A Scandinavian view on the ACM's Code of Ethics

In the systems development community in Scandinavia, we pride ourselves of having acquired an understanding of the dialectics between computer technology and people, their organizations and their work, going well beyond a software engineering perspective. We have developed, we believe, a special approach to the design of computer artifacts, not only involving the users, but doing so with a deep understanding of what this means. We have had a rich and heated debate between different versions of user-orientation, between harmonizers and conflict believers, between social constructionists and technological determinists. Against the background of strong labor movements, a high level of industrial democracy and advanced work environment legislation, we pride ourselves of understanding well and taking seriously the political and ethical responsibilities of our profession. Our American colleagues, we think, have good reasons for envying us this widespread and deep, professional self-understanding. But unlike the Americans, we have not really been concerned with codifying our self-understanding, turning it into a set of rules to guide the conduct of our profession and educate its members. Already in 1972, ACM adopted a Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. Twenty years later, in May 1992, they published a proposal for a revised and extended version. In October of that year, this proposal-with only minor modifications-was adopted by ACM's executive council as ACM's new official code. We invite you to examine these codes carefully and reflect upon the role of codes of ethics in professionalizing our field. A number of books on ethics for computer professionals have recently been published, indicating a growing awareness for and interest in this issue. In the references, we have listed the key literature. Bergin (1991) contains a useful review and comparison of a number of these books: Johnson There is a long tradition of binding members of professions like medicine and law to a code of professional conduct. Our own profession is in comparison to such classical professions extremely young and immature, and the basic conditions for working as a computer professional are somewhat different from those of doctors and lawyers. Despite these differences, there have been several attempts to establish codes of ethics and professional con duct within computing. In the United Slates, ACM has had its official code of professional conduct since 1972; IEEE has adopted a code of ethics; and the Data Processing Management Association also has a code of ethics. The British Computer society agreed …