Social Issues I

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Social Issues I

• Equity and Access, Employment and Work

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The Digital Divide

• Information haves and have-nots
• Global Digital Divide
• U.S. Digital Divide
• Universal service vs. universal access
• Public education and the analog divide
• Digital Divide as an Ethical Issue
• Vital Resources and Distributive Justice
• Bridging Divide a Moral Obligation

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Table 10-1 Global Internet Usage (as of 2000)
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Cybertechnology and the Disabled

• Access to the web by everyone is essential
• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
• Benefits of assistive technologies to
  non-disabled persons
• Utilitarian argument shouldnt be overextended

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Table 10-2Internet Usage Breakdown by
Racial/Ethnic Groups in the US
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Kretchmer and Karveth (2001) African-American
internet users are

• More likely to use net for entertainment and
  quality of life activities
• Less likely to participate in web-based auctions
• Less likely to feel net connects them with family
  and friends
• Less likely to use e-mail to develop and sustain
  friendships

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Kretchmer and Karveth (2001) African-American
internet users

• Tend to be younger on average
• Access the net less frequently
• Are more likely to have
• Modest incomes
• No college degrees
• Children under eighteen

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Factors

• Robert Johnson (1997) View that internet is
  designed by and intended for whites
• Kretchmar and Karveth Web developers dont
  target minorities
• Non-African-American e-commerce entrepreneurs
  have little incentive to develop content for
  African-Americans

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Technology, Race, and Public Policy

• Historically, African-Americans have had little
  voice in technology policy
• Johnson African-Americans should
• Take more active role
• Case Illustration Highway System
• See themselves as stakeholders
• Make technology an integral part of their
  socialization

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Rhetoric and Racism on the Internet

• Race considerations reduced via invisibility?
• Lynn Theismeyer (1999)
• Rise of neo-Nazi propoganda
• Hate speech and persuasive rhetoric
• Does cybertech facilitate the reemergence of
  prejudice?
• More followers?
• Cybertech is principal tool

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Gender and Cybertechnology

• Women have less access and are underrepresented
  in decision-making
• Society technology is for guys
• Fewer female tech graduates
• Case Study on Educational Software
• Gender bias in video games
• Alison Adam Ethic of care

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Employment and Work

• Job displacement and automation
• Robotics and expert systems
• Remote work and virtual organizations

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Job Displacement and Automation

• Job displacement jobs eliminated in places but
  created in other places
• Industrial Revolution crafts eliminated,
  working conditions worsened
• Zuboff Automations not all bad it also
  informates
• Restructured work will be more meaningful

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Robotics and Expert Systems

• Newer robots able to do more and take more jobs
• Expert systems embody decision-making
  strategies of human experts
• De-skilling and worker alienation
• Skills disembodied from craftsmen, reimbodied
  into machines
• Mason skills can now be disemminded from
  humans and reimminded into computers
• Workplace issues spawn publications on ethics

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Virtual Organizations and Remote Work

• Where is the workplace?
• Impact on employers commitment
• Less perceived obligation to provide
  benefits/amenities?
• Impact on human relations
• Less interaction among employees
• Telecommuting and telework
• White collars have choice, others dont?
• Advancement suppressed?
• Offshoring
• Impact on disabled

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Quality of Life Issues

• Health and safety
• Video Operators Distress Syndrome
• Repetitive Strain Injury
• Stress, surveillance, and monitoring
• Invisible supervisor
• Surveillance embedded in fabric of work
• Information workers targeted most
• Tripmaster
• Impact on morale

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Table 10-3 Common Arguments Used to Support and
to Oppose Monitoring
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Autonomy and Privacy

• Marx and Sherizen Code of Ethics for monitoring
• Introna concern for choices based on monitoring
• Asymmetry of power
• Balance employee privacy and employer
  transparency
• John Rawls and the veil of ignorance

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E-mail Privacy

• Do employees have the right to send and receive
  personal e-mail using company computers?
• Should employers be able to see whats on your
  screen?