Human Development Report 2000

1
Human Development Report (2000)

• Two billion people in the world do not even have
  electricity.
• Nepal has a population of 21 million people,
  where 15 of houses have electricity.
• In Nepal, there are 35,000 Internet users (in a
  population of 21 million).

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Digital Divide

• The term was coined in the mid-1990s.
• The expression digital divide is now commonly
  used to describe the disparity between those who
  have access to the Internet and those who do not.
  
• The phrase "digital divide" is essentially a new
  label for an old concept
• Information haves and have-nots." In the US,
  much of the discussion about the divide has
  traditionally centered on divisions involving
  income and education.

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The Digital Divide in the U.S.

• Key concepts and issues
• Universal Service and Telephones
• Universal Access
• E-rates
• Universal Connectivity Fee.

4
The Analog Divide

• The analog divide refers to the social inequities
  involving haves and have-nots that underlie the
  digital divide and that exist independently of
  digital technology.
• Some believe that the lack of access to digital
  technology experienced by certain groups will
  perpetuate and most likely exacerbate the broader
  cultural divide.
• Monahan (2001) argues that the current divide
  that exists in the US is reinforced through the
  system of public education.

5
Global Digital Divide

• As of 2000, it was estimated that 429 million
  people were on-line globally.
• This number represents approximately 6 of the
  world's population.
• Of those currently on-line, 68 live in North
  America and Europe.
• Two billion people in the world don't even have
  electricity.
• In developing countries there are roughly 69
  phones for every 1000 people.

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Table 10-1 Global Internet Usage (as of 2000)
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Is the Digital Divide an Ethical Issue?

• Moss (2002) argues that ethical issues involving
  the global divide arise because people in
  developing countries are unfairly disadvantaged
  for three reasons  
• (i) they are denied access to knowledge
• (ii) they are unable to participate fully in
  democratic decision making processes
• (iii) their prospects for economic growth are
  hindered.

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Moral Obligations to Bridge the Digital Divide

• (1) Because public education is a positive right,
  the U.S. government must provide citizens with an
  education.
• (2) Providing an education means that the
  government is required (legally obligated) to
  supply students with the tools (free textbooks,
  etc.) necessary to gain an education.
• (3) The Internet is becoming a necessary tool for
  completing assignments required in the
  educational process.
• (4) Students who cannot afford Internet access at
  home are unfairly advantaged and will not have
  the same opportunities in completing their
  education as students who can afford to pay for
  Internet access.
  .
• (5) Therefore, the US government should (legally)
  be required to provide home Internet access for
  those students whose families cannot afford to
  pay for it.

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Cybertechnology and the Disabled

• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the W3C.
• Assisting the disabled can improve access for
  everyone (analogy with physical space).
• Dangers of using a utilitarian analogy.
• Telework and disabled persons.

10
Race and Cybertechnology

• Internet usage patterns among minority groups.
• Implications of Technology Policies for African
  Americans.
• The Internet as a medium to spread racial
  prejudice.

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Table 10-2Internet Usage Breakdown by
Racial/Ethnic Groups in the US
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Technology, Race, and Public Policy

• African American as stakeholders in policy issues
  (Robert Johnson).
• The impact pf automobility in the U.S.
• Breaking up neighborhoods in inner cities to
  complete highway systems.
• The role of suburban sprawl in post World War II
  America.
• Health and safety risks to African Americans.

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Rhetoric and Racism on the Internet

• Theismeyer believes that there are two kinds of
  racist speech on the Internet
• (a) Hate speech itself, which can include text,
  music, on-line broadcast, and images that exhort
  users to act against targeted groups
• (b) Persuasive rhetoric that does not directly
  enunciate racism and corresponding violence, but
  which does ultimately promote or justify it.

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Racism (continued)

• Theisman asks us to consider two questions
• (1) Does information technology make the
  reemergence of prejudicial messages and attitudes
  swifter and more likely?
• (2) Does the Internet's wide range of
  distribution make for more followers and finally
  more persuasion?

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Gender and Cybertechnology

• Three kinds of issues to consider
• 1. Access Issues (women and computing)
• 2. Gender Bias and Educational Software
• 3. Methodological Frameworks for Understanding
  Gender Issues.

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Access Issues

• Pipleine for women entering the field of
  computer science
• A slight increase in the number of women getting
  PhDs in CS
• But a decrease in the number of women getting BS
  degrees in CS.

17
Gender Bias in Educational Software

• Huff and Cooper Study (1987).
• Buchanan (2000) argues that software is biases
  for two different reasons
• (1) video games tend either to misrepresent or
  exclude female characters
• (2) they tend to perpetuate traditional sexist
  stereotypes.

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Methodological Frameworks for Understanding Gender

• Alison Adam (2001) argues for a gender informed
  approach to ethical issues in computing.
• She argues that most approaches have been based
  on access (pipeline) issues and on differences
  between men and women.
• She appeals to a feminist ethic of care.

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Employment and Work

• The Meaning of Work in the Cyber-era can be
  examined in terms of three different kinds of
  issues
• 1. Quantity of work
• 2. Quality of work
• 3. Transformation of work.

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Job Displacement and Automation

• Job displacement can be viewed in terms of the
  net result of jobs gained and lost.
• Automation began during the Industrial
  Revolution.
• Neo-Luddites (followers of Ned Ludd).
• Informate vs. Automate (Shoshana Zuboff.

21
Robotics and Expert Systems

• Robots and Robotic Arms have replaced factory
  workers.
• Expert Systems (ES) have replaced professional
  workers.
• ES has raised ethical issues (expert
  administrators and expert bankers).

22
Virtual Organizations and Remote Work

• Virtual organizations, virtual offices, virtual
  teams, and virtual corporations.
• Telework organizational work performed outside
  the organizational confines.
• Telecommuting - the "use of computer and
  communications technologies to transport work to
  the worker as a substitute for physical
  transportation of the worker to the workplace
  (Rosenberg, 1997).
• Remote Work and disabled persons.

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Quality of Work-life

• Some quality-related issues
• Health and Safety Issues
• RSI and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Video Operators Distress Syndrome (VODS)
• Companies like L. L. Bean have developed
  ergonomic policies.

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Employee Stress and Workplace Surveillance

• Citing a 1999 American Management Survey, Lucas
  Introna (2001) points out
• Forty-five percent of major US firms record and
  review employee communications and activities on
  the job, including their phone calls, e-mail, and
  computer files. Additional forms of monitoring
  and surveillance, such as review of phone logs or
  videotaping for security purposes, bring the
  overall figure on electronic oversight to 67.3.

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Workplace Surveillance (continued)

• Surveillance technology, which has become less
  expensive, has also become "less overt and more
  diffused."
• Introna points out that current technology has
  created the potential to build surveillance
  features into the "very fabric of organizational
  processes."
• Surveillance techniques have been built into
  processes that measure work flow, keystroke
  monitoring, telephone accounting, etc.

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Table 10-3 Common Arguments Used to Support and
to Oppose Monitoring
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A Code of Ethics for Employee Monitoring

• Marx and Sherizen have recommended a code with
  five requirements.
• The first three include
• 1. Apply to monitoring the same protection that
  applies to pre-employment background checks-that
  is, permit only information to be collected that
  is directly related to the job.
• 2. Require employers to provide employees with
  advanced notice of the introduction of monitoring
  as well as appropriate mechanisms for appeal.
• 3. Require people to verify machine-produced
  information before using it to evaluate employees.

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Marx and Sherizens Code (continued)

• The last two conditions are
• 4. Provide workers with access to the information
  themselves and provide mechanisms for monetary
  redress for employees whose rights are violated
  or who are victims of erroneous information
  generated by monitoring systems.
• 5  Apply a statute of limitations on data from
  monitoring. The older the data, the less its
  potential relevance and the greater the
  difficulty employees have in challenging it.

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An Alternative Strategy to Marx and Sherizen

• Introna suggests that we look at monitoring from
  the point of view of Asymmetry of Power.
• Introa uses Rawlss Theory of Justice (i.e., the
  veil of ignorance).
• Behind the veil, we would be inclined to favor
  the least well off, since we dont yet know our
  place in the system.

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Email Privacy and Employer Policies

• What is the status of Email privacy in the
  context of the workplace?
• Should employee phone conversations be allowed to
  be recorded?
• Merrill Lynch has a formal policy.
• Not all corporations have explicit policies.