Editorial

Published date13 November 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-11-2017-066
Pages346-347
Date13 November 2017
AuthorSimon Rogerson
Editorial
Are codes of ethics relevant?
This issue of the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society focuses on
professionalism in the development and implementation of ICT. In the opening paper,
Professional Ethics in the Information Age, Oliver Burmeister discusses several aspects of
the maturing ICT profession. Professional bodies appear to have had mixed fortunes in
promoting professional ethics. Burmeister is hopeful that the efforts of IFIP and CEPIS,
which adopt a greater international perspective, will be more successful. He lays out an
argument to support such efforts with the generation of a global code of professional
practice. The pragmatic impact of such a code is open to question. Linked to these
discussions is Burmeistersnal theme of certication and continuous professional
development competent,informed and responsible practitioners are indicative of a mature
profession.
There are three responses to Burmeisters paper. In Yes, But [...] Our response to
Professional ethics in the Information Age, Don Gotterbarn and Keith Miller provide an
interesting analysis presented as points of agreement and disagreement. They conclude
with an interesting comparisonbetween an intercultural approach, which they favour,and a
multicultural approach. In Aspects of Professional Ethics in the Real World, Declan Brady
provides a practical context. He comments on Burmeisters three themes and explains how
CEPIS is addressing the broad area of professional ethics. In Corporations and
Professionalism: Awkward bed-fellows?, David Kreps focuses on the relationship between
organisations and professionals.Kreps expands the professionalism debate by introducing,
for example, the notionsof corporate and individual responsibility, and liability;all of which
have legal foibles.
Viewed as a whole, the papers in thisissue raise a fundamental overarching question as
to how ethics should be addressed in the development, delivery and support of ICT. Much
effort has been expended in the creation and dissemination of excellent codes of ethics by
many professional bodies allied to ICT. The adoption and adherence to such codes in
practical ICT have to be questioned with the continued occurrence of so many system
failures and also illegal activities that occur leading to furores such as the Volkswagen
emissions scandal which appears to have involved unprofessional practice by VWs
software engineers (Rogerson, 2017). Even though codes of ethics exist, why is it that
signicant unethicalactivity within ICT remains?
One reason might be that the current focus of effort and attention is inappropriate. ICT
development is a global activity about which IDC periodically produces surveys. The IDC
survey of 2014 (Avram, 2014) found that there were, worldwide, 11,005,000 professional
software developers and 7,500,000 additional hobbyists of which a large proportion were
students. Of the total of 18,505,000, 19.2 per cent or 3,552,960resided in the USA. The latest
published membership statisticstaken from the websites of each professional body reveals
that ACM has 94,000 members [65,000professional members and 29,000 student members];
Australian Computer Society has 23,000 members; and BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
has 71,025 members. Even if all ACM members resided in the USA, which is not the case,
ACM membership represents a paltry 2.6 per cent of software developers in the USA.
Furthermore, the combined membershipof ACM, ACS and BCS represents only 1.0 per cent
of the global total. This suggests that, on the basis of statistics,professional bodies allied to
ICT and their adopted codes of ethics have little inuence on practical ICT. Of course, this
JICES
15,4
346
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.15 No. 4, 2017
pp. 346-347
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-11-2017-066

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