Slow Tech: a roadmap for a good, clean and fair ICT
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-05-2015-0014 |
| Published date | 10 August 2015 |
| Pages | 268-282 |
| Date | 10 August 2015 |
| Author | Norberto Patrignani,Diane Whitehouse |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Slow Tech: a roadmap for a
good, clean and fair ICT
Norberto Patrignani
Politecnico of Torino, Torino, Italy, and
Diane Whitehouse
The Castlegate Consultancy, Malton, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how Slow Tech can support the celebration of the
20-year series of ETHICOMP conferences, with its ethical and societal focus, building on earlier
descriptions of Slow Tech. The paper takes Slow Tech’s ideas a step further to explore how a roadmap
and concrete checklist of activities can be developed.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a thought leadership or conceptual piece. Its
approach is based on a normative, qualitative discourse. It, nevertheless, indicates a shift towards
concrete actions.
Findings – Extracting from a brief historical overview, the paper lays out the means of building a Slow
Tech roadmap and a Slow Tech checklist of actions. It also investigates a number of the challenges that
might face Slow Tech in the future.
Research limitations/implications – The paper has implications for stakeholder elds as
far-ranging as corporations, computing professional associations, universities and research institutions
and end-users.
Originality/value – As with other investigations of Slow Tech, the value of this paper is in its call for
reection followed by action. It provides a useful complement and counterbalance to an earlier paper by
the same authors: “Slow Tech: a quest for good, clean and fair ICT” published in Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society (Vol. 12, issue 2, pp. 78-92).
Keywords Fair ICT, Good ICT, Slow Tech, Clean ICT, ETHICOMP, Proactive computer ethics
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introducing the general background to this paper
The two-decade history of ETHICOMP conferences has done a great deal to build a
community of people committed not only to the discussion of computer ethics but also to
taking ethical actions with the aim of making a real difference in the information and
communication technology (ICT) eld.
This paper is a thought leadership piece and discussion document. It adopts a largely
positive and constructive view of Slow Tech that concentrates its efforts on what is
ethically desirable in terms of ICT.
Starting from a background overview of computer ethics, with a particular focus on
the ETHICOMP series of conferences, the paper outlines the transitions that have taken
Thanks are due to various attendees at ETHICOMP 2014 conference workshops; the anonymous
reviewers of a paper submitted to the ETHICOMP 2014 conference; and the similarly anonymous
reviewers of the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society for their helpful
comments and constructive criticisms of earlier versions of this paper.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
JICES
13,3/4
268
Received 25 May 2015
Revised 25 May 2015
Accepted 9 June 2015
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.13 No. 3/4, 2015
pp.268-282
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-05-2015-0014
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