[Sigia-l] morality in IA

[Bill Darnall]

Christina,

Of course there is no single answer. Questions about ethics and morality
have no answers, other than, "it depends." Yet, one's conscience, yearns to
know the truth, or at least the way of the truth.

I believe that in the real world it is important to strive for excellence,
since I don't have time to wait for perfection. So the quality and value of
my work is a matter of degree and value judgment, and oh yes, perspective. I
believe that all taxonomies are prejudiced; we all have our own prejudicial
views of things. Its the nature of being human. Its the nature of growing up
in a particular environment. A taxonomy created by a child would possibly be
different than one created when he or she was a mature adult. We are a
reflection of the society in which we grow up. Today, our society is much
more the world than ever before. So you concern is right on.

For myself, I believe I have an obligation to present the facts in a way
that will be truthful and useful for the user. That means there must be some
criteria by which my work is judged. Did I meet or exceed the criteria? That
answer is what must control. Even then, no everyone will agree with the
criteria. I doubt that it will ever satisfy all people in all places for all
time. For example, the use of the same color or gesture may have wildly
different meanings in different cultures. What if there is no criteria?
Well, it depends.

Bill D.


Christina Wodtke wrote

>And I am more and more haunted by this idea. Ever since I read
>Classification and It's Consequences (A book I can't really recommend,
>except for the chapter on apartheid, but that chapter makes up for the
rest,
>so I dunno...) I've been really haunted by the responsibility we carry as
>organizer of knowledge. The stereotypes and predujudices we bring to our
>work, the new thinking excellent organization can offer, the opportunity to
>help folks make connections that weren't immediately obvious-- or hide
>critical information.
>
>Talking to Yahoo! Sufers (the folks who make the directory) I find they
>grabble with moral questions all the time-- such as should they list Bin
>Ladin's guide to bomb making page?
>
>Do anyone else feel like what we do isn't just mucking around in the dotpop
>land anymore? that we have obligations?
>
>Designers have been thinking aobut this for some time. Maybe we, as
>Structural designers, need to incoporate this into our work..