Understanding how ethical values are embedded in technology, and working to ensure values are considered in technology design practices.
Siva Vaidhyanathan has been engaged in a lengthy discussion regarding Google's recent decision to slow down their Google Print Library project. Much of the conversations have centered on whether Google should be considered a library. This response from Eileen Snyder,…
Read More Google as Library or Neutral Source of Information? Perhaps neither…
I recently came across Donald Norman's latest essay "Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful". In it, he challenges us to criticize the "human-centered" design paradigm, and offers an "activity-centered" design program as an alternative:Human-Centered Design has become such a dominant theme in…
Today at the Values in Computer and Information System Design Graduate Student Workshop I'm attending at the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, we convened an "industry panel" of Silicon Valley IT leaders to "reflect on…
Ed Felton discusses issues of privacy, price discrimination, and identification related to Disney World's reported use of fingerprinting (some say its only finger/hand geometry) to make sure people aren't selling their multi-day passes to third parties. Prof. Felton questions whether…
Read More Need for Value-Sensitive Design of Fingerprinting Systems at Disney
I've returned from the CEPE and SPT conferences in The Netherlands motivated to increase my advocacy for the "values in design" perspective for understanding the social, political and ethical implications of technology. At CEPE, the theme was "Ethics of New…
I am on my way to The Netherlands to particpate in two exciting conferences. I will be presenting my paper "Surveillance, Privacy and the Ethics of Vehicle Safety Communication Technologies" [PDF] at the International Conference of Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry.…
Read More Papers on Privacy and Vehicle Safety Communication Technologies
Technology Review just doesn't understand the complex relationship between technology and society. I've been a reader of MIT's flagship magazine for a few years now, and have had mixed feelings about its contents. At times, they've provided thoughtful insights into…
Beth Noveck of New York Law School argues for the development of a deliberative interface to "translate theoretical ideals about the goals of deliberation into...new media to enable individuals to participate in new and more effective social groups." She presents…
Wired News reports that David Clark is beginning work (within academia and with the help of the NSF) on a new "clean slate" internet architecture:Clark, who served as chief protocol architect for the government's internet development initiative in the 1980s,…
I will presenting my paper "Media Ecology & Values in Design: A Combined Approach to Understanding the Biases of Media Technology" at the 6th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association at Fordham University today. The abstract:In recent years, a…
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