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Today, I was thinking about what a code of ethics for the Profession of Information Technology should include.  I jumped on to Google to start looking at what had been done previously and I found something very surprising to me.  Though, I have been an Information Professional for years and had never seen a Code of Ethics published, many other organizations had them.  Here are some examples of what I found:

  1. Webster University’s Information Technology Department
  2. Kansas State University IT Department
  3. The Association of Information Technology Professionals
  4. The Association of Computer Machinery

The amazing finding, to me, was that there were dozens of examples online and they were all completely different.  While most had similar themes, their lengths varied from sentences to pages, their context varied from suggestions to imperatives, and their enforcement mechanisms ranged from non-existent to draconian.  Many seemed written for varied audiences.  Some were to users…others to management.  Some were highly technical and others more generic.  They had no common thrust or direction.

Most of all, my take away was that if there is absolutely no standardization in these codes, then the profession, as a whole, has no common framework for a code of ethics.  And, I think that we need one now.

The Hippocratic Oath forms the ethical underpinning of nearly every medical professional on the planet.  I firmly believe that we need something very similar.  I am going to start working on a suggested one, but would welcome suggestions, thoughts, and inputs.  Let me know what you think needs to be addressed in it, please.

Does your organization already have a code of ethics established for ITs?  Do you agree with any of the examples provided?  What would you include in one?

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for January 1, 2010 ©Scott Coughlin .

Image Credit: Dave Fleet

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