Social Challenges for Information Technology

INTRODUCTION:
Today in western societies more people are employed collecting, handling and distributing information than in any other occupation. Millions of computers inhabit the earth and many millions of miles of optical fiber, wire and air waves link people, their computers and the vast array of information handling devices together. Our society is truly an information society, our time an information age. The question before us now is whether the kind of society being created is the one we want. It is a question that should especially concern those of us in the MIS community for we are in the forefront of creating this new society. Use of information technology in business has major impacts on society, and thus raises serious social and ethical considerations in areas such as privacy, crime, health, working conditions, individuality, employment, and the search for solutions through IT. However, we should realize that information technology can have a beneficial effect as well as a negative effect in each of these areas. For example, computerizing a production process may have the adverse effect of eliminating jobs, and the beneficial effect of improving the working conditions and job satisfaction of employees that remain, while producing products of higher quality at less cost. So our job as a managerial is tried to minimize the negative effects of IT and maximize its beneficial effects. That would represent a socially responsible use of information technology.

SOCIAL CHALLENGES FOR IT: Social environment involves:

Religious values: For example in Islam there is no concept of making friends opposite gender but in other religion there is no restriction. Humanistic values: For example Computer-based systems are criticized as impersonal systems that dehumanize and depersonalize activities that have been computerized, since they eliminate the human relationships present in noncomputer systems. Cultural values: Every country has there own cultural, social, and ethical norms. Every one have their own values, and living styles. in Islamic countries jeans is not very common dressing for women but in European country this is very common thing. Societal values: Its also differ from country to country, city to city. Remember that IT can have both a positive and a negative effect on ethical and social issues in each of these areas shown.

The social contract among people in the information age must deal with these threats to human dignity. The ethical issues involved are many and varied; however, it is helpful to focus on just four. These may be summarized by means of an acronym -- PAPA.

Privacy: What information about one's self or one's associations must a person reveal to others, under what conditions, and with what safeguards? What things can people keep to themselves and not be forced to reveal to others? Accuracy: Who is responsible for the authenticity, fidelity, and accuracy of information? Similarly, who is to be held accountable for errors in information and how is the injured party to be made whole? Property: Who owns information? What are the just and fair prices for its exchange? Who owns the channels, especially the airways, through which information is transmitted? How should access to this scarce resource be allocated? Accessibility: What information does a person or an organization have a right or a privilege to obtain, under what conditions, and with what safeguards? In answering these questions, Mason proposes the development of a new social contract, where information technology will help ensure everyone's right to fulfill his or her human potential. Mason's ideas could serve as the basis for many proposals being debated concerning privacy, censorship, and accessibility of the Internet. In this new social contract, information systems should be designed to ensure accuracy and not invade a person's privacy. Channels of information should be protected and information made accessible to avoid information illiteracy or deprivation. Finally, information systems should be designed to protect an individual's intellectual capital from unauthorized exposure, loss or damage. Developing, protecting, and enforcing this social contract then become the responsibility of end users, managers and IS professionals.

IT an Employment
The impact of information technology on employment is a major social concern and is directly related to the use of computers to achieve automation. There can be no doubt that the use of information technology has created new jobs and increased productivity, while also causing a significant reduction in some types of job opportunities. Computers used for office information processing or for the numerical control of machine tools are accomplishing tasks formerly performed by many clerks and machinists. Also, jobs created by information technology within a computer-using organization require different types of

skills and education than do the jobs eliminated by computers. Therefore, individuals may become unemployed unless they can be retrained For new positions or new responsibilities.

Privacy Issues
The power of information technology to store and retrieve information can have a negative effect on the right to privacy of every individual. For example, confidential E-mail messages by employees are monitored by many companies. Personal information is being collected about individuals every time they visit a site on the World Wide Web. Confidential information on individuals contained in centralized computer databases by credit bureaus, government agencies, and private business firms has been stolen or misused, resulting in the invasion of privacy, fraud, and other injustices. The unauthorized use of such information has seriously damaged the privacy of individuals. Errors in such databases could seriously hurt the credit standing or reputation of an individual.

Privacy on the Internet

If you don't take the proper precautions, anytime you send an E-mail, access a web site, post a message to a newsgroup, or use the Internet for banking and shopping whether you're online for business or pleasure, you're vulnerable to anyone bent on collecting data about you without your knowledge. Fortunately, by using tools like encryption and anonymous remailers - and by being selective about the sites you visit and the information you provide-you can minimize, if not completely eliminate, the risk of your privacy being violated

Computer Crime
Computer crime is the major social and ethical challenge caused by the criminal or irresponsible actions of computer users who are taking advantage of the widespread use of computer networks in our society. It thus presents a major challenge to the ethical use of IT. Computer crime poses serious threats to the integrity, safety, and quality of most business information systems, and thus makes the development of effective security methods a top priority.

Major types of criminal activity involving computers

The theft of money, services, software, and data; Destruction of data and software, especially by computer viruses; Hacking on the Internet or other computer networks, and violations of privacy.

Crime on the Internet

Widely publicized attacks by hackers on the Internet have splashed the open electronic playground with a dose of cold reality and sent newcomers scrambling to beef up network security plans. In recent years, as the Internet has changed from the casual chat line of the academic and research communities to the playground of the computationally hip, attacks have increased. The influx has created a new breed of intruder who uses sophisticated Software programs designed to automatically probe the Internet looking for system weaknesses Hackers can monitor E-mail, Web server access, Gopher services, or file transfers to extract passwords or steal network files, or to plant data that will cause a system to welcome intruders. A hacker may also use remote services that allow one computer on a network to execute programs on another computer to gain privileged access within a network. Telnet, a tool for interactive use of remote computers, can help a hacker discover information to plan other attacks. Hackers have used Telnet to access a computer's E-mail port, for example, to monitor E-mail messages for passwords and other information about privileged user accounts and network resources. These are just some of the typical types of computer crimes that hackers commit on the Internet on a regular basis. That's why Internet security measures like encryption and fire walls, as discussed in this chapter, are so vital to the success of electronic commerce and other business uses of the Internet. Money Theft Service Theft Software Theft Data Alteration or Theft

Health Issues

The use of information technology in the workplace raises a variety of health issues. Heavy use of computers is reportedly causing health problems like job stress, damaged arm and neck muscles, eye strain, radiation exposure, and even death by computer caused accidents. For example, computer monitoring is blamed as a major cause of computer-related job stress. Workers, unions, and government officials criticize computer monitoring as putting so much stress on employees that it leads to health problems

Solutions
Information technology can have many beneficial effects on society. We can use information technology to solve human and social problems through societal solutions such as medical diagnosis, computer-assisted instruction, governmental program planning, environmental quality control, and law enforcement. Information technology can be used for crime control through various law enforcement applications. For example, computerized alarm systems allow police to identify and respond quickly to evidences of criminal activity. Computers have been used to monitor the level of pollution in the air and in bodies of water, to detect the sources of pollution, and to issue early warnings when dangerous levels are reached. Computers are also used for the program planning of many government agencies in such areas as urban planning, population density and land use studies, high way planning, and urban transit studies. Computers are being used in job placement systems to help match unemployed persons with available jobs. These and other applications illustrate that information technology can be used to help solve the problems of society.

Globalization:
Social challenges As businesses go global there will be a pressing need to bridge the digital divide among nations and also within national borders. Weaving in information technology into the educational systems across the world poses a formidable challenge, especially so when illiteracy still plagues populous countries like India and China. Ironically, Asia, the continent to which these countries belong, constitutes 41% of the global internet users, in spite of a mere 17% population penetration of the internet.

PRACTICAL STUDY: SELECTED ORGANIZATION:

INTRODUCTION:
Orkut is a free social networking Web site where you can create a profile, connect with friends, maintain an online scrapbook and use site features and applications to share your interests and meet others. Orkut users must agree that they're 18 or older to use the site. Orkut was invitation-only for most of its first five years, but now it's available without an invitation. All you need is a Google user account -- and you may already have one if you use other Google services, such as Gmail. Orkut was named after its creator - Orkut Bykkkten. India and only 17.28% are from the U.S. Orkut is managed by Google Brazil Current Orkut members - 100 million

As of December 2009, 51.09% of Orkut members are from Brazil, 20.02% from

Social Challenges
Like many other social networking site that runs on a free environment, Orkut also faces several challenges including spammers, flooders,

 users who create false or misleading profiles, users with malicious intent, and more. Testimonials feature: user authenticity, with its testimonials feature. Your testimonials are posts by your friends describing what they think of you. Others users can read your testimonials to determine if they trust you and want to accept your friend request. Testimonials at orkut make it more difficult for users to mislead others with their profile details, reducing the potential for stalkers and cyber predators. Despite the testimonial feature, user authenticity on orkut was still questionable while invitations were a hot commodity. Until orkut removed its invitation requirement, some current users put invitations up for auction on eBay while prospective users posted everywhere online hoping to find such a coveted token.

Privacy:
in Orkut it was possible for anybody to view anyone's pictures, videos as well as scraps, but people started misusing the photos and videos and placing them on the Internet with fake details. Many of them were vulgar, especially pictures of women. Moreover, the scraps could be easily read.Currently privacy covers such features as scraps (separate read and write access), videos, photo albums, testimonials, and applications. These privacy levels are available to users: In December 2008, Orkut developers introduced another privacy update that allow users to restrict viewing of their albums to certain number of friends, as well as selected email contacts. The user can limit visibility of her/his profile to a certain region or group of regions (known as a "network"); in this case outside of these regions no user information is available. Hacking: Orkut had failed to protect its site from hackers by failing to fix a security loophole. Orkut administration were urged by Pakistani users to check the IP address logs which they keep, to get evidence of profiles hacked. They have so far chosen to ignore this. If they continue to exhibit careless and ignorant behaviors, they will be losing more than its usersalong with their reputationall thanks to the criminal outfits whom they didnt take actions against.

Phishing Techniques: Eventually various phishing sites were develop with the intent of stealing other person accounts and communities. A couple of month later invisible profiles, communities, and topics started to appear in orkut. \ Trolling: Many resins exist for flooding. As a social network its obvious that people have or develop enemies on the site but some of them attack simply for the sake of trolling. Flooder and fake profiles: As with any social networking community a number fake and cloned profile exists on orkut. Due to large number of user, the profile were often left unresolved or when removed easily. The profiles are normally created to trolling to spam or just for fun. Hate group: Anti region, anti national, and anti social and anti ethic group have also been spotted recently an Indian court has issued notice to google on some of the groups. The Mumbai police are seeking a ban on orkut post objection raised by political groups. State censorship:
Orcut was very popular in Iran but the website is now blocked by the government. As they say this is due to national security issues and ethical Islamic issues about dating and match making.

Google has continued to make improvements to orkut in order to keep it competitive, safe, and fun to use. Today, it's a secure, well-established site backed by a reputable company. If Google remains committed to maintaining and improving the site, and promoting it in growing online markets, orkut will continue its world-wide success.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES:

.Advantages

You can find your old college, school friends here. You can get the news of the places, schools, colleges, cities which you have left as there are so many communities. You can create a community and have many friends of your mentality. Disadvantages: There are many fake ids which can make you feel as a good friend and can play with your emotions. Certain unparliamentarily things are easily accessible on which the young generations can easily attracted.

Data collection method:

I took data from internet, books, reports, etc.i have collected secondary data which I use as my primary data.

SWOT analysis:
Strengths
Collaborative Engaging Knowledge Management Ease of Use Low Cost

Weaknesses
Oversold Tribal Disorderly Privacy Issues

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Opportunities
Integration Distributed Platform Standards Portable Modularity Rapid Generation

Threats
Competing Platforms Shifting Sands Ownership Technical Support Abuse and Exploitation Duty of Care

Conclusion
As technology continues to advance, so do the methods in which an individual's private information may be procured and misused. The solution to avoiding the dystopian future portrayed in the novel "1984" (Orwell, 1949) lies not in a Unabomber-like attitude of seclusion from all technology, but rather in assuming the responsibility for educating ourselves about protection of privacy, and taking prudent privacy protection measures. This exemplifies the saying that "Freedom is not free". It may be that in an age where terrorism is so prevalent, some degree of surveillance is a necessary evil, but forsaking our freedoms cannot protect freedom. Mittal said, the technology cannot be blames. The information technology provides access and connectivity and has both positive and negative effect. The medium cannot be blamed its how people use it your education, family back ground and the way you have been taught to handle things often governs what you do on the information. Then again

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terrorists use mobile phones for a lot of use other than making calls.whould you say people stop using phones as well?

REFERENCES:

http://www.orkut.com (7:45 pm, 15 April 2010) http:/www.tagwalk.com(7:50pm,15 April 2010) http://www.technospot.com(8:00 pm,15 April 2010)

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