The Digital Divide The phrase “the digital divide,”

coined in the 1990s, is a new label for an old concept involving information “haves” and “have-nots.”

The digital divide is now used to describe the disparity between those who have access to Internet technology and those who do not.

Digital Divide (Continued) Benjamin Compaine (2001) defines

the digital divide as the perceived gap between those who have and those who do not have either:

(a) access to cybertechnology, (b) the knowledge and ability to use

that technology.

Digital Divide (Continued)

The digital divide exists at two distinct levels:

(i) a “global digital divide” between developed and developing nations.

(ii) a divide between groups within developed nations, based on factors such as income and education.

The Global Digital Divide In 2000, it was estimated that 429 million

people (approximately 6% of the world's population) were online globally.

68% of those online in 2000 lived in North America and Europe.

Two billion people in the world didn’t even have electricity, and in developing countries, there were roughly 69 phones for every 1000 people (2000 Human Development Report).

Statistics from the 2000 Human Development Report In 2000, the developing nation

of Nepal had: approximately 35,000 Internet

users in a population of 21 million people;

only 15% of houses with electricity (2000 Human Development Report).

Table 10-1: Summary of Global Internet Usage (as of 2000)

Number of Internet users worldwide

Percentage of the world's population who are on-line

Percentage of global Internet users residing in Europe or North America

429 million 6% 68%

Some Statistics as of Nov. 2005

Global Internet usage has more than doubled since the 2000 Human development Report.

As of Nov. 2005, it is estimated that there are more than 972 million Internet users (Internet World Stats News, 2005).

2005 Statistics (Continued) Since 2000, the list of countries or

regions where more than 50% of the population uses the Internet has grown to 30.

Seven nations now have an Internet penetration rate of higher than 60% (Internet World Stats News, 2005).

Statistics as of 2005 (Continued) The disparity between the percentage

of Internet users in developed and developing countries is still significant:

In Africa, which includes 14.1% of the world’s population, the Internet penetration rate is 2.5%.

In North America, which includes only 5.1% of the world’s population, the Internet penetration rate is 68.1% (World Internet Usage Statistics and Populations Stats, 2005).

The Digital Divide in the U.S. In the U.S., discussions about

the digital divide have focused on factors such as:

income, education, race, gender.

The Digital Divide in the U.S. (Continued)

In the 1990s, a National Information Infrastructure (NII) was proposed to ensure that all Americans would have access to information technology.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) conducted a series of studies on computer use among various groups.

The Digital Divide in the U.S. (Continued) Early NTIA reports confirmed that

access to cybertechnology was related to socio-demographic factors.

Later NTIA reports have noted that: (a) the rate of access to cybertechnology in the

U.S. had increased overall; (b) significant disparities still existed with respect

to socio-demographic factors involving race, education, income, and marital status.

Digital Divide in the US: Universal Service vs. Universal Access The US Congress passed the

Communications Act of 1934, distributing the cost for telephone service to be affordable to all Americans (i.e., providing universal service).

Telephone users still pay a universal connectivity fee, or surcharge, on their telephone bills to support universal service.

Universal Service vs. Universal Access (Continued) Should a universal service policy

for the Internet also be subsidized in a similar manner?

In the case of telephone technology, it was argued that having a telephone was necessary for one’s well being.

Can the same argument be made for cybertechnology?

Universal Service vs. Universal Access (Continued) Universal service policies are controversial

because they require subsidies, often resulting either in user fees or higher taxes.

Advocates of a universal service policy for the Internet note that without a government subsidy, people living in less-populated rural areas would not have been able to afford telephone service.

Critics of universal service argue that Americans already have universal access to cybertechnology (e.g., public points of access such as in libraries).

The “Analog Divide” and the Public Education System The analog divide refers to the social

inequities involving haves and have-nots that underlie the digital divide.

Torin Monahan (2005) believes that in the US, an analog divide exists independently of digital technology.

Monahan argues that the current “divide” in the US is reinforced through the system of public education.

The Digital Divide as an Ethical Issue Is the digital divide is an ethical issue? Is every kind of divide regarding

unequal access to goods necessarily an ethical issue?

Skeptics might note the divide between those who have and do not have Mercedes-Benz automobiles, and that many of us fall on the “wrong side” of the “Mercedez-Benz Divide.”

The Digital Divide as an Ethical Issue (Continued)

Many ethicists believe that divisions between those who do and do not have access to vital resources, such as food and healthcare, raise questions of distributive justice.

Distributive justice refers to the “just distribution” of primary goods and resources in populations.

The Digital Divide as an Ethical Issue (Continued)

Is unequal access to cybertechnology similar to the “Mercedes-Benz divide”?

Or is it closer to divisions involving access to vital human resources such as food and healthcare?

Is the Digital Divide an Ethical Issue (Continued)? Jeremy Moss (2002) argues that

people in developing countries who do not have access to cybertechnology are unfairly disadvantaged because:  

(i) they are denied access to knowledge; (ii) they are unable to participate fully in

democratic decision making processes; (iii) their prospects for economic growth

are hindered.

Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Bridge the Digital Divide? If Moss is correct, do we have a moral

obligation to provide Internet access to those who are disadvantaged?

Some argue that while we are morally obligated to “do no harm,” we have no explicit obligation to do good—in this case, no obligation to provide Internet access to disadvantaged groups.

But is this minimalist view of morality adequate?

Bridging the Digital Divide in the US: Positive vs. Negative Rights One way in which we could frame the

debate about universal Internet service in the US is to think of it as a dispute involving negative vs. positive rights.

Negative rights are like liberties in the sense that we have a (legal) right not to be interfered with in exercising them.

Positive vs. Negative Rights (Continued) If I have a negative right to own a

computer and purchase Internet access, you are not permitted to interfere with my purchase and use of these items.

Can one’s legal rights pertaining to access to cybertechnology also be understood in terms of positive rights?

Positive vs. Negative Rights (Continued)

We have very few positive rights. In the US, the right to health care

is a negative right because the government is not required to provide it to citizens.

In Europe and Canada, healthcare is a positive right.

Positive vs. Negative Rights (Continued)

One of the few positive rights that American citizens enjoy is the right to receive a free public education through high school.

It is a positive right because the US government is required to provide each citizen with access to such an education.

An Argument for Making Internet Access a Positive Right1. Because public education is a positive right, the U.S. government

must provide citizens with an education.2. Providing an education means that the government is required

(legally obligated) to supply students with the tools (free textbooks, etc.) necessary to gain an education.

3. The Internet is becoming a necessary tool for completing assignments required in the educational process.

4. Students who cannot afford Internet access at home are unfairly advantaged and will not have the same opportunities in completing their education as students who can afford to pay for Internet access. . .

5. Therefore, the US government should (legally) be required to provide home Internet access for those students whose families cannot afford to pay for it.

Cybertechnology and the Disabled The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

was formed to promote standards that ensure universal Web access.

It established a Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which has produced guidelines and protocols for developing software applications that improve access for disabled persons.

Cybertechnology and the Disabled (Continued) WAI applications range from

software used in speech synthesizers and screen magnifiers to proposed applications that will benefit disabilities that are:

visual, hearing, physical, cognitive, neurological.

Cybertechnology and the Disabled (Continued)

WAI has established guidelines for developing “user agents” that are:

intended to lower barriers to Web access for people with disabilities.

designed to conform and communicate with “assistive technologies” such as screen readers (which perform a function similar to Braille applications in off-line contexts).

Cybertechnology and the Disabled (Continued) WAI’s advocates point out that

measures taken for the disabled have had positive outcomes for other groups – for example:

poor people who often are forced to deal with literacy problems have benefited;

ramps designed for wheelchair accessibility not only benefit people in wheelchairs, but also non-disabled persons as well (such as parents pushing baby carriages).

Cybertechnology and the Disabled (Continued) Some argue, by analogy, that ordinary

users will benefit from design enhancements to user interfaces intended to assist disabled persons.

There is a danger in using this kind of utilitarian argument as the main rationale, because not all enhancements may benefit non-disabled persons.

Race and Cybertechnology Three kinds of issues affecting race

and cybertechnology can be distinguished:

Internet usage patterns among minority groups;

technology policies affecting African Americans and racial minorities;

how the Internet has been used as a medium to spread racial prejudice.

Race and Cybertechnology Issues Affecting Usage Patterns Tom Spooner and Lee Rainie

(2000), reported that an estimated 7.5 million adult African-American users were online in 2000.

Susan Kretchmer and Rod Karveth (2001) point out that African-American users differ from their white counterparts in both usage patterns and demographic characteristics.

Race and Cybertechnology Issues Affecting Usage Patterns (Continued)

Kretchmer and Karveth also note that: the average age for African-American users

tends to be younger than for whites; African Americans typically access the

Internet less frequently than whites; adult African American Internet users are

much more likely than their white counterparts to have modest incomes, no college degrees, and children under eighteen.

Race and Cybertechnology Issues Affecting Usage Patterns (Continued)

Kretchmer and Karveth also claim that African-American Internet users are:

more likely to use the Internet for entertainment and for locating information about quality-of-life activities, such as job training, school, health care, and hobbies;

less likely to participate in Web-based auctions, and to use e-mail to develop and sustain friendships.

Internet Usage Breakdown by Racial/ Ethnic Groups in the US (as of 2000)

Whites Asian Americans

African Americans

Hispanics

46.1% 56.8% 23.5% 23.1%

Technology, Race, and Public Policy Robert Johnson (1997) believes that

African American need to view themselves as “stakeholders” in policy issues affecting technology.

He examines the impact of automobile technology, or automobility, in the US on African Americans.

The construction of urban highway systems broke up inner-city neighborhoods and introduced health and safety risks.

Racism and Rhetoric on the Internet Lynn Theismeyer (1999) believes

that two kinds of racist speech apply to the Internet:

(a) hate speech itself, which can include text, music, online broadcast, and images that exhort users to act against targeted groups;

(b) persuasive rhetoric that does not directly enunciate racism and corresponding violence, but which ultimately promotes or justifies it.

Racism and Rhetoric on the Internet (Continued)

Theismyer examines two questions:

(i) Does information technology make the reemergence of prejudicial messages and attitudes swifter and more likely?

(ii) Does the Internet's wide range of distribution make for more followers and finally more persuasion?

Gender and Cybertechnology

Three distinct kinds of issues to consider affecting gender:

1. access issues (jobs for women in the computing/engineering fields);

2. gender bias in video-game software;

3. theoretical frameworks for understanding gender issues.

Gender and Access Issues Access-related issues include the

“pipeline” for women entering the field of computer science (CS).

Tracy Camp (1997) notes that there has been a slight increase in the number of women getting PhDs in CS.

She also notes that there has been a decrease in the number of women getting BS degrees in CS.

Gender and Access Issues (Continued) Why don’t more women enter college

degree programs in CS? Paul DePalma (2005) dismisses the view

that women do not pursue CS careers because of “math anxiety.”

Many women pursued degrees in mathematics, long before fields such as medicine and law were available to them.

Gender and Access Issues (Continued) DePalma infers that mathematics

programs must have been doing something right in attracting and graduating women.

He suggests that if CS programs were more like mathematics programs than they currently are, perhaps more women would be attracted to them.

Gender and Access to High-Tech Jobs (Continued) DePalma also notes that much of the

high-tech culture associated with the early days of computing was dominated by males, who:

tended to be fascinated with gadgetry and devices, as opposed to mathematics per se;

affected how programming courses were conceived of and taught.

Gender and Access to High-Tech Jobs (Continued)

DePalma speculates that if course instruction in programming were designed to be as close as possible to logic and mathematics, women might find CS programs more attractive.

This might be an interesting hypothesis to test.

Gender Bias in Video Games

Elizabeth Buchanan (2000) suggests that software used in designing video games can contribute to gender bias because these games often tend to:

(1) misrepresent or to exclude female characters;

(2) perpetuate traditional sexist stereotypes.

Methodological Frameworks for Understanding Gender Alison Adam (2004) argues for a

“gender informed” approach to ethical issues in computing.

She believes that many studies have been based on access (e.g., “pipeline”) issues and on differences between men and women.

She endorses a “feminist ethic of care.”

Methodological Frameworks and Gender (Continued) Adam believes that a theoretical

framework built on an ethic of care improves the understanding of gender issues because it:

shows why gender issues cannot be reduced to access issues based on quantitative analyses;

helps us to see that the concept of privacy can be different for men and women.

Methodological Frameworks and Gender (Continued)

Adam (2005) argues that a gender-based ethics helps us to understand issues involving cyberstalking and Internet pornography in a way that traditional ethical theories cannot.

She concludes that we need a gender-informed theory for computer ethics.

Employment and Work Issues affecting employment and

work in the Cyber-era can be examined in terms of two different kinds of concerns:

1. quantity of jobs; 2. quality of work. Some social theorists suggest that

work in the Cyber-era has been transformed.

Transformation of Work in the Era of Cybertechnology

Cybertechnology has transformed the nature of work, raising social and ethical issues involving:

job displacement and automation, robotics and expert systems, remote work and virtual

organizations, globalization and outsourcing.

Job Displacement and the Transformation of Work Has cybertechnology created or eliminated

more jobs? Studies concluding that it has reduced jobs

often point to the number of factory and assembly jobs that have been automated.

Studies suggesting that it has created jobs note that it has enabled newer industries, such as computer support companies.

This shift in jobs involves job displacement.

Job Displacement and Automation Job displacement can be measured in

terms of the net result of jobs gained and lost.

Job displacement has been significantly affected by automation, which began during the Industrial Revolution.

“Luddites” (followers of Ned Ludd in the 19th century) reacted to automation in the textile industry by smashing machinery.

Robotics and Expert Systems Robots and robotic arms have

replaced many factory workers. Expert systems (ES programs) have

replaced some professional workers. ES has raised ethical issues (e.g.,

should “expert administrators” be designed to “lie” or to mislead people in order to be expert in their tasks).

Virtual Organizations and Remote Work

Virtual Organizations can include:

virtual offices, virtual teams, virtual corporations (Mowshowitz,

1997).

Virtual Organizations and Remote Work (Continued) Remote Work can be organized

into: telework – i.e., organizational work

performed outside the organizational confines.

telecommuting – i.e., the use of computer and communications technologies to transport work to the worker as a substitute for physical transportation of the worker to the workplace (Rosenberg, 1997).

Globalization and Outsourcing Torin Monahan (2005) defines

globalization as …the blurring of boundaries

previously held as stable and fixed…between local/global, public/private [and] nation/world.

Globalization (Continued) Discussions of globalization

tend to focus on concerns affecting:

labor outsourcing, international trade agreements, immigration, cultural homogenization.

Globalization and Outsourcing (Continued)

Our concern is with economic aspects of globalization, particularly as they impact the workplace.

Trade agreements have made possible a new global economy, encouraging greater competition between nations and greater efficiency for businesses.

Globalization and Outsourcing (Continued)

The economies of some nations have been severely impacted by the loss of jobs that has resulted.

Many manufacturing jobs in the U.S., including traditional “blue-collar” jobs, as well as jobs in the service sector have been exported “offshore.”

Globalization and Outsourcing (Continued) Outsourcing now also affects

many highly-skilled “white collar” jobs, including jobs in the computing field.

Programming jobs traditionally held by employees in American companies are being “outsourced” to companies in India and China.

Globalization and Outsourcing (Continued) Ironically, the jobs of programmers, whose

skills were essential to make remote work a reality, are now being outsourced to countries where programmers earn less money.

Baker and Kripalani (2005) note that the career prospects of American software programmers are now in doubt.

The outsourcing of programming jobs raises concerns that warrant serious consideration.

Quality of Work-life Some quality-related issues

affecting work-life include health and safety concerns such as:

repetitive stress injury (RSI) and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS);

video operator’s distress syndrome (VODS).

Many companies have developed ergonomic policies to respond to these concerns.

Quality of Work-Life (Continued)

Other quality-related issues affecting work-life include stress resulting from:

workplace surveillance; employee monitoring.

Employee Stress and Workplace Surveillance Citing an American Management

Survey, Lucas Introna (2004) notes: Forty-five percent of major US firms record

and review employee communications and activities on the job, including their phone calls, e-mail, and computer files.

Additional forms of monitoring and surveillance, such as review of phone logs or videotaping for security purposes, bring the overall figure on electronic oversight to 67.3%.

Workplace Surveillance (continued) Introna notes that as surveillance

technology has become less expensive, it has also become less overt and more diffused.

Surveillance techniques are being built into processes that measure:

work flow, keystroke monitoring, telephone accounting, etc.

Table 10-3: Common Arguments Used to Support/Oppose Employee Monitoring

Some Arguments in Favor of Monitoring

Some Arguments Against Monitoring

Helps to reduce employee theft Increases employee stress

Helps to eliminate waste Undermines employee trust

Helps employers to train new employees

Reduces individual autonomy

Provides employers with a motivational tool

Invades worker privacy

Improves competitiveness Focuses on quantity rather than quality of work

Saves the company money Creates an "electronic sweatshop"

Guards against industrial espionage Provides employers with an "electronic whip"

Improves worker productivity and profits

Reduces employee morale and overall productivity

A Code of Ethics for Employee Monitoring

Gary Marx and Sanford Sherizen (1991) proposed a code with six requirements (even though they do not endorse monitoring):

1. Apply to monitoring the same protection that applies to pre-employment background checks – i.e., permit only information directly related to the job to be collected.

2. Require employers to provide employees with advanced notice of the introduction of monitoring as well as appropriate mechanisms for appeal.

3. Require people to verify machine-produced information before using it to evaluate employees.

4. Provide workers with access to the information on themselves. 5. Provide mechanisms for monetary redress for employees whose

rights are violated or who are victims of erroneous information generated by a monitoring system.

6. Apply a “statute of limitations” on data acquired from monitoring.

An Alternative Proposal to the Marx-Sherizen Model Introna (2004) suggests that we

look at employee monitoring from the point of view of an “asymmetry of power.”

He notes that the current “power asymmetry” favors employers over employees.

Alternative Proposal to the Marx-Sherizen Model (Continued) Introna appeals to John Rawls’ Theory

of Justice and the Rawlsian “Veil of Ignorance” (which is similar to Bernard Gert’s “Blindfold of Justice”).

Standing behind the Rawlsian “veil,” we would be inclined to favor the least well off (i.e., the employee), since we don’t yet know our place in the new system.

Email Privacy and Employer Policies What should the status of email privacy

be in the context of the workplace? Should employee email messages be

allowed to be monitored by employers? Some companies have formal policies

regarding employee email, but many companies do not have explicit policies.

Email Privacy in the Workplace (Continued) Rudinow and Graybosch (2002) note

that some companies use software that scans employee email for keywords that indicate “inappropriate content.”

Do the email policies of these companies violate an employee’s privacy rights?

What expectations should employees have regarding email privacy in the workplace?

Email Privacy in the Workplace (Continued) Richard Spinello (2002) argues that workers

have a prima facie right to the confidentiality of their email communications.

Email monitoring that uses “extraordinary means” to acquire information about an employee is intrusive and offensive.

Only “ordinary means” should be used to seek “relevant” knowledge about the employee.

Email Privacy in the Workplace (Continued) Spinello also notes that an employee’s

right to privacy must be carefully balanced with a corporation’s:

information requirements, need to know. So, some circumstances might warrant

monitoring an employee’s email.

Email Privacy in the Workplace (Continued) Spinello favors a strong presumption

for employee privacy rights in the workplace.

This is necessary to ensure respect for an employee’s dignity and autonomy.

But Spinello believes that monitoring employee email can be legitimate under “extraordinary circumstances.”