The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics

Book Review Chapter 18:

A Practical Mechanism for Ethical Risk Assessment—A SoDIS Inspection: DON GOTTERBARN, TONY CLEAR, and CHOON-TUCK KWAN

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Information-Computer-Ethics/dp/0471799599/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232853902&sr=8-1

Quote:  “The work reported here reflects an ongoing program of research into developing and refining the SoDIS process”

    This is I think basically good in my opinion because I think that the Software Development Impact Statement will be quite effective when analyzing those flaws in a proposed system and coming up with a solution to eliminate these flaws. So basically, a development in refining the Software Development Impact Statement is a good thing in which I hope will be successful.

Learning Expectation:

    Based on the title of the chapter itself, I think that this chapter is going to be about handling risks in ethics. I think it’s sort of like a risk management with a SoDIS Inspection, in which again I have heard for the first time in my life, so I can’t really say much. Although, more or less, I have an idea what ethical risk assessment is about.

Review:

    As we all know, in every software that is developed, we cannot possibly avoid a perfect system. There will be always flaws in a system. That is why this chapter talks about the risks of that happening and not happening. It talks about certain analysis methods and models, it explains to us the context, risk identification, risk analysis, and limitations of the generic standards, which are some steps in analyzing these problems. There are also topics discussed in this chapter about ethical risks, stakeholder identification and more.

An interesting topic for me to note is the SoDIS or what we have said to stand for Software Development Impact Statement. As the chapter stated, this is actually like an environmental impact statement used to identify potential negative impacts of a proposed system and specify actions that will mediate those impacts.

So basically, this chapter is all about risk management. Pretty much like doing a systems analysis task on a certain system or a company.

What I’ve learned:

    It’s funny, before reading the chapter, I was wondering what SoDIS means or what it stands for but after reading the chapter, I have learned that it stands for Software Development Impact Statements.

Questions:

1.    How do ethics relate exactly?

2.    Isn’t this chapter more on systems analysis than ethics?

3.    Who invented the SoDIS?

4.    How long before SoDIS becomes fully developed.

5.    Can SoDIS be the best?

Citation: (Kenneth Einar E. Himma & Herman T. Tavani, 2008)