Product Description
For undergraduate courses in Computer, Business, Engineering, and Information Ethics at the junior/senior level.A highly flexible learning tool, this collection of 38 case studies on information and computer ethics addresses the most salient ethical issues of the information age, and illustrates the key concerns of computer specialists and information managers today. Engaging readers in an exciting discovery process as they work through the material, it offers a practical balance for all levels of students - neither too technical for the novice in computer issues, nor overly simplistic for those majoring in computer related subjects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An interesting look at computer ethics
I am using this book for an information systems management course that I am taking over the internet. It gives a fantastic look at how ethics are involved and applied to computer usage. The case studies presented dealwith very current ethical issues that are relevant to the computer industrytoday. ... Read more

Product Description
The amazing transformation of society brought about by the wide dispersion of computers has given rise to new moral dilemmas. With the rapid development of this technology, the impact of computers on privacy, personal identity, intellectual property, and the form and practice of democracy is becoming more apparent every day. Inevitably, this penetration of computer technology into our private and social lives has a moral dimension, which raises questions about our conduct and requires moral reflection and decision-making. The twenty-six groundbreaking essays collected in this insightful anthology define the nature of this new moral landscape and offer thoughtful answers to the ethical questions raised by the interaction of people and computers.Divided into five sections, the volume begins with a definition of cyberethics. There is general agreement with James H. Moor's basic definition of the field as "the formulation and justification of policies for the ethical use of computers." Next the issues of anonymity and personal identity are considered.Computers provide individuals with a unique opportunity to create personae for the virtual world that are quite distinct from their normal identities. What are the moral dimensions of creating virtual personalities? Perhaps the most pressing ethical issue is addressed in the next section on privacy. The ability of computers to store vast amounts of information on any individual raises the harrowing specter of a Big Brother society in the not-too-distant future. How should information be used and how might it be abused?What safeguards are needed to protect privacy as information technology becomes ever more sophisticated? In the fourth section, questions concerning ownership of intellectual property and copyright law are considered. How can the rights of authorship be protected in the context of the Internet? Finally, the fifth section explores the debate now taking place regarding the impact of computers on democracy. Do computers offer new possibilities for enhancing democracy or will this prospect turn out to be a myth? This is a much needed anthology of thought-provoking articles on the critical moral issues facing our "brave new world". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An interesting sampler of essays on information technology ethics
I read this book as the main text in a third year undergrad class in Information Technology Ethics, and found it to be a useful introductory sampler on the subject. Never having studied ethics before, this collection of essays gave a reasonably well-rounded account of the subject. The book is broken down into four areas of investigation: anonymity and personal identity in cyberspace; personal privacy in the light of the increased storage and dissemination of personal data; ownership of intellectual property and copyright law; and the impact of computers on democracy and community.

Bear in mind that this is a primer, not an in-depth study into any one of the areas mentioned above. The essays are written from varying view points, often contradicting each other, or at least offering different sides of the same issue, which you would expect given the subject matter. The writing styles are not always easy. Some of the contributing authors are more journalistic in their approach, while others are more scientific. Don't expect to read this cover-to-cover in a day or so. The 350+ pages of small type can be hard going, especially if you are a slower reader like myself.

Over all, I felt the book did what it set out to do, offering the reader a basic overview of the differing ethical viewpoint within the four main areas of scope. A fairly good undergraduate text, but not exactly a page-turner.

Nick

Nearly completely worthless
This text must be one of the worst books on ethics I've ever seen. The authors start with a basic assumption that information technology changes ethical issues and never examine this fundamentally flawed belief. The essays are extreme and manage to make their own points sound rediculous even when they are reasonable.
There are errors in their references and their interpretation and use of other texts.
This book is painful to read.

Examines new moral issues
The transformation of society brought about by computers has brought with it new moral dilemmas, from the impact of computers on privacy and copyright issues to the involvement of computers in personal lives. Cyberethics offers the reader 26 essays examining these new moral issues and provide thoughtfully reasoned answers to ethical questions. ... Read more

Product Description
The target audience for this book is any IT professional responsible for designing, configuring, deploying or managing information systems. This audience understands that the purpose of ethics in information security is not just morally important; it equals the survival of their business. A perfect example of this is Enron. Enron's ultimate failure due to a glitch in the ethics systems of the business created the most infamous example of an ethics corporate breakdown resulting in disaster. Ethics is no longer a matter of morals anymore when it comes to information security; it is also a matter of success or failure for big business.

*This groundbreaking book takes on the difficult ethical issues that IT professional confront every day.

*The book provides clear guidelines that can be readily translated into policies and procedures.

*This is not a text book. Rather, it provides specific guidelines to System Administrators, Security Consultants and Programmers on how to apply ethical standards to day-to-day operations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Walk the walk...
It would be good if the author were capable of following his own advice; his personal examples contradict themselves on many important points, and when the moral questions get tough, he (or she) dashes away like a frightened rabbit, metaphorically speaking. A quick Google search turns up several lawsuits and evidence that this author is definitely not someone who should be writing about IT ethics under any circumstances.

This could have been better
I really wanted to like this book.There are a lot of good things in it, but the negatives outway them.

Problems:
* No bibliography, refrences or pointers to further reading/research.There have been other books on it/computer ethics, this is not the first.
* The slant seems too much toward ethics as it relates to security and security-related matters.There's more to it/computer ethics then that.
* No mention of the several professional organizations of IT/ITSEC people!!!Slight mention is made of ACM & IEEE, but no mention of SAGE (the System Administrators Guide at www.sage.org) which is THE professional association of sysadmins, who have spent YEARS developing a professional code of ethics.This code should have been included in the book.And what about the several professional groups of ITSEC people, like ISSA (Information Systems Security Association at www.issa.org) which also has a code of ethics, Computer Security Insitute (www.gocsi.com), and so forth??They should have been mentioned.(and since SANS, the authors group, did stuff with SAGE, ignoring them is pretty bad).

Don't know right from wrong? This book isn't going to help.
Have you ever wondered if you are doing the right thing?Is is okay to steal from work?How about downloading pirated music using the company network? Do the rules apply to everyone? Can I do whatever I want if I'm a system administrator?

These are real topics covered in "IT Ethics Handbook". Sadly, each answer comes in two varieties: Conservative and liberal (each of which get their own font!).If you don't like one answer, you can just choose the other.The (long) list of contributors put their heads together to come up with rationalizations for both sides.

I tend to think that if you have to ask the question, you already know the answer, and if you truly don't, asking your friends, boss, or co-workers will clear it right up.Heck, the employee handbook might even answer them.The book doesn't really lay a foundation for ethics, but sticks to specifics questions.Indeed, it seems to ignore the idea that ethics isn't an absolute, and may vary between different groups and cultures.They merely mention all that stuff in the introduction, but then quickly discard it.

Some other paraphrased questions, in case you still think you need this book.You can quickly find a rationalization for the right and wrong of each and apply the answer that you like best.

* Can I write malicious virus code for profit?
* Should I use somebody else's login and password?
* Can I use company resources for personal gain?
* Can I videotape my co-workers having sex in the hallways? (real question)
* Do I have to obey the law?
* Can I be lazy?
* Can I spy on employees?
* Can I take revenge on a co-worker?

Perhaps this book is for the guy who wears the expensive suit and takes off fridays to play golf.

Clear cookbook for common ethical dilemmas
I'm glad that we are finally starting to see books like this. This is a good one but I would like to see more emphasis on this area with even better books.

The book is organized into chapters based on various roles and functions within and organization. Then within each chapter there are various ethical dilemmas which are discussed. The dilemmas is defined, then both liberal and conservative takes on the matter are described and the item is closed with an explicit stance on the issue.

This issues discussed are wide ranging, from storing personal files on work machines, to whether a workplace affair can be tolerated. This wide ranging discussion is one of the problems I have with the book. If the issues had been more focused on IT concerns then each item could have been covered in more depth.

Another problem with the book is it's layout. I found that the layout of the text and the material distracted from the contents. There was too much formatting.

I liked the book because I found the material compelling. If not the discussions themselves, which were too brief. It stretched my mind to think about these issues and to take input from different sides of the fence. I hope this book will be revised so that it is even more readable and valuable. In the meantime it is still worth the look for those in the IT field with ethics concerns.

How Do You Truly Define Ethical Right and Wrong in IT?
When do we as information technology professionals cross the line ethically? Who us to say what is right or wrong? Are there absolutes? Or is everything just relative. These are some of the questions posed by Stephen Northcutt in IT Ethics Handbook - Right and Wrong for IT Professionals ( 648 pages ; Syngress, 2004). The only problem is that for this reader, the book left me with more questions than it answered, though I found the many examples and "case studies" included would provide good references for discussion purposes.

The first thing that caught my attention was the author's identification of "moral relativism" as one of the dominant "religious thoughts" in the world today. The author also boldly states that in many cases "moral relativism" will "rapidly get you fired in the workplace". This latter statement may or may not be true, but itstruck me more as an ethical goal in a perfect world than as statement of fact. And there is no way in the world that this reader would consider "moral relativism" a stream of religious thought because it has no grounding in religion at all. It is a by-product of the drive for a secular society in today's world. It seems that the author does acknowledge to some degree that moral relativism is a culprit in the ethical quandaries of today, it serves as the framework for the discussion of each ethical issue raised, casting answers in a "conservative" and "liberal" point of view to show the extremes of the answers to different scenarios.

It is here that the readers of this book would need to be very careful, as is the challenge in looking at any case study, since nothing is always cut and dry since a scenario does not always include all the factors that can drive it. The author does acknowledge this and states that every case study and answer set offered may or may not be applicable to given organizational circumstances.

All of this being said, I would not recommend this book for anyone expecting to find cut and dry answers that they can apply to their organization. I would recommend it as a desk reference to use for ethics training session or to find information for the starting point of discussions for ethics issues that may arise at any given time in the workplace. The price is not that expensive that you would not get at least some value out of the book, even if it just challenges your thinking about what issues really fall under the realm if "IT Ethics" or how you would approach a given situation.

The Business Controls Caddy Scorecard: Even on a Par 4 ... Read more

Product Description
Intended for science and technology students, philosophy students interested in applied ethics, and others who must deal with computers and the impact they have on our society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comprehensive and fun.
Dr. Edgar's text provides a thurough and engaging look into contemporary issues involving computers and ethical decision making.Designed for a course in Computer Ethics, this text not only provides applied ethics but also gives the non-Philosophy student a good introduction to ethics itself.As a past student in the course, I felt as though the book worked well and provided professors and students alike with much to work from. ... Read more

Product Description
With the primary objective of raising ethical sensibility, this volume details the ethical problems and dilemmas faced by applied social science researchers.

Issues such as the use of deception, the participant's right to privacy and informed consent, the collection of longitudinal data, and the potential harm of public disclosure are confronted. The author discusses the need to review ethical problems and their implications in the context of current ethical standards in both society and the scientific community. Additionally, case studies illustrate unanticipated ethical dilemmas which might emerge during the course of a research project.

Issues are presented and interpreted clearly so that their complexity can be penetrated and potential solutions envisioned. The volume also includes specific methodological suggestions and recommendations for future ethical progress. Designed as a teaching tool with numerous exercises and case studies, Ethics and Values in Applied Social Research will appeal to a wide range of social scientists.

Product Description

Governments, the media, the information technology industry and scientists publicly argue that information and communication technologies (ICT) will bring about an inevitable transition from "industrial" to "information" or "knowledge-based" economies and societies.  It is assumed that all aspects of our economic and social lives, in both the public and private spheres, will be radically different from what they are today.  The World Summit on the Information Society (Geneva 2003 - Tunis 2005) shows the importance of a worldwide reflection on those topics. 

Perspectives and Policies on ICT in Society explores the ICT policies of different nations and regions such as Africa, China, Europe, and India.  The authors assess the arguments surrounding the impending new age, as well as some of the more sensitive issues of its developments.  This progress will signal an expansion of ICT in many domains - the so-called ubiquity - such as in the workplace, the home, government, and education and it will affect privacy and professional ethics.  The expansion will also encompass all parts of the earth, particularly developing countries.  Such growth must take place in the context of historical dimensions and should underscore the accountability of professionals in the field.

The intent of this book is to address these issues and to serve as a handbook of IFIP's TC9 "Computers and Society" committee.  Thirty authors from twelve countries consider the ICT policies with their associated perspectives and they explore what may be the information age and the digital society of tomorrow.  The book provides reflection on today's complex society and addresses the uncertain developments rising from an increasingly global and technologically connected world.

Jacques Berleur is at the University of Namur, Belgium, and Chrisanthi Avgerou at the London School of Economics, United Kingdom.

Product Description
The workshop provided an overview of the status and perspectives of Technology Assessment (TA) in the individual countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It also showed the complexity of creation of space for TA type activities in individual countries - for independent activity of both experts and the public based on individual responsibility. The book consists of the final version of the presented papers and new contributions initiated by the workshop. Moreover, the authors reflect the ideas and incentives sounded in the discussions. The book is addressed to researchers in the fields of social science, humanities, information technology and technology assessment in particular. It may also be of interest to policy-makers and the wider public concerned with the information society. ... Read more

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Die interdisziplinär besetzte Projektgruppe Biodiversität der Europäischen Akademie Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler hat sich die Aufgabe gestellt, den wissenschaftlichen Sachstand aus den verschiedenen Disziplinen zusammenzutragen und die diversen, auf der Grundlage fachspezifischer Methoden entwickelten Konzepte gemeinsam zu untersuchen.In den in diesem Band versammelten Ergebnissen finden sich entsprechend neben den rein naturwissenschaftlichen auch relevante erkenntnis- und wissenschaftstheoretische Fragen sowie juristische und ökonomische Aspekte diskutiert. Damit bietet das Buch einen guten Überblick über den Diskussionsstand und eine solide Grundlage für die weitere wissenschaftliche Diskussion. ... Read more

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This anthology of essays, contributed and compiled by experts in a variety of fields, addresses both perspectives in the debate regarding the proliferation of computers in our lives. Topics ranges from privacy copyright and computer crime issues to the global impact of computers, online communities and virtual reality. For anyone interested in a broad-based interdisciplinary view of the ethical issues facing society in light of the computer's proliferation in our personal and professional lives.

Customer Reviews (1)

Terrific ethics text for non-IT managers and decision-makers
I teach a graduate class in Information Technology in the Public Sector, in the M.S. in Public Administration program at a major university in southern California.I selected this text for my class because I found it to be an excellent, wide-ranging and deep exploration of a host of ethical issues dealing with information technology for non-computer majors.While not every article was directly relevant to my class (which is made up of current and future managers of public sector organizations), the book is easy to read and has a "friendly" style that draws you into the articles.Some articles are only a few pages while others are quite long.This text has been very appreciated by my students and the articles in it have been the source of many in-class discussions and debates.Overall: Outstanding! ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides ways of thinking about information and the new responsibilities engendered by its acquisition, processing, storing, dissemination and use. It offers a set of concepts, methods, arguments and illustrations designed to sharpen the reader's ethical focus.

Organized into three sections, the first provides a conceptual background for the book as a whole. The second part focuses on fundamental concepts about ethics and includes descriptions of the process of ethical thinking and a range of theories and principles that can be used in ethical situations. In the final part, the concepts of information and the need for ethics and ethical thinking are applied to the various levels of the social system to which they ... Read more

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Brain-computer interface (BCI) research deals with establishing communication pathways between the brain and external devices where such pathways do not otherwise exist. Throughout the world, such research is surprisingly extensive and expanding. BCI research is rapidly approaching a level of first-generation medical practice for use by individuals whose neural pathways are damaged, and use of BCI technologies is accelerating rapidly in nonmedical arenas of commerce as well, particularly in the gaming, automotive, and robotics industries. The technologies used for BCI purposes are cutting-edge, enabling, and synergistic in many interrelated arenas, including signal processing, neural tissue engineering, multiscale modeling, systems integration, and robotics.

This WTEC study gathered information on worldwide status and trends in BCI research to disseminate to government decisionmakers and the research community. The study reviewed and assessed the state of the art in sensor technology, the biotic-abiotic interface and biocompatibility, data analysis and modeling, hardware implementation, systems engineering, functional electrical stimulation, noninvasive communication systems, and cognitive and emotional neuroprostheses in academic research and industry. The study also compared the distinctly different foci, range, and investment levels of BCI research programs in the United States, Canada, China, Europe, and Japan.

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Exam review covering pediatrics and medical ethics in detail. NOTE: CD-ROM is not included with this text. Adult topics include cancer, diabetes, injuries, back pain, and cardiac failure. Includes pictures, diagrams, statistics, and chromosomes. Softcover, CD also available. ... Read more

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@ This collection of 42 high-quality, well-researched case studies on information and computer ethics addresses the most salient ethical issues of the information age, and illustrates the key concerns of computer specialists and information managers today. It engages readers who are novices in computer issues—and those who are more involved—in an exciting discovery process. The cases encompass areas such as privacy, free speech, intellectual property, Internet access, and policy discussions—and feature the Microsoft trial, the Napster case, the FBI's Carnivore technology, and the AOL Time Warner merger. For managers, executives, and IT professionals who work in the field of computer technology, and for use in corporate management education programs.

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This collection of essays explores the ethical issues that arise when information technology seems to exceed and even contradict the purpose of its creators. The studies focus upon the management of information technology, specifically the Internet, considering the most ethical ways of generating, using, and controlling information technology in our time.

Section One includes essays pertaining to Africa’s place in the 21st century, including democracy, information flow, connections with the world through the Internet, telecommunications, Uganda and the digital divide, and an examination of a pilot study in South Africa for developing a universal tool to measure information poverty. The essays of Section Two cover topical library issues, such as professional information organizations and their ethic codes, communicating ethics when teaching electronic research to undergraduates, pay-for-placement search engines, consumer health information services, laws applying to confidentiality of library records, privacy control after September 11, cybercrime investigation, and the technologies protecting copyright. The essays were originally presented at the "Ethics of Electronic Information in the 21st Century"symposium held at the University of Memphis on October 24-27, 2002. Each includes references and helpful Internet resources. ... Read more