SOCIAL & PROFESSIONAL ISSUES: 2011

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Assignment 2 Question 4

The group of people that may be affected is the hospital and patients.In this case when a company release a defect software.The risk are to high for the patients and the hospital and of course the impact of the risk the company have to bear later.A slight mistake done by the doctors or nurses will give harm to the patients. It also will lead the person who made the mistake to be subjected to heavy punishment and of course it also will affect the hospital reputation.

As a software engineer,we should know which one is a critical system and which are not.In this case,this product is a critical system cause it will involve with human life.The product must be reliable and try to found out more bug and fix it before we release the product.

The inventor also will be affected if something goes wrong with the product.Other firm or company will banned the product and inventor.The risk of getting sue by patient or hospital are too high.So the best thing is to fix all the bug and release it when it ready.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Assignment 2 Question 2

Who will benefit if the company follows your recommendation?

As described in question 1, it isn’t clever to take unnecessary risk especially for a start-up company that is newly established even if the problem is minimum. A single problem with the problem in this case can effect people’s lives. I believe that we should take appropriate action that can reduce risks that can jeopardize our company and people's lives.

The decisions has effect on the company, the hospital administration and the patients. If we decide to take the risk to release the product next week and the product becomes defective, it can cause a great loss to the company and our reputation. By postponing the release date to analyze the product, we can avoid the product into becoming defective and cause the company some problems. Although we wouldn’t t be “first to market”, but it is acceptable to be in the 2^ndplace instead of having a product that doesn’t work.

This will also benefit the hospital administration. Although our company may lose a client, but the sensible thing to do is warn them that our product may malfunction and needs to be analyze and tested before release, especially if the product involve around human lives. Hospital staff such as doctors and nurses can avoid many problems that is critical when they are taking care of sick and disabled people. With a defective product, it can effects the work done by the hospital staff to their patients. If procedures such as surgery or medicine is wrongly executed, patients have the rights to sue to hospital. They can also avoid any complications such as patient’s data is corrupted or lost.

I believe that we have made the right decision by not releasing the product next week so that we can properly analyze, debug, and test the product to function properly. Since we won’t be the “first to market”, we can use that time to improve and upgrade so that we can release a better product than the rival’s company and avoid from being out of business.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Assignment Part 2 - Question 1

In the sake of ethics, I as a senior software engineer will not recommend release of the product next week. It is because it is an unethical when giving someone to use a defected product. It may expose the user to danger. In this situation, the end user of the product is the staffs at the hospitals. When we say about hospitals, it involve human being and people lives. A slight mistake done by the doctors or nurses will give harm to the patients. It also will lead the person who made the mistake to be subjected to heavy punishment and of course it also will affect the hospital reputation.

Furthermore, the inventor of the product will be in trouble as they will be blamed on their malfunctioned product which cause lost of human lives. The reputation of their company also will be affected and it is a bad thing if happened to a start-up company.

There are another way they can be competitive in the market such as the inventor of the product can fix all the errors in their products and make sure it works well. Of course it will take some time and perhaps the other company will release the similar product and be the “first to market”. But, the inventor can take opportunity to come up with an improved version of the product which are already in the market. This also can make the company competitive enough in the market without giving harm to anyone.

In conclusion, releasing a product which have many errors is not a good practices and it is unethical. It also will give harm to the user especially when the one who will use the product are human being.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Assignment Part 2 - Question 5

Identify and match the ACM code of ethics that relate to this scenario.
Video Presentation:

As Senior Software Engineer, I can discover that many of the code of ethics are in line with the ethics when I developing this software, whether in General, Professional & Leadership moral.

1. General Moral Imperatives

1.1. Contribute to society and human well-being

An essential aim of computing professionals is to minimize negative consequences of computing systems, including threats to health and safety(1.1, line 3)

The software can contribute to the society since the software will be applied to the customer/the patient in the hospital. This software can improve the the management of the hospital since the employee which is the nurse& doctor must be helping the patient to get better.

1.2 Avoid harm to others

Harmful actions include intentional destruction or modification of files and programs leading to serious loss of resources or unnecessary expenditure of human resources(1.2,line4)

the software that we develop which have a few bugs must be corrected first even it’s gonna take a month because the software is going to applied to the customer which is the patient. What if we applied the software to the hospital?. Of course the one suffer will be the patient.

One way to avoid unintentional harm is to carefully consider potential impacts on all those affected by decisions made during design and implementation.(1.2,line7)

1.3 Be honest and trustworthy

The honest computing professional will not make deliberately false or deceptive claims about a system or system design, but will instead provide full disclosure of all pertinent system limitations and problems. (1.3,line2)

That is one of the company’s properties. The company must be explain the software weakness to the customer so it can avoid any accident caused by the software

1.7 Respect the privacy of others

Computing and communication technology enables the collection and exchange of personal information on a scale unprecedented in the history of civilization.(1.7,line1)

This software will be containing a private data of the patient , doctors & nurses for the management purposes. So as a software engineer, we must try not to read the information of the customer

2. More Specific Professional Responsibilities.

2.1 Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of professional work

The computing professional must strive to achieve quality and to be cognizant of the serious negative consequences that may result from poor quality in a system. (2.1,line1)

The software must be analyzed then fixed the bugs & finally improve the system to be better. Since being professional is being responsible to give the best service to the user.

2.3 know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work

If one decides to violate law or rule because it is viewed as unethical, or for any other reason, one must fully accept responsibility for one's actions and for the consequences. (2.3,line 8)

As a professional, releasing the software that have a few bugswill have a horrible effect to the customer which is the patient. From that mistake, we must accept responsibility for that mistake

2.4 Accept and provide appropriate professional review

Whenever appropriate, individual members should seek and utilize peer review as well as provide critical review of the work of others.(2.4,line 2)

As a professional, we should try to receive any review/critics from others so we can consider the choice that we make is not a mistake.

2.5 Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer systems and their impacts, including analysis of possible risks

Computer professionals are in a position of special trust and therefore have a special responsibility to provide object, credible evaluations to emplyers, clients, users, and the public.(2.5,line2)

As a professional, we need to provide a thorough evaluation to provide a complete explaination of our software

2.6 Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities

A computing professional has a responsibility to request a change in any assignment that he or she feels cannot be completed as defined.(2.6,line5)

Since we must honor the responsibilities given to us. We must try reduce the bugs inside the system when the deadline is nearing. So from there, we can give what the customer truly want from us

2.7 Improve public understanding of computing and its consequences

Computing professionals have a responsiblity to share technical knowledge with the public by encouraging understanding of computing, includng the impacts of computer systems and their limitations.

By giving the complete software description to the customer, we can improve the trust and understanding of the customer.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Week 8 Assignment Question 1

Cell phones with build-in camera is popular these days. You can see that camera phone is becoming a part of our daily life. But there are situations where people took advantage and misuse the concept of a camera phone such as taking pictures or videos of people in a locker room or any location where people don’t like you to take picture of them. You can see that today most people like to take embarassing pictures of their friends and colleague. On a certain situation it is considered as a prank and joke between friends. But when you take embarassing photo of a stranger, it’s a totally different case where you just violated their privacy. For example when you open a your friend’s blog and see a photo of you, you considered it as an acception because that person is still your friend and may just be joking around. But when you open a blog where you have no idea who is the publisher and you see a photo of yourself, you will see it as offensive.
That is why in a certain situation like in a locker room, they don’t allow you to bring in your phone or camera but instead prepare a place where they keep it for you before entering a locker room. The concept of a camera phone is to create a convinience where people don’t have to carry a phone and a camera all the time and in a certain situation where you need to take a photo, a camera is always availabe to you as long as you bring your handphone. Often people like to misuse that concept and violate other people’s privacy. The conclusion is that we should be aware of our surroundings and when we want to do anything that can embarrass us, just remember that there are people that will violate your privacy in for some intertainment.

Copyrights

Copyrights is giving the holder some exclusive rights to control some reproduction of works of authorship, for a certain period of time. The products such as books and music have the copyrights. Copyrights in a work vests initially in the author (writer, composer, maker of the work, etc). However, where the making of a work is made by an employee in the course of his employment, unless there is any contrary agreement, the copyright in the work shall be deemed to vest in the person who commissioned the work or the employer. The author's right is transferable by assignment, testamentary disposition or by operation of law, in which case the assignee shall be the owner (see www.myipo.gov.my). It also provides owner of an original work five rights, which are reproduction, distribution, public display, public performance and production of derivative works. Works that are eligible for protection are literary works, musical works, artistic works, films, sound recordings, broadcasts and derivative works (see www.myipo.gov.my).

Patent

A patent is a document issued by the government office which describes the invention and creates a legal situation in which the patented invention can normally only be exploited (made, used, sold, imported) by or with the authorization of the patentee (see www.lawyerment.com.my). It provides owner with exclusive right to the invention. Owner can prevent invention for 20 years.

Trademark and Service Mark

A trade mark is a sign which distinguishes the goods and services of one trader from those of another. A mark includes words, logos, pictures, names, letters, numbers or a combination of these. A trade mark is used as a marketing tool to enable customers in recognizing the product of a particular trader (www.myipo.gov.my). The example of trademark are Service marks consist of letters, words, symbols, and other devices that help inform consumers about the origin or source of a particular service. Roto-Rooter is an example of a service mark used by a familiar plumbing company (West's Encyclopedia of American Law).

Trade Secret

Trade secrets encompass manufacturing or industrial secrets and commercial secrets. The unauthorized use of such information by persons other than the holder is regarded as an unfair practice and a violation of the trade secret (see http://www.wipo.int). It never expires and not appropriate for all intellectual properties, such as movie. The example of trade secret are the formula for Coca-cola and Colonel Sanders recipe for fried chicken (www.shewchukip.com).

Reference

Perbadanan Harta Intelek Malaysia Official Website (2011).

Retrieved on November 10, 2011

http://www.myipo.gov.my/en/copyright/general-information.html

Lawyerment.com.my (2011)

Retrieved on November 10, 2011

http://www.lawyerment.com.my/intellectual/patent.shtml

Shewchuk IP Services (2011)

Retrieved on November 10, 2011

http://www.shewchukip.com/patent%20examples.htm

Perbadanan Harta Intelek Malaysia Official Website (2011).