What is Do the Right Thing Right

Not doing the right thing right in cyberspace means using the computer in contradiction to ethical principles or unprofessional conduct. How do ICT practitioners defend themselves and their organizations when being accused of being unprofessional? The ICT workers need in the first instance to recognize, evaluate, and react sensibly and responsively to the ethical dilemmas created in the work place. How to do so, and ultimately how to behave professionally, require all – the ICT professionals themselves, their employing organizations and ICT community at large, to be attuned to good ethical practice. People may be talking about doing the right thing right. But they may have problems when being asked to explain what the right thing to do is, how to do it right, how they know it is done right, what might happen if the right thing is done in the wrong way, what might happen if the wrong thing is done. The answer is that the ICT practitioners must have a good understanding of the underpinning ethical theories and the relationship of, or the mutual impact, between ethics and ICT, and be equipped with a feasible ethical decision-making process. In sum, do-the-right-thing-right means to bear in mind and to accomplish any task in cyberspace not only to meet the technical requirements but also satisfy the ethically and socially acceptable standards.

Ethical Computing

Wanbil W. Lee (The Computer Ethics Society & Wanbil and Associates, China)