CSC 498 - Senior Project
Fall 2004-2005 Semester
Ethical Implications of Computing Projects
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the professional
association for computer scientists. The ACM Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct can be found at the following web-site:
http://acm.org/constitution/code.html
You are required to read this code prior to the next class meeting
(during the week of October 4-8). Come to that class prepared to comment
on two aspects of the code:
- Something in the code you found surprising, but that you agree with.
- Something in the code that you do not agree with.
I will ask each of you to comment briefly on these things at the start of class.
In addition, prior to the next class, select one project from the
projects in your small group (you can select your own project or someone
else's project) and write a list of at least five "stakeholders" for
that project. A "stakeholder" is a group or individual that shares in or
has an interest in the project; there is often an implication that the
project could have a negative impact on some of the stakeholders.
Negative impact can happen in many domains including:
- Impact on safety, health, or even loss of life
- Violation of privacy
- Increased physical or emotional stress
- Financial losses
- Damage to reputation
- Loss of future business
- Negative impact on system performance
- Loss of job (perhaps because the program automates what was previously a human's job)
- Damage to the local, national, or global environment
- Property damage
- Loss of information
- Other...
For each of the stakeholders you list, state what the potential negative
impact(s) would be and state something the project designer can do to
try to minimize the risk of the negative impact. Be prepared to give a
short informal oral report at the start of the next class. You do not
need "slides" or written materials (although you may use them if you
wish), but you should be able to explain your list to the class in a
coherent organized fashion.
One resource that you might find particularly helpful in preparing
for this assignment is
http://www.computingcases.org/.
There you will find discussions of several historical cases, along with
an introduction to some ethical analysis techniques.