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Ethics and Social Eco-informatics

Authors:
Richard Lucas

Keywords: ethics first; ethics last; eco-informatics; personal ethics

Abstract:
Ethics problems in emerging fields, typically, do not get advance consideration. It is not until after an ethical lapse occurs in a field of study does ethics get a serious examination. Social Eco-informatics is no exception. I will show the extent of the existing consideration in the academic literature concerning eco-informatics of ethics problems and their ethical basis. Lessons from the history of emerging fields in information technologies will be examined as a way of pointing out the detail of ethical problems that this field might encounter. This paper looks at the ethics-first – ethics-last debate and offers some guidance for researchers in this emerging field. The challenge for emerging fields such as eco-informatics lies in keeping ahead of potential ethics problems not reacting to them after they occur. Finally, I use a paper on social eco-informatics to point to possible places where the eco-informatic researcher might look to include ethical considerations.

Pages: 1 to 6

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012

Publication date: October 21, 2012

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2326-9294

ISBN: 978-1-61208-228-8

Location: Venice, Italy

Dates: from October 21, 2012 to October 26, 2012