Good Computing: A Pedagogically Focused Theory of Professional Computer Ethics

该学者奖由美国国家科学基金会科学、技术与社会项目颁发，旨在支持研究计算机领域的伦理和价值问题。在过去的30年里，计算机伦理方面的工作取得了丰硕的成果。然而，对于计算机专业人员如何在日常生活中保持道德，我们仍然知之甚少。本研究调查了计算机专业人员用来应对正常和不寻常的压力、相互冲突的需求以及他们职业生涯中的多种可能性和困难的技能和策略。这项调查遵循计算机科学家的生活故事，他们以他们的道德承诺而闻名，并建立在先前的工作基础上，记录了英国和斯堪的纳维亚地区计算机道德典范的生活故事。道德模范是那些成功地将道德关怀融入到他们的计算实践中的人。这项工作将有助于从多方面了解计算机领域的道德模范如何构建他们的生活、做出选择和实施计划。最初的结果表明，在计算领域至少有两种类型的范例：设计软件以帮助用户（例如，残疾人）的工匠和试图改变社会（例如，通过改变有关隐私的法律和法规）的改革者。该项目的研究将使用先进的统计技术来梳理技术和社会技能之间的关系，这些关系在访谈中由范例描述的项目的成功或失败。还将收集样本子集的详细传记数据，以调查他们如何在时而有益时而阻碍的社会环境中规划自己的道德生涯。拟议的统计和定性调查将植根于一个模型的道德行为在各种环境情况下的计算。这项计划的成果之一，将会是一个新的教育方向，促进道德承诺，以及发展计算机专业人员的技能和知识。

This Scholar's Award by the NSF program in Science, Technology & Society supports research that examines ethics and values issues in computing. Work in computing ethics over the last 30 years has borne much fruit. Yet we still know very little about how computer professionals manage to be ethical in their everyday lives. This research investigates the skills and strategies computer professionals use to navigate normal and unusual stresses, conflicting demands, and multiple possibilities and difficulties of their careers. This inquiry follows the life stories of computer scientists who are known for their ethical commitment, and builds on previous work that documents the life stories of moral exemplars in computing in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Moral exemplars are people who are successfully integrating ethical concern into their practice of computing. This work will contribute to a multifaceted picture of how moral exemplars in computing structure their lives, make choices, and implement plans. Initial results suggest that there are at least two types of exemplars in computing: craftspersons who design software to help users (e.g., persons with disabilities) and reformers who attempt to change society (e.g., by changing laws and regulations on privacy). The research in this project will use advanced statistical techniques to tease apart the relationships between technical and social skill in the success or failure of the projects described by the exemplars in interviews. Detailed biographical data will also be collected on a subset of the exemplars to investigate how they have charted their moral careers in the midst of sometimes helpful and sometimes hindering social environments. The proposed statistical and qualitative investigation will be rooted in a model of ethical action in computing across a variety of environmental circumstances. One outcome of the project will be a new direction in education that will promote ethical commitment as well as development of skills and knowledge for computer professionals.