A Rationale for the Proposed Revision of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Code of Professional Conduct
Ronald E. Anderson
Background of the ACM Code of Professional Conduct
The current ACM Code of Professional Conduct was developed between 1969 and
1972 and adopted by the ACM Council in 1973. At that time there was no such
thing as international data communications networks, and phrases like ‘computer
virus’ and ‘computer inequity’ were unheard of. New p73 technology
and new ethical issues quickly outdate the code, but the substance of ACM’s
Code has not been revised in 20 years. In 1990, the ACM’s SIGCAS (Special
Interest Group on Computers and Society) decided to address the need to review
and revise the ACM Code. A grant from the ACM SIG Discretionary Fund launched
the “Ethics Project” in the summer of 1990. A small task force to
revise the code emerged later.
The project held its first public meeting on September 9, 1990. Over 50 people
participated in this all day SIGCAS Ethics Symposium. The symposium included
reports of research on computer ethics as well as presentations on different
approaches to teaching computer ethics. But the main accomplishment was the
delineation of a large, diverse set of issues in computer ethics and the clarification
of many problems underlying revision of the ACM Code.
In March 1991 during the ACM meetings in San Antonio, an open forum was held
to collect additional input and to determine the next steps. From this meeting
emerged a consensus on several procedural and policy issues. Prior to this meeting
we solicited comments and suggestions from ACM officers and specialists in computer
ethics.
At the June 20, 1991 meeting of the ACM Council, the members were polled on
their opinions regarding possible revision of the ACM Code of Professional Conduct.
In general there was agreement on the directions to revise and expand the Code.
The ACM Council is the most important organizational unit with respect to the
revision process because the ACM Constitution (Article 6, Section 8) states
that the ACM Council “shall adopt, maintain, enforce and conspicuously
publish and display to all members and the public a code of professional ethics
which shall be binding on all members.” One way it fulfills this function
is by requiring that new membership sign that they subscribe to the purpose
of ACM “to develop and maintain the integrity and competence of individuals
engaged in the practice of information processing.”
The next step is the public review process took place during the week of August
12 – 16, 1991 at the National Conference on Computing and Values (NCCV)
in New Haven, Conn. During this week many long and lively discussions were held
to revise the first draft of the revision of the ACM Code. The task force has
assembled the numerous suggestions from these individual and public meetings
in its latest draft (draft No. 18) of the revision.
Go to: An Approach to Revision of the Code
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