GEITE01X: LIVING IN THE I.T.
ERA
LESSON 1: SCIENCE, CULTURE, AND ETHICS OF IT
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
 Science: Fundamentally is the systematic study
of the structure and behavior of the natural and
physical world through observations and
experiments.
 Different Facet of Science:
o Science is both a body of knowledge and a
process.
o Science is exciting.
o Science is useful.
o Science is ongoing.
o Science is a global human endeavor.
 Technology
o Derived from the Greek word ‘technologia’
o An art, skill or ability, which is used to
create and develop products and acquire
knowledge.
 Scientists used their knowledge to develop
technology and then used technology to develop
Science; so, because of this reason science and
technology are an integrated term in today’s
world.
CONTRIBUTION OF SCIENCE TO
TECHNOLOGY
 Science as a direct source of new technological
ideas.
 Science as a source of engineering.
CONTRIBUTION OF TECHNOLOGY TO
SCIENCE
 Technology as a source of scientific challenges.
 Instrumentation and measurement techniques.
NATURE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNLOGY
 Technical Knowledge: It can be defined in the
simplest term as – ‘know-how’. It includes
ranges of basic skills such as advancement in
agriculture, development of chemical industries,
medical technology, software engineering, etc.
 Understanding of the Attributes or Elements:
It means, knowledge and understanding of the
intelligence of workers, quality of products, value
of a firm, effectiveness of market, etc.
CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
 Culture: An umbrella term which encompasses
the social behavior and norms found in human
societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts,
laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the
individuals in these groups.
 Definition from different sociologist:
o Taylor: “Culture is the complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, customs, and any capabilities
acquired by man as a member of society.”
o Linton: “Culture is social heredity, which
is transmitted from one generation to
1ST TERM
another with the accumulation of individual
experiences.”
o John Beattee: “Culture is the way of life
which is transmitted from generation to
generation”.
8 ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
TECHNOLOGY SHAPES CULTURE
 The technology landscape for businesses has
changed beyond recognition over the past 50
years. Here are 5 ways that technology has
changed the way that we work.
o Mobility
o The Cloud
o AR & VR Innovation
o Customer Data
o Social Impact
ETHICS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
 Every society forms a set of rules that establishes
the boundaries of generally accepted behavior.
These rules are often expressed in statements
about how people should behave, and the
individual rules fit together to form the
moral code by which a society lives.
 Ethics: A set of beliefs about right and wrong
behavior within a society. Ethical behavior
conforms to generally accepted norms—many of
which are almost universal.
 The term morality refers to social conventions
about right and wrong that are so widely shared
that they become the basis for an
established consensus.
 A virtue is a habit that inclines people to do what
is acceptable, and a vice is a habit of
unacceptable behavior.
 A person who acts with integrity acts in
accordance with a personal code of principles.
One approach to acting with integrity—one of the
cornerstones of ethical behavior—is to extend to
all people the same respect and consideration that
you expect to receive from others.
MORAL, ETHICS, AND LAWS
 Morals are one’s personal beliefs about right and
wrong, while the term ethics describes standards
or codes of behavior expected of an individual by
a group (nation, organization, profession) to
 GEITE01X: LIVING IN THE I.T. ERA
LESSON 1: SCIENCE, CULTURE, AND ETHICS OF IT
which an individual belongs. Law is a system of
rules that tells us what we can and cannot do.
Laws are enforced by a set of institutions (the
police, courts, law-making bodies). Legal acts are
acts that conform to the law.
ETHICS IN IT
 During the many IT breakthroughs in recent
years, the importance of ethics and human values
has been underemphasized—with a range
of consequences. Here are some examples that
raise public concern about the ethical use of
information technology:
o Many employees have their email and
Internet access monitored while at work, as
employers struggle to balance their need to
manage important company assets and work
time with employees’ desire for privacy
and self-direction.
o Millions of people have downloaded music
and movies at no charge and in apparent
violation of copyright laws at
tremendous expense to the owners of those
copyrights.
o Organizations contact millions of people
worldwide through unsolicited email
(spam) as an extremely low-cost
marketing approach.
o Students around the world have been caught
downloading material from the Web and
plagiarizing content for their term papers.
o Hackers break into databases of financial
and retail institutions to steal customer
information, then use it to commit
identity theft—opening new accounts and
charging purchases to unsuspecting victims.
IT PROFESSIONALS
 A profession is a calling that requires specialized
knowledge and often long and intensive
academic preparation. The United States Code of
federal regulations defines a “professional
employee” as one who is engaged in
the performance of work:
o “Requiring knowledge of an advanced type
in a field of science or learning;
o Requiring the consistent exercise of
discretion and judgment in its performance;
o Which is predominantly intellectual and
varied in character (as distinguished from
routine mental, manual, mechanical, or
physical work); and
o Which is of such character that the output
produced, or the result accomplished by
such work cannot be standardized in
relation to a given period.”
PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
 Between IT Workers and Employers
 Between IT Workers and Clients
 Between IT Workers and Suppliers
1ST TERM
 Between IT Workers and Other Professionals
 Between IT Workers and IT Users
 Between IT Workers and Society
PROFESSIONAL CODE OF ETHICS
 A professional code of ethics states the principles
and core values that are essential to the work of a
particular occupational group. Practitioners in
many professions subscribe to a code of ethics
that governs their behavior.
 Laws do not provide a complete guide to ethical
behavior, following a professional code of ethics
can produce many benefits for the individual, the
profession, and society as a whole.
 Ethical decision making — Adherence to a
professional code of ethics means that
practitioners use a common set of core values and
beliefs as a guideline for ethical decision making.
 High standards of practice and ethical
behavior — Adherence to a code of ethics
reminds professionals of the responsibilities and
duties that they may be tempted to compromise
to meet the pressures of day-to-day business.
 Trust and respect from the general public—
Public trust is built on the expectation that a
professional will behave ethically.
 Evaluation benchmark—A code of ethics
provides an evaluation benchmark that a
professional can use as a means of self-
assessment. Peers of the professional can also use
the code for recognition or censure.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION
 Four of the most prominent IT-related
professional organizations
o Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM)
o Institute of Electrical and electronics
Engineers Computer Society (IEEE-CS)
o Association of Information Technology
Professionals (AITP)
o SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security
(SANS) Institute
CERTIFICATION
 Certification indicates that a professional
possesses a particular set of skills, knowledge, or
abilities, in the opinion of the certifying
organization.
 Deciding on the best IT certification—and even
whether to seek a certification— depends on the
individual’s career aspirations, existing skill
level, and accessibility to training.
 Vendor Certifications
o Many IT vendors—such as Cisco, IBM,
Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle—offer
certification programs for those who use
their products. Workers who successfully
complete a program can represent
themselves as certified users of a
manufacturer’s product. Depending on the
 GEITE01X: LIVING IN THE I.T. ERA
LESSON 1: SCIENCE, CULTURE, AND ETHICS OF IT 1ST TERM

job market and the demand for skilled
workers, some certifications might
substantially improve an IT worker’s salary
and career prospects. Certifications that are
tied to a vendor’s product are relevant for
job roles with very specific requirements or
certain aspects of broader roles.
 Industry Association Certifications
o There are many available industry
certifications in a variety of IT-related
subject areas. Their value varies greatly
depending on where people are in their
career path, what other certifications they
possess, and the nature of the IT job market.
 Inappropriate Sharing of Information: Every
organization stores vast amounts of information
that can be classified as either private or
confidential.
SUPPORTING ETHICAL PRACTICES OF IT
USERS
 Establishing guidelines for use of company
software
 Defining and limiting the appropriate use of IT
resources
 Structuring information systems to protect data
and information
 Installing and maintaining a corporate firewall

IT PROFESSIONAL MALPRACTICE

 Negligence has been defined as not doing

something that a reasonable person would do or
doing something that a reasonable person would
not do. Duty of care refers to the obligation to
protect people against any unreasonable harm or
risk.
 The courts decide whether parties owe a duty of
care by applying a reasonable person
standard to evaluate how an objective, careful,
and conscientious person would have acted in the
same circumstances. Likewise, defendants who
have particular expertise or competence are
measured against a reasonable professional
standard.
 If a court finds that a defendant actually owed a
duty of care, it must determine whether the duty
was breached. A breach of the duty of
care is the failure to act as a reasonable person
would act.
 Professionals who breach the duty of care are
liable for injuries that their negligence causes.
This liability is commonly referred to
as professional malpractice.
COMMON ETHICAL ISSUES FOR IT USERS

 Software Piracy: Software piracy in a corporate

setting can sometimes be directly traceable to IT
professionals-they might allow it to happen, or
they might actively engage to it.
 Inappropriate Use of Computing Resources:
Some employees use their computer to surf
popular Web sites that have nothing to do with
their jobs, participate in chat rooms, view
pornographic sites, and play computer games.