Ethics (Harty) pg. 347-381

Communication Failures Contributing to Challenger Accident (Winsor)

The two majors issues with the Challenger:
1. Managers and engineers viewed the same facts from different perspectives. This is all about the discrepancy in interpretation. Lund, who had strongly recommended delayed launch was asked to take off his "engineering hat" and put on a "management hat."
2. The general difficulty in receiving or sending bad news, especially to a superior or outsider. The information moved slowly from engineers to managers and between the three organizations involved: NASA, Marshall Space Center and MTI. ex. the tone of Boisjoly's letter within MTI on pg. 355 vs. the tone Russell's letter to Marshall on pg. 356

*Communication is not just shared information: it is shared interpretation.

*Open communication with superiors as well as outsiders cannot be developed short notice or when emergencies arise.

*Contractors should be aware that be full disclosure is unlikely but should make every attempt to reach that point.

*Managers and engineers should be aware that they are most likely presenting information in more positive light than what is actually true.

How to Lie with Statistics (Huff)

The Sample with the Built-In Bias: The sample must be representative or truly random in order for the statistics to be accurate. "No statistical information can rise above the quality of the sample it is based on."

The truncated, gee-wiz, graph: cut off the bottom of the graph.

The souped-up graph: change the proportion between the ordinate and the abiscca. Make line look much more exaggerated.

The well-chosen average: Mean vs. Median ex. Income: "You can be sure that when an income average is given in the form of a mean, nearly everybody has less than that."

The insignificant difference or the elusive error: You cannot make a valid comparison between two figures unless you know deviations. And unless the difference is many times greater than the error, you only can guess which is actually greater.

The one-dimensional figure: ex. money bag symbol vs. simple bars in bar graph on pg. 366

The ever-impressive decimal: Add a decimal to a statistic and it automatically sounds more accurate.

The semi attached figure: Use statistics to prove something non-related. Ex. that one type of medicine has been proven to kill thousands of germs, but it may not kill the one that it is intended to kill.

The unwarranted assumption, or post hoc rides again: cause and effect relationships in statistics can be completely inaccurate especially if you don't even know what the cause and the effect are ex. college students and smoking

Determining the Ethics of Style (Jones)
Ethics- the study of right and wrong; the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation; set of moral principles or values; a guiding philosophy

We will face many questions in our careers regarding ethics:
Are knowing omitting any essential information?
If you are exaggerating a product's features in marketing, are you lying?
If your poor instructions cause injury to someone, are you morally responsible?

See the Ten Commandments for Computer Ethics by the computer ethics institute on pg. 370 and 371

Legal and Ethical Issues in Editing (Rude)

Intellectual Property
Copyright: The US Copyright Act of 1976 protects authors of "original works of authorship" whether or not the works are published. Registration with the Copyright Office gives maximum legal protection but is not needed.

Permissions and "Fair Use"
The permission from the writer should be obtained in written form and include:
1. Title, author, and edition of the materials to be reprinted
2. Exact material to be used: include page numbers and photocopy
3. How it will be used; the nature of the document

Copyright and online publication
Most information is fair use as long as cited simply because it is on the WWW. However, distributing someone else's information to make money is unethical.

Trademarks, Patents and Trade Secrets
Trademarks- brand names, phrases, graphics, logos that identify products

Patents- protect inventions in the way that copyright protects expressions

Trade secrets- ex. illegal to hire someone to find out about their previous employer

Product Safety and Liability

Write clear and precise instructions. Hazards and risks must be posted.

Libel, Fraud, and Misrepresentation

libel- defamatory statement without basis in fact that shames or lowers the public reputation of an identifiable person.

Fraud and misrepresentation- deceive the public. ex. in labeling products