Class 13: Background for Ethical Issues

Held Monday, February 14, 2000

Overview

Today, we continue our consideration of social issues in computing by quickly visiting a number of subtopics.

Question 13 for today's class: What implication of computing do you most want to consider this semester? Why?

Question 14 for Tuesday's class: How would you classify the recent Web denial-of-service attacks? What techniques might have been used to avoid them?

Notes

• I wasn't able to get summary grades done over the weekend. I hope to have them to you by Wednesday.
• Assignments:
  • For tomorrow, read Chapter 2 of Forester and Morrison (Computer Crime)

Contents

• What Do We Mean By Social Implications?
• Some of Your Questions

Summary

• Types of social issues
• Some responses to your questions
• Handouts:
  • Your answers to questions 13: What implication of computing do you most want to consider this semester? Why?

What Do We Mean By Social Implications?

• As you may have seen from the first chapter of Forester and Morrison, there are many different issues to consider when we discuss the implications of computers.
  • Forester and Morrison was written pre-Web. However, many of the issues they raise are still important.
• Some issues have to do with ownership.
  • Who owns programs?
  • Who ``owns'' information about a person?
  • Can anyone own an algorithm or an interface?
  • What do we do about violations of ownership?
  • How do we place a value on owned information?
  • Recent examples:
    • Amazon.com has claimed ownership of ``One click ordering'' (they have a patent on it).
    • Etoys.com sued the owners of etoy.com for trademark infringement
    • The gathering of information via cookies
• Some issues have to do with accessibility (although Forester and Morrison don't always cover this).
  • Should ``everyone'' have a computer available?
  • Should ``everyone'' be trained to use computers?
  • Should different users have different access to information?
  • Recent examples:
    • Various ``networking the nation'' initiatives.
    • Controversies over micropayments
    • Grinnell's restrictions on computer use by staff.
• Some issues have to do with reliability.
  • Computers seem to be inherently unreliable.
  • Who is responsible when a computer goes down?
  • How do we make computers more reliable?
  • How do we ameliorate the effects of unreliable computers?
  • Who validates information on the computer?
  • Recent examples:
    • Y2K
    • Grinnell's registrar
    • UCITA (Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act). See http://www.4cite.org/ for more information.
• Some issues have to do with security.
  • How do you protect information?
  • How do you protect computer systems?
  • How do you protect your privacy?
  • How do you protect a service?
  • Recent examples:
    • RealNames.com breakin
    • CD Universe breakin
    • Various denial-of-service attacks
• Some issues have to do with the application of computers.
  • Are there areas to which we shouldn't apply computers?
    • Will computers make impartial judges?
    • Will computers simply regularize current biases?
  • Should computers replace people? For what kinds of jobs?
  • Do computers make some jobs easier or harder?
  • Recent examples:
    • Ford's recent decision to give employees computers to work from home.
• Some issues have to do with the profession of computers.
  • There are few standards. ``Anyone'' can be a computer programmer.
  • Other professions impose high standards.
    • Lawyers must pass the bar
    • Doctors must graduate medical school and usually pass boards. State agencies also certify doctors.
    • Engineers are also often certified.
  • Of course, some professions don't impose any standards other than a degree.
    • ``Anyone'' with a Ph.D. can teach.
    • ``Anyone'' can write.
  • Recent examples:
    • The Texas (I think) society of professional engineers sued microsoft for certifying people as ``Microsoft Certified Software Engineer'' or some such.
• We'll also visit others.

Some of Your Questions

A few of you asked some questions for which I can provide quick initial answers.

• Will usability and customer service ever take precedence over speed?
  • Some expect that once computers are ``fast enough'', manufacturers will differentiate products based on their usability.
  • However, the failure of Apple to dominate the market, even though (at least until recently) the Macintosh OS was significantly easier to use, shows that consumers don't always look to the best, most usable, or best serviced product.
  • It also seems that newer applications come along to use more speed and memory. Consider the digital video editing that you can now do on a low-end Macintosh. A few years ago, that would have been difficult to envision. Virtual reality (whatever that is) is likely to take even more processor power.
• What good are old computers given the rapid turnover rate?
  • Given that there are a number of people who don't yet have any computers, old computers are often better than none. Many cities have set up freenets to allow citizens to share a local network for chat and email. If everything is text-based, old computers suffice. (I believe the Twin Cities FreeNet refurbishes old Macs and distributes them for about $10.00 each.)
  • What is old to you may be new to others. At an NSF grant review board last summer, I heard about a college that still only has Apple IIs for its students.
• What happened to IBM?
  • IBM's success was with large computers sold to companies. They never quite got the hang of workstations and personal computers.
  • They are still a leader in chip manufacturing. The PowerPC chips that power Macs are a joint venture of IBM and Motorola.
• What is the move toward open-source software?
  • It comes, in part, from a sense of collaboration. In the early days of computers, users freely distributed their code to others. Such a strategy allows others to share in improving software.
  • It also comes from a sense of openness. How do you know that your software does what it's supposed to do? How do you know that it's not doing other, potentially invasive, things. If the source code is available, you can tell.
• Is it possible to make the World Wide Web crash?
  • It depends on what you mean by ``the World Wide Web''. It is certainly possible to disconnect parts of the Web and disable servers. However, the Internet, the underlying infrastructure for the World Wide Web, was designed to be quite robust. While you can take down parts, other parts should still be okay.
  • The Internet was, in effect, comissioned by the DoD, which wanted it to main active even in case of war.