1. CSCI102 Introduction to Computing 1B Week 10 – Wednesday Social Context of Computing Bob Brown SITACS University of Wollongong

2. CSCI102 Social Issues  How does cybertechnology effect:  Socio-demographic groups  Social class  Race  Gender  Social and political institutions  Education  Government  Social sectors  Workplace

3. CSCI102 The Digital Divide  Information haves and have-nots  Percieved gap between those with and without in access to information tools and the ability to use them  Divide between nations  Divide within nations

4. CSCI102 The Digital Divide  Global Digital Divide  6% of the world population is online  68% of these in Nth.America & Europe  2 billion people live without electricity  ‘net access in developing countries is subject to low bandwidth, slow access, and prohibitive expenses  Literacy is low in many countries  Most material on the ‘net is in English  Former US VP, Al Gore and the GII initiative for universal access  No real result

5. CSCI102 The Digital Divide  Digital Divide in the USA  Universal Service vs. Universal Access  Universal service concept applied to telephony, now to internet access  Public Education and the Analog Divide  Access is not only divided on income but on educational levels  Monahan: Analog divide refers to inequalities that predated the digital technological revolution but continued through

6. CSCI102 The Digital Divide  Digital Divide as an Ethical Issue  People denied access to cyber tech are denied access to resources vital for their well-being? 1. Access to knowledge is limited 2. Ability to participate in politics and receive important info is restricted 3. Economic prospects severely limited  Do we have a moral obligation to bridge the digital divide?

7. CSCI102 Cybertechnology and the Disabled  Tim Berners-Lee, director of W3C:  “the power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect”  Disability as a social-construct  Perception of obligation  Telstra and teletypewriters  HREOC 1995 discrimination finding

8. CSCI102 Race and Cybertechnology  In USA  51% of homes have  1 computer  41.5% of homes have ‘net access  86.3% of households earning > US$75kpa have access  12.7% earning < $15kpa have access WhitesAsian- Americans African- Americans Hispanics 46.1%56.8%23.5%23.1%

9. CSCI102 Race and Cybertechnology  Technology, Race & Public Policy  Studies show web-site developers see little benefit in developing content for minorities  Since (for example) African-Americans make up a small user percentage, there is little incentive for non-African-Americans to develop material targeted for that audience

10. CSCI102 Race and Cybertechnology  Rhetoric & Racism  Exclusion built-in to public policy  Thoughtlessness: effect of highways running through low-income and minority areas  Blatant racism: civic design for social engineering

11. CSCI102 Gender and Cybertechnology  Access Issues  In most societies, Women are certainly not actively denied access to cybertechnology but still make up a small and shrinking percentage of industry professionals  Early education socialization?  As with racial minorities, lower number of representatives in the owners and creators = lower representation in content and access corridors

12. CSCI102 Gender and Cybertechnology  Gender Bias and Educational Software  Studies showed that learning programmes designed for cybertechnology matched to a male-stereotype

13. CSCI102 Employment and Work  Job Displacement & Automation  Cybertechnology has created or displaced jobs?  Lost in some sectors  Created in others  = JOB DISPLACEMENT  Linked to automation  Neo-Luddites

14. CSCI102 Employment and Work  Robotics & Expert Systems  Robots capable of multiple tasks  Low cost  High productivity  Expert systems  A primitive form of AI  Replacement for experience?  Mobile Agents  Commercial agents & online auctions  Intelligent reactive planners

15. CSCI102 Employment and Work  Virtual Organisations & Remote Work  Telecommuting  Office automation  Anywhere connectivity & PAN leads to  Virtual organisations  Virtual teams  Virtual corporations  = virtual work ? ;)  Telecommuting may assist the disabled  Or result in new forms of discrimination  Restricted to hidden off-site tasks  Removed from the work society

16. CSCI102 Quality of Work Life  Health and Safety Issues  VDU radiation  RSI  Typists-neck  Stress

17. CSCI102 Quality of Work Life  Employee Stress, Workplace Surveillance and Computer Monitoring  The invisible supervisor  Keystroke capture  “PC anywhere”  Email monitoring  Phone logs  Video surveillance

18. CSCI102 Employee Autonomy and Privacy  Proposal 1: (Marx & Sherizen 1991) An Ethics for Employee Monitoring  Job related data collection only  Employers provide advanced notice & mechanisms for appeal  Verification of machine-collected data prior to it being used for employee evaluation  Employee access to the data on themselves  Monetary redress for violation of rights or negative reporting through machine error  “statute of limitations” on data collected

19. CSCI102 Employee Autonomy and Privacy  Proposal 2: (Introna 2001) An Alternative Strategy  Employees don’t fear surveillance as such, but the choices their bosses may make based on the data collected  Asymmetry of power, where employer holds all the power – a concern for workplace justice  Total privacy -> employee fraud  Total transparency -> loss of worth, trust & morale  Need a framework that distributes privacy and transparency  This is a complex ethical issue