?

5.    Explain the Ethical response to employee surveillance.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 14

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Responsibilities for Information on the Internet

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Establishing liability for information is further complicated, because of difficulties of identifying causal relationships, of giving due consideration to the perspectives of content providers and users, and-sometimes- of balancing the good of establishing liability against information freedoms.”

What I expect to learn:

• To define the responsibilities for information on the internet.

Chapter Review:

True that the law we have now don’t really include electronic information as one of its focus because information technology back then was not even known to exist.

However, I do think that the government is allowing more people to be concerned with information being available everywhere with the internet. We, as online users, have our own responsibilities in handling our own source of information – ourselves. The government, in my point of view, should be more concerned in this issue but other than that, we need to take action ourselves because the internet is a huge place for information to be spread and that alone is not really something I would think as just a petty file share. Of course, file sharing is another thing but what about copyright? Piracy? Infringement? There are a lot of issues we have to dwell with right after knowing what it is that needs to be done but still, be responsible enough to take extra protective measures with what you do online.

I know a lot of people who regret doing something online because they had little idea of what will happen like in my friend’s case, she uploaded a personal picture of her in her profile the first time she became a member as a private photo without realizing that the website’s privacy policy and protection application is still less of a help. Some scary guy saved her picture and started uploading it to his profile and allowing other people to post rude and appalling comments about her. That alone is a case of the lack of knowledge about internet.

What I learned:

I have learned the Conditions of responsibility that is traditionally conceived of the everyday moral debate as well as in ethical theory. I also learned about the Information in general as it was mentioned the debate on information-related responsibilities was until recently restricted to the issues of ISP’s responsibilities with regard to clearly illegal or immoral content.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What are the conditions of responsibility?

2.    What type of responsibility did this chapter focus on?

3.    What is information in general?

4.    What are the responsibilities involved?

5.    Give one responsibility that you think should be included.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 15

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Virtual Reality and Computer Simulation

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Virtual reality and computer simulation have not received much attention from ethicists. It is argued in this essay that this relative neglect is unjustified, and that there are important ethical questions that can be raised in relation to these technologies.”

What I expect to learn:

• To know the concept of virtual reality.
• To be familiar with child pornography problem.

Chapter Review:

The endoscope is maneuvered in the duodenum until the major duodenal papilla is identified. The papilla is a nodular protuberance on the medial wall of the duodenum through which the bile duct and pancreatic duct expel bile and pancreatic juice respectively into the duodenum to aid in the process of digestion.

After the endoscope is positioned near the major duodenal papilla, a catheter is inserted through a channel of the endoscope and directed into the desired ductal system (biliary or pancreatic) by changing the position of the flexible endoscope tip in relation to the papilla. An “elevator” apparatus at the tip of the endoscope can also be utilized to adjust the angle at which the catheter enters the papilla.

To guide the catheter into the papilla, the physician relies on visual feedback from the endoscopic video display and tactile resistance encountered when advancing the catheter. In diagnostic ERCP, contrast dye is injected through the catheter while fluoroscopic images are observed and roentgenograms are obtained. On the fluoroscopic display, the catheter tip can be located, but, unless contrast is injected, the anatomical structures are essentially invisible. In therapeutic ERCP, instruments are used that can enlarge the opening of the ducts (sphincterotomy), collect biopsy samples, remove stones, and place stents.

Now that is the definition from the chapter – any resemblance in mine? – which pretty much the same thing as how I pictured it. A technology or well, goggles, that allows people to interact with computer made graphics as though it is happening in real life. Amazing isn’t it? How technology can do such wonders for our benefits and allows us to experience something more than what we should have experienced back then

What I learned:

I have learned that simulation session begins as a real endoscope is inserted through the “mouth” of the simulated patient. The endoscope is guided into position using standard endoscopic techniques.

A position tracking system reports the endoscope movements to a high performance Silicon Graphics computer which controls the interactions and updates the computer generated imagery on the monitor.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is virtual reality?

2.    What is computer simulation?

3.    What does VR mean?

4.    What are behaviors of single-user VR?

5.    What is virtual child pornography?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 16

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Genetic Information:

Epistemological and Ethical Issues

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“The Human Genome Project and Celera were not working toward a common goal, since only the former generated a public sequence. Like everyone else, Celera had free access to all our assembled sequence. But Celera also asked us for a personal transfer of individual nematode sequence reads. To comply would have been a major distraction from our [HGP] work” (Sulston quoted in Koerner, 2003).

What I expect to learn:

• To be aware of the genetic information

Chapter Review:

Identify an ethical question or case regarding the integration of information technology into society. Typically this focuses upon technology-generated possibilities that could affect (or are already affecting) life, health, security, happiness, freedom, knowledge, opportunities, or other key human values. Clarify any ambiguous or vague ideas or principles that may apply to the case or the issue in question. If possible, apply already existing, ethically acceptable principles, laws, rules, and practices that govern human behavior in the given society.

If ethically acceptable precedents, traditions and policies are insufficient to settle the question or deal with the case, use the purpose of a human life plus the great principles of justice to find a solution that fits as well as possible into the ethical traditions of the given society.

Big term huh but in this chapter, it was explained “that genetic information is the genes containing an amount of information (the so-called TACG amino acids sequence) and able to build a human being up is today a seldom challenged triviality. This idea is fundamental to the so-called “Central Dogma” of genetics.

The “Central Dogma”, as originally formulated by Crick, is a negative hypothesis, which states that information cannot flow downward from protein to DNA.” No, DNAs are not really my professional concern but I am aware that like DNAs, computers withhold an amazing degree of information no man can memorize but can definitely determine.

Trying to collaborate the human DNA and ethical issues with information technology will lead to something I am not really sure of so let me just clarify that this chapter covered the explanation of how information, like DNAs, are being processed and how it did came about – or so I thought. I am not pushing the idea that I am correct or my understanding of it is a bit flushed compared to the technical terms placed within the part of the book but I am determined to believe that DNAs hold great levels of information about a person just by looking at it, its characteristic of being unique is taking all my curiosity to the next level.

What I learned:

I have learned the Concept of Information, The Notion of Genetic Information, Ideological Use of a Model and Ethical Issues in Fund-raising, Cooperation and Public Access of Data.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is the concept of genetic information?

2.    What is the typical notion of genetic information?

3.    What did Berlinski contribute? Elaborate.

4.    What did Maynard mention? Explain.

5.    Is public access of data legal? If not, should it be?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 17

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – The Ethics of Cyber Conflict

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“There are several areas of cyber conflict that the paper does not address. Besides cyber attacks conducted for pleasure or personal gain, the paper does not consider revenge attacks by insiders-all of which are generally regarded as unethical.”

What I expect to learn:

• To know more about the ethics of cyber conflict and what the conflicts are.

Chapter Review:

The world is very close to having technology that can provide electronic privacy and security on the internet sufficient to safely conduct international business transactions. Once this technology is in place, there will be a rapid expansion of global “cyber conflict”. Nations with a technological infrastructure already in place will enjoy rapid economic growth, while the rest of the world lags behind.

What will be the political and economic fallout from rapid growth of global cyber conflict? Will accepted business practices in one part of the world be perceived as “cheating” or “fraud” in other parts of the world? Will a few wealthy nations widen the already big gap between rich and poor? Will political and even military confrontations emerge?

With the advancing technology, even internet can cause war to countries. It could be a silent war; no one would get hurt… physically. Cyber conflict may result to chaos to the concerned parties. Such as what happened in September 2000, wherein Israelite teenage hackers created a website that successfully jammed six websites in Lebanon, causing a huge turmoil in different websites in Israel, including those of the Palestinians and at least one U.S. site.

They made two main types of attacks, the website defacement and distributed denial of service. Website defacement focuses on high-profile political site such as government sites. Disruption of such site would cause confusion to the citizens of that country and those other persons that are connected to them.

On the other hand, DDoS or distributed denial of service concerns shutting down of opposing sites. The Israelites teenage hackers also assaulted the websites that concerns broadcasting, telecommunication infrastructures and other websites corning alike. One website that the hacker attacked was the internet service provider that deals with Israeli senior citizens.

What I learned:

I have learned the Jus in Bello-The Law of War, where the contents are:

• Distinction of Combatants from Noncombatants.
• Military Necessity.
• Proportionality.
• Indiscriminate Weapons.
• Superfluous Injury.
• Perfidy.
• Neutrality.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is cyber conflict?

2.    Give at least two cyber conflicts mentioned in this chapter.

3.    What is Jus in Bello?

4.    What is Jus ad Bellum?

5.    What are the ethical frameworks of Hacktivism?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 18

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – A Practical Mechanism for Ethical

Risk Assessment- A SoDis Inspection

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Amatrix can be set up for each ethical rule such as “Don’t cause harm.” The column headers of the “Don’t cause harm” matrix are the stakeholders, such as the “developer” and the “customer,” and there is a row for each major requirement or task. The SoDIS analyst then visits each cell in the matrix, asking for each requirement whether meeting this requirement violates that obligation to the stakeholder.”

What I expect to learn:

• To conclude practical mechanism for ethical risk assessment.

Chapter Review:

In this chapter the author get centered on the risk that of the things that we will do. It was true that not all the time we can get what we want in just one click of our hand, you have sometimes to sacrifice something or someone in your life.

Everything in this world results from a choice, and comes with risk. Risk that you need to assess, manage and even diversify. You can never ever do something without risking something, that’s why you have to weigh up the possible consequences of decisions. A simple eating of your favorite pie might end you up in a room in one of the most expensive hospital in our country.

A little decision might cause a million disasters. Disasters that is possibly reduced or diminished when properly assessed. Analysis of risk in any field is really important, in science, risk can cause the extinction of human race, in finance, financial crisis, just like what we are experiencing now, and as to advance technology like internet, invasion of privacy and furthermore, threat to security.

What I learned:

In this chapter I learned the following issues:

• Generic Standards for Risk Analysis Models
• The Context
• Risk Identification
• Risk Analysis
• Limitations of the Generic Standards

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is SoDIS?

2.    Explain the SODIS audit process.

3.    Explain the concept of risk identification?

4.    What is risk assessment?

5.    Is risk assessment necessary? Explain.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 19

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Regulation and Governance of the

Internet

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“A strong moral case can be made for regulating the content of the Internet, but there is also a strong case that such regulation cannot be very effective and comes at a price in Internet performance.”

What I expect to learn:

• To recognize the regulation and governance of the internet.

Chapter Review:

Only rather recently did the question of Internet governance come to the forefront of the international political agenda. Several studies have shown that its appearance as the priority during the first stage of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva in December 2003, was as unexpected as it was decisive for the orientation of the debates. There are two large families of explanation for this: on one hand, the risk that the conventional rights of sovereign States would be “run over” by marginal regulations or criminal practices, both of which take place outside their territories;  on the other hand, a growing awareness about the numerous regimes and the heterogeneous mechanisms in the ground rules necessary for this new socio-technical system – the Internet – to work properly. By making the Internet the motor of the post-industrial society and by vigorously promoting its use, governments have entered into a game that had not previously involved them much, since regulating the Internet involved mostly private experts, companies and the netiquette of network users.

This technological, industrial and social innovation has risen to the very top of the major public policy priorities.  As a result, the desire to correct certain inconsistencies, gaps or dangers in the current situation has become part of the international political agenda. A certain number of tensions have also resulted.  Due to its UN framework, the Summit had as prerequisites the plurality of the actors and the equal acceptability of their viewpoints. The debates that resulted, whether formal or informal, whether included in the official program or led in parallel, emphasize the need to coordinate, if not harmonize, complex balances of power.

This inaugural lecture by Jonathan Zittrain proposes a theory about what lies around the corner for the Internet, how to avoid it, and how to study and affect the future of the internet using the distributed power of the network itself, using privacy as a signal example.

What I learned:

I have learned that inside the nebulous “Internet governance” there coexist different regulatory models, more or less founded in the law, more or less specialized, more or less effective. We will not return to the particular, and in many respects emblematic, case of ICANN: the controversies over its legitimacy, its ability to operate and its future have fueled the greater part of research work on Internet governance in the past years and still provide the essential fuel for debates within the WSIS regarding the management of the technical resources of the Internet, international relations and the place of users in governance.

We are only touching on the legislative effervescence, more or less coordinated, among sovereign States. Thus we leave aside the examination of all the contracts, conventions, rules and agreements, both public and private, national and international, which make up the background of the daily functioning of the Internet; an exhaustive study of this topic remains to be conducted.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is content regulation?

2.    Is content regulation necessary? Why?

3.    What are the technical issues surrounding effective regulation of content?

4.    Define censorship.

5.    What are the mentioned normative issues in internet regulation?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 20

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Information Overload

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“For a variety of reasons-some economic, some social, and some spiritual11-our society’s sense of progress and achievement is tied to the accelerated production of material and information goods.”

What I expect to learn:

• To be on familiar terms with what an information overload is.

Chapter Review:

Have you experienced headaches in the middle of your class, thinking what might be its cause and realizing that your professors have taught you a lot of lessons that your mind cannot absorb them anymore? Then my friend, you might be experiencing information overload.

This commonly occurs when the mind is trying to grasp so much information that it end up to a point that it cannot understand anything anymore. Information overload is said to be the side effect of our advancing technology. This result from the too much availability of information generated through internet and other channels of communication.

A lot of us is curious about different things happening in our environment, but too much of this curiosity might also cause harm. Being too exposed to different things in our society that we may miss the fact of ‘reality’, which we cannot based everything on books, researches and experiments. Sometimes, we still need to experience them, just as what they all used to say, experience is the best teacher.

Things experienced can never be compared to things ‘read’. Simple information about some matter would be a great help for us, but too much of anything can cause trouble. Imagine reading a certain article about a candy and formulating insights that you realized while reading it, then disseminating it to others.

The person who received the information about the candy together with your insights can also formulate his, and after passing it to a few others, that’s already whole lot of information that you’re not even sure if it’s true or not, thus, resulting to an information overload over a simple candy.

What I learned:

I have several knowledge to pursue in this chapter and also determined the factors about the information over load.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is information overload?

2.    How did the chapter define information?

3.    Distinguish the difference of perception and reality.

4.    Briefly enumerate the history of information overload.

5.    What are the given consequences of information overload?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 21

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Email Spam

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“A fundamental problem with any philosophical discussion of email spam is definitional. Exactly what constitutes spam? Published definitions by some major players differ dramatically on which emails should be identified as spam. Some emphasize the importance of “consent”; others require the emails to be commercial in nature before they are called spam; still others focus on the number of identical messages that are sent as spam. At least one Web site (Spam Defined, 2007) is soliciting signatories to settle on the definition of spam.”

What I expect to learn:

• To distinguish what an email spam is

Chapter Review:

All of you who have email addresses would probably know what a spam is. Well actually, not all because we may have spam mails but we don’t really know how it got sent to us and why is it sent to us. The definition of spam emails in Wikipedia is that it is also known as junk e-mail, and is a subset of spam that involves nearly identical messages sent to numerous recipients by e-mail. A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE). Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk “UCE” refers specifically to unsolicited commercial e-mail. The total volume of spam (over 100 billion emails per day as of April 2008) has leveled off slightly in recent years, and is no longer growing exponentially.

The amount received by most e-mail users has decreased, mostly because of better filtering. E-mail spam has steadily, even exponentially grown since the early 1990s to several billion messages a day. Spam has frustrated, confused, and annoyed e-mail users. Laws against spam have been sporadically implemented, with some being opt-out and others requiring opt in e-mail. About 80% of all spam is sent by fewer than 200 spammers. Botnets, networks of virus-infected computers, are used to send about 80% of spam. Since the cost of the spam is borne mostly by the recipient, it is effectively postage due advertising. E-mail addresses are collected from chatrooms, websites, newsgroups, and viruses which harvest users’ address books, and are sold to other spammers. Much of spam is sent to invalid e-mail addresses. ISPs have attempted to recover the cost of spam through lawsuits against spammers, although they have been mostly unsuccessful in collecting damages despite winning in court.

Now you know what spam emails are and thanks to Google and wiki for the definition. Anyway, spam emails are not something we want but it is a method of some websites to endorse their investors to other people.

What I learned:

In this chapter I have learned the following:

• Deceptive Emails Meant to Defraud Are Condemned, Spam or Not
• Emails Between Well-Meaning Friends Are Probably Not Spam
• Unsolicited Commercial Bulk Emails (UCBE)
• The Ethics of Reducing the Number of Spam Emails Read After They Are Sent
• The Ethics of Suggestions to Reduce the Number of Emails Sent

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is spam?

2.    Why is it called spam?

3.    Where is spam qualified to?

4.    What the intent of the sender of spam email?

5.    What are the consequences of the receiver once a spam is received?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 22

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – The Matter of Plagiarism: What,

Why, and If

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“We commonly repeat jokes and report established dates for historical events without citing sources, and we do so without qualms about plagiarism. An expression is only plagiarism if it is unacceptable on some established value.”

What I expect to learn:

• To know what plagiarism really is.

Chapter Review:

It was just discussed to us that plagiarism is not infringement of copyright. For those who thought plagiarism is some disease found only in South East part of the world, plagiarism is the use or close imitation of the language and ideas of another author and representation of them as one’s own original work.

Plagiarism is not copyright infringement. While both terms may apply to a particular act, they are different transgressions. Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights of a copyright holder, when material protected by copyright is used without consent.

On the other hand, plagiarism is concerned with the unearned increment to the plagiarizing author’s reputation that is achieved through false claims of authorship. See, even Wikipedia can prove why both terms may seem similar but totally different in definition.

I actually had a classmate that plagiarized already but to the class’ disappointment, he was not punished for it. He did not pay for something illegal to do because you know what he did? He literally just copied and pasted an article explaining how life is to people in psychology and just put his name for identification.

Wrong move because my professor is very keen with plagiarism but still, trying to remember the event, I was disappointed because our professor just let it slip meaning more and more students will eventually do it because they will have an idea that they won’t be in trouble in the first place.

So here is what I think, plagiarism is definitely wrong because you have a brain and you need to use it, not copy another man’s ideas completely.

What I learned:

• Lack of authorization – economic foundations
• Lack of authorization – natural or moral rights
• Lack of accreditation – noninfringing plagiarism
• A personal view of matter
• Literature review

Integrative Questions:

1.    Explain the concept of plagiarism.

2.    How can plagiarism be avoided?

3.    How can plagiarism be extinguished?

4.    What is the literature view?

5.    What is lack of accreditation?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 23

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Intellectual Property: Legal and

Moral Challenges of Online File Sharing

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“All the goods of the information age- all of the expressions once contained in books or film strips or newsletters- will exist as thought or something very much like thought: voltage conditions darting around the net at the speed of light, in conditions that one might behold in effect, as glowing pixels or transmitted sounds”

What I expect to learn:

• To know more about intellectual property

Chapter Review:

I am guilty to using online file sharing because first of all, it is free and second of all, it is accessible.

Honestly, for me, that is enough reason for anyone to shift from buying a brand new album by an indie band to downloading or listening to the whole album for free. Of course I don’t want you to open your browser just to check out what file sharing is which is I this is the definition of file sharing in Wikipedia, “File sharing refers to the providing and receiving of digital files over a network, usually following the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users.

The first file-sharing programs marked themselves by inquiries to a server, either the data to the download held ready or in appropriate different Peers and so-called Nodes further-obtained, so that one could download there. Two examples were Napster (today using a pay system) and eDonkey2000 in the server version (today, likewise with Overnet and KAD – network decentralized). Another notable instance of peer to peer file sharing, which still has a free version, is Limewire.”

Of course I know what these software are because yes, I have committed an unethical approach to technology because back then, five to 7 years back, downloading something from the internet is not illegal because it is just the concept of sharing but now, many complained that P2P software ruin the music and movie industry because of all the files that people can have access to without paying a cent.

What I learned:

• Sharing or theft
• Secondary liability
• MGM V. GROKSTER
• Moral considerations

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is intellectual property?

2.    What are the legal challenges of online file sharing?

3.    Should P2P be against the law? Why or why not?

4.    What is secondary liability of file sharing?

5.    Who is Grokster?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 24

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Censorship and Access to Expression

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“The benefits we receive from having these interests satisfied (and the harms from not having them satisfied) will not be easily overridden. Second, we have to ask ourselves not what in principle it might be good to censor. We have to ask ourselves what in actual practice would be the consequences of having policies in place that restrict access. It is at this point that “slippery slope” and “chilling effect” arguments might have some force.”

What I expect to learn:

• To know about censorship.

Chapter Review:

We usually encounter the word censorship in movies that are opt to be blocked by this rectangular black object desperately trying to cover up body parts that are not supposed to be shown in national television but that is not the case here. Let us first define what is censorship from our favorite resource, Wikipedia, to truly understand how this chapter connected this to ethical issues. To my surprise, there are different kinds of censorship which “is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful or sensitive, as determined by a censor.”

The real reason behind the concept for censorship is not similar for numerous types of data that are censored: Moral censorship, is taking away of materials that censor deems to be obscene or otherwise morally questionable.

Pornography, for example, is often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography, which is censored in most jurisdictions in the world. In another example, graphic violence resulted in the censorship of the “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” movie entitled Scarface, originally completed in 1932. I never realized that there are types of censorship that we need to consider because we are used to knowing that censorship means that floating black object covering people’s faces and bodies but I guess I was wrong. Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics confidential and away from the enemy.

This is used to counter espionage, which is the process of gleaning military information. Very often, militaries will also attempt to suppress politically inconvenient information even if that information has no actual intelligence value.

Political censorship occurs when governments hold back information from their citizens. The logic is to exert control over the populace and prevent free expression that might formed. Religious censorship is the means by which any material objectionable to a certain faith is removed. This often involves a dominant religion forcing limitations on less prevalent ones. Alternatively, one religion may shun the works of another when they believe the content is not appropriate for their faith.

What I learned:

• Definition of censorship
• TYPES OF HARM AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST CENSORSHIP
• Inherently Harmful Access
• Instrumentally Harmful Access
• Creating a Market
• Hostile atmosphere
• Influence
• Implementation

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is censorship?

2.    Should censorship be implemented? Give at least two reasons.

3.    Why are people interested in accessing other people’s computers?

4.    Give two types of harm against censorship.

5.    What is inherently harmful access?

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 25

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – The Gender Agenda in Computer Ethics

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“To date, the focus of feminist ethics has tended to be women’s caring roles, especially mothering.5 There are some theoretical problems with this focus, particularly in terms of the emphasis on “ethics of care” that can be seen as problematic as it reinforces women’s traditional self-sacrificing role while, at the same time, emphasizing a level of control over those who are cared for. There have been few attempts to apply feminist ethics to science and technology”

What I expect to learn:

• To identify the gender agenda in computer ethics

Chapter Review:

Back then, women have no rights aside being mothers and I also get it that up to now, it is still a big deal to other parts of the world but hey, wake up guys because if you open your eyes wide enough, you will see how many women showed power and passion to their true beings and demonstrated how it is to truly be brave and to truly treasure a right. I know I seem upset but who would not be upset after reading a history book explaining why women have no rights back then and how they treat women.

Now is not the right time to morn about it because it is done. We are finally saved from all those cultural chains that pulled women away from their capabilities and justice as a human being.

Ethics of care, I have to admit, obviously means the heart of women and in a good way. Here is an excerpt from the chapter explaining the relevance of digital divide: What is the relevance, if any, of the digital divide discourse (e.g., Internet access to all) with the fact that data is not information, information is not marketable knowledge, and marketable knowledge is not wisdom?

The gaps between these various notions must be identified to call better attention to how our efforts to bridge the various gaps should succeed. For example, we must provide education that enables people to convert data to information, and information to marketable knowledge.

To ensure full human flourishing, we want to ensure that bridging the digital divide leads not only to ending life-threatening poverty, but also to full flourishing of human beings, which requires wisdom, aesthetic experience, philosophical self-reflection, and so on.

What I learned:

• Gender and computer ethics studies
• Student population
• Quantitative Versus Qualitative Research Methodologies
• Ethical behavior
• The Undertheorizing of Gender and Ethics
• Women in computing
• Cyberstalking
• Hacking
• Hacker Communities

Integrative Questions:

1.    What do you mean by feminist ethics?

2.    Explain the male-female binary in this chapter.

3.    Define cyberstalking.

4.    Define what a hacker community is.

5.    Explain the concept of Quantitative Versus Qualitative Research Methodologies.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 26

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – The Digital Divide: A Perspective for

the Future

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“More correct is, though, to try and fight the reason behind the ‘piratical’ behavior, which necessitates the substantial promotion of balanced approaches to intellectual property rights. The paper will present a series of recommendations to achieve this balance.”

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn what digital divide is and what is the perspective for the future.

Chapter Review:

Simply put, the “digital divide” is the division between those who have access to ICT and are using it effectively, and those who do not. Since information and communications technology is increasingly a foundation of our societies and economies, the digital divide means that the information “have-nots” are denied the option to participate in new ICT-based jobs, e-government, ICT-improved healthcare, and ICT-enhanced education.

More often than not, the information “have-nots” are in developing countries, and in disadvantaged groups within countries. To bridges.org, the digital divide is thus a lost opportunity — the opportunity for the information “have-nots” to use ICT to improve their lives.

Public awareness means attitudes, behaviors, opinions and activities that comprise the relations between the general public or lay society as a whole to a particular matter of wider significance. Public awareness does not have a legal nature and a lawyer is not any more qualified position than another professional to explore public awareness and certainly not more than a professional specialized in for example, public relations and communication.

Still, a copyright lawyer should know what copyright is about and moreover, what copyright is for lay people-she should also have an idea of what changes (legal and, secondly, other) are necessary to promote public awareness of copyrights.

We seem to live in a very anti-copyright age, an age where we can speak with relative accuracy about a movement against intellectual property in general, and against intellectual property as a very idea. The scholars who attack intellectual property do not question it only when it comes to the Internet; they explore the fundamental question of the necessity or justice of intellectual property in general. And these scholars are not few, nor are they insignificant, and their arguments, that very often reach deep into constitutional and more specifically, human rights issues, are certainly not to be ignored. At least definitely not when one aims at copyright public awareness.

Although some people have become more involved with reading these arguments, or exploring works such as Lessig’s book Code and other Laws of Cyberspace, or become more sensitive to how intellectual property impacted the public domain, the majority of people who respond, do so because the arguments presented are sometimes powerful and true. If we want lay people to listen to copyright lawyers, there must be a concrete legal response to these arguments.

What I learned:

I have learned the digital divide is the division between those who have access to ICT and are using it effectively, and those who do not.

Integrative Questions:

1.  What is the title of section 103?

2.  What is the title of section 1201?

3.  What is the title of section 1202?

4.  Explain the limitations on liability for copyright infringement.

5.  Explain the limitations on liability relating to material online.

Handbook of Ethics – Chapter 27

Book: The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics – Intercultural Information Ethics

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/

Quote:

“Digital information technology has at first sight changed the horizon of human thinking and action in such a way that we have to deal with many problems for which classic ethical theories do not have only any answers but they cannot even provide a sufficient basis to deal with them.”

What I expect to learn:

I expect learn the issues and discussion about intercultural information ethics.

Chapter Review:

Our present life-world is shaped by information technology. The Oxford philosopher Luciano Floridi has coined the term “infosphere” to capture this point (Floridi 1999). I use instead the term digital ontology in the sense that this world view of the digital embraces today all dimensions of our being-in-the-world (Capurro 2001). This predominant digital world view is not the cyberspace or “the new home of mind” proclaimed by John Perry Barlow in 1996 (Barlow 1996) but the intersection of the digital with the ecological, political, economic, and cultural spheres. Intercultural information ethics addresses questions concerning these intersections such as: How far is the Internet changing local cultural values and traditional ways of life? How far do these changes affect the life and culture of future societies in a global and local sense?

Put another way, how far do traditional cultures and their moral values communicate and transform themselves under the impact of the digital “infosphere” in general and of the Internet in particular? In other words, intercultural information ethics can be conceived as a field of research where moral questions of the “infosphere” are reflected in a comparative manner on the basis of different cultural traditions.

The Internet has become a challenge not only to international but also to intercultural information ethics as I will show in the second part of this paper. But, indeed, intercultural information ethics suggests a paradigm shift not only within traditional (Western) ethics but also within (Western) philosophy itself to which I will first briefly refer.

This dialogue is thus not only an inner one but also an intercultural and finally a transcultural one that goes beyond the local tradition of Western philosophy as well as beyond any mono-cultural foundation of philosophy but remaining attached to it at the same time in the different voices that articulate it. When Heidegger states that we can only get into a historical or creative dialogue with the original Greek experience, “we” is then of course not restricted to Europeans who must overcome their own tradition starting with an inner-cultural dialogue. This dialogue changes the meaning of the word “we” that is to say, the matter of philosophy.

What I learned:

I have learned that there are at least three major global or spherical projects in European history. The first one is the globalisation of reason in Greek philosophy. Reason conceives itself – from Aristotle until Hegel – as global thinking that goes beyond nature into the realm of the divine as the eternal, infinite or metaphysical sphere. Such a sphere bursts with the rise of modern science. Metaphysical claims are criticised by modern empirical science. In this unequal fight, David, modern empirical science, is the winner over the metaphysics of Goliath. The second globalisation is the earthly one.

It begins in Europe in the 15^th Century and bursts in the 20^th Century. The idea of a spherical earth and the attempts to circumnavigate it are indeed older, but the totalitarian ambitions of modern subjectivity are paid off, at least for a while. The third globalisation is the digital one with predecessors in the late Middle Ages as well as in Modernity.

Today we are confronted with the digital formatting of mankind. The digital globalisation not only reinforces and expands upon the divide between the digital haves and have-nots but also makes more explicit and even deepens existing inequalities

Integrative Questions:

1.    Who is Charles Ess?

2.    Who is Toru Nishigaki?

3.    IEE means what?

4.    Who is Terrell Ward Bynum?

5.    Who is Rafael Capurro?

Cyberethics – Chapter 13

Book: Cyberethics – Filtering the Internet in the USA: Free Speech Denied?

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Quote:

“Although defendant is under no obligation to provide internet access to its patrons, it has chosen to do so and is therefore restricted by the first amendment in the limitations it is allowed to place on patron access. Defendant has asserted a broad right to censor the expressive activity of the receipt and communication of information through the internet with a policy.” by Richard S. Rosenberg.

What I expect to learn:

• To learn what is filtering and how it may affect internet and the users.

Chapter Review:

               In general we seek to focus on those blocked pages likely to be most controversial for
example, those blocked pages seemingly inconsistent with the criteria of the blocking regimes
that respectively restrict their retrieval, as well as blocked pages that are well-known or
frequently requested. However, to provide a more complete sense of the state of Internet
filtering efforts, we also seek to investigate all blocking, including the restriction of access to web
pages consistent with censors' category definitions.

Previous efforts to document the extent of government filtering have been made by researchers at the Soros Foundation’s Internet Censorship Project. In that work, the ICP sent correspondents around the world to collect anecdotal data about filtering efforts worldwide by manually searching for some well-known Web pages; we build on their work by invoking automated methods to test and document thousands of pages blocked by each country or other blocking system studied. We wish to similarly augment the efforts described in such ventures as Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor Boas’s “The Internet and State Control in Authoritarian Regimes” and Radio Free Europe’s “20 Enemies of the Internet.” Finally, our work follows a series of projects intended to document sites blocked — and in many instances arguably wrongly blocked — by major commercial Internet filtering applications; such projects include Bennett Haselton’s Peacefire and Seth Finkelstein’s Anticensorware Investigations as well as one author’s Sites Blocked by Internet Filtering Programs.

In future work, the authors intend to expand analysis to Internet filtering systems in additional countries. Sign up to receive updates. To date, our methodology is limited to obtaining Internet access through a given country and testing a set of URLs for blockages; however, our ultimate aim is to develop a distributed software application for use in testing, analyzing, and documenting Internet filtering regimes worldwide. This application will enable Internet users to easily test what is and isn’t filtered from their respective locations on the network, relaying results back for analysis and documentation.

What I learned:

I learned through this chapter that filtering is like separating sand from stone, but from here the internet is the one that being filtered. It is filtering or blocking software to call to. But then for me this doings was not good at all, it can cause fighting or it can also use in a bad plan, especially those people whose intention was selfishness.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What does CLA means?

2.    What does ALA means?

3.    What are three basic types of filtering?

4.    What are the librarians and filtering programs?

5.    What can used to restrict access to internet content through database?

Cyberethics – Chapter 14

Book: Cyberethics – Censorship, the Internet, and the Child Pornography Law of 1996: A Critique by Jacques N. Catudal

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Quote:

“When the law speaks universally, there, and a cause arises on it which is not covered by the universal statement, then it is right, where the legislator fails us and has erred by over-simplicity, to correct the omission to say what the legislator himself would have said had been present. And would have put into his law if he had known.” by Jacques N. Catudal.

What I expect to learn:

I want to know what pornography is and how the internet had it.

Chapter Review:

A sensible discussion of the issue of pornography and censorship obviously depends on our having either a shared conception of pornography or, at least, a clear understanding of our differences. Consider, for instance, the empirical question whether the free availability of pornography in society would have harmful consequences. This question could not be answered without specifying what will be counted as pornography. Moreover, the account of pornography used to answer this question will affect the bearing the answer has on the public policy issue that concerns us. That is, if we who pose the public policy issue have a conception of pornography different from that employed by researchers who are attempting to answer the empirical question, their answers may be misleading. Also, philosophical positions about the issue of pornography and censorship may be misleading in the context of the popular debate if the philosophical and popular conceptions of pornography differ.

Conceptions of pornography do in fact differ quite widely. And even when conceptions of pornography are similar, there are differences in what things are counted as pornographic. It could happen that two people share a single conception of pornography as, say, sexually explicit depictions that violate the proper canons of modesty; yet, because of different beliefs about the canons of modesty, they differ on whether a particular depiction is pornographic. In short, two kinds of disagreement occur: there are differences about the conception on the one hand; and there are differences about the “extension” of the concept on the other hand, differences that may occur between people even if they share a conception.

What I learned:

I learned that nowadays pornography was not only in those television or media program, but there is also in internet. We all knew that pornography contains of all worse program that a child has the possibility to learn to. It can also give bad influence to a child.

I also learned that it should be stop as early as the government can, to avoid children from learning worse things from it.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What do you call any visual depiction, including photograph, film, video, picture or computer or other means of sexually explicit conduct?

2.    Where does the 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals upheld?

3.    When does the 1^st Circuit Court of Appeals upheld?

4.    What does CPPA means?

5.    What doe CDA means?

Cyberethics – Chapter 15

Book: Cyberethics – PICS: Internet Access Controls Without Censorship

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Quote:

“When publishers are unwilling to participate, or can’t be trusted to participate honestly, independent organizations can provide third-party labels.” by Paul Resnick and James Miller.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn how was internet Access without censorship.

Chapter Review:

With its recent explosive growth, the Internet now faces a problem inherent in all media that serve diverse audiences: not all materials are appropriate for every audience. Societies have tailored their responses to the characteristics of the media [1, 3]: in most countries, there are more restrictions on broadcasting than on the distribution of printed materials. Any rules about distribution, however, will be too restrictive from some perspectives, yet not restrictive enough from others. We can do better-we can meet diverse needs by controlling reception rather than distribution. In the TV industry, this realization has led to the V-chip, a system for blocking reception based on labels embedded in the broadcast stream.

On the Internet, we can do still better, with richer labels that reflect diverse viewpoints, and more flexible selection criteria. PICS (note 2), the Platform for Internet Content Selection, establishes Internet conventions for label formats and distribution methods, while dictating neither a labeling vocabulary nor who should pay attention to which labels. It is analogous to specifying where on a package a label should appear, and in what font it should be printed, without specifying what it should say.

The PICS conventions have caught on quickly. In early 1996, Microsoft, Netscape, SurfWatch, CyberPatrol, and other software vendors announced PICS-compatible products. AOL, AT&T WorldNet, CompuServe, and Prodigy provide free blocking software that will be PICS-compliant by the end of 1996. RSACi and SafeSurf are offering their particular labeling vocabularies through on-line servers that produce PICS-formatted labels. In May of 1996, CompuServe announced that it will label all web content it produces using PICS-formatted RSACi labels.

What I learned:

I learned that PICS provides a labeling infrastructure for the Internet. It is values-neutral: it can accommodate any set of labeling dimensions, and any criteria for assigning labels. Any PICS-compatible software can interpret labels from any source, because each source provides a machine-readable description of its labeling dimensions.

Around the world, governments are considering restrictions on on-line content. Since children differ, contexts of use differ, and values differ, blanket restrictions on distribution can never meet everyone’s needs.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What does PICS means?

2.    What does PICS doesn’t specify?

3.    What does PICS provide?

4.    What is a common set of dimensions would make publishers self labels?

5.    Who creates labels?

Cyberethics – Chapter 16

Book: Cyberethics – Internet Service Providers and Defamation: New Strands of Liability

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” by Richard A. Spinello.

What I expect to learn:

• To learn why this chapter entitled Internet Service Providers and Defamation: New Strand of Liability.

Chapter Review:

This article explores recent developments in the regulation of Internet speech, in particular, injurious or defamatory speech and the impact the attempts at regulation are having on the ‘body’ in the sense of the individual person who speaks through the medium of the Internet and upon those harmed by that speech. The article proceeds in three sections. First, a brief history of the legal attempts to regulate defamatory Internet speech in the United States is presented & semi; a short comparative discussion of defamation law in the UK and Australia is included.

As discussed in this chapter, this regulation has altered the traditional legal paradigm of responsibility and, as a result, creates potential problems for the future of unrestricted and even anonymous speech on the Internet. Second, an ethical assessment is made of the defamatory speech environment in order to determine which actors have moral responsibility for the harm caused by defamatory speech. This moral assessment is compared to the developing and anticipated legal paradigm to identify possible conformity of moral and legal tenants or to recognize the conflict between morality and law in assigning responsibility to defamatory actors.

This assessment then concludes with possible suggestions for changes in the legal climate governing the regulation of defamatory speech on the Internet, as well as prediction of the result should the legal climate continue to develop on its present course. This is not to suggest that all law, or even the law of defamation, be structured to reflect the subjectivity of a moral construct, but since it is the authors position that the legal assignment of liability in online settings is misaligned, this reflection can serve as beginning reassessment of that assignment.

What I learned:

I have learned that new infrastructures are often used in unplanned ways, to meet latent needs. There will be many labeling vocabularies that are unrelated to access controls. The PICS specifications also plan for unplanned uses, by including extension mechanisms for adding new functionality.

One more is that the different standards of liability for disturbing defamatory information depending upon the role one plays in the process.

Integrative Questions:

1.    How does the defamation occur in a internet?

2.    Does cyberspace alter the need for libel laws?

3.    Enumerate software that can provide free blocking software that will be PICS compliant.

4.    When does CopuServe announced the labeling of all the web content using PICS?

5.    What do we call the software that draws on text and icons in the service description?

Cyberethics – Chapter 17

Book: Cyberethics – A Politics of Intellectual Property: Environmentalism for the Net?

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Quote:

“We are just as responsible for the harm we fail to prevent or limit, as we are for the harm we directly inflict.” by James Boyle.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to know the environmentalism role in net.

Chapter Review:

This article explores recent developments in the regulation of Internet speech, in particular, injurious or defamatory speech and the impact the attempts at regulation are having on the ‘body’ in the sense of the individual person who speaks through the medium of the Internet and upon those harmed by that speech. The article proceeds in three sections. First, a brief history of the legal attempts to regulate defamatory Internet speech in the United States is presented semi; a short comparative discussion of defamation law in the UK and Australia is included.

As discussed here, this regulation has altered the traditional legal paradigm of responsibility and, as a result, creates potential problems for the future of unrestricted and even anonymous speech on the Internet. Second, an ethical assessment is made of the defamatory speech environment in order to determine which actors have moral responsibility for the harm caused by defamatory speech.

This moral assessment is compared to the developing and anticipated legal paradigm to identify possible conformity of moral and legal tenants or to recognize the conflict between morality and law in assigning responsibility to defamatory actors. This assessment then concludes with possible suggestions for changes in the legal climate governing the regulation of defamatory speech on the Internet, as well as prediction of the result should the legal climate continue to develop on its present course.

This is not to suggest that all law, or even the law of defamation, be structured to reflect the subjectivity of a moral construct, but since it is the authors position that the legal assignment of liability in online settings is misaligned, this reflection can serve as beginning reassessment of that assignment.

What I learned:

I learned that there are structural reasons why these tendencies will continue.  Another knowledge I learned is that libertarians don’t want newspapers censored; their attitude to the Net is the same (though the interactive quality of the technology, and the proprietary feeling that novelty gives first adopters have certainly given more people a stake in the protection of the system.) Non-profit groups have to adjust to changes in communications technology, just like changes in tax law, or the regulation of lobbying.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What are the two basic analytical frameworks of environmental movement?

2.    How does Cyberpunk built?

3.    Explain the idea of ecology.

4.    Explain idea of welfare economics.

5.    When does a massage happens that anonymous posted on Prodigy’s Monkey talk?

Cyberethics – Chapter 18

Book: Cyberethics – Intellectual Property, Information, and the Common Good

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Quote:

“Intellectual property has always been closely tied to technology. Technology arises from intellectual property in the form of new inventions. But technology also supports intellectual property by providing new, more powerful and more efficient.” by Michael C. McFarland, SJ.

What I expect to learn:

• To learn what was the meaning and all about of this chapter.

Chapter Review:

Intellectual property is an odd notion, almost an oxymoron. Property usually refers to tangible assets over which someone has or claims control. Originally it meant land. Now it could also refer to a car, a milling machine, a jacket or a toothbrush. In all these cases the property claim is of control of the physical entity. If I claim a plot of land as my property, I am saying I can control who has access to that land and what they do there. I can build a fence around it, rent it out, or drill for oil on it.

Apart from the normal presumption in favor of informed democratic participation in the formation of entire property regimes, I argued that there are particular reasons why this comparative political vacuum is particularly unfortunate. Drawing on some prior work, I claimed that our intellectual property discourse has structural tendencies towards over-protection, rather than under protection. To combat that tendency, as well as to prevent the formation and renewal of a set of rules crafted by and for the largest stakeholders, I argued that we need a politics of intellectual property. Using the environmental movement as an analogy, I pointed out that a successful political movement needed both a set of (popularisable) analytical tools and coalition built around the more general interests those tools revealed

What I learned:

I have argued that the idea of an information age is indeed a useful and productive concept, that there is a homologizing tendency for all “information issues” to collapse into each other as information technology and the idea of “information” moves forward in reciprocal relationship. The range of information issues expands and the value of the “message” increases, at least in comparison to the diminishing marginal cost of the medium. This, in turn, gives greater and greater importance to intellectual property.

Yet despite its astounding economic importance and its impact on everything from public education to the ownership of one’s own genetic information, intellectual property has no corresponding place in popular debate or political understanding; The belief seems to be that information age politics means fighting censorship on the Web too.

I learned that computers have given rise to a whole new category of intellectual property, namely computer software. This chapter was all about the computer technology and how it changed every one’s life, its intellectual aspect, the information we get from it and the common good or affects of it.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What are the five cases in conflicts over intellectual property?

2.    What is intellectual property?

3.    What was the originally gave rise to intellectual property?

4.    Where does technology arises?

5.    What is the title of the article of Justin Hughes?

Cyberethics – Chapter 19

Book: Cyberethics – Is Copyright Ethical? An Examination of the Theories, Laws, and Practices Regarding the Private Ownership of Intellectual Work in United States

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Quote:

“They believed that too much protection will arise the cost of creation, while too little will provide little incentive.” by Shelly Warwick.

What I expect to learn:

• To learn the ethical, theories, laws and practice regarding the private ownership of intellectual work in US.

Chapter Review:

Plagiarism is certainly despicable, and academic solution of public shaming doesn’t seem to apply to the entertainment industry. But what would be worse, unpunished plagiarism or the loss of what little public domain that remains.

This paper examines the relationship between intellectual property rights and ethics, focusing for the most part on copyright. The focus is on two key questions: 1) what is the relationship between ethics and copyright law and practice in the United States; and, 2) is the concept of private ownership of intellectual property inherently ethical? These questions are important because access to an overwhelming number of the elements of daily life is now controlled by intellectual property law. Is non-conformance with these laws a calculated risk against being caught, equivalent to parking at a meter beyond the specified time period, or is it a matter of ethics?

Copyright protects expression not ideas. Works once they enter the public domain have no protection. Scholarly ethics would require acknowledgment of sources whether or not they are protected, but entertainment ethics appear to be different. I can’t recall the parties involved, but I remember that a few years ago a judge found that a novel based to a considerable extent on the ideas presented in a scholarly work of history, and which did not acknowledge that source, had not infringed the copyright of the scholar since no expression had been copied. The judge I believe decried the ethics of the lack of acknowledgment but found, and in my opinion rightly, that the law provided no protection for ideas.

What I learned:

I have learned that the intellectual property has always been closely tied to technology. Technology arises from intellectual property in the form of new inventions. But technology also supports intellectual property by providing new, more powerful and more efficient ways of creating and disseminating writing, musical composition, visual art, and so on. In fact it was the technology of the printing press that originally gave rise to intellectual property as a legal and moral issue.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What are the two ways to approach ethics of copyright?

2.    What year did the 105^th congress passed three major copyright laws?

3.    Enumerate the things that copyright does not cover.

4.    What does TRIP’s means?

5.    Cohen defines property rights as?

Cyberethics – Chapter 20

Book: Cyberethics – On the Web, Plagiarism Matters More than Copyright Piracy

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Quote:

“Changes in technology lowered the cost or publication to the point that most copyright protections were no longer needed to encourage publication.” by John W. Snapper.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn what plagiarism is is all about.

Chapter Review:

In college courses, we are continually engaged with other people’s ideas: we read them in texts, hear them in lecture, discuss them in class, and incorporate them into our own writing. As a result, it is very important that we give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.

The present paper argues that Web-based publication lessens the importance of piracy, while it heightens the need for protections against plagiarism. Copyright policy protects the opportunity for publishers to make a profit from their investments. As the cost of publication decreases in the electronic media, we need fewer copyright protections. Plagiarism is the failure to abide by scholarly standards for citation of sources. These standards assure us that information can be verified and traced to its source. Since Web sources are often volatile and changing, it becomes increasingly difficult and important to have clear standards for verifying the source of all information.

What I learned:

I learned that piracy is the infringement of copyright, and plagiarism is the failure to give credit. If someone copy ones document the copyright owner suffers from the loss of the revenue that is customarily paid for permission to copy.

A possible loss of potential reputation is hardly sufficient grounds for the ethical indignation that academics express over incidents of plagiarism. There seems to be no grounds whatsoever for worry about loss of potential reputation.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What harm can one get in plagiarism?

2.    What is the use of copyright?

3.    Where does copyright must find the balance?

4.    What is plagiarism?

5.    What does NII means?

Cyberethics – Chapter 21

Book: Cyberethics – An Ethical Evaluation of Web Site-Linking

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Quote:

“As the World Wide Web has grown in popularity, the propriety of linking to other web sites has achieved some prominence as an important moral and legal issue. Hyperlinks represent the essence of Web-based activity, since they facilitate navigation in a unique and efficient fashion.” by Richard A. Spinello.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn the ethical evaluation of web site.

Chapter Review

The most fundamental question concerns the appropriate scope of property rights for a web site and how those rights can be properly balanced against the common good of free and open communications on the Web. It is our contention that there is no presumptive claim to the liberty of deep linking at will, since it may be disrespectful of property rights in certain situations. In order to defend this position we first make the case that a web site is a form of intellectual property, drawing support from the major theories that justify property ownership.

Once we have established that a web site is really property, we consider the specific rights implied by such ownership. We conclude that on the basis of those rights, a prima facie case can be made that because of the potential for negative effects, users should not presume that deep linking is acceptable unless they first seek out the permission of the target web site. We also fully appreciate the dangers inherent in commercializing the web and the need to encourage the most flexible forms of linking.

Therefore, we argue that any arbitrary or unnecessary restrictions against deep linking should be eschewed for the sake of the common good of open communications, flexibility, and maximum porosity in the Internet environment. While web site authors may indeed have a property right in their creative work they have a correlative obligation to promote the sharing and free flow of information when their specific ownership rights are not put in jeopardy by deep linking.

What I learned:

I have learned that there are so many issues and problems that spread related web site. These problems were not easy to solve if the computer user will continue spreading it. In this chapter the technical aspects of web site linking was also discussed.

I have also learned that the value and benefits of linking are manifold  and beyond dispute. Most web pages have multiple links to other web pages.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is “The right to manage”?

2.    What is the “The right to income”?

3.    What are the three theories encountered in the traditional literature?

4.    What refers to the combination of text, graphics or media content?

5.    What can be harmful for target web sites in some circumstances?

Cyberethics – Chapter 22

Book: Cyberethics – The Cathedral and the Bazaar

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Quote:

“If you have the right attitude, interesting problems will find you.” by Eric Raymond.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn what does cathedral and bazaar means.

Chapter Review:

The Cathedral and the Bazaar is an essay by Eric S. Raymond on software engineering methods, based on his observations of the Linux kernel development process and his experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail. It was first presented by the author at the Linux Kongress on May 27, 1997 and was published as part of a book of the same name in 1999.

The fact that this bazaar style seemed to work, and work well, came as a distinct shock. As I learned my way around, I worked hard not just at individual projects, but also at trying to understand why the Linux world not only didn’t fly apart in confusion but seemed to go from strength to strength at a speed barely imaginable to cathedral-builders

When O’Reilly Media published the book in 1999, it achieved another distinction by being the first complete and commercially distributed book published under the Open Publication License. Open source provides the competitive advantage in the Internet Age. According to the August Forrester Report, 56 percent of IT managers interviewed at Global 2,500 companies are already using some type of open source software in their infrastructure and another 6 percent will install it in the next two years.

This revolutionary model for collaborative software development is being embraced and studied by many of the biggest players in the high-tech industry, from Sun Microsystems to IBM to Intel. The Cathedral & the Bazaar is a must for anyone who cares about the future of the computer industry or the dynamics of the information economy.

What I learned:

I have learned that Cathedral and Bazaar has a big role in the web site, we should just used it in the right time, place and reasons.

Integrative Questions:

1.    Since when does the author running the technical side of a small free-access?

2.    What is POP means?

3.    What is IMAP means?

4.    When did Linux swam onto radar screen?

5.    What was Linux style of development?

Cyberethics – Chapter 23

Book: Cyberethics – Towards a Theory of Privacy for the Information Age

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Quote:

“An individual or group has normative privacy in situation with regard to others if only if in that situation the individual or group is normatively protected from intrusion, interference, and information access by others.” by James H. Moor.

What I expect to learn:

Since this is all about theory of privacy, I expect to learn the importance of privacy.

Chapter Review:

Concerns about privacy and trust come to the fore when people learn that RFID technology enables any item whatsoever to be uniquely identified by means of an embedded radio device as small as a grain of salt. These radio devices, or “tags”, will, for instance, reply to queries sent out by a transmitter, responding with their identity and their whereabouts to a receiver that could be attached to a computer network, entailing a large capacity for the storage and processing of that information.

Privacy is one of the values that we think of as being obvious, until we try to define it. So let us call on a leading philosopher, James Moor, to provide a definition. Moor suggests that privacy is evident when a person is “protected from intrusion, interference and information access by others”. This is a good definition of privacy in Western societies, but it is important to remember that this value is neither universal nor absolute. China and Singapore are examples of many societies where it is not considered correct that individuals have the right to be shielded as described by Moor.

If, nevertheless, it is taken that individual privacy is to be respected, then the arguments for and against RFID can perhaps be seen as arguments for and against information and communications technology (ICT) in general as the enemy of privacy. As the eminent computer ethicist Herman Tavani explains, ICT poses a unique threat to personal privacy because of the type and quantity of personal information that can be collected, combined with the speed of transmission and the length of time that the information can be held

What I learned:

In this chapter I have learned that privacy is one of the most important aspects on the characteristic of a person. All of us have privacy, so it is not right to distract or destroy one’s privacy.

I also learned the theory that determines the privacy for information age. Greased information is information that moves like lightning and is hard to hold onto.

Integrative Questions:

1.    From the point of view of ethical theory what is the curious value?

2.    How to makes information easy to access?

3.    What are the values we have in common as human beings?

4.    What is privacy?

5.    What is PETS means?

Cyberethics – Chapter 24

Book: Cyberethics – The Structure of Rights in Directive 95/46EC on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and the Free Movement of Such Data

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Quote:

“Privacy should be identified with the individuals control concerning the flow of information.” by Dag Elgesem.

What I expect to learn:

I would expect to learn the meaning of the title of this chapter, or what it is all about.

Chapter Review:

In the 1890s, future United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis articulated a concept of privacy that urged that it was the individual’s “right to be left alone.” Brandeis argued that privacy was the most cherished of freedoms in a democracy, and he was concerned that it should be reflected in the Constitution.Robert Ellis Smith, editor of the Privacy Journal, defined privacy as “the desire by each of us for physical space where we can be free of interruption, intrusion, embarrassment, or accountability and the attempt to control the time and manner of disclosures of personal information about ourselves.”

According to Edward Bloustein, privacy is an interest of the human personality. It protects the inviolate personality, the individual’s independence, dignity and integrity.

According to Ruth Gavison, there are three elements in privacy: secrecy, anonymity and solitude. It is a state which can be lost, whether through the choice of the person in that state or through the action of another person.

The Calcutt Committee in the United Kingdom said, “nowhere have we found a wholly satisfactory statutory definition of privacy.”

What I learned:

After I read this chapter, there are four major models for privacy protection. Depending on their application, these models can be complementary or contradictory. In most countries reviewed in the survey, several models are used simultaneously. In the countries that protect privacy most effectively, all of the models are used together to ensure privacy protection.

I also learned that the basic idea of the restricted access in its most suggestive sense, privacy is a limitation of other’s access to individual.

Integrative Question:

1.    What are the two very different ideals in the directive pertaining to the protection of individual rights?

2.    What are three types of channels?

3.    What are the three aspects of privacy?

4.    What is the concern of European standard?

5.    What article stated that personal data maybe processed for purposes of various legitimate interest

Cyberethics – Chapter 25

Book: Cyberethics – Privacy Protection, Control of Information, and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“With the constant evolution of information technology, new zones of privacy continually need to be created and access relationships define to maintain high levels protection.” by Herman Tavani and James H. Moor.

What I expect to learn:

• To learn what is privacy protection, and how it will help the internet’s user.

Chapter Review:

PETs aim to protect privacy by making it more difficult to breach users’ privacy, and allowing users to detect such breaches more easily. The overall goal is to increase consumer confidence and security online, thereby safeguarding the further development of trustworthy Information Society. The European Commission is supporting European academics and industrialists in developing the technologies, and removing obstacles to the wider deployment of technologies.

Although some privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) are being developed and deployed, these technologies have thus far done little to make cyberspace more privacy friendly. The market incentives for firms to collect and process personal data are very high. Data about users is not only useful in assessing how a firm might improve its service for its customers, but it also has become a key commercial asset which firms use  both for internal marketing purposes and for licensing to third parties.

While innovative information and communication services are constantly improving people’s lives and generating growth throughout Europe’s economy, they can also bring about new risks. Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) can minimize them by helping people better protect their privacy and personal data online. PETs can help to design information and communication systems and services to minimize the collection and use of personal data and facilitate compliance with data protection rules” -

What I learned:

The purpose of this paper is not to present new results, but rather to encourage further research in the area of Internet privacy protection, and to give an overview (necessarily brief in a short paper such as this) of privacy-enhancing technologies. Section 2 explores some motivation for studying privacy issues on the Internet, and Section 3 provides some relevant background.

We then discuss Internet privacy technology chronologically, in three parts: Section 4 describes the technology of yesterday, Section 5 explains today’s technology, and Section 6 explores the technology of tomorrow. Finally, we conclude in Section 7.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What are the complementary notions that reinforce each other?

2.    What concepts aim to protect personal identity?

3.    What are the uses of control in justification?

4.    Who said that PETs can be understood as technical and organizational concepts?

5.    What do you call the anonymizing agents and pseudonym agents

Cyberethics – Chapter 26

Book: Cyberethics – Toward an Approach to Privacy in Public Challenges of Information Technology

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Comes not from the concepts meagerness but from its amplitude, for it has a protean capacity to be all things to all lawyers. A legal concept will do us little good if it expands like gas to fill up the available space.” by Helen Nissenbaum.

What I expect to learn:

I expect the following in this chapter: To learn problems that we encounter in privacy.

Chapter Review:

Others have proposed some special-purpose applications for Internet privacy, though implementation experience is somewhat lacking. The Eternity Service is designed to provide long-term distribution of controversial anonymous documents, even when the threat model includes governments and other powerful parties, but the design has not been implemented and deployed yet. Many cryptographers have studied the problem of electronic voting, and cryptographic protocols abound but more practical experience with building and deploying large voting systems is needed. The need for more application-specific privacy-respecting systems will no doubt arise as the Internet continues to grow.

Perhaps the most important challenge facing Internet privacy advocates is to ensure that it sees widespread deployment. The issues include educating users about the need for special privacy protection to restore the privacy lost in an online world, building privacy software that is integrated with popular applications, winning over those who fear anonymity, and building systems that meet the needs of real users. It is important that this technology reaches the users who most need it.

This article does not dispute the importance of securing intimate and personal realms. Nor does it challenge the compelling connection between privacy norms and the ability to protect these realms against unwarranted intrusion. It argues, however, that an account of privacy is not complete that stops with the intimate and recent advances in wireless technologies have led to the development of intelligent, in-vehicle safety applications designed to share information about the actions of nearby vehicles, potential road hazards, and ultimately predict dangerous scenarios or imminent collisions. These vehicle safety communication (VSC) technologies rely on the creation of autonomous, self-organizing, wireless communication networks connecting vehicles with roadside infrastructure and with each other.

What I learned:

I conclude with an important piece of wisdom from the cypherpunks. The cypherpunks credo can be roughly paraphrased as ”privacy through technology, not through legislation.” If we can guarantee privacy protection through the laws of mathematics rather than the laws of men and whims of bureaucrats, then we will have made an important contribution to society. It is this vision which guides and motivates our approach to Internet privacy

Integrative Questions:

1.    Who is 19^th century British legal theorist?

2.    What is public information?

3.    It is delimited by physical boundaries, what is it?

4.    Who characterized privacy as a legal island?

5.    What are the two misleading assumption?

Cyberethics – Chapter 27

Book: Cyberethics – KDD, Privacy, Individuality, and Fairness

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“It should be observed that group profiles may occasionally be incompatible with respect to individuals privacy and rules and regulations regarding the protection of personal data, as it is commonly conceived of. For instance, distributive profiles may sometimes be rightfully thought of as infringement of individual privacy when the individuals involved can easily be identified through a combination with other information available to the recipient or through spontaneous recognition. In the case of nondistributive profiles, however, the information remains attached to an information subject constituted by a group. It cannot be tracked back to individual persons in any straightforward sense.”

What I expect to learn:

• To learn the meaning of every short term words in this chapter

Chapter Review:

Information is a weapon. It is a mechanism of control. If you know the right information about another person, you know how to control him; if you keep your own information secure then you maintains a better sense of control in your own life. Citizens who seek to preserve an individual’s sense of self-determination in a free democratic society support privacy protections as a strong check on expanding government, which might otherwise grow to infringe on citizens’ ability to oversee the institution created in their name.

The interests of individual privacy versus government control have always competed but the dynamic balance between them became more intense in recent years with the advent of computers, and our government’s willingness to use them to monitor citizen behavior. New technology enables government interests in citizen control at the same time it introduces alternate means for citizens to defend privacy.

There are problems with KDD because for one thing, it uses personal data in terms of categorical privacy, and I have indicated the shortcomings of traditional privacy conceptions. But the primary concern would be the problems being faced by using KDD. I know privacy is something we all should attain and something the Information technology industry should think of ways to protect us but one thing or another personal information gathering problem. We can work together through the task of getting those techniques work for everyone. As a matter of fact, we should consider cooperating with people that can truly help us with our individual privacy problems such as those geeks and loner people wearing unbelievably large eyeglasses in universities, no; just kidding because we should consult those who may know the problem we are facing and can actually help us out.

Something will change once cooperation because it will result into something good considering now, they can hear your side of the problem and frustration and you can know their guilt and sleepless night just to develop that anti-virus or descriptor for you to use. It is all about give and take now and it is all about groups that are information subjects for a special purpose. From the perspective of others than the producers and certain users of the profiles, the definition of the information subject will remain hidden because they do not know the specific purpose of the definition.

What I learned:

I learned the definition of KDD, its meaning and uses. The personal data, Ethics Social consequences Categorical privacy, Solutions Closing remarks.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is KDD?

2.    Why is KDD important?

3.    What is personal data?

4.    Where dos categorical privacy strongly connected?

5.    What should be improved to grow unfairness in social interaction?

Cyberethics – Chapter 28

Book: Cyberethics – Data Mining and Privacy

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Technology cannot make right what is otherwise wrong, so such data mining, is indeed a violation of privacy.” by Joseph S. Fulda.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn the meaning of data mining, its role in technology.

Chapter Review:

Data mining is the process of extracting hidden patterns from large amounts of data. As more data is gathered, with the amount of data doubling every three years, data mining is becoming an increasingly important tool to transform this data into information. It is commonly used in a wide range of profiling practices, such as marketing, surveillance, fraud detection and scientific discovery.

While data mining can be used to uncover hidden patterns in data samples that have been “mined”, it is important to be aware that the use of a sample of the data may produce results that are not indicative of the domain. Data mining will not uncover patterns that are present in the domain, but not in the sample. There is a tendency for insufficiently knowledgeable “consumers” of the results to treat the technique as a sort of crystal ball and attribute “magical thinking” to it. Like any other tool, it only functions in conjunction with the appropriate raw material: in this case, indicative and representative data that the user must first collect. Further, the discovery of a particular pattern in a particular set of data does not necessarily mean that pattern is representative of the whole population from which that data was drawn. Hence, an important part of the process is the verification and validation of patterns on other samples of data.

Privacy. It is a loaded issue. In recent years privacy concerns have taken on a more significant role in American society as merchants, insurance companies, and government agencies amass warehouses containing personal data. The concerns that people have over the collection of this data will naturally extend to any analytic capabilities applied to the data. Users of data mining should start thinking about how their use of this technology will be impacted by legal issues related to privacy.

What I learned:

I have learned from this chapter that data mining is the process of identifying valid, novel, potentially useful, and ultimately understandable structure in data. That it can be easily accomplished when the data are highly structured and available in many different forms at many different levels in what are known as data warehouses.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is data mining?

2.    What does data warehouse contains?

3.    What do we call if the data are highly structured and available in different levels?

4.    What is the allowing of data to be compared and contrasted in different form?

5.    Provide the context of the data.

Cyberethics – Chapter 29

Book: Cyberethics – Workplace, Surveillance, Privacy and Distributive Justice

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Employers have generally been considered merely extensions of traditional management prerogatives.” by Lucas Introna.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn the issues about surveillance.

Chapter Review:

Modern technologies are providing unprecedented opportunities for surveillance. In the workplace surveillance technology is being built into the very infrastructure of work. Can the employee legitimately resist this increasingly pervasive net of surveillance? The employers argue that workplace surveillance is essential for security, safety, and productivity in increasingly competitive markets. They argue that they have a right to ensure that they ‘get what they pay for’, furthermore, that the workplace is a place of ‘work’ which by its very definition excludes the ‘personal’ dimension at the core of all privacy claims.

Legal developments, especially in the USA, seem to favor such an interpretation. The individual’s call for workplace privacy seems illegitimate in a context where the ‘personal’ is almost excluded by default. In this paper I want to argue that the private/public distinction is not useful in the context of workplace surveillance since it always seems possible to argue that the workplace is always and only ‘public’—thereby leaving the employee without resources to defend their claim.

Such a position belies the fact that the fundamental claim of workplace privacy is not a claim for some personal space as such but rather a claim for the protection against the inherently political interests in the ‘gaze’ of the employer. Furthermore, that it is probably impossible, in practice, to separate the public from the private in the flow of everyday work.

Thus, it seems that one needs to develop another approach to think through the issues at stake. I will argue that the distribution of privacy rights and transparency (surveillance) rights is rather a matter of organizational justice. I will suggest that we may use theories of justice—in particular the work of Rawls—to develop a framework of distributive justice for distributing privacy and transparency between the collective and the individual in a way that is fair

What I learned:

I learned that surveillance has become a central issue in our late modern society. One of the problematic areas of surveillance is the workplace surveillance. With the new technology, surveillance becomes less overt and more diffused.

I also learned that privacy is by no means an uncontroversial issue.  For Posner privacy creates opportunities for hiding information that could render many social interactions.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is the central issue in late modern society?

2.    What does ECPA means?

3.    Exceptions that allows monitoring communications.

4.    What does IPC means?

5.    What exception does allow monitoring those cases where prior consent has been obtained?

Cyberethics – Chapter 30

Book: Cyberethics – Privacy and the Varieties of Informational Wrongdoing

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“It is non-exclusion that makes retaliation impossible, but anonymity of the free-rider. Clearly in a small group it is easier to spot the free rider and sanction him I one of many possible ways once he is identified than in a large group, where he can hide in the crowd.” by Jeroen van den Hoven.

What I expect to learn:

I am expecting to learn the things about privacy and varieties of information wrongdoings. I intend to know the wrongdoings that the title stating.

Chapter Review:

Solove gives a good classification of the various activities that could harm the privacy of users in the information age. His classification is broader than the privacy torts identified in American law. He distinguishes between Information Collection, Information Processing, Information Dissemination and Invasions.

Van den Hoven examines the concept of privacy from a different perspective. I find his work very fundamental. He deals with the specific reasons why we want to restrain access to the information that we disseminate to others. Van den Hoven identifies four reasons to restrain access to this information: information-based harm, informational inequality, informational injustice and moral autonomy and moral identification.

Formal legislation, traditionally applicable within physically defined national boundaries, can of course work internationally, but the controls and constraints of physical borders applicable to our geographical environment do not transfer easily to “cyberspace”. Using the metaphor of “cyberspace” encourages a spatial and somewhat abstract concept leading to an impression of a “virtual world”. This abstract entity compounds the perceived difficulties of enforcing legislation. Within this environment, which is controlled and constrained by users and technical development (respectively), the emphasis is on self-regulation and a response to perceived ethical concerns in the form of trust-building initiatives.

This paper shows that to some extent a discourse ethics is already in operation outside, but about the Internet. The discussions surrounding the issue of regulation of the Internet, and the way the discussions are managed, are similar in many ways to the discursive atmosphere of the 18C coffee houses that Habermas refers to. Modern society is also in the process of bringing a regulatory framework to an anarchic situation, at the same time seeking a framework that will maximize the possibilities of innovation and creativity. It is impossible at this stage to derive any clear practices from this, but we hope that future studies will draw out how Habermas’s theoretical scheme can help to illuminate practices in this fundamental area of social activity.

What I learned:

I learned that many public administration problems can be characterized as free-rider problems, law enforcement, tax collection, implementation of environmental policies. This chapter also discussed the fact that personal information is used to inflict harm or cause serious disadvantages to individuals do not necessarily make such uses violations.

Protecting privacy here is proposed as way of acknowledging our systematic inability to identify the data subject as being the same as the moral self with which the data subject identifies itself.

Integrative Questions:

1.    Known to have used computerized databases and internet to get information.

2.    What is the meaning of IVHS?

3.    What is the meaning of CCTV?

4.    Who observes that liberalism is plagued by free-riders problem?

5.    Who proposes a moral theory on the basis of the distinction?

Cyberethics – Chapter 31

Book: Cyberethics – Defining the Boundaries of Computer Crime: Piracy, Breaks-Ins, and Sabotage in Cyberspace

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Computer crime is a territory that is not so well defined, a number of ethical questions both precede and follow from.” by Hermani T. Tavani.

What I expect to learn:

I am expecting to learn what are the computer crimes is, and how it becomes a computer crime.

Chapter Review:

Computer crime is a growing problem all over the globe now that personal computers have become the norm.  In fact there are over 800 million people are using the internet all over the globe at this moment.  This international nature of modern computer society creates many complications when it comes to criminal activities.  Indeed, it’s all too often that we hear of the latest virus to hit the major networks to be the work of a hacker living on the opposite side of the globe or of a large scale attack being made on an internet backbone outside of the United States.

With the number of internet users all around the world growing at an ever increasing pace, it has now become critical for all users to be familiar with the inherited risks that the internet brings forth and also some of the legal responsibilities that a user has in an open environment that is the internet.  This means that knowing what a computer crime is will help not only a user avoid legal troubles down the road, but also make the user aware of the ways that computers can be exploited and how to protect oneself against such attacks.

Yet there is one major roadblock to this task.  What exactly is computer crime?  Does any crime involving a computer constitute a computer crime or should its definition be stricter?  Does cyber-stalking count as a computer crime or is that merely an extension of a pre-existing type of crime?  Why does its definition even matter?

What I learned:

I have learned that in this chapter the computer crime they called was the piracy, break-ins and sabotage in a cyberspace. It was really a problem in so many Cyberspace. If we will hear the word “crime” we usually think that it was a bad doings of a criminal person, but in this chapter computer crime was in the field of cyberspace.

Integrative Questions:

1.    When does the “ILOVEYOU” computer virus infected computers in US?

2.    What do you call the way of using computer technology to produced one or more unauthorized copies of proprietary?

3.    It is to gain unauthorized access either to individual’s or organization’s computer system, what it is?

4.    Using technology to unleash one or more programs that disrupt the flow of electronic information, what it is?

5.    What are the three different perspectives of computer crime?

Cyberethics – Chapter 32

Book: Cyberethics – Terrorism or Civil Disobedience: Toward a Hacktivist Ethic

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Intellectual property is not tangible, material entity. It is nothing more than a volatile pattern arrayed in patterns and closed gates to form intelligible numerical or textual information, documents, and data reside inside computers in a form that can be stolen without ever being removed, indeed without being ever touched by a would-be-thief, or depriving from still using proofing off the property.” by Mark Manjon and Abby Goodrum

What I expect to learn:

I expect to be learned why this chapter entitling Terrorism or Civil Disobedience: Toward a Hactivist Ethic.

Chapter Review:

I consider the issue of whether and when electronic civil disobedience (or hacktivism) is morally impermissible. First, I argue that, in an otherwise legitimate state, civil disobedience is morally justified or excusable only in narrowly defined circumstances. Second, I attempt to identify a reliable framework for evaluating civil disobedience that weighs the social and moral values against the social and moral disvalues. Third, I apply this framework to acts of hacktivism. I argue that hacktivism is impermissible insofar as such acts result in significant harms to innocent third-parties or insofar the persons responsible for such acts conceal their identities to avoid the potential legal consequences.

Hackers believe that non-malicious intrusions are morally permissible and have offered a number of arguments purporting to justify such intrusions.  Some hackers believe, for example, these intrusions are justified because they result in an increase in humanity’s stock of knowledge about the relevant technologies and thereby promote the development of technologies that will ultimately make the Internet more secure.  Some believe that any barriers to information are morally illegitimate and hence deserve no respect – including barriers that separate the information on one person’s computer from another person’s computer.

Recently, a number of writers, such as Manion and Goodrum (2000), have begun to argue that attacks on government and corporate sites can be justified as a form of political activism – that is, as a form of “hacktivism.”  The argument is roughly as follows.  Since civil disobedience is morally justifiable as a protest against injustice, it is sometimes justifiable to commit digital intrusions as a means of protesting injustice.  Insofar as it is permissible to stage a sit-in in a commercial or governmental building to protest, say, laws that violate human rights, it is permissible to intrude upon commercial or government networks to protest such laws.  Thus, digital attacks that might otherwise be morally objectionable are morally permissible if they are politically-motivated acts of digital civil disobedience or hacktivism.

What I learned:

I have learned that there are so many reason why a person hacking in a cyberspace. Hacktivist here was defined as an act of electronic civil disobedience, then the punitive outcomes must be brought into alignment with other forms of civil disobedience.

If we hear the work “Hack” we actually think of holdups, but that was true but did you know that there are many kinds of hacking, like computer hacking.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is hacktivism?

2.    What is ECD?

3.    Name of hactivist group that hacked India’s Bhabba Atomic Research Center.

4.    When does hacker attacked yahoo, Amazon, eBay, CNN and buy.com?

5.    Has the potential to play active and constructive role in overcoming political injustice, what is it?

Cyberethics – Chapter 33

Book: Cyberethics – Web Security and Privacy: An American Perspective

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“A system that maintains availability while under attack exhibits survivability. System with survivability exhibit degradation in the face of attacks. An example of an incident that that illustrates survivability is the Morris worm incident, where the internet slowly lost the ability to provide service but was never completely destroyed.” by Jean Camp.

What I expect to learn:

• To know the methods of securing information in the Web

Chapter Review:

I recently created an account in a website called “plurk”. Plurk is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as plurks) through short messages or links, which can be up to 140 text characters in length.

Updates are then shown on the user’s home page using a timeline which lists all the updates received in chronological order, and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Users can respond to other users’ updates from their timeline through the Plurk.com website, by instant messaging, or by text messaging.

Now I know why my classmates are getting into plurk too much and it is because plurk allows people to know what their friend, their crush and even their professors are doing in every hour of every day. It is like, the more you inform people of your current physical ,emotional, and even spiritual status, the more they get attached to you and the larger your network gets. The more informed people there are – the more interested and curious they are of you as a person. I am not saying that this allows me to become exposed but it just helps people understand me more as a person, a student and a friend because of my status. It allows them to understand me and at the same time know what I am doing and what keeps me busy like I can just put there, “Currently typing my review for It-Ethics” – see how detailed and brief you can be without giving too much.

What I learned:

• Access Control List
• Definition of security
• Definition of integrity
• Availability
• Private key encryption
• A replay attack
• Simple replay attacks fall with public key cryptography
• Browsing information
• Provided technical services
• Browser client connects

Integrative Questions:

1.    What does ISP mean?

2.    What does IP mean?

3.    What does DNS mean?

4.    What does NAACP means?

5.    Who declared “Security is Privacy”?

Cyberethics – Chapter 34

Book: Cyberethics – The Meaning of Anonymity in an Information Age

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“The natural meaning of anonymity, as may be reflected in ordinary usage or dictionary definition, is of remaining nameless, that is to say, conducting oneself without revealing one’s name. A poem or a pamphlet is anonymous when attributable to a named person; a donation is anonymous when the name of the donor is withheld; people strolling through a foreign city are anonymous because no one knows who why are. Extending this understanding into electronic sphere, one might suppose the conducting one’s affairs, communicating; engaging in transactions anonymously in the electronic sphere is to do so without one’s name being known. Specific cases that are regularly discussed include.”

What I expect to learn:

• To know the meaning of anonymity in an information age.

Chapter Review:

We always want to be unknown because we have a feeling that being mysterious is cool and I’ve proven that it truly is cooler than cool.

I have been known in my class to be the very mysterious one. I do talk a lot and loudly at times but no one really do know me. People and some of my friends already told me that I should let loose and just, you know, let myself be open to the world, but that is not me. This is me. I am person who is anonymous. I have to admit, I am mysterious even to myself because I tend to not talk about things about me that much considering my interest with other people’s lives. I find my life boring even though people kept on pushing that I am doing the coolest things because for me, the hype is not there anymore; it is nonexistent.

I am a living breathing proof that anonymity is supposed to be alive in this world where technology made it almost impossible to keep something from someone online. It is like people know what the other person is doing. An example of an application that does such a thing or aids us for becoming more informed in other person’s every movement is Plurk. I recently created an account just to see what the hype all about is. To know why my classmates are creating accounts and having too much fun and you know what? I finally know why.

What I learned:

• Brief definition of anonymity
• Data-flow
• Information registration
• Gatekeepers
• Analysis after admission
• Methods
• Anonymity of sender
• First encryption with a public and secure key
• Double encryption twice applied
• Encryption procedure with an anonymity sender

Integrative Questions:

1.    It has made possible to trace people in historically unprecedented ways, what is?

2.    What provides respite to adults from commercial and other solicitations?

3.    Explain what is anonymity?

4.    Who is the professor of dramatic literature at Vasaar?

5.    Explain the encryption procedure with an anonymity sender.

Cyberethics – Chapter 35

Book: Cyberethics – Double Encryption of Anonymized Electronic Data Incharge

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Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Anonymization of the patient means that only a randomized number, sex, insurance, month and year of birth are transmitted.” by Albert Vlug and Johan van der Lei.

What I expect to learn:

I want to learn how this encryption being use.

Chapter Review:

Both the patient identification in the data and the doctor identification in the data must be anonymized. We skip the name and address; only the sex and the month-year of birth will be sent from the doctor to the central database. Even the number of the patient in the doctors database will be replaced, because once the doctor may be a researcher using the central database who recognizes one of the patients based on the number. When data are collected for sending all patients are randomly numbered.

The list of these numbers are stored in the database of the doctor, because each time a follow-up of a CPR is sent, the random number of the same patient must be the same in order to reconstruct the whole CPR in the central database. Not only the patient and the doctor identification in the data, but also the doctor as the sender of data must be anonymized. An empty envelope around a floppy disk is sufficient for the anonymization of the doctor as sender, but electronic envelopes receives automatically sender identification in the header of the electronic message.

We cut this electronic head by creating a virtual postbox, that forwards all the incoming electronic data thereby replacing the doctors address by its own address. All the data we receive in the central database have one sender: the virtual postbox. Once this problem was solved a large complication occurs.

What I learned:

From this chapter I have learned that this double encryption was really amazing technique if someone does not want to know his/ her identification. I have learned also that double encryption is the doings where you can send a message to someone without knowing who you are.

But then this kind of device can cause some distraction, specifically to those people that are busy with their lives.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What is gatekeeper postbox?

2.    What does IPCI means?

3.    What does PMS means?

4.    Where does national drug safety system developed?

5.    When does database collection started?

Cyberethics – Chapter 36

Book: Cyberethics – Written on the Body: Biometrics and Identity

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Discussion of these technologies tend often to miss precisely this level of analysis.” by Irma van der Ploeg.

What I expect to learn:

I intend to learn the meaning of biometrics and identity.

Chapter Review:

Biometrics is often described as ‘the next big thing in information technology’. Rather than IT rendering the body irrelevant to identity – a mistaken idea to begin with – the coupling of biometrics with IT unequivocally puts the body center stage. The questions to be raised about biometrics are, how bodies will become related to identity, and what the normative and political ramifications of this coupling will be.

Unlike the body rendered knowable in the biomedical sciences, biometrics generates a readable body: it transforms the body’s surfaces and characteristics into digital codes and ciphers to be ‘read’ by a machine.

Your iris is read, in the same way that your voice can be printed, and your fingerprint can be read”, by computers that, in turn, have become touch-sensitive and endowed with seeing and hearing capacities. Thus transformed into readable text, the meaning and significance of the biometric body will be contingent upon context, and the relations established with other texts. These metaphors open up ways to investigate the different meanings that will become attached to the biometric body and the ways in which it will be tied to identity.

This paper reports on an analysis of plans and practices surrounding the Eurodac’ project, a European Union initiative to use biometrics (specif. fingerprinting) in controlling illegal immigration and border crossings by asylum seekers.

Biometrics is often described as ‘the next big thing in information technology’. Rather than IT rendering the body irrelevant to identity – a mistaken idea to begin with – the coupling of biometrics with IT unequivocally puts the body center stage. The question to be raised about biometrics is how bodies will become related to identity, and what the normative and political ramifications of this coupling will be. Unlike the body rendered knowable in the biomedical sciences, biometrics generates a readable body: it transforms the body’s surfaces and characteristics into digital codes and ciphers to be read by a machine.

What I learned:

Since in this chapter is about anonymizing in sending mail, I learned that double encryption was really amazing technique to send any email or documents to someone without revealing the identity of the sender.

Gatekeeper was also a hi-tech thing that they invented; it only removes the envelope with the sender’s address and delivers the bare floppy disk with anonymized data to central data bases.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What does ATM means?

2.    What is the description for biometrics?

3.    What project does the Department of Public Aid launched?

Cyberethics – Chapter 37

Book: Cyberethics – Ethical Considerations for the Information Professions

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Ethics is the study of morality; the study of what we do. Morality could exist without ethics but there cannot be ethics without morality. Morality is like eating; it is an crucial to living a good life but it is not an inevitable part of living or an activity engaged in by all.” by Elizabeth A. Buchanan.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn what was ethical consideration is.

Chapter Review:

This chapter A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource.discussed ethical concerns of information science professionals from two viewpoints: concerns of practitioners and the information industry, including a prototype for ethical contexts and principles for ethical actions; and concerns of theoreticians and researchers, including system principles and ideological, political, and social frameworks. Codes of ethics are also discussed.

An accounting firm expanding on the Internet will likely explore several different strategies. They range from offering only selected accounting services, to providing a complete line of the firm’s services to clients online. Alternatively, a firm may simply want clients to be able to receive information from the firm’s website. In between these extremes fall such activities as marketing, instruction, referral, and chat rooms or bulletin boards.

Providing services online enables practitioners to serve customers remotely; however, it also creates the potential for both intentional and inadvertent abuse. Only limited regulatory or professional standards specifically address online service providers. In addition, most professional codes of conduct fail to address Internet delivery of services. As a result, CPAs are left with little ethical guidance when problems unique to the Internet arise. Professionals may not be fully aware of the ethical issues that could arise or how their codes apply on the Internet.

One place to start is with the guidelines adopted by the medical and counseling professions that specifically address Internet practice. The following sections identify differences occurring in an online service environment, discuss ethical issues raised, and propose guidelines for an online code of ethics for business and financial professionals.

What I learned:

In this chapter that I have read, I learned that these issues can have far-reaching and potentially crippling consequences for uninformed online business providers. While the Internet’s rapid expansion has enabled an equally rapid expansion of web based professional services, it has not been matched by the consideration and understanding of the related ethical implications.

The growth of new opportunities is accompanied by equal, if not greater, growth in ethical issues for businesses seeking to expand their offerings via the Internet. These issues include the quality of services and information, privacy and security, nature of relationship, forms of delivery, contractual considerations, and regulation and enforcement.

Integrative Questions:

1.    It is generally define as philosophical study of moral behavior.

2.    What does refer to the sense of conscience?

3.    What are the three major realms of ethics?

4.    What does NTIA means?

5.    What does ALA’s means?

Cyberethics – Chapter 38

Book: Cyberethics – Software Engineering Code of Ethics: Approved!

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Ethical tensions can be best addressed by thoughtful consideration of fundamental principles, rather than blind reliance on detailed regulations. These principles should influence software engineers to consider broadly who is affected by their work; to examine if they and their colleagues are treating other human beings with due respect; to consider how the least empowered will be affected by their decisions; and to consider whether their acts would be judged worthy of the idea professional working as a software engineer.” by Don Gottenbarn, Keith Miller and Simon Rogerson.

What I expect to learn:

In this chapter, I expect to learn software engineering code.

Chapter Review:

Computers have a central and growing role in commerce, industry, government, medicine, education, entertainment and society at large. Software engineers are those who contribute by direct participation or by teaching, to the analysis, specification, design, development, certification, maintenance and testing of software systems. Because of their roles in developing software systems, software engineers have significant opportunities to do good or cause harm, to enable others to do good or cause harm, or to influence others to do good or cause harm.

To ensure, as much as possible, that their efforts will be used for good, software engineers must commit themselves to making software engineering a beneficial and respected profession. In accordance with that commitment, software engineers shall adhere to the following Code of Ethics and Professional Practice.

The Code contains eight Principles related to the behavior of and decisions made by professional software engineers, including practitioners, educators, managers, supervisors and policy makers, as well as trainees and students of the profession. The Principles identify the ethically responsible relationships in which individuals, groups, and organizations participate and the primary obligations within these relationships.

The Clauses of each Principle are illustrations of some of the obligations included in these relationships. These obligations are founded in the software engineer’s humanity, in special care owed to people affected by the work of software engineers, and in the unique elements of the practice of software engineering. The Code prescribes these as obligations of anyone claiming to be or aspiring to be a software engineer.

What I learned:

I have learned that ethical tensions can best be addressed by thoughtful consideration of fundamental principles, rather than blind reliance on detailed regulations. The dynamic and demanding context of software engineering requires a code that is adaptable and relevant to new situations as they occur. However, even in this generality, the Code provides support for software engineers and managers of software engineers who need to take positive action in a specific case by documenting the ethical stance of the profession.

Integrative Questions:

1.    Who contribute by direct participation or by teaching?

2.    What are the eight principles that software engineer shall adhere?

3.    It is not a simple ethical algorithm, what is it?

4.    It can be addressed by thoughtful consideration of fundamental principles, what is it?

5.    What is the first principle of the code?

Cyberethics – Chapter 39

Book: Cyberethics – No, PAPA: Why Incomplete Codes of Ethics Are Worse Than None at All

Library reference: N/A

Amazon.com Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Cyberethics-Morality-Cyberspace-Richard-Spinello/dp/B001E2Y7GQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239721761&sr=1-2

Quote:

“Attempting to derive a code o0f ethics or any similar kind of any practical ethical guidance from fundamental ethical principles is of little practical help, because there is often more dispute about fundamental ethical principles that there is about what moral thing to do in a particular situation might be.” by Ben Fairwether.

What I expect to learn:

I expect to learn why this chapter entitling No, PAPA: Why Incomplete Codes of Ethics Are Worse than None at All, and what are the issues that inside this chapter. I also expect to learn what does PAPA means.

Chapter Review:

Here is current interest in Mason’s 1986 article “Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age”. In it Mason states that “The ethical issues involved are many and varied”, before claiming that “it is helpful to focus on just four.  There are good reasons for moral consideration of the ‘PAPA’ issues. Immorality in those areas can destroy some lives.

The problem is that by focusing on these four areas of concern, attention may be taken away from other, potentially more important, moral issues. Not all important moral issues in information technology can be put under those headings. Yet focusing on four areas gives the erroneous impression that adherence to the moral requirements in those areas alone could ensure moral rectitude.

The same considerations are highly likely to apply to any moral code that is developed . Authors of incomplete moral codes risk encouraging others to act in immoral ways with the author’s apparent sanction.

Related, broader, questions are considered, and it is advocated that there should always be acknowledgment of the existence of ‘external’, potentially more important, moral issues.

It has been argued that it is in the best interests of IT professionals, to adopt and enforce professional codes in the work place. But there is no code for usability engineers, unless one accepts that it is a branch of software engineering. The new joint ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics is applied to actual usability cases. This enables usability engineers to interpret this code in their profession. This is achieved by utilizing four case studies both directly in terms of the ethical issues involved and in the light of the code. Also examined are the short-comings of the code for the domain of usability engineering, and suggestions are made for enhancements for future revisions of the code

What I learned:

I learned in this chapter that in most countries of the world, the “information revolution” has altered many aspects of life significantly: commerce, employment, medicine, security, transportation, entertainment, and so on. Consequently, information and communication technology (ICT) has affected in good ways and bad ways community life, family life, human relationships, education, careers, freedom, and democracy.

Integrative Questions:

1.    What does PAPA means?

2.    What are the ethical issues in PAPA?

3.    What is the important telework issue?

4.    What is Richard Mason’s article title?

5.    What does ACM means?