After reading scenariogirls' thought-provoking post on ethics in website development I was inspired by the considerations raised there to extend my own thinking about ethics, and also about sustainability, in the online world.
In the context of work on gambling sites scenariogirl asked the excellent question that online practitioners should ask themselves more often (and I paraphrase) - is the work I'm doing ethical?
In gambling sites it would seem to me the issues are fairly clearcut - online gambling is not an ethical business for a practitioner to be engaged in. It's a business that creates significant impoverishment in some sections of the community, and one built only on the precept of taking money from the community, but providing no valuable service or product in return. Online gambling sites can't even claim to make a cheap dinner for the oldies like the clubs do!
(As a side note - while even great projects such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and NSW state hospitals have been built on the proceeds of lotteries, I nonetheless think it's a terrible cost to the integrity of the NSW state government that it is so beholden to the proceeds of gambling.)
What though, I wondered, would be the questions worth asking where the case is not so clearcut. What are the ethics and sustainability issues around work for other organisations with more acceptable business models. What would make one client better to work for than another? Would it be ok for example to work at the more desirable employer Yahoo when its activities in China have seen the imprisonment of a dissident but the management has expressed contrition and a desire to do better, or what about building a website for a mining company or a bank?
Such questions are obviously complex and intriguing:
- What is an ethical online activity?
- What is a sustainable online activity?
- How can practitioners assess potential employers on these questions?
- What about an employer's offline activities?
Using a phrase 'online activity' sounds a little contorted I must admit, but I wanted to ensure the scope of my thinking is broad and includes all the inputs, processes and outputs of an organisation's online activity, and in each case ask this question: is it sustainable in all its facets, and is it ethical?
What are the ethical issues you face in your online work?
