hershey h friedman brooklyn college linda weiser friedman baruch college zicklin school of business...

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The Great Enabler: The Role of Information

Technologyin Social Responsibility

Hershey H FriedmanBrooklyn College

Linda Weiser FriedmanBaruch College Zicklin School of Business

The City University of New York

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The Great Enabler: The Role of Information Technology in Social Responsibility

OVERVIEW

The Computer as “Universal Machine”

What’s so special about Information Technology?

The Great EnablerThe ForceThe Dark Side of the Force

Social Responsibility: More than Just ethics

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The Great Enabler: The Role of Information Technology in Social Responsibility

OVERVIEW

Information Technology In the Service of Social Responsibility

Business Ethics and CSR Environmental Stewardship Valuing Customers, Employees, etc. Individuals with Disabilities

Numerous Other Issues

Previous Work

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The Computer as “Universal Machine”

Previously, “technology” was more likely to be special purpose

Digital computer was unique in its layers of software that turned it into any number of different machines

Maybe that’s why there was talk of a “computer revolution” when we never had, say, a “refrigerator revolution”

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Universal also implies Everywhere

Robot limbsATMsLibrary scannersVirtual worlds for disabled

folks

Human cyborgs?Smart cardsTiVoForensics

From the earliest airline reservation system to the stuff of science fiction…

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Information Technology has Completely Permeated Our

Lives

Email - @ work 24 / 7?Web 2.0 – the new media technologies

CommunicationCreativityConvergence, including

The blurring of our professional and personal selves

As our universe expands it also shrinks

CollaborationCommunity

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The Great Enabler?What’s so special aboutInformation Technology?

SpeedReach (global network)Access

DigitizationPrivate Anonymity

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The Great Enabler

What are the implications of these characteristics?

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The Great EnablerTHE FORCE

Efficiency better use of resources, e.g., time and spaceCollaboration reduces redundancyReduced costs

Increased access means Power to the userReducing the “digital divide”Increased entrepreneurship

Creativity

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The Great EnablerTHE DARK SIDE OF THE

FORCE

Remember, Grasshopper: The bigger the donut, the bigger the hole!

MalwareInternet addictionSexual predators, stalkersPurposeful loss of privacyIdentity theftWaste of resources: company time, bandwidth,Poorly developed skills in H2H communication?

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Social ResponsibilityIT’S MORE THAN JUST ETHICS

Commitment to ethical behavior

Appreciation of our position as environmental stewards

Profound respect for people individually and in groups. This includes employees, customers, the local and global communities, …

Information Technology in the Service of Social Responsibility

BUSINESS ETHICS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)

Publish an annual CSR report on the company’s website. Use Web 2.0 technologies – blogs, social networking – to allow for comments.

Use Web 2.0 technologies for anonymous reporting of ethical lapses to the company ethicist.

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ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

Enterprise wide management of the organization’s green program

Monitor energy usage, emissionsSimulation software to reduce environmental footprintAutomatically turn off equipment not in usesU.S. Dept of Energy Industrial Technologies Program

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/

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http://www1.eere.energy.gov/industry/


VALUING CUSTOMERS

CEO blogsCustomer service wikisSocial networking for customers (e.g., American

Express travel community)Improve customer service by monitoring (with a bot)

“chatter” about the company on blogs, online discussion groups, etc.

Use Twitter to promote one’s message to company followers.

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VALUING EMPLOYEES

Using technology to implement a “learning organization.”Wikis for organizational memoryCorporate social networking Virtual worlds (e.g. SecondLife) for meeting, training,

designUse assistive technology to hire the disabled

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VALUING STUDENTS?!!

Using Web 2.0 technology to bring faculty and students together in a learning organization.Social NetworkingVirtual WorldsAssistive technologyRSS feeds, app’s for mobile devices

Online education

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INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITES

The computer (and associated information technologies) is – as a “universal” machine – already a type of adaptive device. It can be easily adapted to accommodate folks with disabilities and, thus, it ought to be.

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Most of the fears that employers have about hiring the disabled, e.g., cost of making accommodations, possibility of lawsuits, mediocre performance, and hostility of co-workers are unfounded.

What is true is that individuals with disabilities will spread positive feedback to family and friends about firms that make accommodations for the disabled.

Organizations shouldn’t ignore 20% of the population.Computer technology can be used to help

accommodate individuals with disabilities in the workplace.



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Visually Impaired

Large monitorsScreen magnifiersSpeech synthesizersScreen readersVoice recognition software



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Visually Impaired

Digital Talking Books (DTBs)

Talking ATMs (need earphones for security)

The computer keyboard can be made usable via raised letters that can be felt by the fingertips. There are also Braille keyboards



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Hearing ImpairedRIT National Technical Institute for the DeafLight indicators for telephone, doorbell, etc.Being deaf is not much of a disadvantage in IT since

most communication is via e-mail.For many individuals who are hard of hearing, all

they may need for a job is amplified headphones and/or a powerful speaker.



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Speech ImpairmentsThere are numerous possible causes of speech

impairment such as injuries to the brain, mental retardation, hearing impairments, stroke, or psychological problems.

Speech computers are computers with special software to help individuals with speech impairments communicate. These programs have artificial voices which speak for the person.

Some people with speech impairments simply use a laptop computer as a communication device.



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Learning Disabilities

Software that provides the user with a multisensory experience is very helpful for those with learning disabilities.

The Kurzweil 3000 was developed to help students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. The software displays scanned text on the computer. The words are read aloud and the reader can adjust the reading speed. As the words are read aloud, they are also highlighted to help the reader focus on each word.

Technology of this type can also be modified to help learning disabled individuals perform various reading tasks in the workplace.



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Learning disabilities

Other services which help people with learning disabilities include:spell checkersgrammar softwareword prediction software, which predicts the next word the person

will enter in the word processor, giving them a choice of words. This helps those with problems with spelling or using a keyboard.



AUTISM

It is hard for people with autism to focus attention on one thing. Not everyone interacting with them has the patience to repeat something over and over, which is what they might need.

The AuRoRA project (Autonomous Robotic platform as a Remedial tool for children with Autism) was developed to use robots to help children get over their fears and relax when interacting.

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AUTISMIn one study, they used a robotic doll that copied actions

in order to see how children reacted. They were allowed to interact freely with the robot. They showed no fear and enjoyed it. The children played with it by going away from the robot, and then checking to see if it was following them. Unusually for autistic children, all of these children showed a lot of eye contact with the robots.

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MOBILITY IMPAIRMENT

There are special keyboard settings that enable disabled individuals who cannot use a mouse to work with the numeric keyboard instead.

Robotic wheelchairs can be very helpful for people who don’t have the ability to maneuver a wheelchair very well, as these wheelchairs can move themselves without having the user do as much work as with an ordinary wheelchair.

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MOBILITY IMPAIRMENT

US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed a robot to help disabled people move around their home. The robot acts as a wheelchair but also gives a helping hand to get out of bed and get on and off other seats.

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MOBILITY IMPAIRMENT

There are other kinds of robots which can help these users as well. For example the iRobot Roomba vacuums people’s floors for them, and the iRobot Scooba washes them.

In the very near future, quadriplegics will be able to use their thoughts to control a computer. An experiment was already performed by researchers at Brown University in which a quadriplegic individual with a small sensor implanted in his brain was able to move a cursor, open e-mail, change channels on a television set, play Pong (a video game), adjust the volume on a television, and control a robot arm using only his thoughts.

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THE ELDERLY

Nursebot, Pearl, was developed to assist elderly people in their homes.Pearl can perform such routine tasks as opening a jar, reminding people to take their medication or calling for help if they fall.

Output is also presented on the screen for people with hearing loss.

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MENTAL HEALTH

virtual reality systems are used to treat phobias and anxiety disorders. Examples include Fear of Flying, Fear of Driving, Acrophobia, Social Phobia, and Eating Disorders.

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PrivacyConfidentialityDigital rights managementIntellectual propertyFair use

Open source modelsCreative CommonsMalwareInternet predators


NUMEROUS OTHER ISSUES

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Some previous work

R.F. Adler, Friedman, L.W. and Friedman, H.H. "The Use of Information Technology to Create a Better Workplace for Individuals with Disabilities," Management Online REview, August 2008, http://www.morexpertise.com/view/101

Friedman, H.H. and Friedman, L.W. How Virtuous is Your Firm? A Checklist, Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, forthcoming.

Friedman, H. H., Lopez-Pumarejo, T, and Friedman, L.W. “Frontiers in Mulcultural Marketing: The Disabilities Market,” Journal of International Marketing and Marketing Research, 32, 1, February 2007, 25 – 39.

H.H. Friedman, T. Lopez-Pumarejo, and L.W. Friedman, “The Largest Minority Group: The Disabled.” Business Quest, August 2006, http://www.westga.edu/~bquest/2006/commentary06.htm

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hershey h friedman brooklyn college linda weiser friedman baruch college zicklin school of business...

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