Ged Carroll

Category: ethics | 倫理 | 윤리학

Ethics: moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. I went to school with people who ended up on the wrong side of the law. I knew more of them when I used to DJ which was my hobby since before I went to college.

I probably still have some post-it notes around the place that I used as bookmarks from when I used to work at a call centre but that was about the extent of my ethical transgressions.

My business experience meant that I dealt with a lot of unpleasant unprofessional clients, but didn’t necessarily see anything unethical in nature. When I started writing this blog I was thinking about culture rather than ethics and the most part still do.

But business and work changed. Ethics became more important:

  • When I started in social and digital campaigns I didn’t think about ethics as a standalone thing. It was just part of doing a good job. It went without saying.
  • I don’t think any of us back then would have foreseen slut shaming, trolling, online bullying, dark patterns and misinformation

Now things are different. The lack of ethics is impacting all parts of business life.

  • How ad tech data is used
  • How content is created
  • How services are designed
  • How products are made

I think that much of the problems with ethics is cultural and generational in nature. The current generation of entrepreneurs have perverted knowledge in the quest of growth hacking and continual improvement and change for its own sake. Its a sickness at the centre of technology

  • News Of The World

    I was getting ready to give my presentation at the CIPR the other evening when the news broke on Twitter about the News of The World. There was a sense (which I personally believe to be wrong) that this was going to result in a revolution that would:

    • Take down News Corporation
    • Radically change the standards of journalism

    I want to hear a revolution out there

    When Karl Marx wrote his book The Communist Manifesto, he would have anticipated that the class struggle would have gone into revolution in the United Kingdom. At that time, the country was pioneering the industrial revolution and many members of society had every reason to be dissatisfied with their lot in life. Instead his writings inspired revolutions in the mainly agrarian societies of Russia and China. Whilst, the UK provides foreigners like Marx and Engel with the freedom to express their views in a manner that wouldn’t have been tolerated in their native Germany, the country also had an effective state security mechanism in the Special Branch of the police. But writers and thinkers have speculated that there is also something ‘counter revolutionary’ in the UK psyche.

    Probably the closest we came to seeing it was the economic induced Jarrow march and the industrial disputes of the 1970s; which were as much a kick back against useless management teams in companies and a lack of investment, as they were a rising up of the proletariat.

    Social rather than political movements didn’t get much further; the summer of love brought the modern fractured nuclear family. The backlash of punk ushered in the yuppie and the ravers of 1988 that were a reaction to the grim social and cultural reality of Thatcherite Britain with a bit of weekend hedonism turned into the controlling Big Society of today. All of these events felt as if the world was going to be changed; but it didn’t in any meaningful way. The UK hasn’t had a media industry equivalent of the Arab spring.

    Most of the noise around this is happening on Twitter and in the media of the middle classes rather than the heartland of the News of The World. They don’t speak for the minicab driver, the hairdresser, the plumber or the joiner; who are more likely to be worried about the latest antics of Cheryl Cole and where are they going to find the same quality of sports reporting in another Sunday paper?

    News Corporation resilience

    Rupert Murdoch has experienced many ups and downs as he built News Corporation and whilst the current News Of The World scandal is no doubt upsetting it isn’t the closest his business has come to going under. In terms of the organisation as a whole, the boiler plate on News Corporation press releases says everything that needs to be said:

    News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total assets as of March 31, 2011 of approximately US$60 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$33 billion. News Corporation is a diversified global media company with operations in six industry segments: cable network programming; filmed entertainment; television; direct broadcast satellite television; publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin America.

    As a business it exists pretty much as they present it, it is not a paper tiger like the investment banks or Enron and the current event is considered in the wider world to be a UK issue, so there is little likelihood of contagion to his other properties worldwide in terms of lasting reputational damage.

    Regroup, rebrand

    As the News Of The World shut down, rumours swirled around about The Sun going to a seven-day production. There is a strong business case for them to do this and the current phone hacking scandal debate just provided a great catalyst. Moving to a seven-day newspaper provides a number of opportunities for News International:

    • The Sun’s brand has been stronger and it simplifies the company’s brand portfolio; money is only required to support one brand
    • It allows News International to remove duplication, particularly at senior levels within the papers, so reducing the wage bill whilst increasing profitability

    Unlike the Wapping strikes of the 1980s News Of The World journalists being laid off would have little sympathy from the public at large; I doubt even the NUJ would be likely to back them in the face of the current scandal. This provides News International with a unique opportunity to rebrand and regroup around it’s flagship Sun brand. I think that it’s no coincidence that Rebekah Brooks said that News International would seek to ensure that as many of the journalists as possible were re-employed as soon as possible.

    Confluence of interest

    The proposed media revolution exposes too many interests to chaos and the system like a knitted jumper is too intertwined: pull one thread and the entire sweater would unravel leaving something useless behind. It is in no one’s long term interest to tug on that thread.

    In 1992, with the re-election of a Conservative government backed by News International’s media The Sun ran a headline ‘It’s The Sun Wot Won It’. Tony Blair worked hard to build a relationship with Rupert Murdoch and one of the factors that was seen to help him win power was the tacit approval of the News International papers. Like the political power masters of old, News International can move a bigger block of voters than the Guardian Media Trust papers or the Trinity Mirror Group.

    Secondly, for every story that gets run, there are ten papers that don’t see the light of day. What would happen if the media was threatened?

    Ethics: the thin end of the wedge

    There is speculation that the phone hacking tactics that News of The World employees and contractors have been accused of has also been practiced at other media publications and that evidence will come to light of contagion of dishonesty. A measure of how true that is, was the desire for British journalists to work on the US equivalent of the UK red tops because of their unique no-holds barred approach.

    • What about payments for stories? Do these induce whistle-blowing for profit, or computer hacking?
    • What about dumpster-diving?
    • Or getting people drunk to then interrogate them?
    • What about the use of blackmail to persuade sources to cooperate which was one of the allegations made in the Max Moseley case?
    • How ethical is if for the government or organisations to leak stories?
    • Will journalists now need to be completely transparent about ‘sources close to the matter’? This would mean that journalists couldn’t pad their articles out with speculation, but it also means that PR teams would have to restrict access to spokespeople as briefings couldn’t be done to provide context or background without attribution

    The interface between society and the media would fall apart with the media left out in the cold about hard news stories. The social norming around these issues would be shut down and the sausage factory would be put back under wraps before lasting damage is done or the ramifications in business, politics and even the arts would ripple through every aspect of society. It is an imperfect system as it is, but one that works for most of the people most of the time.

    The media marketplace

    The Romans used to talk about ‘bread and circuses’ to keep a population happy and there is still an element of truth in that phrase today. The News of The World and their peers fill that gap. A media that falls to deliver to that need, fails to sell to a large proportion of the UK population. Whilst lip service may be paid to high standards, journalists will have to deliver what ever is required to keep the printing presses running and the website online. Despite the moral stance of O2 amongst others in pulling advertising from The News of The World; advertisers generally follow the audience in terms of their media spend. More media related commentary can be found here.

    More reading

    Did Twitter kill a newspaper? Of course not – GigaOM

    Phone Hacking Scandal live updates – The Guardian

    Why did Murdoch close the News Of The World? Daily View – BBC News blog

    Message from Rebekah Brooks to all News International staff

    Statement from Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO, News Corporation regarding the phone hacking allegations

  • The wisdom of mobs

    Old media historically took a pride in its ability to spur the public into action, a classic example would be The Sun’s headline from April 11, 1992 which trumpeted ‘It’s The Sun Wot Won It’. In this case claiming that The Sun’s readers had turned the tide of an election. There is also a darker side to this: the wisdom of mobs. 

    I have been interested in how mob behaviour or the shifting of public opinion has been changed by social media and affected consumer behaviour with ‘the wisdom of mobs’.  The recent super injunction debate has again brought it to the fore, as has Anonymous and Wikileaks.

    This has all had another subtle effect, as evidenced by this quote from Jamie East, founder of HolyMoly:

    “There are fewer gobshites who aren’t media-trained and surrounded by PRs, so it’s more difficult to find things to write about. And the ‘pap’ agencies aren’t getting the pictures they used to.”

    East is describing in his own colourful way an awareness and responsibility about their own reputation, or as Singaporean blogger Pat Law put it:

    As long as the information is online, even if you’ve placed it on private mode, your privacy is automatically placed on a pedestal for potential abuse. So never publish anything you don’t want people to know online.

    This is one side to a multi-stranded solution to the wisdom of mobs problem:

    • Behavioural – individuals need to take responsibility for their actions and what they say, reputation isn’t managed: reputation is, as reputation does
    • Social – we have yet to develop an appropriate civic society online. Towns on the American frontier appointed sheriffs and town councils to try and bring a modicum of justice and decorum during the pioneering days. These appointments were symptoms of a wider awaking towards thinking less about the individual and more about the kind of society that they were creating on the frontier. We need a similar awakening for online. Secondly a better civic society, should be able to organise lobbying that is as effective as that currently done by vested interests on behalf of disrupted interests like the ABPI and Warner Music; otherwise these groups will continue to enjoy undue succor – what politicians fail to see is that these groups are the British Leyland or the Northern Rock of the digital age
    • Legislative – this is the one that I am most concerned about for a number of reasons. Politicians of all sides are not good at giving up surplus powers and striking down legislation, instead keeping it to one side for a rainy day. The Labour administration of Tony Blair kept the Criminal Justice and Public Order act of 1994 including its controversial part V dealing with criminalising rave culture. The current conservative government has kept the Digital Economy Act in place, despite the fact that it adversely affects their ability to spur digital innovation and inclusion. The threat of legislation allows politicians to adjust behaviour in industries, for instance: self-censorship by UK ISPs by Ed Vaizey. It is virtually impossible to find a legislative body with the suitably sustained light touch required
    • Governance – effective and transparent governance mechanisms for governance in commercial issues would mean that there would be less of a public interest in gossip. Allegations surrounding Fred Goodwin would have been more appropriately investigated as part of his management of the Royal Bank of Scotland
    • Professionalism – the media has a responsibility to lift its own content out of the gutter of sensationalism. They need to man up and take responsibility for the wisdom of mobs, but they won’t. There simply isn’t a desire to do decent investigative journalism or thought-provoking analysis. It is probably not considered commercially viable to do it (though the audience of documentaries at the cinema seems to suggest otherwise), there aren’t the journalists with the right set of skills and mindset: where are the next Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein or Seymour Hersh?

    More ethics related content can be found here.

  • IBM fellows + more news

    IBM fellows

    New IBM Fellows push computing frontiers – IBM fellows are the company’s most prolific innovators. This batch of IBM fellows is interesting because it is a good indication of technology areas which will be hot: question-and-answer systems, a holistic approach to hardware and software design (like Apple), mathematical modelling for environmental risk management, stream computing, network optimised computer operating systems, cloud services, virtualised data centres and semiconductor design verification tools / processes (presumably to deal with increasing complexity and parallel processing at the silicon level)

    Business

    Helen Wang On China’s Opportunities. She’s Not Dreaming. : China Law Blog – luxury, healthcare, education and green tech are foreign companies opportunities. Basically most of the west is screwed

    Design

    Warm Respect for a Scottish Ruin – NYTimes.com – I love the way you have a house within a house on this design, could think of a few places in Ireland where this would work a treat

    Economics

    Revenge of the Invisible Hand – By Bruce Everett | Foreign Policy – this of course also means that much of the FTSE-related portfolios depending on Shell and BP for its value is screwed

    Big Oil In Turnaround – By Edward C. Chow | Foreign Policy – good write-up on the current state of what were the 7 Sisters of the oil industry. I’d be more worried about energy security than the environment now

    What exactly is made in China? | FT.com – rising wages encouraging clothing to move elsewhere in Southeast Asia

    Luxury

    Chanel’s cruise control | Material World | Vanessa Friedman blogs on the fashion and luxury industry for the Financial Times – FT.com

    Media

    U.S. Bill To Criminalize Illicit Movie / Music Streaming | TorrentFreak

    Leaked “ACTA” Lobby Letter Reveals Hollywood Pressure On EU | TorrentFreak – what is of interest is that they want to bypass the judiciary and push this into law

    Online

    Study Says Spam Can Be Cut by Blocking Card Transactions – NYTimes.com – interesting that law enforcement hasn’t been looking at this

    Security

    Why you can’t really anonymize your data – O’Reilly Radar – the ethics of big data need to be thought out and you have to ask questions about the ethics of how healthcare research is executed in the future

    Software

    Android vaults to smartphone lead as Nokia faces ‘ugly’ future | guardian.co.uk

    Did Microsoft pay for the wrong Skype? | asymco – interesting analysis

    Technology

    Zennstrom: private investors take the profits | FT.com – interesting ethical questions brought up

  • Power & more news

    Power

    Weekend Essay by Jonah Lehrer: How Power Affects Us – WSJ.com – “… the paradox of power. The very traits that helped leaders accumulate control in the first place all but disappear once they rise to power. Instead of being polite, honest and outgoing, they become impulsive, reckless and rude. In some cases, these new habits can help a leader be more decisive and single-minded, or more likely to make choices that will be profitable regardless of their popularity. One recent study found that overconfident CEOs were more likely to pursue innovation and take their companies in new technological directions. Unchecked, however, these instincts can lead to a big fall.” – in this reading essay about power, I was reminded about Roman history and the role of Auriga. The Auriga was a slave who drove the two horse chariots and stood behind Ceasar holding his laurel crown above his head during triumphal parades called ‘Roman Triumphs’. The Roman Triumphs celebrated and sanctified Roman victories and were demonstrations of power. But the Auriga would be continually whispering in the leaders ear ‘momento more’ remember you are mortal. Where are the Aurigas for our leaders across the seats of power in the government, business and the media?

    Design

    SOPHISTICATION: Hirofumi Kiyonaga and Hiroshi Fujiwara | Hypebeast – I need to go and see this next time I am in Hong Kong

    Electronics Designers Struggle With Form, Function and Obsolescence – NYTimes.com – NYTimes.com – Interesting essay on design. Electronics products are not engineered based on function defining form and are not built to last according to design experts

    How to

    5 Ways To Download Torrents Anonymously | TorrentFreak – handy for seeding content. Just remember just because its anonymous doesn’t mean that it won’t be ‘suspicious’ activity under the Digital Economy Act

    vinyl recorder – cut your own vinyl discs

    Japan

    FT.com / Management – How Seiko dissidents called time – fascinating tale of how Seiko cleaned house in its senior management

    Online

    European Governments Unleash Online Gambling to Help Fill Coffers – NYTimes.com – pragmatism reigns in Europe

    Will Yahoo China Find A Search Suitor? – China Real Time Report – WSJ – Baidu makes much more sense

    danah boyd | apophenia » Social Steganography: Learning to Hide in Plain Sight – even more complex when you think about the work | client relationships that may be on social networks as well

    The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets – WSJ.com – I have said for a while, but I think society needs to work out what is acceptable practice online from both individuals and corporates. Stories like this whilst nothing new in terms of content make me feel that that reckoning is coming closer

    Shopping

    audioScope – amazing collection of hi-fi

    Technology

    Information technology in transition: The end of Wintel | The Economist – What a dramatic introduction: “THEY were the Macbeths of information technology (IT): a wicked couple who seized power and abused it in bloody and avaricious ways.”

    Telecoms

    Nokia Declines to Go All In on Chips – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com – interesting misunderstanding about Apple’s approach on silicon. I don’t disagree with Tirri’s point on the pendulum between specialist and general purpose silicon. Where I disagree is in terms of it all being about power, rather than space and power consumption. Apple optimises existing chip designs rather doing its own

    Wireless

    MediaTek and NTT Docomo in 4G alliance | FT.com – interesting following on from the Nokia | Renesas deal. Am sure Qualcomm and Intel won’t be happy

  • Whole Earth Discipline

    One of the problems that I have with many environmental tracts is that they articulate their message as an anti-science based dogma rather than as a discussion where you can make your own mind up. That issue and Stewart Brand’s status as a nexus point between green issues, counterculture, technology, web communities and futurism made Whole Earth Discipline a must-read book book for me.

    The whole earth of the title is a nod to history: The story goes that Brand inspired by the use of acid started a campaign to get a photograph of the whole earth published. He sold badges with Why haven’t we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet? on them and found a grassroots movement around it. He rightly summised the image would be a powerful symbol. This was a key point in the history of the modern green movement.

    Stewart was responsible for publishing The Whole Earth Catalog and The WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link). The Whole Earth Catalog was a regularly published book of useful information not mediated by authority that sprang out of hippie culture – a kind of Wikipedia of its day. The WELL is the proto-social network which connected a diverse range of technocrats, artists and journalists who would go on to play an important part in the modern web and set the libertarian point-of-view of the digerati – its got some great content on there and I would recommend that anyone interested join – my user name is ged if you want to reach out to me there. The netizen mantra that information wants to be free was taken from a speech that Brand gave in 1984 at the first Hackers Conference.

    If you want to know more about Stewart I can recommend Fred Turner’s From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Its a big book but a great read that I completed cover-to-cover one time on a flight to Hong Kong.

    Whole Earth Discipline breaks down into two distinct parts. The first part builds on the famous Environmental Heresies essay that Brand published in the MIT Technology Review five years ago. He brings this up to date by surveying the current knowledge on the planet and the solutions that we are likely to require such as widespread use of nuclear power, the use of solar energy as a personal household level and encouraging populations into cities, away from sprawling suburbs.

    The second part of the book is demystifying some of the current green dogmas like the evils of genetic modification with a critical eye and taking an unvarnished look at some of the most prominent campaigning organisations out there such as Greenpeace and Friends of The Earth.  According to Brand tens of thousands of people died of starvation in Zambia because of a lobbying campaign to the country’s leadership by environmentalists complaining about poison Frankenfoods.

    The book is a thoughtful, engaging, well-researched book on environmental issues that we all face together with ideas on how to address current and future challenges. It is also valuable for communications people working in difficult areas such as energy and biotechnology who are often faced with dogma-based campaigns by well-meaning but misguided organisations. More book reviews can be found here.