Version 16 October 2007
You will develop your position paper over the course of the term, and will hand it in in three increments.
In this version, you should identify a particular technology that you believe has important ethical questions (which could be good or bad). Indicate why you care about this topic - why it matters to you personally. You should also indicate why the rest of us should care.
This version should not be less than one page of prose text. Avoid bulleted and numbered lists. Ensure that the technology or policy relates to computerization. You need to reference at least two bibliographic sources that you have read on this topic in your paper. In this and subsequent versions of your paper, you are free to use sources from the class readings, but these will not count toward the required number of sources. Be prepared to discuss your paper in class on the due date.
The technology can range from the specific (e.g. radio frequency ID tags) to the general (computers and the Internet). Choose a topic that fascinates you and that you think is important, but make sure that it relates computerization to society. Avoid writing a "consumer's guide" type of paper, e.g. "how to protect your computer from viruses".
Additional resources that can help include: Computer Ethics entry of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Herman Tavani's Bibliography of Computing, Ethics, and Social Responsibility, the journals Daedalus and Technology and Culture, or the text "Computerization and Controversy" that I have on UWT library reserve for this course as starting points to your investigation. Ensure that the bibliographic sources that you use are credible. You also might find the UWT Library's Research Publication Process guide helpful.
The second version will be a position paper in which you make and defend an ethical position concerning an identified public policy that addresses a policy vacuum associated with the technology that you are investigating. Your paper should be 2 pages in length (plus or minus 10%). Somewhere in the paper make sure to discuss the technology whose impact you are investigating, the current public policy (or lack thereof), your proposed public policy, and an argument for why this policy should lead to better social outcomes, grounded in your conception of the good.
(added on October 15): To clarify what is meant by "public policy", I provide the following Policy Definitions.
You should make reference to at least three additional bibliographic sources (in addition to the sources from the first version) that you have read on this topic to support your position in addition to the previous sources from version one. You are welcome to have more than the required number of bibliographic references, but ensure that each of your sources is "authoritative" for your purposes. Authoritativeness will be determined based on a source analysis that you will do on each reference, as described next. At a minimum, for this version and your final version, at least half of your page count for your bibliographic references should be from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals or conferences. Make sure to include page counts for each reference (including electronic references).
Substantiate each factual claim in your paper through a specific reference to one of your bibliographic sources or don't make the claim. Often, it is best to narrow the claim (e.g. from "all of us think that ..." to "a majority of respondents to a Harris poll indicated that ...").
Bring three hardcopies of your paper to class on the due date; one copy is for the instructor and two copies are for your reviewers.
Based on feedback that you receive from students and the professor on version 2 and additional research that you do, you will rewrite your position paper, adding at least an additional two bibliographic citations. As before, ensure that at least half of the page count of your bibliographic sources are from scholarly, peer-reviewed (refereed) journals.
For the total required number of bibliographic references, do a brief source analysis of approximately one paragraph. Summarize all of your sources (from both versions) using the following source analysis table. For each source, place into each column an integer rating for the source between 0 and 4 where "0" signifies "completely unreliable" and "4" signifies "completely reliable". Provide a summary source analysis for all of your bibliographic sources in a source analysis table. Your source analysis will count for 10% of the grade on this version.
In total, your version 3 paper should reflect and integrate all of the topics that we have covered in the course: from the ethical theories as reflected in the policy position that you are taking, to the sorts of media sources that you are using, to the understandings that you are making concerning the social and political implications of the technology that you are addressing. Finally, make sure to choose your title wisely, and provide an abstract for the paper.
This assignment is to be handed in both hardcopy and softcopy. Your softcopy hand-in should be a file emailed to the instructor with your paper (including bibliography) and source analyses.