TITLE: Intercultural Information Ethics (Chapter 27)

AMAZON LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233232091&sr=1-1

QUOTATION: The global distribution of material resources should bother any conscientious person.

LEARNING EXPECTATIONS:

-          I want to know what it is about foundational debate.

-          I want to understand the impact of ICT on local cultures from an IEE perspective.

-          I want to learn more about intellectual property.

REACTION:

This chapter is about the intercultural information ethics which covers theoretical and practical aspects of information ethics from an intercultural perspective. For the reason, some of our skills and knowledge today are based from technology and developed through technology itself. That’s also why we always clearly see the effects or the impact or having technology in our present life. And I do believe that in this coming years technology will continue to develop and evade the society, industry and people as well.

I believe that the impact of information technology on a global scale and on all aspects of human life gives, on the one hand, a plausible argument in favour of the uniqueness approach not only with regard to the subject matter but also to the theoretical approaches so far. But this does not mean that, on the other hand, the moral code itself and its ethical reflection will be superseded by another one.

The basic question concerning the status of moral persons, their respect or disrespect, remains unchanged although we may discuss as to what are the candidates and what this respect means in a specific situation. We may also discuss as to how this code has been interpreted (or not) within different ethical and cultural traditions and how it is being conceived with regard to the challenge of information technology.

It is true enough that Intercultural information ethics addresses questions concerning these intersections such as: How far is the Internet changing local cultural values and traditional ways of life? How far do these changes affect the life and culture of future societies in a global and local sense? Intercultural information ethics can be conceived as a field of research where moral questions of the “infosphere” are reflected in a comparative manner on the basis of different cultural traditions.

LESSON LEARNED:

-          With regard to IIE issues in today’s information societies, there are a lot of cultures that have not been analyzed, such as Eastern Europe and the Arabic world.

-           In a narrow sense it focuses on the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on different cultures as well as on how specific issues are understood from different cultural traditions.

INTEGRATIVE QUESTIONS:

1.       What is information ethic?

2.       What is intercultural information ethic?

3.       Do we all have the same information ethic?

4.       What is IIE?

5.       What is ICT?