Information Ethics in Africa: - Africa Information Ethics Portal

Understanding Information Ethicsof dependence, introducing new power relationships. Most organisations and institutions around theworld rely on some form of ICT for their daily operations, and ICT has become the default technologyfor most of the socio-economic activities of those living in the First World. Organisational changes andbenefits that it has brought about are no longer in question (Introna, 2005).According to Freeman and Louca (2002), the impact of these technologies arises from three oftheir characteristics. In the first place, ICT is an enabling technology that has not only becomeinstrumental in most of our activities, but also contributes to further technological development andchanges. Secondly, it has grown, in terms of its capacity, exponentially over the last couple our years;and thirdly, it has become cheaper, making it more affordable and accessible to nearly everyone. Assuch, the introduction of new and modern ICT opens up new possibilities for libraries and otherinformation agencies. The most important of these is the digitisation and consequent manipulation ofinformation. This has far-reaching implications, not only for the different information-based activitiespertaining to the life cycle of information, but also with regard to the ethical issues relating to theseinformation-based activities. The digitisation of information allows, for the first time, the unbundling ofinformation from its original physical carriers, such as objects (e.g. an airline ticket), paper and otherprint material in a different and unique way that previous ICTs, including writing and printing, were notable to do. Pre-digital information technologies did not have the ability to simultaneously reachmillions of people and allow synchronic interactivity and the customisation of needs. Due to modernICT, digitised information has become interlinked (hypermedia), can ‘travel by itself’ at nearly zerocost, and can reach more people in an interactive way. Examples include e-mail, webcamtechnologies, as well as interactive TV. There has indeed been a move from “textuality (writing andprinting) to multimediality” (Linguist, 1998:6). It is within this context that philosophers such as Rucker(1988) and De Mul (2003) remark that “everything has become information”. Modern ICT, includingthe camera and other digital technologies like the computer, has therefore permanently establishedour global information-based world in the 20 th century. These technologies allow for the masscustomisation of users’ needs, including, especially, information needs (Evans & Wurster, 1997). Agood example of the ability to customise information according to users’ needs is the online bookingof airline tickets where people can select their seats as well as meals online; indeed, a customerwithout access to ICT is at a significant disadvantage in this example. Service costs are in manycases higher for those who do not have access to the Internet – a good example is the bankingindustry. In a country such as South Africa, Internet banking is encouraged by making ‘face-to-face’banking more expensive. This has introduced a new form of ‘information exclusion anddiscrimination’.Modern ICT has therefore profoundly changed the notions of privacy and of access toinformation. Access to information is no longer limited to accessing the ideas of others or freedom ofexpression. It has also become a socioe-conomic right that opens the opportunity for people toparticipate (online) in the various socio-economic and political activities. It also introduces newasymmetric information relationships whereby people (in terms of their personal and privateinformation) are being ‘unbundled’ and observed without their knowing it.ReferencesBritz, J.J. (1996a). Inligtingsetiek – met spesifieke verwysing van die beroep van die inligtingkundige: ’nChristelike perspektief. DD Proefskrif. Pretoria: Universiteit van Pretoria.Capurro, R. (2006). ICIE: The Field. Retrieved December 24, 2012, http://icie.zkm.de/research.De Mul, J. (2003). Cyberspace odyssee. Kampen: Uitgeverij Klement.Elder, L. & Paul, R. (2006). Thinker’s guide to understanding ethical reasoning. Foundations of CriticalThinking. CA.Evans, P.B. & Wurster, T.S. (1997). Strategies and the new economics of information. In Harvard BusinessReview. Vol. 75, (5), 71-82.Page 5