Ethics Research

Code of Professional Ethics

Professional ethics encompass the personal, organizational and corporate standards of behavior expected of professionals.

Professionals and those working in acknowledged professions, exercise specialist knowledge and skill. How the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public can be considered a moral issue and is termed professional ethics.

Professionals are capable of making judgments, applying their skills and reaching informed decisions in situations that the general public cannot, because they have not received the relevant training. One of the earliest examples of professional ethics is probably the Hippocratic Oath to which medical doctors still adhere to this day.

Most professions have internally enforced codes of practice that members of the profession must follow to prevent exploitation of the client and to preserve the integrity of the profession. This is not only for the benefit of the client but also for the benefit of those belonging to the profession. Disciplinary codes allow the profession to define a standard of conduct and ensure that individual practitioners meet this standard, by disciplining them from the professional body if they do not practice accordingly. This allows those professionals who act with conscience to practice in the knowledge that they will not be undermined commercially by those who have fewer ethical qualms. It also maintains the public’s trust in the profession, encouraging the public to continue seeking their services.

Some professional organizations define their ethical approach in terms of a number of discrete components. Typically these include:

·         Honesty

·         Integrity

·         Transparency

·         Accountability

·         Confidentiality

·         Objectivity

·         Respectfulness

·         Obedience to the law

·         Loyalty

Code of Ethics for Filipino IT Professionals

I will use my special knowledge and skills for the benefit of the public. I will serve employers and clients with integrity, subject to an overriding responsibility to the public interest. And I will strive to enhance the competence and prestige profession. By these I mean:

·         I will promote public, knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of information technology;

·         I will consider the general welfare and public good in performance of my work;

·         I will advertise goods and professional services in a clear and truthful manner;

·         I will comply and strictly abide by the intellectual property laws, patent laws and other related laws in respect of information technology;

·         I will accept full responsibility for the work undertaken and will utilize my skills with competence and professionalism;

·         I will make truthful statements on my areas of competence as well as the capabilities and qualities of my product or services;

·         I will not disclose or use any confidential information obtained in the course of professional duties without the consent of the parties concerned, except when required by law;

·         I will strive to attain the highest quality in both the products and services that I offer;

·         I will not knowingly participate in the development of information technology system that will promote the commission of fraud and other unlawful acts;

·         I will uphold and improve the IT professional standards through continuing professional development in order to enhance the IT profession.

Current Trends in Information Technology in 2013 & 2014

A.   Telecommunication & Networks

TEM, MDM and MAM market: further consolidation to come

2013 saw a raft of acquisitions, driven mainly by Tangoe burning their way through not one but two IPO war chests and buying anything that wasn’t firmly bolted to the floor. However, they weren’t the only player — take, for example the recent announcement of Citrix’s proposed take-over of Zenprise.

BYOD market will continue to see exponential growth

It’s sometimes difficult to determine whether a trend – and “bring your own device” (BYOD) is definitely still a trend – is becoming mainstream, because what is said in the media does not always reflect the reality we see in the enterprise. So despite a lot of hype in 2012 about the rapid spread of BYOD across every walk of life, our own experience shows that adoption has in fact been slower. That said, the trend continues at a steady pace and will definitely become mainstream during 2013.

M2M market set to take off

According to Machina Research, the number of machine-to-machine connections world-wide will grow from 2 billion at the end of 2011 and an expected 2.4 billion at end of 2012, to 18 billion in 2022 – driven by the consumer electronics and intelligent building sectors, which together will account for 70% of the total.

B.   Broadcast Network

Growth in Free to Air channels Content 

Increase in number of Free to Air channels with steady growth in number of households relying on FTA content for their media consumption is fast emerging across major economies.

Cloud Computing 

Cloud which wasn’t touched for being uncontrolled and virtual is gaining approval across the board with broadcast infrastructure operations utilizing some of the benefits which cloud computing brought for IT. 

C.   Social Networking Sites

Facebook: Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook was designed as a social networking site for Harvard students. After spreading from Harvard through the university ranks and down into high school, Facebook was opened to the public in 2006

Twitter: What started out as a microblogging website has quickly grown into a social messaging platform and one of the top social networks in the world. Twitter is phenomenon that transcends social networking to provide an outlet for news, trends, buzz, and chat among many other uses.

Instagram has grown to be one of the most popular social networks for photo sharing that the mobile web has ever seen. It used to be exclusively limited to the iOS platform, but has since expanded to Android and, Windows Phone also the web.

D.   Growth in Information Technology

The only thing constant in this world is change. As more generations of young people continue to dominate the business realm globally, the field of information technology also rises to the occasion. According to the International Foundation for Information Technology or also known as IF4IT, the term Information Technology is defined as the skill being used for analyzing, understanding, developing, planning, creating, testing, allocating, supporting and operating computer hardware, software and other computer-related structures existing for the resolution of statistics, data and knowledge processing. To put it simply, Information Technology refers to the use of latest technology updates the world has to offer in gathering information by means of communicating effectively, although some aspects of it requires thorough analysis to avoid misconceptions. However, the term itself actually has a broader meaning than what we have come to know. Moreover, as the era of information-driven technology constantly changes the way mankind approaches the corporate world, particularly in doing business transactions, the continuous advancement of other information technology sub-fields such as multimedia and programming, are considered to be the ones responsible for the success of big companies like Microsoft, Apple and Intel. Nowadays, social media networking sites like Facebook has opened new doors for the innovation of Information Technology. Aside from this, a number of sites all over the world promote businesses by offering web-related services such as Web Developing and Search Engine Optimization.

As far as this article goes, the field of Information Technology is not only limited to sharing information and using technology in doing it. It is definitely much more than that. It is not just to communicate effectively to other people but to understand what they need and what they wish to have.responsive-design

The field of Information Technology is about making a difference. It is about innovating and using it to your own advantage. It is about discovering something new and including it to your stored knowledge. It is about being passionate and applying it on the things you do every single day.It is about being unique. And if there’s one thing that makes Information Technology rise unceasingly, it is the open-mindedness of people to change.

Social Issues on Computer and Information Technology

Ethics is a reflection on morality. It refers to the principles of right and wrong in making choices by individuals. It has been described as the art and science that seeks to bring sensitivity and methods to the discernment of moral values (Carbo, 2006). Thus, ethics guide human and societal behavior. Capuro (2006) had no difficulty in asserting that ethics is an unending quest on explicit and implicit use of the moral code.

One factor behind the rise of computer ethics is the lingering suspicion that Computer professionals may be unprepared to deal effectively with the ethical Issues that arise in their workplace. Over the years, this suspicion has been reinforced by mostly anecdotal research that seems to show that computer

Professionals simply do not recognize when ethical issues are present. Perhaps the earliest work of this kind was done by Donn Parker in the late 1970s at SRI international.

Ethical dilemmas

There are various ethical dilemmas in relation to I.T. that need to be addressed. What are and are not ethical issues in I.T.? In regard to hackers, for example, are they testing the system or performing an immoral action? Will genetic engineering improve the quality of peoples’ lives or start to destroy it? How do we recognise when an ethical dilemma exists? There are, indeed, many grey ethical areas.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is where the work of others is copied, but the author presents it as his or her own work. This is a highly unethical practice, but happens quite frequently, and with all the information that is now available on the Internet it is much easier to do and is happening more often.

Piracy

Piracy, the illegal copying of software, is a very serious problem, and it is estimated that approximately 50% of all programs on PCs are pirated copies. Programmers spend hours and hours designing programs, using elaborate code, and surely need to be protected. Although some might argue that some pirating at least should be permitted as it can help to lead to a more computer literate population. But, for corporations, in particular, this is a very serious issue, and can significantly damage profit margins.

Hacking

Hackers break into, or ‘hack’ into a system. Hacking can be undertaken for a variety of reasons, such as the wish to damage a system or the wish to understand how a system works, so that money can be made out of it. Alternatively, there might be a desire to alert people to the fact that a system is insecure and needs improving. Due to this some argue that there are ‘hacker ethics’. Hacking can present a moral dilemma. This is because ‘reformed hackers’ sometimes offer their expertise to help organizations protect themselves against other hackers. Hackers cannot just wander into a system, as they could into an unlocked door. Instead, it requires a lot of skill. With this skill hackers can demonstrate that a system is insecure and needs improving. In this way, it could be argued that hackers play a valuable role. Many argue that hacking might lead to some improvements, but that it causes such a lot of disruption that it is not worth it in the long-run.

A.   Managing IT in as E-World

In our modern time today the technology is getting advance every year. New gadgets and technology is being introduce to help us in our everyday life and to help us communicate and socialize to other people around and far from us. Being IT in this time mean also that you need to catch up with every trend around you. With networking, programming and other related IT fields, everything is getting upgrade and enhance every year. They always innovate something better and as an IT you need to know something about that or else you will be outdated by the latest trends and technology around you

B.   Working in an E-World

With the technology keep rising every year, day might come that you will just be in your house sitting and letting the advance technology take care of everything. According to my research in the near future the work hours will be lessen to 4 hours. But why would that happen? According to bill gates, time might come that the technology might overcome humans in working.  The robots and all the technology is taking care of our works. But to this day we are in the warm up stage. With this Smartphone, super computers, tablets and other gadgets. It somehow enhances the work of an employee. But in what way? Working in the electronic world, the work is getting less hassle and would be easier. Sometimes, we use technology to improve our work like using it in presentation and in communicating to our colleagues and business associates.

C.   Living in an E-World

With just one click you can chat, call someone; you can play by just touching a screen. The technology really transforms our world today. From abacus to calculator, Books to E-Books and many other things more. The technology really fulfill its promise to make our life easy than before but there are advantage and disadvantage with technology rising.

·         Advantage – Its effective and efficient, the works get easier, We don’t need to be rush with the deadlines being given. We get information we needed anytime anywhere we want. ) E-mail – Email is one of the biggest advantages of internet. Email or we can say electronic mail facilitates the user with the liberty of sending mails to anyone he wants to interact with. The sender can send his message which he wants to convey at any point of time in a day whereas the receiver can read the message anytime he logs in to his account. Thus, Emails comes first in the list when we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of internet.

Getting in touch – There are so many messengers on the internet or net. By those messengers, you can talk to your friends and family. There are special options like voice chat and video chat by which you can talk and can even see your dear ones. There is no limitation of the location or boundaries. You can talk to anyone from anywhere

Information – When we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of internet, the main advantage we can see is information. Internet is a new world in itself and you can get any information from this. No matter what your profession is, you can read, learn and retrieve information on your desired topic.

Online conversation – Many companies are using online conversation to be in touch with their customers. They are building new sites, new email ids so that any normal consumer can get any kind of information regarding the product as well as the company without incurring any cost only with the help of online conversation.

Service – BPO’s and KPO’s are functioning because of internet only. They provide their services through net and now becoming one of the highest revenue generating industry in the world. World is getting shorter and nations are getting inter-dependent on each other. All this is possible only because of internet.

 Ecommerce – While discussing regarding the advantages and disadvantages of internet, e-commerce is a subject you cannot ignore. Nowadays, you will find tons of sites which provide you the option to buy certain products online. This is called e-commerce.

·         Disadvantage – The people are getting lazy, they just rely on the technology and not doing the best that they can. They get less productive. The people tend to be more fat because they forgot to exercise and focus more with the gadgets in their hands.

Insecurity – As the whole world is on internet, there is no security. In order to keep your data confidential and secure, you have to take extra precautionary steps. Internet is one of the insecure markets with lots of hackers who work as anti-internet agents.

 Addiction – People sometimes get addicted to internet. They keep themselves busy in either social networking sites or just for the entertainment purpose. This might result in some diseases related to eyes and mind. Sometimes because of over sitting, people can have the problem of backache and neck problems also.

Virus – Virus is the enemy on internet. While discussing about the advantages and disadvantages of internet, virus comes first in the list of its disadvantages. Virus is a kind of problem which occurs in the computers because of internet only. If the frequency is high then it can damage your valuable data as well as corrupt the machine.

Spamming – Internet is so popular that everyone try to make easy money out of it. As you can use fake information here, some people are taking disadvantage of this and are spamming on internet. They are making us fools by their false and lucrative options and people who are ignorant and new comers get trapped into it.

Wrong impression on children – Internet is also the home of porn and other stuff which might be harmful for children. This stuff is freely available on internet and you can see the advertisements on any of the local and international website. Children get fascinated towards it and indulge in such bad activities.

The above mentioned are some of the advantages and disadvantages of internet but, there are many to be included in the list. One should look for the proper usage of internet. Though we have all the facilities on internet but its usage is on us. If we do justice to it then it will be a boon otherwise it will take no time in turning to a curse for mankind.

The Information System Management Role in Organization

Management Information Systems (MIS) is the study of people, technology, organizations and the relationships among them. MIS professionals help firms realize maximum benefit from investment in personnel, equipment, and business processes. MIS is a people-oriented field with an emphasis on service through technology. If you have an interest in technology and have the desire to use technology to improve people’s lives, a degree in MIS may be for you.

Businesses use information systems at all levels of operation to collect, process and store data. Management aggregates and disseminates this data in the form of information needed to carry out the daily operations of business. Everyone who works in business, from someone who pays the bills to the person who makes employment decisions, uses information systems. A car dealership could use a computer database to keep track of which products sell best. A retail store might use a computer-based information system to sell products over the Internet. In fact, many (if not most) businesses concentrate on the alignment of MIS with business goals to achieve competitive advantage over other businesses.

MIS professionals create information systems for data management (i.e., storing, searching and analyzing data). In addition, they manage various information systems to meet the needs of managers, staff and customers. By working collaboratively with various members of their work group, as well as with their customers and clients, MIS professionals are able to play a key role in areas such as information security, integration and exchange. As an MIS major, you will learn to design, implement and use business information systems in innovative ways to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your company.

A common misconception that MIS only concerns programming. However, programming is just a small part of the MIS curriculum. While programming concepts represent some of the founding concepts and information systems development, implementation and use, many jobs in MIS do not utilize programming at all. A large portion of the MIS degree focuses on data analysis, teamwork, leadership, project management, customer service and underlying business theories. These aspects of the degree are what set the MIS professional apart from a computer science specialist.

Roles:

·         IT Consultant

·         Web Developer

·         Information Systems Manager

·         Business Intelligence Analyst

·         Network Administrator

·         Business Application Developer

·         Systems Analyst

·         Technical Support Specialist

·         Business Analyst

·         Systems Developer