SOCIAL ISSUES IN COMPUTING

Group Projects:

• Intelligent Weapons, Marek Godlewski, Artur Krawczynski
• Issues Concerning Censorship of the Internet, Aleksander Ramzes Kowalski, Tomasz Wasowicz
• Social Issues and Ethics in Mobile Technology, Maciek Brzezinski, Jarek Dyduch
• Spyware, is it Ethical?, Rickard Zane, Michal Panczak
• Psychology and the Internet, Maria Baczynska, Beata Kumanowska
• Software Patents, Rafal Hajdacki, Witold Wasilewski
• BLOGS: Online garbage or state of an art ?, Pawel Kowalski, Maciej Gorywoda
• Cellular Operators in Poland, Tomasz Kozlowski, Piotr Belka
• Large Scale Multi-user Games, Piotr Szczepanski, Grzegorz Machniewski
• Safety in Big Projects, Lukasz Czerwinski, Pawel Grodzicki
• Prejudice and the Internet, Pawel Gajda

Interesting link(s):

• Spoleczne Aspekty Informatyki, course in Polish
• IEEE, The Institute, Ethics, links to a collection of ethics related papers
• Help for those who need it, text by S. H. Unger, IEEE Spectrum, December, 1995,
• Ethics hotline and other EC activities, text by S. H. Unger, IEEE Spectrum, April, 1997,
• Reflections - and the future, text by G. L. Engel, IEEE Spectrum, June, 1997,
• A bit of tongue-in-cheek warning about attending college!
• Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society
• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
• Ethical decision-making and Internet research, working document prepared by the Associations of Internet Researchers
• 'cyberphil-l' discussion list - you may want to consider subscribing
• Information Ethics Group, Oxford University
• Institute for Business Technology & Ethics
• Presentations Magazine WWW Site
• Palladium Project

Material covered:

1. A few current cases of socio-ethical issues in computing

2. Do we need computer ethics, or should we just have ethics?

• argument for having just ethics => everything else is only a part of it
• argument for discipline oriented ethical reflection => technology introduces enormous amount of issues that standard ethics has not dealt with so far; therefore further reflection is necessary

3. Ethical Issues Resulting from the Computer Use; brief overview

• speed of change (changes in the real-world occur much faster than the law can adjust)
• effort reduction (you can do things now that you could not in the past)
• areas of impact
  • socio-economic issues
  • individual practice
  • software development
  • management vs. employees
  • workplace (e. g. monitoring and ergonomics)
  • data collection, storage, access
  • e-mail and internet
  • resource utilization
  • vendor-client relations
  • computer crime

4. Making ethical decisions

• "right vs. wrong"
• degrees of right
• degrees of wrong
• law vs. ethics
• Case study: Goodearl and Aldred vs. Hughes
• ethical principles
  • rights and duties
  • consequentialism
  • Kant's categorical imperative

5. Critical thinking

• nine rules of critical thinking and how they can be applied in ethical reasoning / analysis of ethical situtions.
• application of critical thinking to analysis of real-life cases
• • The case of the Dean of Harvard School of Divinity
  • The case of the MIT Bulletin Board

6. Professional Codes of Ethics

• Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) Code of Ethics
• Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Code of Ethics
• Computer Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-CS) Code of Ethics
• ACM and IEEE-CS Joint Code of Ethics for Software Engineers

7. Hacking and Cracking

• Hackers as positive characters
• Crakers as negative side of hackers
• Examples of hacking activities
  • trojan horses, viruses, worms
  • logic bombs and back doors
  • probing, scanning, password sniffers
  • IP spoofing
  • denial of service attacks
  • phreaking
• cracker personalities / profiles
• attitudes towards crackers -- the role of the media
• crackers in the service of the government
  • e-spying
  • counter-e-spying
  • e-propaganda
  • counter-e-propaganda

8. Encryption, Law Enforcement, and Privacy

• The need for data encryption and the early attempts at creating a secure infrastructure for electronic communication.
  • Raise of DES
  • Fall of DES
  • Double and triple DES vs. computational reality of today (how the machines beat DES to DES'th)
• Privacy => is this a righ?
  • Olmstead case
  • Katz case
  • Privacy vs. security
  • Today according to the book
  • Today => after 9/11 and the search for more security
• Two approaches to the law in US
  • interpretationinsts -> Judge Brandeis in the Olmstead case
  • anti-interpretationists -> Judge Black in the Katz case
• Public key encryption
• Encryption software => world as the context for the US-centric views
• Privacy vs. security today and tomorrow

9. Safety-critical Systems

• What is the safety-critical system?
• Safety-critical systems in a historical context
• Increasing role of software in safety-critical systems
• Software system complexity as a factor affecting safety -> simplistic example
  • part A is well tested and works in many systems that do not involve part B
  • part B is well tested and works in many systems that do not involve part A
  • combination of parts A and B in one system leads to accidents

10. Whistle Blowing

• What is "whistle Blowing"?
• Seven stages of whistle blowing process
• Establishing the case for whistle blowing
  • Is there a potential for whistle blowing?
  • Seriousness test
  • Reality check
  • The "big picture"
• Trying to deal with the case inside of the organization
  • Taking the case to the immediate management (and forcing them to recognize the problem)
  • Taking the case to upper management
• Whistle blowing
  • Going outside of the organization
  • Living with the results
• Case study: GE in Israel

HOMEWORK 1 (team)
First, form a team of 2. Second, discuss with me the topic of your proposed project. I expect you to have a topic approved by Friday (October 10 ^th, 2003) at 11pm. Third, ( real homework ) have the initial iteration of the team topic-WEB-site ready by Friday, October 17 ^th at 11:55pm. By the same deadline I have to have the link received from you (e-mailed to me; I will check the time-stamp on my machine). This WEB-site will be graded for both content and form. The same grade will be given to all team members.

HOMEWORK 2 (team)
Prepare a 10 minute presentation summarizing your project. This presentation is to be delivered on Monday, November 3 ^rd during class time. Presentation will be judged both on its content and form. The same grade will be given to all team members.

HOMEWORK 3 (individual)
Write an essay (approximately one page, single-space, 11pt font) discussing the question: "Should a course on Social Issues in Computing be a part of the CS curriculum?" Do not try to guess my answer. "I do not care" if you are for or against. What your work will be judged on is the strength of the argument that you can build.
Due by, class time, next class, November 3 ^rd

HOMEWORK 4 (group)
This homework assignment consists of two parts:

• By November 12 ^th at 23:55 (Polish time), you have to update/upgrade the WWW site of your project.
• Anytime after November 12 ^th at 23:55 (Polish time) you have to evaluate two WWW sites of other projects. These WWW sites are to be these that are above and below the site of your project. (in the case of the first and last project use a "modular" approach; in case of doubt, please contact me). You have to send me (via e-mail) your evaluations by November 17 ^th at 23:55 (Polish time). You will be evaluated on the thoroughness/quality of your evaluation (which means simply that if you give a good grade to a project that has bad www site I will give a bad grade to YOU!). The same grade will be given to all team members.

HOMEWORK 4 (individual)
Textbook, page 35, worksheet: " Who Should Do What About Cheating?"
Due by, class time, next class, September 25 ^th .

HOMEWORK 5 (individual)
Textbook, page 61, worksheet: " What Guidance Do the Codes of Ethics Give You?"
Due by, class time, next class, December 2^nd .

HOMEWORK 6 (individual)
Textbook, page 88, worksheet: " What Makes a Cracker Instead of a Hacker"
Due by, class time, next class, December 15^th.

HOMEWORK 7 (individual)
Textbook, page 154, worksheet: " The Importance of Not Being Different"
Due by, class time, next class, December 22^nd.

HOMEWORK 8 (individual)
Textbook, page 169, worksheets: " Review of Safety-critical Software" Due by, class time, next class, January 5^th

HOMEWORK 9 (individual)
Textbook, page 240, worksheets: " Review of Whistle-blowing Concepts; Part 1" Due by, class time, next class, January 12^th

Reading assignment - handouts plus textbook pages xv-260

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