On Straw Men and Blogs

I’ve been engaged by Mathew Ingram at GigaOm recently. He’s had a couple of great pieces this past week. But he also wrote one I’m not so fond of. In this piece, he argues against Turkle and others that suggest that the technologies that we use have shaped our behaviors in ways that disconnect us from others (that’s more nuanced than he puts it, though).

What bothers me is not his opposition to something I tend to agree with. I work in the area of social ethics, so I get paid to disagree with people. No biggie. Rather, it’s the argumentation he uses. He does three things that bother me:

Read the full post »

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in love, moral theory
Tagged ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 27, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/27/195/

Seriously!?

“Case in point” regarding the absence of professional ethics in startups and blogging: painful piece entitled “Gangbang Interviews” and “Bikini Shots”: Silicon Valley’s Brogrammer Problem at Mother Jones on sexism in the software industry.

The most telling aspect of these incidents, says veteran Seattle developer Christy Nicol, is that none of the company leaders involved appeared to realize initially that they’d done something wrong. They had simply crafted messages aimed at young men, apparently assuming: Who else would be drawn to programming jobs? “It was the mindset seated deep in the subconscious that programmers are male,” she says.

Or at least that all programmers want to be in on the joke.

A problem being dealt with at big companies, but among startups, not so much.

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in charity, justice, moral theory
Tagged

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 27, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/27/gangbang-interviews-and-bikini-shots-silicon-valleys-brogrammer-problem-mother-jones/

News, Commerce, and the Common Good

Another great piece by Mathew Ingram over at GigaOm, this time on the New York Times’ proposal to start offering early access to some of its news to businesses. By saving some content exclusively for businesses to access, they certainly could make money. In that, they would be like Bloomberg or Reuters, which is a concerning idea. Ingram states it perfectly:

One of the things that bothers me about this idea is that I think there is still some kind of public-service or public-policy value in journalism, and especially the news — I don’t think it is just another commodity that should be designed to make as much money as possible. And if the New York Times were to take stories that are arguably of social significance and provide them to hedge funds in advance, I think that would make it a very different type of entity than it is now. What if it was a story about a dangerous drug or national security?

Read the full post »

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in common good, prudence
Tagged ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 27, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/27/news-commerce-and-the-common-good/

What the World Needs Now…

Solid perspective on the role of tech-mediated activism by Hamza Shaban at ReadWriteWeb.

Twitter didn’t topple tyrants – protestors did. The Arab Spring wasn’t started by a tweet, but by a Tunisian – who set the desert on fire by using his flesh as kindling.

The social web isn’t the revolution, but a tool for revolutionaries. As Occupy Wall Street demonstrates, tech-savvy anger without a unified, actionable agenda is just noise.

Tech is important, but doesn’t do it all.  Well put.

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in activism, communication, justice
Tagged ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 26, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/26/202/

Wherefore Art Thou, Professional Ethics?

Mathew Ingram had a nice piece over at GigaOm discussing some of this year’s winners of the Pulitzer Prize focused primarily on the fact that prizes are now going to writers who publish online. There is no real difference, he suggests, between bloggers and journalists. Given the success of many software developers at writing and selling software on their own, the same argument could easily be made about the distinction between hobbyist and professional programmer.

Which leaves us in a bit of a situation, professional ethics wise.

Read the full post »

1 Comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in hope, moral theory
Tagged ,

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 26, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/26/wherefore-art-thou-professional-ethics/

We Are All Borg

Great little piece by Erica Sadun at TUAW about technology and choice:

It was then I realized: I have been assimilated. I am become Borg. I have betrayed the trust of my fellow ex-librarians. (Although shelf-reading, book dusting, and card sorting are skills I hope never to re-acquire. Ever.)

Like it or not, practices don’t just reflect our commitments, they shape them.

Leave a comment
by Jim Caccamo on April 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in charity, communication, moral theory
Tagged

Posted by Jim Caccamo on April 26, 2012

https://rewiringvirtue.com/2012/04/26/we-are-all-borg/

« Older Posts
Newer Posts »