ITEC 220 Principles of Computer Science II

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ITEC 220 Principles of Computer Science II

• Responsibility

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Objectives

• As Information Technology professionals, we have
  a variety of responsibilities to our clients, our
  profession, and ourselves
• In this discussion, we will examine these various
  responsibilities, and
• Apply them to various scenarios

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Role Responsibility

• Role responsibility means that you have
  responsibility for something simply because of
  your position
• For example, a parent has role responsibility for
  their child, a teacher has role responsibility
  for their students
• An Information Technology professional will have
  role responsibility for their product or service

4
Causal Responsibility

• Causal responsibility means that you have
  responsibility for something because you did
  something, or failed to do something that caused
  the thing to happen
• For example, you threw the ball that broke the
  window, or you forgot to set your parking brake
  and your car rolled into a house
• In Information Technology, we may have causal
  responsibility because of the software or
  hardware that we develop or use

5
Blameworthy

• Blameworthy means that you have responsibility
  for something because you did something wrong, or
  failed to do something right, that caused the
  thing to happen
• For example, you yelled fire in the theatre
  which caused a panic, or you failed to secure
  dangerous chemicals and a child go into them
• In Information Technology, we may be blameworthy
  because of software or hardware that we develop
  or use

6
Liable

• Liable means that you have financial
  responsibility for something
• You do not have to be blameworthy to be liable
• Under strict liability you may be financially
  responsible because of role or causal
  responsibility as well
• In Information Technology, we may be liable
  especially depending on the terms of our
  contracts

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Scenario I

• An engineering firm contracts for a piece of
  software to aid in the design of bridges. The
  software is developed and meets its
  specifications. Later, a bridge designed using
  this software collapses killing a number of
  people. The error in the design of the bridge is
  traced to the software. What level of
  responsibility do the developer of the software
  have?

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Scenario II

• A internet service provider starts up an
  electronic bulletin board dealing with
  international trade. A subscriber to the
  bulletin board posts material that is incorrect
  and is damaging to a particular company. What
  level of responsibility does the internet service
  provider have in this case?

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Scenario III

• A brokerage house contracts with a software
  company for an expert system to aid in investment
  strategy. One of the lead brokers of the firm
  disagrees with the strategy provided by the
  software and chooses to invest against this
  advice. Regardless of the outcome, what level of
  responsibility does this user of technology have
  in this case?