Ethical Issues in Network System Design

Today, most desktop computers and PCs are networked that is, they have the ability to link to other machines, usually to access data and other information held remotely. Such machines may sometimes be connected directly to each other, as part of an office or company computer system. More frequently, however, connected machines are at a considerable distance from each other, typically connected through links to global systems such as the Internet, or WorldWideWeb (WWW). The networked machine itself may be anything from a powerful company computer with direct Internet connections, to a small hobbyist machine, accessing a bulletin board through telephone and modem. It is important to remember that, whatever the type or the location of networked machines, their access to the network, and the network itself, was planned and constructed following deliberate design considerations. In this paper I discuss some ways in which the technical design of computer systems might appropriately be influenced by ethical issues, and examine pressures on computer scientists and others to technically control networkrelated actions perceived as 'unethical'. After examination of the current situation, I draw together the issues, and conclude by suggesting some ethically based recommendations for the future design of networked systems

Re-Moved

The author was invited to present his research-in-progress within a national symposium hosted by Land2 and the University of Hertfordshire. The symposium was concerned with the representation of landscape and the arts. The presentation included a series of projected images produced over a one year period and an account of the context and associated theories which have informed the making of the work. The work explores the visual and intellectual territory beyond that which might be concealed by the man-nature dialectics that are customarily applied to contested landscapes. The approach is influenced by Actor Network Theory (ANT). ANT configures all things of any scale - human or non-human/conscious or non-conscious - as actors that interact and comprise a study network. It argues that all actors in the dynamic and heterogeneous network have equal weighting and create interconnections and associations. It’s argued that because ANT collapses the nature– society/space–time dialectics into one concept it is a viable method for studying anything in the landscape. Whilst sensing a need to overcome the potential limitations of the nature-society binary, the investigation recognises the inherent difficulties in manifesting a visual language to achieve this. Three distinct research methods were deployed - driving, walking and then collecting materials and speculating on land/material combinations on location and in the studio. The work shown in the associated illustrations explores visual manifestations of spatial intimacy, temporariness and heterogeneity within the milieu of the highly geometrically ordered and functional environment of the desert landscape and the vast labyrinth of plastic greenhouses associated with the Almeria region of Spai