ICT Ethics Newsletter

No.1
December 2011
ICT Ethics Newsletter
Welcome to the BCS ICT Ethics Group – you are one of the 120 members we now have who
work at various levels in Industry (corporations and SME’s); Health Sector; Government;
Academia, and independently as consultants. Most of our members are in the UK, but we
also have members from Africa, Asia and Europe. Thank you for joining our group.
In this first newsletter we introduce your committee and some of the things they are
interested in and involved with to promote ICT Ethics. Short biographies and news and
events are on the following pages.
We would also like to hear your views and find out what your ethics interests are.
Penny Duquenoy, Chair.
►You can put your questions and views in the
discussion area of the ICT ethics group in the
ICT Ethics Specialist Group members area on the
BCS website. (www.bcs.org)
To have your say and see what others say,
join our Linked-in group …
BCS ICT Ethics SG LinkedIn
►And/or join our LinkedIn group …
ICT Ethics Inaugural Meeting - BCS London office on 20 October 2011
Our invited speakers gave their views on ethics in the context of their work, followed by a panel
session that developed into a lively debate with the audience.
In short …
What our speakers had to say at our ICT Ethics SG Inaugural
Meeting (20 October 2011, London)
Blay Whitby, researcher and ethics adviser to the Royal
Academy of Engineering, emphasised the need to express
commitment to values and to have sufficient guidance in
order to do so; to think ahead when considering social
implications of various technologies.
Alan Geekie, Aspire Knowledge Management and
Compliance Manager, Capgemini: “ethics is at the core of
what we do”. Companies need to engage people and have
in-company policies, documents and an ethical code to
assist in anti-corruption practices.
Alan Freeland, Technical Advocate, IBM Computer Services
Industry: market dynamics need to be taken into account
regarding future ethical issues. He stressed the importance
of good design and the value of testing, as well as the need
to ‘educate’, to reinforce thinking that “behaving ethically
does have rewards”.
Your Committee
ICT Ethics SG Committee voted in
at the Inaugural Meeting, 20
October 2011, London.
Chair: Penny Duquenoy
Secretary: Denise Oram
Treasurer: Anthony Whipp
Peter Buchanan
Bernd Carsten Stahl
Jennifer Dean
Ian Fish
Marina Jirotka
Ian Thornton-Bryar
Your participation in this Specialist Group
We encourage you to take part in the group by hosting events (workshops/meetings/web
discussions/ etc.) and setting up discussions (Linked-in and the Members discussion area).
The format used at the inaugural meeting went well, and was not too difficult to arrange –
a question for speakers to answer and a panel session with the audience – we would
welcome a summary of the views of your local members or contacts. Or perhaps instigate
a small working session at your place of work …?
Of interest …
The UK EPSRC funded project on a “Framework for Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT”
(www.responsible-innovation.org.uk) call for case studies proposals.
Submission deadline: 19 January 2012 Financial contribution: approximately £5000 per case study
Outcome of BCS Thought Leadership Debate held November 2011, answering the question “Will it
be possible to be a full (UK) citizen in ten years time without access to digital broadband services?”
A full report will be available early January 2012.
Ethical issues of emerging ICT’s (EU FP7 Project ETICA, now concluded) see ETICA wiki
Free book …
“Responsible Research and Innovation in the Information and Communication Technologies and
Security Technologies Fields". European Union 2011.
Edited by René von Schomberg, European Commission DG Research.
10 chapters with articles from researchers leading major EU funded research projects.
Upcoming events
We plan to send out a regular newsletter (how regular is not yet certain – probably 2 monthly). If
you have something you think is of interest to our SG please contact one of the Committee members.
We are still in the process of planning our events for next year – if you would like to host something,
or have an idea for something you think is of interest please let us know: Penny Duquenoy; Denise
Oram
Region/Branch events: please contact us if you would like us to contribute to your local BCS group in
some way.
A symposium on responsible research and innovation in artificial intelligence held in conjunction
with the AISB / IACAP conference July, 2012 in Birmingham.
BCS Business Change SG: Ethicability: Are you Leading and Building a Culture of Enlightened Integrity?
26th January 2012, 18.00, BCS London Office. More details and registration (deadline 24 January
2012): http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conEvent.5440
For those of you interested in research …
The UK EPSRC funded project:
“Framework for Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT” call for case studies proposals.
Financial contribution:
approximately £5000 per case study
Submission deadline:
19 January 2012
See www.responsible-innovation.org.uk for more information on the project. Detailed information on
the case study as well as the documents required for submission can be found under the “Case
Studies” tab.
Background
Ethical issues arising from the development and wide-spread use of ICT are of increasing concern.
Prominent examples include the limitations of privacy in social network sites, ownership and control of
data by search providers, the limitations on the use of large-scale public databases or ICT systems or
the possibility of moral agency by autonomous systems.
Although there is broad acceptance that ethical questions are relevant to ICT, and that the way they
are addressed can influence the acceptance and acceptability of novel technologies, it is not clear
how this is to be done nor how responsibilities should be defined and realised.
The FRRIICT project seeks to develop a more grounded understanding of these issues and to
develop a network of researchers interested in them. To support its work activities, the project has set
aside a research budget for the development of case studies which demonstrate interesting examples
of how ethical issues have been addressed in actual R&D projects
The case studies will be used to contribute to the understanding of responsible research and
innovation and to foster debate in this area. It is also expected that the case studies will be made
available to the research community as teaching materials and so they will be made publicly available
via the Observatory under a creative commons licence.
Key Dates
Event
Closing date for the submission of entries
Judging Panel meeting
Announcement of winners
Commencement of award
Mid-term report
Submission of final case study
Presentation of case study at showcase event
Date
19 January 2012
31 January 2012
03 February 2012
14 February.2012
30 April 2012
16 July 2012
February 2014
For more information please contact one of the investigators:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
BCS ICT Ethics Committee Members – some short bios

Penny Duquenoy is a Principal Lecturer and researcher at Middlesex University, London,
teaching professionalism and ethics to engineering and information science students. Recent
funded research projects investigate how to consider and address ethical and social impacts of
ICT during the project design and development stage (current and future technologies)*. A longstanding member of IFIP (International Association of Information Professionals) with Working
Group 9.2 on Social Accountability, and Chair of IFIP Special Interest Group 9.2.2 “Framework for
Ethics”, she is also a member of the BCS Ethics Group.
*ISIS project (EPSRC/ESRC) and EGAIS (Ethical governance of emerging technologies)

Peter Buchanan runs an independency consultancy www.thinkgov.co.uk focussed on using IT to
enable the public sector, in strategy, innovation or procurement. He is also a founding Director
of www.savingfrompoverty.org.uk, a Community Interest Company that has developed and
continues to campaign for a weekly budgeting service for vulnerable consumers. Within the BCS
Peter is Vice Chair of the Membership Board, Chair of its Policy Committee, Vice Chair of the
Shropshire Branch and Vice Chair of the Ethics Group.

Bernd Carsten Stahl is Professor of Critical Research in Technology and Director the Centre for
Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. His interests cover
philosophical issues arising from the intersections of business, technology, and information. This
includes the ethics of ICT and critical approaches to information systems. From 2009 to 2011 he
served as coordinator of the EU FP7 research project on "Ethical Issues of Emerging ICT
Applications" ETICA and from 2012 to 2015 he serves as coordinator of the EU FP7 research
project “Civil Society Organisations in Designing Research Governance“ (CONSIDER)

Ian Thornton-Bryar, DipM, DMS, FIMC, FBCS, CMC, CITP, a Prince2™ and MSP™ Practitioner and
a Lead TickIT (ISO 9000) Assessor was eventually a multi-nationally practised
Programme/Transformation Director or Manager, based on 40 years industry experience. His
project/programme budgets have ranged up to $220m/£301m, operational budgets to $2.5bn.
During the last 15-20 years he gained wide-ranging project/programme disaster recovery
expertise. Many of those incipient disasters stemmed from questionable ethics by one or more
of the parties. For about 5 years he was membership secretary of the Association for
Professional Computer Consultants, a body which believed that IT Consultants should not have
conflicts of interest. He also acted as an Expert Witness in 14 IT contract disputes, which
experience strongly reinforced his belief in the need for more rigorous ethics in IT professionals.
He now mentors around 4 BCS PPM members.

Denise is secretary for the BCS Ethics SG, a member of the BCS Ethics Group, and an examiner
for BCS Professional issues. She is currently Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science at Glyndwr University and is a member of both the
university’s Ethics and Research Ethics Committee. Her research interests cover systems failure,
social responsibility and professional and ethical dimensions of emerging trends in IT, and
Technology and Society. She is interested in creating awareness of the wider implications that
new digital technologies have on both education and society. She is especially interested in
exploring frameworks for ethical decision-making in the process of creation and development of
new technologies to address sustainability to develop new standards in order to support this
change.