Discussion Week 1

Read Blake Panos' ePaper from a previous semester. Then answer the same question he posed to his ePaper peer team: As a game designer, are you ethically responsible to consider the potential for addiction in the game you create? Should a designer build time limits of play into their games in order to force people to stop playing for a set amount of time? Be sure to expand the discussion beyond the responses of his ePaper peer team. I agree with what Zacherey Wrote. I am myself an avid gamer and it is my belief that people need to find their limits on their own. I myself struggled with video game addiction for almost 5 years and this is a topic very close to me. If we placed limits on games then it would be hard for companies to make money. Most games are subscription based (at least the good ones) and if you pay for something monthly then why would you want to only be able to play it for a limited time each month/week? The goal of most games is to hit max level and gear out your characters. Most of my friends treat this as a little race. Obviously the winner is whoever has more time to play. But if there were limitations on how much we can play then most people would level the same and gear the same. This doesn't seem like a problem to most but brings me to my next topic professional gamers. Professional gamers make a living off of being the best, leveling the quickest, and having the best gear. If they were limited by the number of hours they could play then it would be significantly harder for them to be better than everyone else. They have the time to practice and this is what tends to set them apart from the rest of the gaming population. They treat gaming like a full time job and play accordingly. My suggestion would be to maybe put a warning on the packaging explaining the the game itself is extremely addictive.

Discussion Week 2
After reading the online newspaper article "Hoax Batters Tech Firm" (http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Hoax-Batters-Tech-Firm-Stock-value-drops2742069.php ) discuss who you think is responsible for the consequences of the hoax. What should the punishment be? What should be done to prevent this in the future? What ethical connections can be made to this story and recent events relating to the Enron corporation? Note that this article is more than ten years old but the problem has not gone away. Use the Internet to learn more about what happened in this specific case and/or provide your peers with similar stories and links.

I agree with Zach. I think the hoaxer should be the one responsible, but putting blame completely on him shouldn't be the case. The average american makes about 50,000$ a year. So lets say that we blame him and sue him. According to the article the total loss was 2 billion dollars. So unless the accused person makes what Bill Gates makes no one will benefit from suing the individual. I also believe the company is partially to blame for not containing the leak to begin with. More increased security measures would help so that this sort of thing doesn't happen again. Also I think the stock holder are partially to blame for there loss as well. When I invest a great deal of money on a company I tend to keep up to date on research about that company. If out of the blue there was a post about something negatively affecting the company I would do research to figure out if it was true.

Discussion Week 3
A few years ago a CSUMB student's parents requested copies of their child's emails (both sent and received) after the student committed suicide. If you were the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the university how would you respond to their request? State the ethical issues involved and your rationale for the action(s) you would take. As in every ethical issue relating to IT we're exploring this semester, consider the differences between how we interact with digital vs. analog information. I have to disagree with what Kelly said "First off, if the student is an adult there is no legal attachment of their belongings (physical and digital) being released to their parents unless otherwise stated in a will." With little research this was proven under the Rules of Intestacy: Parents, brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews of the intestate person may inherit under the Rules of Intestacy. Also Kelly stated that "CSUMB could be liable for any information the parents find in the emails" This is untrue as well unless the suicide turned out to be more than a suicide via emails. Also it is my personally belief the email records would already be checked via the investigation of the suicide. So for my opinion I would grant access to the students email. As a saddened parent I would try to help inform any friends and family of the loss and most of us in this day in age contact our friends via email. I know if I was the student that had committed suicide I would not care, mainly because I was no longer around and anything found in that email would have no effect on me and the effect on my parents would be very small because of the crisis they are already going through. I cold heartedly agree with Andrea's statement that it will help the parents with getting closure. What if why they did it was in there email? What if it wasn't suicide at all? Many of these questions could be answer in a CSUMB email. What if gaining access to the

email is what the deceased had intended? Maybe there is a suicide letter on there google documents that they shared with there friends! http://www.theprobatedepartment.co.uk/rules-of-intestacy/

Discussion Week 4
Under the heading of "what would you do if..." imagine the following scenarios and provide a response for each. You walk into your 12-year old child's room and on his/her computer screen you see: a) pornography b) instructions on how to build a bomb c) a guide to safer sex d) online gambling a) pornography This is a touchy subject to me when it comes to parenting. My current child is a male so I will go off that for all of these question. My first reaction would be to probably yell and my child and lock down there computer. Knowing these thoughts are naturally of a child at this age, I would sit down with them and have a long chat. This chat would cover: whats currently going on in there body, a discussion about safe sex, and I would let them know that pornography is not the real world. What they see on the screen will likely to never be reality in there life. b) instructions on how to build a bomb This is another huge no no. The first thing I would to is to start going through my son's computer looking to see if this was just something they were doing or if this was something being planned. I would also search my house and son's room for any compnents that might be from there reading. After this I would talk with my child and ask why they were looking at how to build a bomb. I would then discuss past events and hoe alot of them stemmed from this sort of interest. c) a guide to safer sex I would be proud of my son for looking at this sort of thing. His body might have started maturing before others. I would rather him know about safe sex rather then just trying to jump out there and deal with his urges. I would also make sure what he was reading was accurate and would try to help him so he understood what he was reading online. d) online gambling Since this is now illegal, I would inform my child about this. I would then start a minor investigation of my own. Since on most online gambling sites you need a credit card, I would try to find out whose he was using. I would have to have a talk with my son about theft as well and why it is wrong. I will let my son know that when he is of the age of 21 he is more than welcome to go do all the real life gambling that he wishes but at this time he will have to wait!

Discussion Week 5
1) You use an ATM machine outside your local bank and it gives you an extra 20 bucks. The receipt shows it gave you only the amount you requested for withdrawl. What do you do? 2) A human teller makes a similar mistake as described above. You don't notice the extra $20 until you're in your car. Again, what do you do? ATM Machine I believe in Karma and in return I would take the 20 dollars inside and wait to speak with a teller. I would then describe what happened to the teller and ask them what they wished for me to do with the extra cash. I also probably wouldn't be entirely trusting of the teller and would make sure that a manager also knew of the situation and what occurred so they would also have a record of what happened. Human Teller If a human teller made this same mistake and I was already in my car and on my way home the encounter may be a little different. Instead of wasting my gas to drive back to the bank, I would call them. I would explain what happened to the Agent I spoke with over the phone and I would ask them to deduct an additional 20 dollars from my account. The only way I would keep the money without having an additional amount deducted from my account would be if the Agent on the phone instructed me to do so.

Discussion Week 6
This is a long and two-part thread requiring you to respond to two questions. Much has been presented in the press in the last few years about a series of suicides of young gay people across the country who were victims of bullying. Because it is 2012, some of these incidents include online bullying and, in the case of Tyler Clementi (a Freshman at Rutgers University), the posting of sexual videos of him online without his consent. For more information on the Clementi story start here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/dharun-revi-molly-weicharged_n_743539.html In response to these suicides Dan Savage, a well known blogger in the gay community, started a campaign called "It Gets Better." The original It Gets Better video has received hundreds of thousands of hits, mostly because of postings on Facebook, and has led to others producing their own videos for the project. For more information on the It Gets Better project start here: http://www.itgetsbetter.org/ Interesting side story: too big for youtube... http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/08/MNVJ1FP6E1.DTL#ixzz11vbGHCar Update on the Clementi trial: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/clementi-trial

Question 0ne: If you were an administrator at Rutgers, how would you discipline the students involved in the Clementi incident and would you include the campus IT professionals in the investigation? Question Two: How effective do you believe the It Gets Better project can be in addressing the issue of bullying young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth? Question 0ne: If you were an administrator at Rutgers, how would you discipline the students involved in the Clementi incident and would you include the campus IT professionals in the investigation? If I were the administrator at Rugters I would punish the students to the full extent of my power. What they did was very wrong and should not be tolerated anywhere in the world. If getting the IT professionals on campus is what it took to make sure that the correct student paid for what they did, then yes absolutely I would get there involved. I want the correct student punished for what happened also anyone else that was involved. If I had it my way they would also be in jail as well but as a administrator my power would be limited. Question Two: How effective do you believe the It Gets Better project can be in addressing the issue of bullying young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth? I think that it is very effective. As they state on their about page "Growing up isnt easy. Many young people face daily tormenting and bullying, leading them to feel like they have nowhere to turn." With this website it gives them a place to turn to. Not all people in the world are like these mean bullies, but there are a lot of them out there and people need to be taught how to deal with them.

Discussion Week 7
In the Case Studies text *(available on reserve in the Library and from the instructor), Spinello introduces us to the ethical theories of Immanuel Kant. In defining a "moral compass," Kant believes we cannot exploit other human beings and treat them exclusively as a means to our ends or purposes. The moral "law" can be reduced to the absolute principle of respect for other human beings who deserve respect because of their rationality and freedom, the hallmark of personhood for Kant. Some of these same ideas can be found in the CSUMB vision statement: http://ideals.csumb.edu/vision Read the vision statement and then consider the following: Does a public institution have a right and/or a responsibility to "institutionalize" its idea of morality? What are the potential positive and negative outcomes of doing this? Finally, does IT play a neutral role here? And because things posted online never go away... you may also want to read this post: http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=7246

Does a public institution have a right and/or a responsibility to "institutionalize" its idea of morality? I do believe they have a right to institutionalize it ides of morality. I don'y see any reason why being a diverse and multicultural school could be a bad thing or why priding yourself in being that could be a bad things. I would rather be at a multicultural school rather than a racist school which brings us back to the times of segregation. Also the fact that they said they would reach out to the more under privileged and under educated individuals is a huge plus in my book. I don't see any huge negative outcomes because of this. I do see a overall strong community gain out of this though. Finally, does IT play a neutral role here? And because things posted online never go away. I think is very neutral here. IT must abide by another set of rules not just the schools. Also IT doesn't have a lot of control on what they can do. They are more of a service to the University and does most of what is asked of them by the University. If IT was owed by some other company I would say that they might not be neutral but in this case they definitely are.

Discussion Week 8
On Tuesday, November 5th, Monterey County voters will decide a strongly contested battle over the use of former Fort Ord lands in Measures K and M. The purpose of this threaded discussion is NOT to discuss your individual stance on this issue but rather to critically explore each side's websites to determine which side is most effective in persuading voters. Are both sides being ethical in the ways they're communicating? If not, give specific examples from the websites that you feel are unethical. http://fortordaccess.org http://securethepromise.org I found reading each article one after the other extremely confusing as well. The Yes on M sites claims they are protecting public space, protecting the veterans peace and quite, and preventing the construction of the racetrack. I found it extremely funny that when going to the Yes on K site they stated nothing about a racetrack. Yes on K claims to remove blighted buildings, Protects trails, and to relieve some traffic. The reasons sound very simliar and because of this I think they both are very persuading on the sides the aim to be. The negative sides on both pages both bash the opponents measure well. One thing I like about sites is they argue each point so well it would make me want to research even more before I voted.

Discussion Week 9

In a March 19 article from last year, the Monterey Herald wrote about racist activities on the CSUMB campus. A brief statement refers to surveillance cameras. We've had numerous discussions in class about privacy issues and have often referred to England's use of cameras in public areas. What are the positive AND negative aspects of having surveillance cameras on our campus? What are the ethical issues? After thinking long and hard about this subject I could find very few reasons not to have surveillance on campus but these are what I came up with: Positive: o Increased saftery on Campus o The personal thought of the campus being a safer place o Decrease in theft around campus o Decrease in overall crime on campus o Data analysis to help identify problems such as parking o Negative: o Cost could be an issue and may make students unhappy if it was at the cost of say a tuition increase. o If they were not looked at or monitored might make students uneasy as well o If they were put inside buildings, this as well might make students and faculty feel uneasy. I don't particularly see any huge unethical reasons for having security reasons. Maybe if the cameras where put in bad places like restrooms or peoples offices this might be an evasion of privacy. One other thing that could cause a ethical problem is if they were used for spying on certain individuals.
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Discussion Week 10
A few years ago, CSUMB migrated from a proprietary and closed email system (FirstClass) to Gmail, Google's Internet delivered system which offers many "cloudcomputing" features at a significantly reduced price (free*) to the University. The Gmail version implemented is a university-oriented service with unique features and storage capabilities not available in their standard package available to the public. From an IT user's perspective, what do you think are the pros and cons of this decision to change email systems? From an IT management perspective, what do you think are the pros and cons of this decision to change email systems? What are the potential ethical issues for the university and how would you recommend the administration address them? Finally, do you trust Google? IT User Pros

Cloud Services Special Feature that would have to otherwise pay a nominal fee Google's reliability Functionality Cons Have to wait for Google if experiencing a technical difficulty Google's knowledge of you and what you look at IT Management Pros Free Run By Google Happy students and faculty Cons Have to wait for support responses The only potential issue that I can see would be the fact that Google can keep track of us. I don't like the thought of anyone playing Big Brother and I feel Google plays big brother very well. I don't think the university can do anything to change this except for changing mail servers, but I feel like this would be a big step backwards for us. As for trusting Google I don't. Anyone who watches my every move can't be up to any good. Google seems to have there hand in just about everything. I just recently found out that one of the CEO's of Google is paying NASA to make him a Giant airship and this really creeps me out.

Discussion Week 11
Over the last few years the University administration and faculty have been studying the University Learning Requirements and how they serve students. One primary concern is that the ULRs do not align with other CSU campuses which creates some problems for transfer students and may discourage new students from applying to CSUMB. As a result of the investigations, a number of proposals were presented and after significant feedback and revisions, one final proposal called the Otter Model is currently being implemented. Like all of the proposals, the Otter

Model eliminates the Technology proficiency ULR, formerly satisfied by CST 101/Tech Tools and a few other tech-related courses offered by other departments. Previously, we discussed the Vision Statement. This week, consider the positive and negative effects, including the ethical implications, of eliminating technology proficiency from the ULR/General Education requirements. I think that this was a good move on CSUMB's part. The majority of the student coming out of high school already know a majority of what is taught in this course. One big positive effect is happier student because it is one less course that has to be taken. Another positive effect is a savings in cost for CSUMB since they don't need to pay an instructor to teach this course. As for negative effects I can only see one which would be that an older student that may be coming back to school may not be familiar with all the tools a younger student is. This might lead to upset students in this very limited population. The question is do we have an ethically responsibility to make this course necessary so we know all our graduating students know this material? I think what we could have done was allow students to test out of this course since that currently is not an option.

Discussion Week 12
Remember: Discussion, not monologue. PART ONE: How has technology enhanced your EDUCATION at CSUMB? Has CSUMB's use of technology ever had a negative effect on your learning? If so, how--and what would you recommend to correct the problem? PART TWO: How has technology enhanced your SOCIAL LIFE during your time at CSUMB? Do you Twitter? Do you Facebook? Has CSUMB's use of technology ever had a positive or negative effect on the way you interact with friends, family, faculty, and/or the administration? If negative, how-and what would you recommend to correct the problem? Part 1 Overall I would say yes technology has enhanced my education. Without the tools provided by the school many of the projects that I have completed would not have been possible. Many of the programs are extremely expensive make them hard for a student to obtain. Other technology such as tech rent had made life easier for me as well. The only negative item which pertains to technology would have to be iLearn. While iLearn proved to be a great tool for learning often times it was slow and extremely glitchy. Many teachers would blame iLearn for incorrect due dates and testing errors. It is my belief that most of these errors were operator errors. This could be corrected by training the faculty in iLearn. Part 2 As an avid social media advocate I would say that it has enhanced my Social Life at CSUMB. While I have had my Facebook before CSUMB being able to find fellow students through the school search has proved to be very positive. Another great piece of

social media was google plus a service that the school offered free of charge. This made completing group projects a breeze. With the option to hangout and chat with group member and being able to share and work on one document simultaneously it made my life much less complicated. Also with the huge directory of student through my email it made getting a hold of a student who I may not have there phone number extremely easy. Since I started school at CSUMB about 2 1/2 years ago, Social Media has had no negative impact on me at CSUMB. All my experiences have been strictly positive.

Discussion Week 13
Last April's Boston Marathon bombings illustrate the power of digital forensics and "crowd sourcing" to solve crimes. For this discussion you need to take two perspectives. First, consider how Amatai Etzioni would assess the events in terms of individual privacy vs. communitarian ideals. Second, state your views and then recommend policies for how the authorities should deal with individual data acquired and shared on networks that may be useful in solving crime. I agree with what Kelly Silva wrote about Etzioni. Our concerns with privacy must have a limit at some point. If I had to give up my privacy to survive I would no questions asked. If we need to sacrifice privacy to save lives then it needs to be done. This doesn't include giving the government the right to spy on everyone just so they can find terrorists. The line needs to be drawn somewhere and I think that Etozioni would agree with that. My personal views go a few ways on this topic. Many shows such as Cops blurred out faces so keep peoples privacy. I think that this could be done in this case. If the videos were release to the public it is my opinion that all anyone cares about is the person committing the crime not all the innocent bystanders. I think only in extreme case these faces should not be blurred out. I also think that video posted by the person taking this film should be removed from the internet until an action like above is taken to protect peoples privacy.

Discussion Week 14
Note: This thread is not intended to be a discussion but rather a personal reflection of your scrapbooks and a kind of warm up for the final thread... By this time you should have completed a minimum of 13 scrapbook entries. Of your entire scrapbook portfolio, which single entry do you believe has the most relevance to this course (looking at current Information Technologies from an ethical perspective). State your rationale for your choice. My favorite scrapbook and the one most related to this course would have to be my week 15 scrapbook. This scrapbook is entitled Designing Babies. The article talked about having control of your genetics. With a recent new patent that 23andme has just received is going to change the way we all view child birth. Many people say that this is in a way

designing a baby. First the couple can get a genetic test to see what possible traits that there children may have passed onto them. Many people in the article discuss that this isn't right and that no one should be given this power. Other claim that if it could help there child live a more health life then it would be worth it. I thinking this is the most relative to this course because it is using technology to play god in a sense. If we were all meant to be perfect then it would be that way. Yes, some may be more unfortunate than other like my son who is extremely autistic, but his autism is what makes him who he is. We shouldn't get to choose who our children are and what they turn out like. In my opinion this is one of the surprises of being a parent!