Chelsia Rose Marcius, The New York Times; See ‘Spot’ Save: Robot Dogs Join the New York Fire Department
Plans to use two new robot dogs only in precarious search and rescue missions may help avoid the controversy that met the Police Department’s robots last year.
"“It’s like every piece of equipment we have,” he said. “We hope to never, ever have to use it. But when we need it, it’s important that we have the right thing.”"
American Libraries; New ALA Poll Shows Voters Oppose Book Bans
"A new national poll commissioned by the American Library Association (ALA) released on March 24 shows that seven in 10 voters oppose removing books from public libraries, including majorities of voters across party lines. In addition, 74% of parents of public school children expressed confidence in school libraries and librarians to choose which books are available to children and said books that have been contested should be available on an age-appropriate basis.
The poll, conducted March 1–6, surveyed 1,000 voters and 472 parents of children in public schools. It is the first to view the issue of book bans through the lens of public and school libraries. The poll’s results demonstrate that voters have a high regard for librarians and recognize the critical role libraries play in their communities. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that book bans are far from being a partisan issue; they are opposed by large majorities of voters regardless of personal political affiliation.
“The survey results confirm what we have known and observed: that banning books is widely opposed by most voters and parents,” said ALA President Patricia “Patty” M. Wong in a March 24 statement. “As a career librarian who began in public libraries working with children, I’m thrilled to see that parents have a high degree of confidence in school libraries’ decisions about their collections and very few think that school librarians ignore parents’ concerns. This truly validates the value and integrity of library professionals at a time when many are feeling burned out because of accusations made by small but loud groups.”
More than 330 cases of book bans and challenges were reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) between September 1 and November 30, 2021. The total number of challenges in 2021 was more than double the number of reports from 2020 (156 challenges) and exceeded the overall number of challenges from 2019 (377 challenges).
OIF will announce the full 2021 book challenge totals and its annual Top 10 List of Most Challenged Books on April 4, during National Library Week (April 3–9). Additionally, the annual accounting of book censorship in the US will be released as part of ALA’s State of America’s Libraries 2022 report.
More data points from the poll:
The poll was conducted by Hart Research Associates and North Star Opinion Research on behalf of ALA. It included 1,000 voters and 472 parents of children in public schools. The sample is demographically and geographically representative of voters and parents in the US. Additional survey findings and methodology can be found on the ALA website.""
K&L Gates LLP - Susan Kayser and Kristin Wells , Lexology; Even in the digital age, Only human-made works are copyrightable in the U.S.
"The U.S. Copyright Office Review Board refused copyright protection of a two-dimensional artwork created by artificial intelligence, stating that “[c]urrently, ‘the Office will refuse to register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work,’” see recent letter. The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices does not explicitly address AI, but precedent, policy, and practice makes human authorship currently a prerequisite.
A “Creativity Machine,” authored the work titled “A Recent Entrance into Paradise.” The applicant, Steven Thaler, an advocate for AI IP rights, named himself as the copyright claimant. Thaler’s application included a unique transfer statement: “ownership of the machine,” and further explained that the work “was autonomously created by a computer algorithm running on a machine.” Thaler sought to register the work as a work-for-hire because he owns the Creativity Machine.
AI’s “kill switch” at the U.S. Copyright Office? AI isn’t human. The Review Board relied on the Office’s compendium of practices and Supreme Court precedent dating back to 1879—long before computers were a concept—to hold that the U.S. Copyright Office will not register a claim if it determines that a human being did not create the work.
The Review Board also denied Thaler’s argument that the work made for hire doctrine allows non-human persons like companies to be authors of copyrighted material. The Board explained that works made for hire must be prepared by “an employee” or by “parties” who “expressly agree in a written instrument” that the work is for hire.
Because Thaler did not claim any human involvement in the work, the Board did not address under which circumstances human involvement in machine-created works might meet the statutory requirements for copyright protection. This is an issue that may soon arise."
Riddhi Setty, Bloomberg Law; Online Copyright Piracy Debate Ramps Up Over Proposed Legal Fix
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Adam Satariano, The New York Times ; E.U. Takes Aim at Big Tech’s Power With Landmark Digital Act
The European Union was expected to finalize the Digital Markets Act, the most sweeping legislation to regulate tech since a European privacy law was passed in 2018.
"Officials on Thursday were putting the finishing touches on the law, called the Digital Markets Act, which would be the most sweeping piece of digital policy since the bloc put the world’s toughest rules to protect people’s online data into effect in 2018. The legislation is aimed at stopping the largest tech platforms from using their interlocking services and considerable resources to box in users and squash emerging rivals, creating room for new entrants and fostering more competition.
What that means practically is that companies like Google could no longer collect data from different services to offer targeted ads without users’ consent and that Apple might have to allow alternatives to its App Store on iPhones and iPads. Violators of the law, which would most likely take effect early next year, could face significant fines.
The Digital Markets Act is part of a one-two punch by European regulators. As early as next month, the European Union is expected to reach an agreement on a law that would force social media companies such as Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to police their platforms more aggressively."
The University of British Columbia; Drones get blood to patients faster—and reduce waste
"Prompt blood delivery can be lifesaving for people who need transfusions for emergencies such as postpartum hemorrhage, severe malaria, or traumatic injuries. However, only a few facilities in Rwanda are able to collect and store blood, posing a serious risk for people who don’t live near distribution centers...
In 2016, Rwanda became the first African country to integrate drone deliveries into its healthcare system. The project is a partnership between the Government of Rwanda and California-based robotics company Zipline Inc.
Currently, the program is focused mainly on blood deliveries. However, the project has started to expand the deliveries of vaccines and essential medicines for the treatment of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, malaria, and tuberculosis.
While most studies to this point have focused on feasibility, the new paper from Nisingizwe and her team is one of the first to measure actual outcomes. Next, the researchers want to determine whether drone delivery improves health outcomes and is ultimately cost-effective, and explore its potential for transporting other perishable health products and medicines.
“Drone technology has tremendous potential to improve access to care for people living in rural and remote areas, not just in Rwanda, but all around the world,” said Dr. Michael Law, a professor in UBC’s Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and senior author on the study.
Drone delivery is being explored as a potential healthcare solution in other countries, including in British Columbia, where a UBC-led study is exploring the feasibility of using drones to transport medical supplies between Stellat’en First Nation and the Village of Fraser Lake."
Jim Hanchett , Cornell Chronicle ; Panel: Drone warfare is increasingly sophisticated, deadly
"“We’re here to make sense of this evolving technology,” said panel moderator Sarah Kreps, the John L. Wetherill Professor of Government in the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the faculty in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy.
While the U.S. has used drones for the targeted killing of terrorists, their use by other entities around the world is on the rise.
“Drones can aid, they can watch, and they can kill,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Lushenko, a General Andrew Jackson Goodpaster Scholar at Cornell and a doctoral student in the field of international relations."
VRENI STOLLBERGER, LA Johnson, NPR, TED Radio Hour Comics ; COMIC: How a computer scientist fights bias in algorithms
BRAKKTON BOOKER , Politico; The ex-Google researcher staring down Big Tech
"THE RECAST: President Biden ran on a platform promising to root out inequities in federal agencies and programs. Has his administration done enough to tackle the issue of discriminatory AI?
GEBRU: I'm glad to see that some initiatives have started. I like that the Office Of Science And Technology Policy (OSTP), for instance, is filled with people I respect, like Alondra Nelson, who is now its head.
My biggest comment on this is that a lot of tech companies — all tech companies — actually, don't have to do any sort of test to prove that they're not putting out harmful products...
The burden of proof always seems to be on us...The burden of proof should be on these tech companies."
MSTYSLAV CHERNOV, Associated Press; Names on a list: Fleeing Mariupol, one checkpoint at a time
"The absence of information in a blockade accomplishes two goals.
Chaos is the first. People don’t know what’s going on, and they panic. At first I couldn’t understand why Mariupol fell apart so quickly. Now I know it was because of the lack of communication.
Impunity is the second goal. With no information coming out of a city, no pictures of demolished buildings and dying children, the Russian forces could do whatever they wanted. If not for us, there would be nothing.
That’s why we took such risks to be able to send the world what we saw, and that’s what made Russia angry enough to hunt us down.
I have never, ever felt that breaking the silence was so important."
Jasmine Gallup, IndyWeek; Wake County Library Makes It Harder to Ban Books
"Wake County’s Community Services program manager Frank Cope replied that if a book was challenged on the grounds of “obscenity” or another First Amendment concern, the library would consult the county attorney’s office. Leaders plan to add a provision to the policy clarifying how and when a lawyer will be involved in book challenges.
The American Library Association advises that libraries have a lawyer on retainer to consult on legal issues, Caldwell-Stone says. But there are some potential snags in using the county attorney to fill that role.
“There’s a conflict of interest, especially when there are elected officials arguing a book should be pulled and you have the county attorney make a decision,” Caldwell-Stone says. “It should be independent legal counsel that doesn’t also represent the police department and the county government.”"
Jaclyn Peiser, The Washington Post ; A professor found his exam questions posted online. He’s suing the students responsible for copyright infringement.
"Now, Berkovitz is suing the unknown students from the Orange, Calif., university for copyright infringement. In a lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the professor alleges the students “infringed Berkovitz’s exclusive right to reproduce, make copies, distribute, or create derivative works by publishing the Midterm Exam and Final Exam on the Course Hero website without Berkovitz’s permission.”"
, The New York Times; U.S. News Ranked Columbia No. 2, but a Math Professor Has His Doubts
"The rankings have driven colleges to make relatively benign changes in culture, but there has also been some fraud, Mr. Diver said. “There’s been repeated evidence of not just gaming the system,” he said, but also “outright misrepresentation, outright lying.”
Last year, a former dean of Temple University’s business school was found guilty of using fraudulent data between 2014 and 2018 to improve the school’s national rankings and increase revenue. The school’s online M.B.A. program was ranked best in the country by U.S. News & World Report in the years that he falsified data.
Over the years, other schools like Iona College, Claremont McKenna College and Emory University have been found to have falsified or manipulated data."
Joey GarrisonCelina TeborLedyard KingJohn BaconRick RouanMatthew Brown, USA Today; Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says US businesses should pull out of Russia, calls for more aid
""Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace," he Zelenskyy said in remarks livestreamed at the U.S. Capitol. He added, “I call on you to do more."
United Nations News ; Violence against women in politics marks ‘moral and ethical failure’ - General Assembly President
As a former Parliamentarian, and a lifelong politician, violence against women in politics is an issue near to my heart. It is a moral and ethical failure on us as a society,” said the President of the General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, whose office organized the event on the sidelines of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The event brought together Vice-Presidents, Government Ministers and senior officials from more than 20 UN Member States – some of whom spoke from personal experience about the barriers to running for office as a woman candidate."
Ann Skeet, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University; The Ukrainian War and Ethical Leadership
"Throughout these choices, the ethics of care are at play. Each leader is balancing the primary interests they serve and the commitments that have been made, on behalf of those interests, to alliances like NATO and the EU. It is a moment in history when relationships matter deeply.
Individuals are making personal choices centered on some of these same tradeoffs. How do I prioritize taking care of myself and my family versus meeting a collective call to protect my country? Ukrainian leaders helped make this choice, requiring men to stay and protect the country, permitting women to leave and care for children.
The global response to the plight of the Ukrainian people is grounded in commitment to fundamental human rights. Diplomats and NATO leaders are running a utilitarian calculus, pursuing diplomacy and defense simultaneously. Business leaders are prioritizing the common good over corporate short-term profits. As with Covid, the world is running a real time ethics simulation. Only it's real."
Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times; In the War Over Ukraine, Expect the Unexpected
"I am always amazed by the courage that seemingly average people manifest in war — in this case, not only by Ukrainians, but also by Russians who refuse to buy Putin’s lies, knowing that he is turning them into a pariah nation. So I marvel at the breathtaking courage demonstrated on Monday evening by Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee at Russia’s Channel 1, a state-run television channel, who burst into a live broadcast of Russia’s most-watched news show, yelling, “Stop the war!” and holding up a sign behind the anchorwoman saying, “They’re lying to you here.” She was interrogated and, for the moment, released — probably because Putin feared making her into a martyr.
Marina Ovsyannikova — remember her name. She dared to tell the czar that he had no clothes. What courage.
And finally, wars also reveal extraordinary acts of kindness."
Steve Hendrix, The Washington Post ; Fleeing Putin’s wartime crackdown, Russian journalists build media hubs in exile
"Smirnov was also imprisoned for 25 days for retweeting a joke that offended the Kremlin."
Charles Kaiser , The Guardian; Sandy Hook review: anatomy of an American tragedy – and the obscenity of social media
"Those recommendations are the result of the infernal algorithms which are at the heart of the business models of Facebook and YouTube and are probably more responsible for the breakdown in civil society in the US and the world than anything else invented.
“We thought the internet would give us this accelerated society of science and information,” says Lenny Pozner, whose son Noah was one of the Sandy Hook victims. But “really, we’ve gone back to flat earth”."
Christopher Shea, The Washington Post; When schools went virtual, online bullying declined
"(According to one 2019 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some 20 percent of American high school students reported being bullied in person in the previous year; 16 percent reported being bullied online.) Bacher-Hicks and four colleagues at B.U. — associate professors Joshua Goodman, Jennifer G. Green and Melissa Holt — tackled the question using an unusual approach: They first established, by examining past data, that Google searches for such terms as “bullying” and “cyberbullying” closely track real-world trends, as measured in surveys. They then looked at what happened to search trends during the pandemic. The results, which appeared in a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper in December, weren’t what many people expected. This interview has been edited for length and clarity...
Q: If I understand it right, in your interpretation online bullying is largely an outgrowth of in-school bullying.
A: Absolutely. I think that bullying that occurs online may in many cases just be an extension of bullying that started in person. We know from prior research that many of the same individuals — that is, both the victims and the aggressors — are involved in in-person and in cyberbullying. So there are clear links between the two. And I think an important contribution of our paper is to show that when you disrupt one form of bullying, there is a clear reduction in both forms.
Q: Your paper suggests there might be lessons for this and for the post-pandemic world. What might those be? Because kids eventually will be all back in these chaotic physical environments again.
A: The lessons might come out of this question: Why do we think that even when schools reopened in fall 2020 during the pandemic, bullying was lower in those schools than we would have predicted? One reason is that schools put additional structures in place to prevent the spread of covid-19. And many of those structures likely helped to reduce bullying when students were back in person. We know from prior studies that a lot of bullying occurs during unstructured time — that is, time spent passing other students in the hallway, time at lunch, etc. During the pandemic, there has been a lot less flexibility in offering that type of unstructured time. And there is a lot more supervision during the school day. I don’t think that we should necessarily maintain all of these new structures moving forward, but I think it does suggest there’s something that we can learn about how providing additional structured time might reduce bullying."
Bill Chappell, NPR; Ukraine's libraries are offering bomb shelters, camouflage classes and, yes, books
"Libraries are playing vital roles in supporting Ukraine's war effort from giving families shelters during Russian bombing raids to making camouflage nets for the military and countering disinformation.
"It's really scary when schools, libraries, universities, hospitals, maternity hospitals, residential neighborhoods are bombed," Oksana Brui, who is the president of the Ukrainian Library Association, told NPR...
Even in peacetime, Ukraine's libraries try to counteract the influence of disinformation, training people in media and information literacy. But this is war, and everything about life in Ukraine is now different. The country's librarians are hard at work trying to keep their collections safe — and making sure people can access books and other materials.
"Today Ukraine is fighting not only for its own independence and the future of its children," Brui said.
She stressed that Ukrainians are fighting — and dying — for European values. She urged everyone to support Ukraine, to establish a no-fly zone, and unite to stop the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Today it is destroying Ukraine, and tomorrow it could be any other country," Brui said."
Mark Sweney, The Guardian; Keyboard warriors: Ukraine’s IT army switches to war footing
"And so far, the plans to maintain digital resilience have helped defy expectations about the level of disruption expected from the full-scale invasion by Russian forces...
“Not everyone is good with a gun,” says the IT Ukrainian Association’s Vasyuk. “People should be used as efficiently as they can. We are fighting with guns, with laptops, we will keep on going.”"
WBUR; About WBUR's Ethics Guide
"The committee approached the guidelines from the vantage point of WBUR journalists and journalism — while acknowledging the importance of the ethical guidelines and standards that need to be understood and embraced by everyone who works or is associated with WBUR.
The committee used the NPR Ethics Handbook as a structural model and source text, adopted with a WBUR voice. They also addressed ethics issues from a 2021 perspective, recognizing that much has changed in the public media and journalism field since the NPR Handbook was first written a decade ago."
WBUR Ethics Guide PDF: https://d279m997dpfwgl.cloudfront.net/wp/2022/03/WBUR-Ethics-Guidelines.pdf
Carrie Johnson, NPR; Justice Department ends limiting compassionate release in plea deals after NPR story
"The Justice Department is directing prosecutors to stop limiting defendants' ability to seek compassionate release in most federal plea agreements, after advocates criticized the practice as cruel and against the intent of Congress.
DOJ officials handed down the order a month after an NPR story detailed the practice, which curtailed peoples' ability to petition for release from prison because of severe illness or other extraordinary circumstances. That story drew the attention of Attorney General Merrick Garland who this week said it seemed "wrong" and pledged to fix the issue...
The compassionate release program has become a crucial lifeline for people in prison during the coronavirus pandemic, even if the petitions are still granted rarely."
Shannon Vallor, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University; An Ethical Toolkit for Engineering/Design Practice
"The tools below represent concrete ways of implementing ethical reflection, deliberation, and judgment into tech industry engineering and design workflows."
David J. Hickton, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; David J. Hickton: Report for region: People must have voice, stake in algorithms
"The institute that I lead — the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security, or simply Pitt Cyber — formed the Pittsburgh Task Force on Public Algorithms to do precisely that for our region.
We brought together a diverse group of experts and leaders from across the region and the country to study how our local governments are using algorithms and the state of public participation and oversight of these systems.
Our findings should be no surprise: Public algorithms are on the rise. And the openness of and public participation in the development and deployment of those systems varies considerably across local governments and agencies...
Our Task Force’s report — the product of our two-year effort — offers concrete recommendations to policymakers. For example, we encourage independent reviews and public involvement in the development of algorithmic systems commensurate with their risks: higher-risk systems, like those involved in decisions affecting liberty, require more public buy-in and examination."
Will Griffin, Fortune; America must win the race for A.I. ethics
"Buried in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (NDAA), recently signed by President Joe Biden, are two of the most consequential pieces of artificial intelligence (A.I.) legislation ever enacted into law: the Artificial intelligence Capabilities and Transparency (AICT)Act and the Artificial Intelligence for the Military (AIM) Act.
For the first time ever, Congress has signaled that the federal government is finally moving towards defining A.I. ethics as a core requirement of the U.S. national strategy, while also asserting that traditional American values must be integrated into government and Department of Defense (DOD) A.I. use cases.
While this legislation falls far short of the calls for regulation consistent with the European Union model and desired by many in the A.I. ethics community, it plants the seeds of a thoughtful and inevitable A.I. ethics regulatory regime."
Peter Hirschfeld, Vermont Public Radio (VPR); Vermont is one of five states without a statutory code of ethics. A bill in the Senate seeks to change that
"Last month, a federal judge unsealed documents that showed former Gov. Peter Shumlin had accepted gifts and favors from the man who perpetrated the massive EB-5 fraud in the Northeast Kingdom.
Those documents, first covered by VTDigger, reveal that Shumlin’s aides flagged the favors — including free stays in a luxury New York City condominium — as a potential “problem.”
Shumlin’s general counsel, however, advised they needn’t be concerned from a legal perspective at least, because, according to an FBI summary of those conversations, “the state of Vermont does not have a statute regarding gifts, or a requirement for such disclosures.”
Vermont is one of only five states in the country without a statutory code of ethics."
Marie Patino, Bloomberg ; MapLab: The Case for a Cartographer’s Code of Ethics
"In 2017, Kent spearheaded the drafting of the first and only known professional code of cartography ethics for the British Cartographic Society (BCS) while he was the president of the organization. The code upholds five principles: Honesty, integrity, competence, respect and responsibility. It also warns of potential sanctions that can be taken against members if they don’t follow these principles, including being banned from the BCS — though Kent says this hasn’t happened yet.
“There’s an increased sense of responsibility that goes with the idea of mapmaking.” Kent says. “I think cartographers have for too long not really grasped the idea that what they’re doing has immense power to change the way how people see the world.”
Now, momentum for ethical guidelines may be picking up...
Buckley, who created a user group at Esri to discuss best practices and ideas for mapmaking ethics, is planning ethics discussions at other map gatherings this year. “Having good examples, I think, is what we need to move towards next,” Buckley said. “After we come up with a code of ethics, the statements have to be supported by resources that people can look at to understand how to enact ethical practices.”"
Cecilia Kang, The New York Times; Here Comes the Full Amazonification of Whole Foods
"The technology, known as Just Walk Out, consists of hundreds of cameras with a god’s-eye view of customers. Sensors are placed under each apple, carton of oatmeal and boule of multigrain bread. Behind the scenes, deep-learning software analyzes the shopping activity to detect patterns and increase the accuracy of its charges.
The technology is comparable to what’s in driverless cars. It identifies when we lift a product from a shelf, freezer or produce bin; automatically itemizes the goods; and charges us when we leave the store. Anyone with an Amazon account, not just Prime members, can shop this way and skip a cash register since the bill shows up in our Amazon account...
Alex Levin, 55, an 18-year resident of Glover Park, said people should not reject the store’s changes.
“We need to understand the benefits and downsides of the technology and use it to our advantage,” he said...
Many were suspicious of the tracking tech.
“It’s like George Orwell’s ‘1984,’” said Allen Hengst, 72, a retired librarian."
David Ignatius, The Washington Post; Opinion: Travels with Milley: The general brings his ‘big green map’ to NATO’s flank
"On the eve of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Biden ordered Milley and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to brief Congress on what the map showed — and then to give the same briefing, on “deep background,” to the Pentagon press corps. This was a declassified version of code-word intelligence, drawn from communications intercepts, surveillance satellites and spies on the ground. America’s best weapon against Putin, Biden decided, was the truth. The administration had found a way to weaponize intelligence."
, Toronto Star; Law Society of Ontario cancels upcoming bar exams after content allegedly leaked to some candidates
"The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) has cancelled upcoming bar exams slated to begin Tuesday after examination content was allegedly “improperly accessed” by some candidates.
More than 1,000 candidates were set to write the online examinations, which were scheduled from March 8 to 11 and March 22 to 25, the LSO said in a statement issued Saturday.
“This decision has been made as a result of information the Law Society has received which strongly indicates that examination content has been improperly accessed by some candidates, compromising the integrity of the upcoming examination period,” the LSO said.
The breach also affects candidates who had already written the exam."
Irina Raicu, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University; An Upcoming Webinar on AR/VR, Ethics, and Law
Thursday, March 10, 2022 12 Noon PST/3 PM EST
"Irina Raicu is the director of the Internet Ethics program (@IEthics) at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Views are her own.
On Thursday, March 10, we will be hosting an online webinar titled “Virtual Reality, Real Virtues, and Augmented Norms and Laws.” It’s not too late to register and add your questions to this conversation about ethical and legal issues associated with the widening adoption of VR and AR technology!
The panelists presenting will be attorney Brittan Heller—who advises companies on issues such as privacy, content moderation, online harassment, and civic engagement; was the founding director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Technology and Society; and previously worked for the International Criminal Court and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division—and Erick Ramirez, who is an associate professor in Santa Clara University’s Philosophy department, a co-creator of VR analogs of well-known philosophical thought experiments, and the author of a recently published textbook titled The Ethics of Virtual and Augmented Reality: Building Worlds.
The event is part of Santa Clara University’s “IT, Ethics, and Law” lecture series, which is co-sponsored by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the High Tech Law Institute. (Please join our Internet/Technology ethics mailing list if you’d like to be notified of future events in the series.)
For a preview of some of the issues likely to be mentioned in our conversation, see Heller’s 2020 report titled “Reimagining Reality: Human Rights and Immersive Technology,” and Ramirez’s “It’s Dangerous to Think Virtual Reality Is an Empathy Machine.”
Whether or not VR and AR can serve as “empathy machines,” constitute “the future of corporate training,” create new “kids' issues,” require new standards of privacy protection, or do all of the above and more, they are bound to require careful analysis and ongoing conversations."
Jay Caspian Kang, The New York Times; Fighting Disinformation Can Feel Like a Lost Cause. It Isn’t.
"Joel Breakstone, the director of the Stanford History Education Group, believes that there needs to be more attention paid to what, exactly, is taught in these media literacy programs. Frequently used lessons like the memorably named Currency Reliability Authority Purpose (CRAP) test ask students to put their information through a gantlet of questions. But Breakstone believes they do not really work for a variety of reasons, the most salient being that most people don’t really know how to check sources and the reliability of information.
What he and his group suggest, instead, is a more comprehensive approach that teaches kids how to assess not only the reliability of the specific information they’ve found online but also who published it and for what purpose. In doing this, students are looking at the whole ecosystem in which the information resides, which improves their ability to question things that may seem to come from sources that look reputable enough."
Alexa Lisistza, Buzzfeed ; This Woman's Boss Kept Taking Her Work, So She Added A Hidden Signature To Her Presentation, And It's Deliciously Petty
"In hindsight, she said, "I think [managers passing off work as their own is] common because in this field of work, it’s like a lion cage. You need to fight your way up. Literally. No matter who gets hurt."...
Sometimes people forget that they work with people, for people," Cristina concluded. "It doesn’t always have to be a competition. We can work together to grow. We don’t need to steal from each other. We can learn from each other and be better — create a better [workspace]...where everyone is supported and appreciated. But sometimes, I feel like that’s just a dream.""
PBI; Serving on a Nonprofit Board: Basics and Ethical Responsibilities
Wednesday, April 6, 2022, Live Webcast
3 substantive CLE credits | 1:30 pm to 4:45 pm
"Thinking of serving on a nonprofit board? We’ve got you covered.
Many attorneys get the chance to join a nonprofit board. This can be a very rewarding experience to improve your skills and make valuable connections while helping a cause that is meaningful to you. This CLE will explore the role of the Board of Directors and the laws governing nonprofits. You will get training on the basics of nonprofit board service, including charitable issues raised under state and federal laws for current board members.
Explore the nuts and bolts of serving on a nonprofit board
Some topics covered will include:
