Evaluating Information Technologies Against the Criteria of Autonomous Control and the Enhancement of Self Esteem as Integral Features of Collaborative Content Creation
Conclusion
I want, now, to bring all these thoughts together into a conclusion which describes what an ethics code for ICT producers might look like. I want to suggest that it would have these ten approximate headings. This is no time to haggle over the exact meaning of words. You might want to take a word each, later, and see what kind of a code you come up with; you might want to suggest adding some words and deleting some of mine; but here are my ten words as a starter:
- Modular
- Incremental
- Intuitive
- Enabling
- User tested
- Configurable
- Empowering
- Social
- Safe
- Cohering
Here are some very brief notes on each word.
- Modular. By this I mean that products, particularly software but also hardware, should be produced in small, interlocking pieces so that if I only want a word processor today to write a few letters I don't have to buy a massive software bundle; it also means that I should not be penalised when I only want a simple computer with a few functions rather than wanting massive processing power and a variety of associate technologies like a DVD player.
- Incremental. By this I mean that systems which are modular should offer a progression path from the simple to the complex but that the complexity will therefore only arise out of necessity. In a strange way this would help producers to be better designers.
- Intuitive. I define the characteristic of usability as that property which accords most closely with human behaviour. You should be able to shut down the machine by pressing a shut down button. You should know what mistake you have made and what you need to do to correct it; you should find yourself in accord with the system instead of trying to figure out how it works.
- Enabling. There must be a better word for what I mean by this which is that the system should do what it purports to do. When we buy a car we expect it to do certain things when given certain instructions and if it did not we would die. ICT systems seem a long way from this kind of match between promised and real outcome.
- User Tested. Quite clearly most ICT systems are not tested on a weighted representative sample of the population. This means that they inevitably suffer from only being useful to people who have learned behaviours from peers. If our computer goes wrong we can make some guesses or ask a friend what to do; but only user testing can make a system usable without this kind of inside knowledge.
- Configurable. Current ICT systems are configurable in many ways but they fatally omit a configuration option which defines the simplicity or complexity of the system; this could be achieved through the first two characteristics, that a system should be modular and incremental.
- Empowering. Again, I am sure this is not precisely the word I want, not least because it's an over used word and frequently falsifies positions; there are many things which individuals cannot be empowered to do. What I mean by it in this context is that the package as a whole should provide a benefit to the user which increases the user's self esteem and capability. It is not dissimilar to the idea of enabling but there is proper distinction to be drawn between a system doing what it ought to and that ought including an element of improvement for the user.
- Social. The word Social covers a huge range of ideas but central to it is that a system which has the words Information and Communication in its generic title should perform functions, and certainly should not erect barriers to functions, which that generic title suggests. Communications technologies, for example, ought not to end up dividing people.
- Safe. The idea of a system being safe relates to control over who we reach and who reaches us. Many people do not regard ICT systems as safe and the reasons are obvious enough. There must be a debate about responsibilities between information creators and carriers but there also needs to be much more discussion about the software which creators and carriers use and how this could be refined.
- Cohering. In their early phases, new technologies inevitably make existing divisions worse but that does not need to be the case for long. Broadcasting and telephony have become cohering technologies (even though they did not begin that way and even though television may now be losing that quality) and ICT systems must follow suit.
This is a very large agenda but we are pleased to describe our age as the information age and I am therefore asking for no more than we would have demanded of industry in the industrial age.