Module 1: Information and Communications
Technology Today
Information and Communication Technology
(ICT)
 Refers to technologies, both hardware and
software, that enable human to communicate
with one another.
 Common misconception that ICT is internet or
computer alone. Basically, it is any form of
technology that enables you to communicate.
New Technologies
 Brand new Laptop
 Smartphones
 Tablets
Four main periods:
1. PREMECHANICAL PERIOD
2. MECHANICAL PERIOD
3. ELECTROMECHANICAL PERIOD
4. ELECTRONIC PERIOD
Period
 The earliest age of information technology.
 The time between 3000B.C. and 1450A.D.
 Humans first started communicating using
petroglyths or petroglyphs were usually carved
in rock.
 Early alphabets were developed such as the
Phoenician alphabet.
 Pens and paper began to be developed. It started
off as just marks in wet clay, but later paper was
created out of papyrus plant.
 The most popular kind of paper made was
probably by the Chinese who made paper from
rags.
 Egyptian scrolls which were popular ways of
writing down information to save.
 The first numbering systems. Around 100A.D.
 The first 1-9 system was created by people from
India. However, it wasn’t until 875A.D. (775
years later) that the number 0 was invented.
 They created calculators, the popular model of
that time was the abacus.
Mechanical Period
 We first start to see connections between our
current technology and its ancestors.
 Time between 1450 and 1840.
 Slide rule (an analog computer used for
multiplying and dividing) were invented.
 Pascaline which was a very popular
mechanical computer by Blaise Pascal.
 Charles Babbage developed the Difference
Engine which tabulated polynomial
equations using the method of finite
differences.
 The Analytical Engine, first invented by
Charles Babbage in 1837, contained features
such as arithmetic logic unit, control flow
and integrated memory.
Electromechanical Period
 Our modern-day technology.
 The time between 1840 and 1940. These are the
beginnings of telecommunication. Telegraph
was created in the early 1800s.
 Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in
1835.
 The telephone (one of the most popular forms of
communication) was created by Alexander
Graham Bell in 1876.
 The first radio developed by Guglielmo Marconi
in 1894.
 The first large-scale automatic digital computer
in the United States was the Mark 1 created by
Harvard University around 1940.
o It was programmed using punch
cards.
o 8ft high, 50ft long, 2ft wide, and
weighed 5 tons.
 The Telegraph is considered the first electrical
communications device. The first device to use
electricity to transmit information over an
electrical media. First invented in 1837 by
William Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone.
 Bombe was invented in 1939 by Alan Turing.
This device was used to decipher the code.
o And was improved by Gordon
Welchman a year later.

Electronic Period
 Electronic age is what we currently live in. Time
between 1940 and right now.
 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer) was the first high-speed, digital
computer capable of being reprogrammed to
solve a full range of computing problems.
o Designed to be used by the U.S. Army
for artillery firing tables.
o 680 square feet and weighing 30 tons.
 BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code) the third generation replaced
transistors. Actual operating system showed up
around this time along with the advanced
programming language.
 CPU (Central Processing Unit) The fourth
and latest generation. Which contained memory,
logic, and control circuits all on a single chip.
 Apple II an 8-bit home computer and one of the
world's first highly successful mass-produced
microcomputer products, designed primarily by
Steve Wozniak.
o It was introduced by Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak at the 1977 West Coast
Computer Faire and was the first
consumer product sold by Apple
Computer, Inc.
 GUI (Graphical User Interface) a form of user
interface that allows users to interact with
electronic devices through graphical icons and
visual indicators such as secondary notation,
instead of text-based user interfaces, typed
command labels or text navigation.
Module 2: Professional Ethics
“Character is what you do when no one is watching”
- old adage
Definition of Ethics
Ethics
 Greek word “ETHOS” (character)
 Latin word “MORES” (customs)
 They combine to define how individuals choose
to interact with one another.
 In philosophy, ethics defines what is good for
the individual and for society and establishes the
nature of duties that people owe themselves and
one another.
 Branch of Axiology, one of the four major
branches of philosophy, which attempts to
understand the nature of morality; to distinguish
that which is right from that which is wrong.
 Moral Philosophy, western tradition of ethics.
 “Ethics are moral standards that help guide
behavior, actions, and choices.”
 Ethics are grounded in the notion of
Responsibility:
o free moral agents
o individuals
o organizations
o societies are responsible for the actions
that they take
Accountability:
o individuals
o organizations
o society should be held accountable
to others for the consequences of
their actions
“In most societies, a system of laws codifies the most
significant ethical standards and provides a mechanism
for holding people, organizations, and even governments
accountable.”
- Laudon, et al,
1996
Two angles of Ethics:
 Normative refers to well-based standards of
right and wrong that prescribe what humans
ought to do, in terms of:
o rights
o obligations
o benefits to society
o Fairness, and specific virtues.
 Ethics, for example, refers to those standards
that impose the reasonable obligations:
o Rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander,
and fraud.
 Ethical standards also include those that enjoin
virtues:
 o honesty
o compassion
o loyalty
 Ethical standards include standards relating to
rights:
o Such as the right to life, freedom from
injury, to choose, to privacy, and to
freedom of speech and expression.
Such standards are adequate standards
of ethics.
 Prescriptive refers to the study and
development of personal ethical standards, as
well as community ethics, in terms of:
o Behavior
o Feelings
o Laws
o Social habits and norms which can
deviate from more universal ethical
standards.
 Ethics also means, the continuous effort of
studying of our own moral beliefs and conduct,
and striving to ensure that we, and our
community and the institutions we help to shape,
live up to standards that are reasonable and
solidly-based for the progress of human beings.
Ethical Foundations & Philosophical Ethics
Aristotle
 Conceives of ethical theory as a field distinct
from the theoretical sciences.
 We study ethics in order to improve our lives,
and therefore its principal concern is the nature
of human well-being.
Plato
 He regards the ethical virtues:
o Justice
o Courage
o temperance
As complex rational, emotional and
social skills
Kallman and Grillo (1992) argue that:
 Ethics has to do with making a principle-
based choice between competing
alternatives. In the simplest ethical
dilemmas, the choice is between right and
wrong.
 Are often very subjective, and connected to
our emotions and our basic sense of ‘right’
and ‘wrong’. This means that it can be
difficult to define ethics rigorously. This
also applies to ethics in I.T.
Kallman and Grillo consider whether ‘computer
ethics’ are different from ‘regular ethics; and
argue that:
 Most experts agree that there is actually
no special category of computer ethics;
rather, there are ethical situations in
which computers are involved.
Professional Ethics
 One's conduct of behavior and practice when
carrying out professional work.
ICT Ethics
 In a world where information and
communication technology has come to define
how people live and work, and has critically
affected culture and values.
 This is a difficult task because of the diversity in
creed, class, caste, dialect, language, culture and
race throughout the region.
 The issue of ICT ethics takes on added
significance as the region struggles with the
dynamics of globalization and the current
political environment after the September 11
incident.
ICT Ethical Issues
1. Unemployment
o Automation of work has caused
creative destruction by eliminating
some vocations and creating new ones.
2. Crime
o Stolen and counterfeit ATM cards are
used to steal millions of dollars each
year throughout the region.
o The anonymity of the machines makes
some crimes easier and creates many
new types of crimes.
3. Loss of privacy
o Transactions are transmitted and
recorded in databases in the public or
private sector.
 Types of Ethical Issues in I.T.
4. Errors
o Information input into the databases is
prone to human and device error.
5. Intellectual Property
o Millions of dollars of software is
illegally copied each year all over the
world.
o This phenomenon has a great impact on
the software industry in the region.
6. Freedom of speech and press
o How do the constitutional rights of
individuals in terms of the freedoms of
speech and press apply to electronic
media? How seriously do the problems
of pornography, harassment, libel, and
censorship on the net affect individuals
and society? What government
initiatives have been used in handling
this crisis?
7. Digital Divide
o The increasing use of computers has
increased the separation of rich and
poor, creating a digital divide between
the information “haves” and “have-
nots.”
8. Professional Ethics
o Faulty and useless systems that cause
disasters and hardships to users might
be built by incompetent ICT
professionals.
o In dispensing their duties ICT
professionals must demonstrate their
best practices and standards as set by
professional bodies for quality
assurance.
Module 3: Ethical and Social Issues in
Information System
Ethics
 Principles of right and wrong used by
individuals as free moral agents to guide
behavior
 It encompasses proper conduct and good living.
1. Ethical Dilemmas
o What are and are not ethical issues
in I.T.?
o Are hackers testing the system or
performing an immoral action?
o Will genetic engineering improve
the quality of peoples’ lives or start
to destroy it?
2. Plagiarism
o Work of others is copied, but the
author presents it as his or her own
work.
o It is generally not a legal issue, like
copyright infringement, but it is an
ethical one.
o self-plagiarism
3. Piracy
o the illegal copying of software
o it is estimated that approximately
50% of all programs on PCs are
pirated copies
4. Hacking
o access to proprietary data
 White Hat, breaks security
for non-malicious reasons.
 Grey Hat, a hacker of
ambiguous ethics.
 Black Hat, someone who
subverts computer security
without authorization or
uses technology.
5. Computer crime
o Using imaging and desktop
publishing to create, copy or alter
official documents and graphic
images.
o Fraud (A deception deliberately
practiced in order to secure unfair
or unlawful gain).
o Embezzlement (is the act of
dishonestly appropriating or
secreting assets, usually financial in
nature, by one or more individuals
to whom such assets have been
entrusted).
6. Malicious Software
 Viruses disable computer.
 Trojan horse - a program
which seems to be doing
one thing, but is actually
doing another
 Virus - a self-replicating
program that spreads by
inserting copies of itself
into other executable code
or documents.
 Worm - is also a self-
replicating program. It
differs from a virus in that
it propagates through
computer networks without
user intervention.
7. Ergonomics/health issues
 Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI)
o Also known as
Cumulative Trauma
Disorder (CTD),
occupational overuse
syndrome, non-specific
arm pain or Work Related
Upper Limb Disorder
(WRULD).
o Symptoms:
 Pain in the ARM.
 The pain is worse
with activity.
 Weakness, lack of
endurance.
o Treatment:
 Adaptive
Technology
 Speech
recognition
software
 Pause software -
reminds the user to
pause frequently.
 Computer Vision Syndrome
(CVS)
o A temporary condition
resulting from focusing the
eyes on a computer display
for protracted, uninterrupted
periods of time.
 Technostress
o Irritation, hostility,
impatience, enervation, fear.
o Negative psychological link
between people and the
introduction of new
technologies.
o The resistance of change
that accompanies newly
introduced machines to
work, home, and leisure
situations.
 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
(CTS)
o A medical condition
causing pain in parts of the
HAND.
o A medical condition in
which the median nerve is
compressed at the wrist,
leading to paresthesia’s
numbness and muscle
weakness in the hand.
 VDT (Video Display Terminal)
Radiation
o Teratogenic effect –
delayed or arrested
development
o Cellular Effects – decrease
flow of calcium from cells,
change in DNA synthesis
etc.
o Epidemiological studies -
abnormal reproductive
outcome and increased
cancer incidence.
8. Digital divide
 Between those that have access
and can use a computer and the
Internet, and those that do not
have such access.
9. Gender
 Females are often discriminated
against in various ways in this new
I.T. age.
 Only around 5% of young women
consider the IT industry for a
career.
10. Genetic engineering and the
patenting of life-forms
 Such debates can sit alongside
debates on subjects such as
euthanasia and abortion.
11. Netiquette
 Pointed out by Margaret Lynch
guidelines for ‘on-line civil
behavior’
 Do not waste peoples’ time.
 Do not take up network storage
with large files.
 Do not look at other peoples’ files
or use other systems without
permission.
 Do not use capital letters, as this
denotes shouting (unless one does
actually want to shout at someone
through email).
12. Intellectual property rights: the
moral rights
 Intangible creations protected by
law.
 Legal property rights over creations
of the mind, both artistic and
commercial, and the corresponding
fields of law.
 Copyrights - statutory
grant protecting intellectual
property from copying by
others for 28 years.
A form of intellectual
property which gives the
creator of an original work
exclusive rights.
 Trademarks - legally
registered mark, device or
name to distinguish one’s
good.
o ™ (not yet
registered)
o ® (registered)
Mark is a distinctive sign
or indicator used by an
individual, business
organization or other legal
entity to identify that the
products and/or services to
consumers with which the
trademark appears originate
from a unique source of
origin.
 Patents - legal document
granting owner exclusive
monopoly on an invention
for 17 years.
Set of exclusive rights
granted by a state to an
inventor or his assignee for
a limited period of time in
exchange for a disclosure
of an invention.
 Trade secrets - intellectual
work or product belonging
to business, not in public
domain.
In some jurisdictions, such
secrets are referred to as
"confidential information"
or "classified information".
13. Issues of data collection, storage and
access
 Under what circumstances should
one seek permission from or inform
those whose records are on file?
 How accurate is the data and who
has access to it?
14. Speed of computers
 Allow people to perform unethical
issues quickly, or perform
operations that it was difficult or
impossible to perform before, such
as browsing through files that one
is not authorized to.
 Can also mean that people do not
give enough consideration before
performing various actions.
15. Vendor-client issues
 If the user continually changes the
system specification, for example,
to what extent should the vendor be
prepared to adjust the system
specification accordingly?
 Consultants selling the program to
the second client, after being paid
to develop the program for the first
client only.
 The vendor might provide hardware
maintenance according to a written
contract and for hardware to be
repaired in a ‘timely manner’, but
the client might not believe that the
repairs have been timely.