Computing in Contemporary Society Exam PDF

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CSI09101 – Computing in Contemporary SocietySection AQuestion 1 - In October 2019, Philip Alston, the United Nations expert on extreme poverty and human rights, gave a warning (OHCHR, 2019) regarding the UK’s online-only application process for the Universal Credit welfare benefit:“The world is stum...

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CSI09101 – Computing in Contemporary Society

Section A Question 1 - In October 2019, Philip Alston, the United Nations expert on extreme poverty and human rights, gave a warning (OHCHR, 2019) regarding the UK’s online-only application process for the Universal Credit welfare benefit: “The world is stumbling zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia.” Discuss Philip Alston’s statement with reference to the digital divide. Use examples of technologies or initiatives around the world that could potentially benefit digitally-excluded people or disadvantage them even more. With his statement, Philip Alston wishes to underline the tendency of the most powerful organisations in the world and of the public in general to unconsciously and inevitably - hence in a “zombie-like” way contribute to the global increase in digital exclusion by favouring practices and initiatives configured as “digital-only”. This eventually leads to a “digital dystopia”: access to basic practices and general welfare will only be granted to the “digitally well-off”, while those who are incapable of accessing technology or the Internet for any financial, political or social reason will unjustly be left behind. Alston comments on the “digital-only” nature of the application top Universal Credit benefit in the UK: a similarly unfair virtual welfare application scheme can be identified in the Indian Aadhaar case. Initially ideated as an identification device, Aadhaar is a unique number based on residents’ personal data which can be voluntarily obtained. Since 2009, when this system was introduced, the government has made linking to Aadhaar easy for many private companies, in a way that procedures such as admission to schools, tax filings or government examinations became heavily based on possession of said digital credentials. Consequently, residents who encounter difficulties in obtaining an Aadhaar card because of privacy reasons or simple errors in the registration process are somehow unfairly denied the right to general public benefits. An example of the former case can be seen in the case of Indian HIV patients, who have been forced to cease their treatment for fear of an identity breach, as access to said treatment has recently become contingent on producing Aadhaar; the latter concerns impossibility to register due to limited access to technology or the Web, or simply inability to operate it, as well many of the possible technical difficulties out of the user’s capabilities. For example, there have been instances where Indian citizens have been denied food aid because of complications with Aadhaar authentication, either rising from network issues or problems with fingerprint identification, as fingerprints can get faded with aging or continued manual labour. In conclusion, although the Indian Supreme Court has deemed the Aadhaar card not mandatory for benefits such as opening a bank account or obtaining a mobile number, this divide still weighs on the lives of thousands of Indian residents. A slightly differing wave of practices via which organisations all over the world silently promote the increase of digital divide has spawned in light of the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic, as institutions quickly had to move the majority of their communications online. This led to the creation of a great number of virtual classrooms, meetings and conferences in the space of a couple of weeks. Particularly interesting is the case of University examinations in Italy. While regulations imposing a country-wide quarantine saw school and University premises closing, students were asked to perform live examinations in specifically scheduled time slots. Failure to attend the allocated session – and, subsequently, failure to acquire a stable Internet connection on time – often translates into exam failure, with impossibility to re-sit or pick a different assessment method. These conditions entail the need for students and lecturers alike to not only have access to a personal device with webcam and microphone, but also to a speedy and steady broadband connection, which can be particularly tricky to obtain in certain rural 1

areas of the country. Subsequently, students and workers from lower income or geographically unfortunate households see their right to receive an education or practice a certain profession denied because of a merely technological disadvantage. As regards political practices which mine the digital divide, an example can be represented by the censorship of the Internet exercised by some governments over their people. This is the case when it comes to countries such as China, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia, the government of which blatantly blocks all content deemed “un-Islamic”. These “shutdowns” not only bring economical disadvantage to companies operating in such countries because of an impossibility to communicate and trade with foreign states, but as the Internet is the largest news, information and free speech platform available today, citizens of these governments see some of their basic rights denied to them because of a digital impossibility. Luckily, along with the increase of the digital divide, some initiatives to promote digital inclusion have also been ideated all over the world. A simple example can be identified in the installation of free Wi-Fi hotspots in the most visited areas of popular cities and towns: although they are still unpopular in rural areas, it is not uncommon to find free Wi-Fi connection hotspots in town centres today. These facilitate Internet access to those who cannot afford data or broadband plans. A few online mapping tools such as wifimap.io identify over 800 free hotspots in Edinburgh alone, while the number jumps up to 12,000 when we move to London. Other than the financially less fortunate and the politically disadvantaged, other sectors of population who can potentially suffer from digital divide are the disabled and the elderly. In most cases, these groups find operating technology a very onerous task in lack of adequate training or support. In the UK, many initiatives have been organised over the years to facilitate digital inclusion for these groups. The creator of one of these is the charity “The Good Things Foundation”, which have opened 5000 physical “Online Centres” all over the UK and Australia. In these centres, volunteers work to tackle digital exclusion and provide online access in monitored environments as well as training in various basic digital skills. The “Online Centres Network” website reports that 65% of the users in the network are elderly people, while 47% are disabled, and 32% unemployed. Another UK initiative is organised by NHS Digital and takes the name of “Widening Digital Participation” (WDP). Between 2013 and 2016, NHS has helped digitally excluded sectors of the population develop digital skills to enable them to take a more active role in their own health: out of the 387,000 people involved, 221,000 received training and support in digital skills. In a second phase started in 2017 WDP’s focus shifted from training to adopting discovery to take a fresh look at the barriers to digital inclusion and how they might be overcome. In particular, NHS has worked with groups including homeless people, people with long term conditions and isolated older people.

Section B 2

Question 4 - Entry to traditional professions is restricted. a) Compare and contrast the IT profession with the traditional professions. Traditionally, in order to practice a profession one must obtain qualifications pertinent to the desired field and, in some cases, further their professional legitimacy by obtaining membership to specific professional bodies, via which organisations can maintain an oversight of the knowledge, skills, conduct and practice of that particular occupation. This is in fact the case when it comes to particularly important positions such as doctors, solicitors, architects and so on, as they have been crucial roles in society over time. As the role of technology is currently growing to encompass many aspects of our daily lives, IT professions are starting to gain the same crucial part in society as traditional careers. It is however interesting to note that, although there have been multiple valid attempts in the past (i.e. British Computer Society and the Institution of Engineering and Technology), a professional association as regards IT professions has never been officially established. ` This fact highlights the first difference between traditional professions and the IT one. For example, falsely claiming to be a doctor is illegal in the UK, while claiming to be a software engineer although no pertinent qualifications or professional body memberships are possessed and proceeding to take on professional tasks as such is perfectly admitted. Moreover, whoever wishes to practice a profession in this field does not actually require any sort of official qualification at all to be able to do it freely and legally. In fact, practical experience and diversity in skills, however self-obtained they may be, are often prioritised by employers over the possession of qualifications or the adherence to a specific code of conduct. This could for example mean that a self-taught programmer who is able to prove their experience will often be privileged over a University graduate, who might possess more theoretical skills, but lack such an extensive portfolio. The reason why an IT professional body has never been recognised also sits in the substantial difficulty to define who an IT professional is: while the need for qualifications and membership to professional associations makes it effortless, for example, to define the who can officially be considered a doctor or an architect, the identity and validity of an IT professional are sometimes unclear. As technology is rapidly encompassing the political, financial and social aspects of the daily lives of companies and individuals, many workers will have to learn to operate job-specific technologies. Similarly, since knowledge concerning digital skills is easily available through several online resources, individuals with private interests are able to freely carry out technological tasks. Subsequently, as digital proficiency is now more than ever popular in skill sets, the line between who can be considered an IT professional and who cannot is extraordinarily thin. b) Suggest reasons why it would benefit individuals, companies, and the public, if the IT profession were more closely regulated. The lack of regulations as regards IT professions risks entailing several economical and legal issues, which could undoubtedly be avoided if membership to a dedicated professional association or obligation to possess formal qualifications was observed by hiring companies and individuals. One of the results of this lack of regulations can be identified in the aforementioned predilection of employers for practical skills rather than an established education, which may in the long run inhibit both employer companies and their client base. Other than mere practical experience, University graduates possess a number of theoretical technology skills: their training often also covers confidentiality and security matters, as well as strategies to design and build sturdy and reliable systems to comply with the latest privacy regulations. Contrariwise, while they might be more experienced as regards practical implementations, self-taught programmers often lack this kind of knowledge. A lack of theoretical training in hired candidates can eventually lead employers to economical loss, as an inefficiently built system requires more maintenance over time and add-on features, as well as legal complications, as security is fundamental to avoid dangerous data breaches and ensure compliance with the latest data protection 3

regulations (GDPR, particularly). Furthermore, the need for applicants to exhibit qualifications would not only benefit employers in the aforementioned modalities, but, as it would also mean a decrease in valid candidates for IT professions, it would undoubtedly lead to a decrease in competition in this sector and to a subsequent increment in salary for all IT professionals. The absence of a specific IT professional body is another element which highlights the softness of regulations concerning the IT field. Professional bodies not only aim at regularising and protecting certain profession, but they also provide an ethic code of conduct to which every member must subscribe in order to obtain a membership. Subsequently, the absence of an IT professional association entails the lack of a specific ethic code of conduct which IT professionals have to adhere to before practicing any relative profession. Even though it is nowadays crucial for privacy and security reasons that IT professionals do observe a certain code of conduct, as proven by the several legal regulations on the matter which have been elaborated in the past, failing to subscribe to an ethic code of conduct as regards the IT field is not considered illegal, and is subsequently overlooked by IT job applicants and employers alike. This fact could inevitably lead IT professionals to engage in malicious conduct, whether knowingly or mistakenly.

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