This is Information Technology question:

Module 2 Discussion: Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age

Our textbook discusses the "Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age" and how they are of concern for modern business. Post compelling, well-developed questions regarding these five dimensions for discussion by your peers and participate in the discussion of others' postings.

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ETHICAL, SOCIAL, AND

POLITICAL ISSUES IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY

The introduction of new information technology has a ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and political issues that must be dealt with on the individual, social, and political levels. These issues have five moral dimensions: information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, system quality, quality of life, and accountability and control. a delicate ecosystem in partial equilibrium with individuals and with social and political institutions. Individuals know how to act in this pond because social institutions (family, education, organizations) have developed well- honed rules of behavior, and these are supported by laws developed in the political sector that prescribe behavior and promise sanctions for violations. Now toss a rock into the center of the pond. What happens? Ripples, of course.

Imagine instead that the disturbing force is a powerful shock of new information technology and systems hitting a society more or less at rest. Suddenly, in- dividual actors are confronted with new situations often not covered by the old rules. Social institutions cannot respond overnight to these ripplesit may take years to develop etiquette, expectations, social responsibility, politically correct attitudes, or approved rules. Political institutions also require time before developing new laws and often require the demonstration of real harm before they act. In the meantime, you may have to act. You may be forced to act in a legal gray area.

We can use this model to illustrate the dynamics that connect ethical, social, and political issues. This model is also useful for identifying the main moral dimensions of the information society, which cut across various levels of actionindividual, social, and political.

Five Moral Dimensions of the Information Age

The major ethical, social, and political issues that information systems raise include the following moral dimensions.

1.) Information rights and obligations: What information rights do individuals and organizations possess with respect to themselves? What can they protect?

2.) Property rights and obligations: How will traditional intellectual property rights be protected in a digital society in which tracing and accounting for owner- ship are difficult, and ignoring such property rights is so easy?

3.) Accountability and control: Who can and will be held accountable and liable for the harm done to individual and collective information and property rights?

4.) System quality: What standards of data and system quality should we demand to protect individual rights and the safety of society?

5.) Quality of life: What values should be preserved in an information- and knowledge-based society? Which institutions should we protect from violation? Which cultural values and practices does the new information technology support?