[Values-ethics] Ethics be a separate benchmark in the [Declaration of Principles (?)]

[Claude Almansi]

Hello Gordon and other members of this list.

Gordon, I take it that you meant a separate benchmark or paragraph "in the
WSIS declaration of principles", didn't you?

There are problems with a separate part about ethics, though, because ethics
is a transversal issue, permeating all Information Society aspects.

Ethics - good or bad and howsoever people define "good" and "bad" - deeply
mark:
- media, whether e or non-e  (right to information vs, for instance, not
encouraging a terrorist to shoot hostages because he is being broadcasted
live);
- e-health (practical advantages of data gathering vs risks for patients'
privacy or of unethical health policy decisions taken on the basis of these
data)
- e-education and e-culture (well-meaning projects that might actually
further the digital divide by making the assisted dependant from the
assistant; well-meaning child protection tech measures that both prove
dangerous because they induce a false feeling of security, and block
freedoms adults are legitimately entitled to in accessing information)
- e-government (making citizens real actors or manoeuvring them or tracking
them or jailing and torturing them for dissent)
- e-commerce, e-finance and e-economy (though trying to impose ethics in
these fields has as much chance of succeeding as in  their "non-e" versions,
e tools MIGHT reinforce the few existing ethical initiatives in economic
development) .

Moreover, ethics are involved in punctual decisions like which software to
adopt and how we concretely use ICT from case to case, not only in some
general usability and fairness principles that must urgently be recognized.

So what would you put in a separate paragraph or benchmark for ethics in
information society in the WSIS declaration of principles?

We had a discussion at the last meeting of Ynternet.org about our "mission"
text, on "Using tech to make a better world". It was turned down as
meaningless in the end, because no one ever claimed s/he wanted to "make a
worse world" - not even Hitler. Won't we be faced with the same emptiness
problem if we attempt to make a separate paragraph for ethics, which would
perforce have to be couched in general, abstract terms?

Cheers

Claude Almansi
claude.almansi at bluewin.ch
www.adisi.ch