Dear Faculty Member,
Thank you for adopting Ethics for the Information Age. This page is designed to help you teach a successful class by providing you with links to interesting Web material that you can incorporate into your lectures or classroom activities.
Best wishes,
Michael J. Quinn
Robert A. Greene at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire has produced a Word document containing an extensive list of links to interesting Web sites (much larger than the list of links on this page). Greene's list is particularly easy to use because it is organized according to the chapters in Ethics for the Information Age.
Edward F. Gehringer at North Carolina State University has created a large Web site devoted to ethics and information technology. The articles are divided into eight major categories: basics, speech issues, intellectual property, privacy, commerce, risks, computer abuse, and social-justice issues.
The Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Web site contains links to recent news stories related to a wide variety of issues discussed in the book.
The Smithsonian Museum has a nice variety of online materials related to the history of information technology, including many fine photographs that you may choose to share with your students. The site also has in-depth interviews with industry luminaries.
The Computer History Museum has a variety of online exhibits.
The Internet Society has the history of the Internet written by the Internet's creators.
Lawrence M. Hinman's Ethics Updates is an excellent online resource for teachers of ethics. If you are unsure how to explain Kantianism to your students, I recommend you view Dr. Hinman's lectures and examine his PowerPoint presentations. He clearly elucidates Kant's key insights and summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of his ethical system.
You might wish to have a critical discussion of the
Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology
at Kansas State University, has created
"Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us", a stimulating video that
highlights the cultural significance of the Web, particularly
now that tools enable people to add their own content.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has produced
a short educational video giving tips on how to avoid being the
victim of email phishing.
The FTC also has a
Web page
explaining the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and another Web
page that allows customers to
report spam email.
The American Library Association (ALA) filed a legal challenge to
the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
Eventually the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the ALA.
The ALA maintains a
Web site
that gives the legal history of CIPA,
news articles related to CIPA,
and information for librarians about how to comply with CIPA.
An interesting copyright infringement case involves George Harrison's
unconscious appropriation of the melody from The Chiffon's
"He's So Fine" into his song "My Sweet Lord."
Giving your class the opportunity to listen to both songs can lead to
an interesting discussion. Do they think the melodies are the same?
Two Web sites that let you play both songs are
the
Columbia Law School
and the
Copyright Website.
More generally, the
Copyright Website
has a wide variety of audio and visual examples of
alleged copyright infringements.
Most of the audio infringements are blatant; hence they are
unlikely to lead to as good a discussion as the George Harrison case.
Many people have posted "mash ups" of copyrighted material on YouTube.
They range from the innocent (a
music video
mashing Disney's
Beauty and the Beast with "It Is You (I Have Loved)",
sung by Dana Glover, from the DreamWorks movie Shrek) to
the playfully devious (a
fake trailer
for The Shining) to the twisted (a
mash up
of Toy Story with Requiem for a Dream).
Should "mash ups" be considered a legitimate way for people to create new
works of art, or do they violate intellectual property rights?
Creative Commons has built a nice
Web page
that contains more information about its alternative to the
traditional copyright.
The short video "Get Creative"
explains why Creative Commons was formed, how its
licenses work, and the potential benefits to society.
Another short video, "Building on the Past," is a short
commercial for the Creative Commons approach.
On the same Web page are links to two comic strips that
explain the role of Creative Commons licenses and
how these licenses can enhance collaboration between strangers.
Magnatune is a record label that
distributes MP3 files under Creative Commons licenses.
Many contributors to the photo database
Flickr
are using Creative Commons
licenses to protect their intellectual property.
The ACLU has created a short, entertaining, yet disturbing
video
focusing on how access to data about our electronic transactions
can harm our privacy.
Could what is portrayed in this video really happen?
A
cartoon
in The New York Times illustrates that when it comes to
privacy, our actions do not always match our rhetoric.
The
governmentsecurity.org
Web site is a great source of current articles related to computer
and network security.
Another important source of up-to-date information related to
Internet security is the
site run by CERT.
Note that the information on the CERT Web site is more technical than the
stories on the governmentsecurity.org Web site.
The NASA Web site has nice, narrated
slide shows
celebrating the first and second anniversaries of the successful landings of
the Mars Exploration Rovers.
In addition to the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional
Practice reprinted in the text, the Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM) has adopted the
ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
The Society of Internet Professionals has adopted the
SIP Code of Ethics
that has several clauses related to spam and controversial Web sites.
The Government Accountability Project runs a
Web site
designed to provide support to whistleblowers and those who
desire greater accountability from government and corporations.
The site contains current news stories related to whistleblowing.
The Global Envision
Web site
is a rich source of articles and photographs related to globalization.
Quoting from the site's home page, "Global Envision takes the global
free market system as a starting point for reducing world poverty."
The site contains material supporting and questioning the benefits
of globalization.
The World Bank
plays an important role in globalization.
A World Bank
video
argues that globalization is inevitable and describes its benefits
and challenges.
Unfortunately, the window size is quite small.
An
audio-only
version of the report is also available.
The Association for Computing Machinery created
the Job Migration Task Force to examine the outsourcing of
IT-related jobs from the United States to other countries.
The task force produced a report called
Globalization and
Offshoring of Software.
Last modification: 23 January 2009
Chapter 3: Networking
Chapter 4: Intellectual Property
Chapter 5: Privacy
Chapter 6: Computer and Network Security
Chapter 7: Computer Reliability
Chapter 8: Professional Ethics
Chapter 9: Work and Wealth
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