OXFORD UNIVERSITY COMPUTING LABORATORY

Information Ethics Group Newsletters Archive



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2001-2004

  • The paper "On the Morality of Artificial Agents" by Luciano Floridi and J. W. Sanders, has been accepted for publication on Minds and Machines.

  • The extended abstract 'Mechanisms and Simulation' by Gianluca Paronitti, has been accepted for a short lecture at E-CAP2004.

  • IEG started for the 3rd year the Programme for visiting studentships at LMH, for Italian graduate students. Dead-line for submissions is 1 Jun 2004.

  • The research report IEG-RR-2 [ .pdf] [ .ps] is now downloadable: G.M. Greco and L.Floridi, "The Tragedy of the Digital Commons", October 2003, 26pp.

  • The Web site for the Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information has been published.

  • The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Philosophy. Freely available online:

    • Preface [pdf]
    • Introduction [pdf]
    • Chapter five on "Information" [pdf]
    • Glossary [pdf]

  • Charles Ess: the AoIR www.aoir.org ethics committee document on Internet research ethics was unanimously approved by voting members at the close of the vote on midnight, Wednesday, November 27, 2002. The document in its current form can be found at < www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf>. Quoting from the announcement:
    <<For the first time, there now exists a relatively complete ethics statement tailored to the distinctive venues and methodologies of Internet research, one which - like the professional ethics codes of other disciplinary organizations reflects the considered ethical judgments, insights, and practices of those active in the multiple fields of Internet research. Researchers, students, ethicists, and related institutional bodies and academic organizations in the domain of Internet research may now turn to the ethics document as at least a starting point for their inquiries and reflection. This starting point reflects not only nearly two years of collaborative effort of the ethics working committee, as composed of ethicists and researchers from 11 different countries - but also the endorsement of aoir members at large. To be approved by the aoir membership, the statement had to meet the following qualifications:

    • it must reflect the wide diversity of disciplinary approaches - in both the social sciences and the humanities - to Internet research;
    • it must take in and, where possible, coherently synthesize the diverse ethical approaches and cultural traditions represented among the global community of Internet researchers
    • it must address a wide audience - researchers, ethicists, students, and professionals engaged in Internet research in a variety of capacities - in ways that are both well-grounded in philosophical ethics and immediately practical for researchers and others with varying degrees of familiarity with ethics as a discipline.>>

  • Final call for papers, special issue of Minds and Machines dedicated to the philosophy of information. Guest editor: Luciano Floridi. Deadline: 31 January, 2003. Click here for more information.

  • L. Floridi and Jeff Sanders have been invited to contribute a chapter entitled  "The Method of Levels of Abstraction" to the Yearbook of the Artificial (Issue II, 2003, Peter Lang) dedicated to  "Models in contemporary sciences".

  • L. Floridi and Jeff Sanders have been invited to contribute a chapter entitled "Internet Ethics: the Constructionist Values of Homo Poieticus" to The Impact of the Internet on Our Moral Lives, a book edited by Robert Cavalier (SUNY: Fall 2003).

  • G. M. Greco and L. Floridi, "The Tragedy of the Digital Commons" and L. Floridi, "Current research programs in PI" are forthcoming in the proceeding of the yearly national conference of the Italian Philosophical Association  ((Convegno Nazionale S.F.I., "Filosofia e Societą  della Conoscenza", Foggia, 17-19 Ottobre 2002, http://www.sfi.it/bacheca/foggia.htm). 

  • L. Floridi, "Is Information Meaningful Data?", has been accepted for publication in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. The preprint is available here [pdf]

  • L. Floridi, "Outline of a Theory of Strongly Semantic Information", has been accepted for publication in Minds and Machines. The preprint is available here [pdf]

  • L. Floridi, "On the Intrinsic Value of Information Objects and the Infosphere" has been published in Ethics and Information Technology 2003 (4.4), 287-304. The preprint is available here [pdf].

  • L. Floridi, the entries "Infosphere" and "Information Ethics" have been published in Dizionario dell'Economia Digitale, edited by Vito di Bari (Milan: Il Sole 24-Ore Libri). French translation http://www.boson2x.org/article.php?id_article=66  

  • L. Floridi "Ethics in the Infosphere", The Philosophers' Magazine 6 (2001), pp. 18-19 has been translated into French http://www.boson2x.org/article.php?id_article=53

  • L. Floridi will deliver a series of three lectures on the Philosophy of Information at the University of Lisbon (Lisbon, 13-18 March, 2003).

  • L. Floridi will be the keynote speaker at the first Computing and Philosophy (CAP) conference held at the Australian National University in Canberra on 31 October - 2 November, 2003 and sponsored by the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), a centre funded by the Australian Research Council.

  • L. Floridi will chair the special session on "Ethics for the information society: the philosophical and practical implications of computer ethics", XXIst World Congress of Philosophy (Instanbul, August 10-17, 2003):
    - "Why Computer Ethics is a Gloal Issue", Luciano Floridi (luciano.floridi@philosophy.oxford.ac.uk), Professor of Philosophy of Science, University of Bari, Italy, and Markle Foundation Fellow in Information Policy, PCMLP, University of Oxford, UK
    - "Science, Technology, and Society Insights into Computer Ethics", Deborah G. Johnson (dgj7p@virginia.edu), Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics, Division of Technology, Culture, and Communication, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Virginia, USA
    - "How Philosophy Can Help Computing Serve Humanity", James H. Moor (james.moor@dartmouth.edu), Professor of Philosophy, Dartmouth College, USA
    - "Ethics, Democracy and Digital Justice", Dr Jeremy Moss (j.moss@philosophy.unimelb.edu.au), Research Fellow, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Philosophy Department, University of Melbourne, Australia

  • L. Floridi will deliver The Alan Turing Lecture in Computing and Philosophy, keynote address at ECAP 2003, the first European Computing and Philosophy Conference, Department of Philosophy and HATII (Humanities Advanced Technology Information Institute), University of Glasgow (Glasgow, March 27-29, 2003).

  • Gian Maria Greco has won a 1-year research grant to work at the IEG, congratulations !

  • G. M. Greco and L. Floridi, "The Tragedy of the Digital Commons", has been accepted for presentation at the yearly national conference of the Italian Philosophical Association  ((Convegno Nazionale S.F.I., "Filosofia e Societa' della Conoscenza", Foggia, 17-19 Ottobre 2002, http://www.sfi.it/bacheca/foggia.htm). L. Floridi will deliver the keynote paper on "Current research programs in PI".

  • L. Floridi, "An Information-theoretic Analysis of Knowledge", invited paper for the Society for the Study of Human Sciences (S.S.H.S.), 10th Workshop of Topika: "In-Use Knowledge, Knowledge of New Technologies: Its articulation, use, management and learning" (Mesta, Chios, September 5-8, 2002).

  • L. Floridi "A dynamic model of data information and knowledge", CAP@CMU 2002, the Computing and Philosophy Conference (Carnegie Mellon University, 8-10 August, 2002).

  • Philip A. Brey, Twente University, The Netherlands is the first guest of the IEG workshop on computer ethics. He will be in Oxford for three days and, on Friday the 25th of October, he will discuss his research on "Disclosive computer ethics," the approach to computer ethics that he, Helen Nissenbaum and a number of other scholars have been developing. Prof. Brey's works include:
    'The Politics of Computer Systems and the Ethics of Design.' In Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry. ACM/SIGCAS Conference, ed. M.J. van den Hoven , Rotterdam University Press, p. 64-75, 1998. ISBN 90-56770-22-5.
    'The Ethics of Representation and Action in Virtual Reality,' Ethics and Information Technology 1/1, 5-14, 1999. ISSN 1388-1957.
    'Method in Computer Ethics: Towards a Multi-Level Interdisciplinary Approach,' Ethics and Information Technology 2:3, 1-5, 2000. ISSN 1388-1957.
    'Disclosive Computer Ethics,' in Computers and Society, 30: 10-16, 2000. ISSN 0095-2737 and in R. Spinello & H. Tavani Sudbury (eds.), Readings in Cyberethics, MA: Jones and Bartlett, p. 51-62, 2001. ISBN:076371500X.

  • Will Harwood, Ethics and Artificial Life, MSc Project, The University of Oxford, a.y. 2000-1. Supervisors: L.L. Floridi and J.W. Sanders. The thesis is online see
    http://web.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/research/areas/ieg/publications/publications.html#Theses

  • L. Floridi, " Ethics in the Infosphere" has been translated into French . The English version is (also) here
    This is a revised version of an invited address at the UNESCO Executive Board 161st Session Thematic debate "The New Information and Communication Technologies for the Development of Education", UNESCO, Paris, Thursday, 31 May 2001.

  • L. Floridi, "On the Intrinsic Value of Information Objects and the Infosphere" has been accepted for publication in Ethics and Information Technology, 5.1. The preprint is available here.

  • Call for comments. Professor Terrell Ward Bynum, Director of the Research Center on Computing & Society, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT 06515 USA, invites comments on the last draft of his paper "Norbert Wiener's Vision: The Impact of "the Automatic Age" on Our Moral Lives", a chapter for The Impact of the Internet on Our Moral Lives, edited by Robert Cavalier (SUNY: Fall 2003). Please note that this is a draft. All comments should be sent directly to Prof. Bynum at computerethics@earthlink.net

  • The Glossary of the Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information is online, see tools.

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