echnology’s positive promises for fulfillment of what is best in humankind often result in unexpected disasters or usable systems. When malevolent people develop software such adverse outcomes are understandable. Unfortunately, too frequently, even the systems developed by good well-intentioned people have similar negative results.
The seventh IFIP “Human Choice and Computers” Conference held in Maribor in 2006 confirmed Rob Kling’s statement that computer technologies play a key role in the transformation of social relationships – between individuals as well as within communities and institutions. ICT can bring freedom or slavery to people, depending on their awareness of the fact that “High technology requires high ethics.” (Zemanek) Pronounced pervasiveness of ICT and its global impact generate many ethical dilemmas, which cannot be resolved by computer experts if they do not have adequate ethical education.
Some compare changes to the ways of communication, life and business caused by social media to the changes that industrial revolution has brought to human civilisation. Number of users of the Facebook social network is approaching 600 million; Wikipedia contains more than 14 million articles in 260 languages.
