Social Context of Computing

CSCI102 - Systems

ITCS905 - Systems

MCS9102 - Systems

2

Social Issues

• How does cybertechnology effect:

– Socio-demographic groups

• Social class

• Race

• Gender

– Social and political institutions

• Education

• Government

– Social sectors

• Workplace

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The Digital Divide

• Information haves and have-nots

• Perceived gap between those with and without access to information tools and the ability to use them

– Divide between nations

– Divide within nations

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The Digital Divide• Global Digital Divide

– 6% of the world population is online• 68% of these in Nth.America & Europe

– 2 billion people live without electricity• ‘net access in developing countries is subject to low

bandwidth, slow access, and prohibitive expenses

– Literacy is low in many countries• Most material on the ‘net is in English

– Former US VP, Al Gore and the GII initiative for universal access

• No real result

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The Digital Divide

• Digital Divide in the USA

– Universal Service vs. Universal Access

• Universal service concept applied to telephony, now to internet access

– Public Education and the Analog Divide

• Access is not only divided on income but on educational levels

• Monahan: Analog divide refers to inequalities that predated the digital technological revolution but continued through

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The Digital Divide

• Digital Divide as an Ethical Issue

– People denied access to cyber tech are denied access to resources vital for their well-being?

1. Access to knowledge is limited

2. Ability to participate in politics and receive important info is restricted

3. Economic prospects severely limited

– Do we have a moral obligation to bridge the digital divide?

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Cybertechnology and the Disabled• Tim Berners-Lee, director of W3C:

– “the power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect”

• Disability as a social-construct• Perception of obligation

– Telstra and teletypewriters

– HREOC 1995 discrimination finding

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Race and Cybertechnology

• In USA

– 51% of homes have 1 computer

– 41.5% of homes have ‘net access

– 86.3% of households earning > US$75kpa have access

– 12.7% earning < $15kpa have access

– Internet usage by Racial/Ethnic Group in US

Whites Asian-Americans

African-Americans

Hispanics

46.1% 56.8% 23.5% 23.1%

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Race and Cybertechnology

• Technology, Race & Public Policy

– Studies show web-site developers see little benefit in developing content for minorities

• Since (for example) African-Americans make up a small user percentage, there is little incentive for non-African-Americans to develop material targeted for that audience

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Race and Cybertechnology

• Rhetoric & Racism

– Exclusion built-in to public policy

• Thoughtlessness:effect of highways running through low-income and minority areas

• Blatant racism:civic design for social engineering

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Gender and Cybertechnology

• Access Issues

– In most societies, women are certainly not actively denied access to cybertechnology but still make up a small and shrinking percentage of industry professionals

• Early education socialization?

– As with racial minorities, lower number of representatives in the owners and creators = lower representation in content and access corridors

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Gender and Cybertechnology

• Gender Bias and Educational Software

– Studies showed that learning programmes designed for cybertechnology matched to a male-stereotype

• Gender Bias and Educational Software

– Most interactive software favours male-physiology

• Females better at colour differentiation

• Males better at depth perception and movement detection

• Due to physical differences in eyes

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Employment and Work

• Job Displacement & Automation

– Cybertechnology has created or displaced jobs?

• Lost in some sectors

• Created in others

• = JOB DISPLACEMENT

– Linked to automation

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Employment and Work

• Robotics & Expert Systems

– Robots capable of multiple tasks

• Low cost

• High productivity

– Expert systems

• A primitive form of AI

• Replacement for experience?

– Mobile Agents

• Commercial agents & online auctions

• Intelligent reactive planners

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Employment and Work

• Virtual Organisations & Remote Work

– Telecommuting

– Office automation

– Anywhere connectivity & PAN leads to

• Virtual organisations

• Virtual teams

• Virtual corporations

– = virtual work ? ;)

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Employment and Work

• Telecommuting may assist the disabled

– Or result in new forms of discrimination

• Restricted to hidden off-site tasks

• Removed from the work society

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Quality of Work Life

• Health and Safety Issues

– VDU radiation

– RSI

– Typists-neck

– Stress

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Quality of Work Life

• Employee Stress, Workplace Surveillance and Computer Monitoring

– The invisible supervisor

– Keystroke capture

– “PC anywhere”

– Email monitoring

– Phone logs

– Video surveillance

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Employee Autonomy and Privacy• Proposal 1: (Marx & Sherizen 1991)

An Ethics for Employee Monitoring– Job related data collection only

– Employers provide advanced notice & mechanisms for appeal

– Verification of machine-collected data prior to it being used for employee evaluation

– Employee access to the data on themselves

– Monetary redress for violation of rights or negative reporting through machine error

– “statute of limitations” on data collected

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Employee Autonomy and Privacy• Proposal 2: (Introna 2001)

An Alternative Strategy

– Employees don’t fear surveillance as such, but the choices their bosses may make based on the data collected

– Asymmetry of power, where employer holds all the power – a concern for workplace justice

– Total privacy -> employee fraud

– Total transparency -> loss of worth, trust & morale

– Need a framework that distributes privacy and transparency

• This is a complex ethical issue

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CSCI102 Week 2(a)

• Thank you to Bob Brown who prepared the material for this lecture.

• Main Reference:

– Herman T. Tavani. Ethics & Technology: ethical issues in an Age of Information and Communication Technology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2004.