Ethics and Human Behaviour in ICT Development: International Case Studies with a Focus on Poland

Ethics and Human Behaviour in ICT Development discusses ethics in a professional context and encourages readers to self-assessment of their own behaviour. It provides thought-provoking accounts of the little-known early history of technological development in information and communication technology (ICT) and the automation industry in Poland, with a focus on Wroclaw. The book provides a framework for understanding the relationship between ethics and behaviour, and analyses critically ethical and behavioural issues in challenging workplaces and social contexts. It includes:

• case studies from around the world, especially Poland, which illustrate the relationships between human behaviour and ethics;
• biographies of successful Polish ICT and automation leading designers;
• analysis of case studies of human behaviour and ethics in challenging industrial development and other environments; and
• illustrative practical applications alongside the theory of human behaviour and ethics.

The authors demonstrate the ingenuity of the early Polish designers, programmers and other specialists in overcoming the shortage of components caused by import embargoes to enable Poland to develop its own computer industry. An example of this is Elwro, formerly the largest manufacturer of computers in Poland. The discussion of its growth illustrates the potential of human creativity to overcome problems. The discussion of its fall highlights the importance of ethical approaches to technology transfer and the dangers of a colonialist mentality.

The book is designed for engineers, computer scientists, researchers and professionals alike, as well as being of interest for those broadly concerned with ethics and human behaviour.

Dr Józef Bohdan Lewoc was one of the original Polish ICT pioneers and is familiar with many of the others, as colleagues, friends, students and teachers. He was the leading designer for several important projects on Polish computer systema and network applications, particularly in the power system. He has also carried out research on computers systems and networks, both those he developed and others, with a particular focus on performance evaluation and robustness.   

For the last twelve years Bohdan has been involved in investigation of ethical and human behaviour aspects of the information and communication technology and automation. He has a one-person research and translation firm BPBIT Leader LLC. He is a chartered electronic engineer and a chartered mathematician (with distinction).

He has 280 publications.  Previous books include a monograph in English and Polish on Performance Evaluation Problems for Actual Computer Networks and book chapters Engineering Ethics Problems in a Developing Country and  Human Behaviour Case Studies for the ICT and Automation Industry in Poland.

Dr Marion Hersh is a senior lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Glasgow. She is both a chartered engineer and a chartered mathematician with a first degree in mathematics and a PhD in control engineering. She currently carries out interdisplinary research in assistive technology, disability studies, engineering ethics and accessible and sustainable design. 

Her previous books include Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability, Mathematical Modelling for Sustainable Development and two books on Assistive Technology, for blind and deaf people respectively. She set up and convenes the Working Group on Ethics of the International Federation of Automatic Control and has published articles and has published journal articles on narrative ethics, stereotyping and ethics, whistleblowing and barriers to engineering ethics.  She has organised several invited sessions on engineering, technology and ethics. 

She has organised and chaired a series of six international conferences on Assistive Technology for People with Hearing and Sight Impairments, an international conference on Using New Technologies for Inclusive Learning, and an international conference on Barriers and Enablers to Learning Maths, with another planned for 2017. She recently researched the travel experiences and need for new technologies of blind, visually impaired and deaf-blind people in 10 different countries on a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship and is currently researching the experiences of autistic women. Her assistive technology development projects include a communication glove for deaf-blindpeople, smart travel aids for blind people and devices to support leisure travel for blind people. She has developed a three-component model of the causes of conflict, a three-component model of the travel processes of blind people and a classication and evaluation framework for ICT-based learning technologies for disabled people and co-developed the Comprehensive Assistive Technology (CAT) model.  

Dr Hersh is a member of Scientists for Global Responsibility and vice-chair of the International Federation of Automatic Control Working Group Tecis 9.5.  She speaks eight languages fluently and has basic to moderate knowledge of a number of others, including British Sign Language.