Transcript Information Processing 9 - Liverpool Hope University

Information Processing
Lecture 2 B
Information Technology and Society
The Social Impact of Computers
Computers have changed lives:
They have changed the nature of work, working practices and the
social fabric of the workplace, and the way we do business
They have changed leisure, from the type of leisure that we choose
to pursue to the the way in which we pursue it
They have changed the way that we relate to one another, the way
that we communicate and our expectations of relationships
They have wrought social changes, introducing new laws, new types
of crime, and new and different levels of security
They have changed the way that we think, causing us to revisit our
views about what is acceptable, moral and ethical in a computerliterate society
They have changed education, from its content to the way that it is
delivered.
Discussion Activity 1:
The Consequences of Computerisation
Take one of the
statements from the
previous slide, and see
whether you can find:
three aspects which have
been improved by ICT
three aspects which have
been worsened by the
use of ICT
three aspects which have
remained unaltered.
Computers and Society:
The Issues
During this presentation, we will broach the
following issues:
The changing nature of employment
Computers, crime and the law
Health
The Environment
As we have already seen, there are many
other issues which we could choose to
explore.
Discussion Activity 2:
Why Introduce Computers?
What are the main
reasons given for
introducing
computers into the
workplace?
What would be the
main reasons for not
introducing them?
Computerisation and Innovation
Some of the main reasons for introducing
computers into any area of work are:
To improve:
• efficiency, performance, output, productivity, quality
To enable and enhance communication
To reduce costs
To increase responsiveness and flexibility
To enhance “image”
. . . and thereby increase profits
Computerisation and Innovation
Some of the main reasons for not introducing
computers:
The research and development costs of hardware and
software would outweigh the benefits
Start up costs prohibitive
No perceived benefits
Employee resistance including:
• redundancy issues
• Union agreements
• current custom and practice arrangements
Inertia, lack of motivation
Ethical, moral and social issues
Stages of Innovation
In any area of business, the introduction of
new technology may give innovators a
“leading edge” over their competitors
In successful areas, pioneers are soon
followed (and may be overtaken) by “second
wave” companies who have learnt from the
successes (and mistakes) of pioneers
Eventually, those who do not follow this line
will be overtaken by events and lose out to
competitors
The consequences of Innovation
The introduction of computers into any area of
work (excluding those related to the computer
industry itself) means that redundancies
almost inevitably occur.
Employers can expect changes to be opposed:
by employees in the workplace citing pragmatic
reasons why the innovation is cannot be made to
work,
and by Trade Unions citing philosophical and ethical
reasons why the innovation should not be made to
work.
A Dilemma
There is a fine
balance to be met:
To Computerise may
result in redundancies
Not to Computerise
may mean lack of
business, lack of profit
and ultimately may
result in redundancies
A World View
The global market is a
reality
To compete, each
country is under the
same pressure to
innovate as individual
companies
In turn this pressure
feeds down to individual
companies and
organisations
The Changing World
Britain, has changed
(partly through the
introduction of IT) from
a production-based
economy to a servicebased economy
“Information” in its
broadest sense
accounts for 70% of the
US and UK labour forces
The Changing Nature of
Employment 1
In some areas, for
example the car
industry, the
introduction of robotics
and IT has drastically
cut the workforce.
Workers have needed
to retrain, many taking
jobs in IT related areas
The Changing Nature of
Employment 2
For example, in the
banking industry,
accounts clerks have
been replaced by
computers, but new
jobs have been created:
Telebanking
Internet banks
Insurance, mortgage etc.
Teleworking
Involves working at
home (or in a location
distant from an “office”)
Communicating via
internet,
telecommunicationsbased means
May have both benefits
and drawbacks
… but has not seen the
growth predicted in the
early 1990’s
Discussion Activity 3:
An Hypothetical Scenario
A New “expert”
software package,
becomes available. This
is a CD-ROM
encompassing the
whole of the current
English Legal System,
backed up by a website
containing case-law
over the last five
hundred years.
What would be the
consequences?
Summary: Employment Issues
In industry, innovation and IT are almost
synonymous
Introducing IT has positive outcomes
Efficiency and productivity gains,
Enhances product
It also has negative outcomes:
Redundancies
Skill obsolescence, insecurity and stress
It also has other outcomes:
A change in the nature of work
A change in working practices
Selected References
a brief introduction:
http://marathon.csee.usf.edu/~kwb/nsf-ufe/myers.html
a few interesting websites:
http://www.bls.gov/ces/ces8mlr.htm
http://online.bcc.ctc.edu/econ/kst/BriefReign/BRwebversion.htm
http://www.jrc.es/iptsreport/vol34/english/emp1e346.htm
..and on the topic of ethics...
http://www.cpsr.org/program/ethics/cei.html
A good bibliography with is at:
http://cyberethics.cbi.msstate.edu/biblio/part7.htm