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Informatics and professional responsibility

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Abstract

Many problems in software development can be traced to a narrow understanding of professional responsibility. The author examines ways in which software developers have tried to avoid accepting responsibility for their work. After cataloguing various types of responsibility avoidance, the author introduces an expanded concept of positive responsibility. It is argued that the adoption of this sense of positive responsibility will reduce many problems in software development.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer and Information Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Box 70711, 37614, Johnson City, TN, USA

    Donald Gotterbarn (Professor)

Authors
  1. Donald Gotterbarn
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Correspondence to Donald Gotterbarn.

Additional information

An earlier version of this paper was written for inclusion in S. Rogerson and T. W. Bynum, eds., Computer Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Blackwell, (in press). Prepublished here with permission from the author and the editors.

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Gotterbarn, D. Informatics and professional responsibility. SCI ENG ETHICS 7, 221–230 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-001-0043-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-001-0043-5

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