5. The Ethics of Information Technology

Every reader of this book at some point will have to wrestle with ethical issues related to computers-and-communications technology. Ethics is de­fined as a set of moral values or principles that govern the conduct of an individual or group. Indeed, ethical questions arise so often in connection with information technology that we have decided to earmark them wher­ever they appear in this book—with the special "E-for-ethics" symbol you see in the margin.

Here, for instance, are some important ethical concerns pointed out by Tom Forester and Perry Morrison in their book Computer Ethics:

*Speed and scale: Great amounts of information can be stored, retrieved and transmitted at a speed and on a scale not possible before. Despite the benefits, this has serious implications "for data security and personal privacy (as well as employment)," they say, because information technology can never be considered totally secure against unauthorized access.

*Unpredictability: Computers and communications are pervasive, touching nearly every aspect of our lives. However, compared to other pervasive technologies—such as electricity, television, and automobiles—information technology is a lot less predictable and reliable.

* Complexity, The on/off principle underlying computer systems may be simple, but the systems themselves are often incredibly complex. Indeed, some are so complex that they are not always understood even by their creators. "This," say Forester and Morrison, "often makes them completely unmanageable," producing massive foul-ups or spectacularly out-of control costs.

6. Analytical and business graphics

A nice feature of spreadsheet packages is the ability to create analytical graphics. Analytical graphics, or business graphics, are graphical forms that make numeric data easier to analyze than when it is in the form of rows and columns of numbers, as in electronic spreadsheets. Whether viewed on a monitor or printed out, analytical graphics help make sales figures, economic trends, and the like easier to comprehend and analyze.

The principal examples of analytical graphics are bar charts, line graphs, and pie charts. Quite often these charts can be displayed or printed out so that they look three-dimensional. Spreadsheets can even be linked to more exciting graphics, such as digitized maps.

The key features of spreadsheet software are summarized in the accom­panying box.

Database Software

A database is a computer-based collection of interrelated files. Database software is a program that controls the structure of a database and access to the data.

In its most general sense, a database is any electronically stored collection of data in a computer system. In its more specific sense, a database is a col­lection of interrelated files in a computer system. These computer-based files are organized according to their common elements, so that they can be retrieved easily. Sometimes called a database manage or database management system (DBMS), data-base software is a program that controls the structure of a database and access to the data.

The Benefits of Database Software

Because it can access several files at one time, database software is much better than the old file managers (also known as flat-file management sys­tems) that used to dominate computing. A file manager is a software pack­age that can access only one file at a time. With a file manager, you could call up a list of, say, all students at your college majoring in English. You could also call up a separate list of all students from Wisconsin. But you could not call up a list of English majors from Wisconsin, because the rele­vant data is kept in separate files. Database software allows you to do that.