Professional and Ethical responsibilities

1
Professional and Ethical responsibilities

• Gustavo Gomez Todd Grober
• Michael Irani Ruslan Kadtlyak
• Junhyung Kim Brian King
• Michael Leighton

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What is a "Professional"
Gustavo Gomez
3
A Professional

• A person who has received education and
• training in a specialized area.

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How does One Become a Professional

• Attended a higher level of education after
  college
• Learn a Trade in a specialized field and join a
  guild

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Different attribute of a Professional

• Character and Integrity
• Honesty and Forthrightness
• Trustworthiness
• Continual improvement
• Pressing for excellence
• Being responsible and accountable
• Projecting a professional image
• Professional maturity and conduct
• Confidences and confidentiality

• Following instructions
• Being a team player
• Manners
• Doing What is Right
• Reinforce having a professional culture
• Encourage adopting desirable values
• Inspire excellence and teamwork
• Boost confidence and pride

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Benefits of becoming a Professional
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Various Forms of Professional Credentialing

• Todd Grober

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Some Forms of Credentialing

• Vendor certifications
• Professional licensing

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Certifications definition

• Voluntary process.
• Administrated by a professional society or
  manufacturer.

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Computing Certifications

• General
• Certified Software Development Program (CSDP)
  administrated by the IEEE.
• Manufacturer specific
• Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD)
  administrated by Microsoft

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Perceptions of the Value of Certification by
Computing Professionals
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Primary Achievements Resulting From Certification
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Licenses definition

• Mandatory, legal process.
• Administrated by the state or federal government.

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Licensing

• Current Status?
• - Texas
• Issues For and Against
• ACMs position
• - No agreed upon Body of
  Knowledge

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Ethical Dissent andWhistleblowing

• Michael Irani

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Ethics

• What makes something wrong?
• Stockholder vs. stakeholder

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When to blow the whistle?

• That the act of whistleblowing stem from
  appropriate moral motive of preventing
  unnecessary harm to others
• That the whistleblower use all available internal
  procedures for rectifying the problematic
  behavior before public disclosure, although
  special circumstances may preclude this
• That the whistleblower have evidence that would
  persuade a reasonable person
• That the whistleblower perceive serious danger
  that can result from the violation
• That the whistleblower act in accordance with his
  or her responsibilities for avoiding and/or
  exposing moral violations
• That the whistleblowers action have some
  reasonable chance for success.

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NASA and Slideshows

• Information limited to software setup
• Only so many points can be shown on screen,
  anymore and data is unmanageable
• Ethical concern with importance of information

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Whistleblowings effectiveness
Source http//www.computingcases.org/case_materia
ls/hughes/support_docs/whistleblowing/going_public
.html
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Protection for Whistleblowers

• Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
• Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989
• Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002

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Acceptable Use Policies in the Workplace

• Ruslan Kadylyak

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Abstract

• Acceptable use policy defines an employers
  expectations from employees.
• It is called to reduce number of unpleasant
  conflicts between management and workers by
  declaring a set of rules that brings clearness to
  the question of allowable usage of companys
  property.
• This policy, also, can give a legal protection to
  an employer in some cases of employees fraud.
• Acceptable use policy is an important regulation
  paper that every business with one and more
  employees should have.

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The Internet and Acceptable Use Policy

• More than half of all US workers use computer on
  a workplace
• Most of the workers computer time belongs to the
  Internet related activities
• The Internet is not a safe place
• Ways of protection

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Internet- and computer-use rates by occupation,
September 2001
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Legal Disclaimer as a Part of Acceptable Use
Policy

• Primary reason for the policy is economical
• Legal reason is very important too
• Take the legal responsibilities off your head

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Big Brother and employees privacy

• Arguments for
• Non-work-related activities during work time
• Employees download illegal stuff
• Inside hacking
• Arguments against
• Employers snooping leaves an employee
  unprotected

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Dealing with harassment and discrimination

• Junhyung Kim

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Harassment and Discriminationissue

• Race Discrimination
• Freeman case in University of Pittsburg
• Sexual harassment
• The Public Service Employee Survey

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Once or Twice
Not Applicable
How many times have you experienced harassment on
the job?
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ACM Code of Ethics

• Avoid harm to others.
• Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
• Respect the privacy of others.

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The Role Of The Professional In Public Policy
Brian King

• What does the Professional mean
• What does Public Policy mean

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History

• Who forms our Public Policy
• Why is this no longer good enough

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Current Issues

• Many problems the professional should be
  concerned with
• The internet
• The DMCA

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Ways To Help

• Many forums to help fix the problems
• What else can be done

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The Future

• Helping bring change in the long term
• Why it is so important to do so

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Programmer Licensing

• Michael Leighton

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Licensing

• Legal requirement
• Most software engineers are not currently
  licensed.
• Big debate going on whether or not it is ethical
  to require licenses.
• ACMs position

38
Licenses cont.

• Reasons for licensing
• There is a lot of poorly programmed software
  being produced
• Engineers are immune from liability

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Engineering Licenses
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Pros/Cons

• Pros
• Will weed out poor programmers, leading to
  higher salaries
• Possibly better written code
• Cons
• Engineers will be held liable
• Licenses may only be good in one state

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Texas Board of Professional Engineers

• Texas is the first state to issue licenses in the
  field of software engineering
• Requires degree or degree combination
• No license means severely limited growth potential

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Future of Licensing

• Very broad definition of programmer and software
  engineer
• Licensing will probably be mandatory one day in
  all states
• Might depend on importance of end product