S. L. Wheeler
Abstract
As the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Code of Ethics has an important guiding role in embedding ethics into computing practice, both in the United States and around the globe, its content is important. This paper considers a way of analyzing the Code into ethical categories, inspired by a soft systems 'rich picture' Information Systems (IS) framework. A list of seven stakeholder categories, together with the major components of applied ethical theory, are used to map the elements of the ACM Code. While such an analysis is imprecise due to human interpretation, so also is the art of applied ethics. Yet, by framing the ACM Code according to stakeholder roles and basic ethical analysis tools, the ACM Code of Ethics becomes more useful in various ways. Overlaps and gaps can be identified, various interpretations of word meanings can be more easily identified and debated, and, perhaps, most importantly in the global ethical arena, a better comparison of the ACM with other codes of ethics is facilitated.
Index Terms
- AN ANALYSIS OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTING MACHINERY (ACM) CODE OF ETHICS
Recommendations
Does ACM’s code of ethics change ethical decision making in software development?
ESEC/FSE 2018: Proceedings of the 2018 26th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software EngineeringEthical decisions in software development can substantially impact end-users, organizations, and our environment, as is evidenced by recent ethics scandals in the news. Organizations, like the ACM, publish codes of ethics to guide software-related ...
Active Learning Strategies for Integrating the ACM Code of Ethics into CS Courses: (Abstract Only)
SIGCSE '18: Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science EducationThe ACM Code of Ethics provides a framework for ethical conduct within the computing industry. The Code describes ethical conduct for individuals and organizations, as well as the basic moral principles underlying these prescriptions. Principles defined ...
Moral luck and computer ethics: Gauguin in cyberspace
I argue that the problem of `moral luck' is an unjustly neglected topic within Computer Ethics. This is unfortunate given that the very nature of computer technology, its `logical malleability', leads to ever greater levels of complexity, unreliability ...
Comments