Introduction
The
purposes
of this paper is to give an account of recent activities in search of a
code of global information ethics, particularly related to several
regional conferences and declarations under the patronage of UNESCO as
contributions to the information society. Such a code makes sense only
if it is the product of a patient and collaborative work between
different regions and cultures taking into consideration their
commonalities, but also respecting their differences and priorities
with regard to ethical principles and values. A paradigmatic example of
such a code is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), as
wellas other international declarations, such as the Oviedo Declaration
on Human Rights in relation to Biology and Medicine (Oviedo 1997) and
the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and the Rights of Man
adopted by UNESCO in 1997 (UNESCO 1997). There are also examples of
such declarations issued by non-governmental institutions, such as the
Principles of Global Ethics by the Global Ethics Foundation (2009)
based on the ideas and commitment of the theologian Hans Küng.
The ethical dimensions of the global information society became part of
the UNESCO agenda. Since 1997, UNESCO initiated a series of events
enabling specialists and decision-makers to address the ethical
dimensions of the information society. The main goal of the UNESCO
INFOethics Congresses, organized in 1997, 1998 and in 2000, was to
stimulate reflection and debate on the ethical, legal and societal
aspects of the information society by bringing together participants
from the largest possible number of countries representing the widest
range of educational, scientific, cultural and social environments. The
ethical, legal and societal implications of information and
communication technologies (ICTs) are also one of the three priorities
of UNESCO's Information for All Programme (IFAP).
At both
the
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) meetings held in Geneva
(December 2003) and Tunis (November 2005) the debate on the ethical
dimensions and challenges facing global information society received
very specific attention. Following the first meeting in Geneva two
relevant documents were published, namely the Declaration of Principles
and the Plan of Action. The second summit in Tunis agreed on two
further documents, namely the Tunis Commitment and the Tunis Agenda for
the Information Society (WSIS 2003/2005). In paragraphs 55-56, the
Declaration of Principles clarifies the ethical dimensions of the
information society. In this document it is stated amongst others that
the global information society must uphold the fundamental values of
human freedom:
- human rights should be respected;
- there should be no abusive use of
modern ICTs.
Part C10
of
the Plan of Action furthermore states that 'the Information Society
should be subject to universally held values and promote the common
good and to prevent abusive uses of ICTs' (par. 25). It declares a
number of actions including:
- all stakeholders should increase the
awareness of the
ethical dimensions of the information society;
- all actors in the information society
should promote the
common good;
- stakeholders, including academia, are
invited to continue
research on the ethical dimensions of ICTs.
In the
Tunis
Agenda for the information society this specific commitment to the
Geneva Declaration of Principles as well as the Action Plan were
confirmed (WSIS 2003/2005). In 2003, the UNESCO General Conference
adopted the recommendation on the 'Promotion and use of multilingualism
and universal access to cyberspace'. It stated that 'Member States and
international organizations should recognise and support universal
access to the internet as an instrument for promoting the realisation
of
the human rights as defined in Articles 19 and 27 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights' (UNESCO 2003). One important aim of UNESCO
in this field is to adopt a Global Code of Ethics based on regional
discussions and agreements. Since then, several regional meetings under
the patronage of UNESCO have taken place. It is against this
background that we propose to interpret a variety of global
information ethics initiatives spearheaded by the International Center
for Information Ethics (ICIE) and other academic institutions.
From Karlsruhe to Tshwane and
Magaliesburg
Karlsruhe 2004
The
first
initiative was an international symposium on information ethics held in
2004 in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was organised by the ICIE and sponsored
by the Volkswagen Foundation. Leading international experts in the
field of information ethics from countries all over the world –
namely Argentina, Austria, Cameroon, Canada, China,
Croatia, Dominican
Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico,
Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United
States – were
invited to participate. The symposium, the firs of this kind in the
world, also brought together experts with different scientific and
professional backgrounds, such as computer science, library and
information science, media studies, engineering, management, economics,
and law. What made this meeting particularly unique was its dealing
with a highly relevant technological phenomenon, namely the internet,
from an ethical and intercultural perspective. The intertwining of
these perspectives is now called intercultural information ethics (Wong
2009, Carbo and Smith 2008; Hongladarom and Ess 2007, Brey 2007).
Although
this was the first international meeting focusing on this matter, it is
important to recall other international conferences such as CATaC
(Cultural Attitudes Towards Technology and Communication), ETHICOMP
(Ethics and Computing) and CEPE (Computer Ethics: Philosophical
Enquiry) where information ethics issues have been addressed since the
middle to end of the 1990s.
How
is the embodiment of human life possible within local cultural
traditions and the horizon of a global digital environment? This
symposium introduced these questions from three perspectives:
- internet for social and political
development: community
building;
- internet for cultural development:
restructuring the
media;
- internet for economic development:
empowering the people.
The
ethical perspective on intercultural aspects of the global digital
network is a normative as well as a formative one. The symposium
addressed the question of how people with different cultural
backgrounds integrate the internet into their lives. This concerns:
- Firstly the question of community
building was
considered. How far does the internet affect, for better for worse,
local community building? How far does it allow democratic
consultation?
How do people construct their lives within this medium? How does
it affect their customs, languages and everyday problems? The question
about information justice is thus not just an issue of giving everybody
access to the global network (a utopian goal?) but rather an issue of
how the digital network helps people to better manage their lives while
avoiding the dangers of exploitation and discrimination.
- Secondly, the symposium dealt with the
changes produced
by the internet in traditional media, such as oral and written customs,
newspapers, radio and television, the merger of mass media, the
telephone and the internet, and the impact of the internet on literary
culture. The symposium also reflected on the next generation of
information and communication technologies, such as ubiquitous
computing and on what might be called the post-internet era. This
aspect of the ethical question focuses on new methods of manipulation
and control made possible or aggravated by the internet.
- Finally, the question of the economic
impact of the
internet was addressed. Is it a medium that opens up opportunities for
economic development? Or is it an instrument of oppression and
colonialism? What is the impact of this technology on the environment?
How does it affect what has been called cultural memory of cultural
sustainability?
The
proceedings of the ICIE symposium were published in the International Review of Information Ethics
(IRIE 2004) as well as in Capurro et al. (2007).
Tshwane 2007
At the symposium in Karlsruhe it became clear that the
African
continent was not well represented in the field. There were only two
Africans in attendance, both expatriates. In debating the reasons for
the lack of African scholars, it became clear that there were many
possible reasons. Some relate to the mere fact that many African
scholars are unknown to other international scholars and as a
consequence were not invited to attend. Lack of funding to attend
international events was also a stumbling block, as was difficulty in
obtaining visas to travel. Last, but not least, not many African
scholars were doing research on this very important topic. Based on the
sheer numbers or lack of numbers of scholarly publications, it seemed
that African scholars did not have much to offer their global
counterparts on the ethical challenges facing Africa in the era of
globalization. Rafael Capurro did a search on publications related to
African information ethics by African scholars and came across a
limited number of publication (Capurro in ANIE n.d.).
The
authors
of this article concluded that there was and still is indeed urgent
need
to integrate leading African scholars into the international ethics
debate on the impact of new information and communication technologies
in Africa. the first ever Africa Information Ethics Conference that
took place 5-7 February 2007 in Tshwane, South Africa was also
conceived and planned as part of the implementation of Action Line C10
of the Geneva Plan of Action , thanks to the financial support of the
South African Department of Communications under the auspices of
UNESCO. More than 90 scholars representing more than 20 countries
attended, most of them from Africa. The theme of the conference was
'The Joy of Sharing Knowledge'. The conference covered several topics
including:
- respect for human dignity,
information-based rights;
- freedom of expression;
- freedom of access to information;
- information wrongdoings, information
corruption,
information injustice;
- cultural diversity and globalisation;
- protection and promotion of indigenous
knowledge;
- global security, human security,
privacy, transparency
- e-government and related topics;
- cultural diversity and development;
- using ICTs for better life in Africa:
case studies;
- internet and exclusion (socio-political
and economic
exclusion)
- North-South flow of information and
information
imperialism;
- brain drain in Africa.
The
proceedings were published in the International
Review of Information Ethics (IRIE 2007) as well as a book The Africa Reader of information ethics (Capurro
et al. 2010) with a selection of papers. The attendees agreed to form a
network of professionals interested in information ethics from an
African perspective. The Africa Network for Information Ethics (ANIE)
was soon created. The participants of the Africa conference adopted the
Tshwane Declaration n Information Ethics in Africa.
Magaliesburg 2009
Based on the experience and input of the participants of
the Tshwane
conference, several areas of potential cooperation with UNESCO were
identified that would not only put the outcomes of the conference into
effect, but also place the outcomes in the international context
facilitated by UNESCO. One area related to the ethical dimensions of
the implementation of e-government in Africa. The WSIS Declaration and
Action Plan, for example, expressed the need for governments to
implement e-government systems to facilitate administrative activities
and deliver services to their citizens. It is true that Africa has
embarked on the e-government road with many e-government projects, and
NEPAD (the New Partnership for Africa's Development) has launched an
e-government initiative urging African governments to implement
e-government projects.
E-government
has, therefore, become an important goal in Africa. Countries including
South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Mauritius have invested in
e-government projects and the training of people to implement these
projects. During the Tshwane conference it became evident that little
attention had been given to the ethical dimensions of that activity.
This led to the planning of an e-government and ethics workshop for
African government officials. The three-day workshop, sponsored by
UNESCO, the South African Department of Communications and SAP Systems
took place from 23 to 26 February 2009 in Magaliesburg, South Africa
(UNESCO 2009). The workshop was co-organized by the International
Center for Information Ethics, the University of Pittsburgh, the
University of Wisconsin-Millwaukee and the University of Pretoria. The
main focus areas included privacy, access and accessibility of
information, building of trust and information corruption. Future
workshops are planned for individual African countries. UNESCO
underlined the relevance of this initiative as follows:
This
e-government and information ethics initiative in Africa aims to
significantly improve the quantity and quality of government services
provided to the public, businesses and the civil society over those
provided by traditional methods. This objective could be reached
through simplifying, streamlining and speeding up the processes of
applying for and securing entitlement. It is also important to ensure
that the benefits and services required are delivered on time,
accurately and completely, without compromising legan and ethical
norms such as openness and fairness in bidding policies and procedures.
Another objective of this initiative is to incorporate greater
transparency into the provision of government products and services to
the public and businesses. It requires making information on the
availability of those services more complete and pro-actively
accessible
to both the media and the public. Therefore, all elements of the
society will be better informed and educated about what is being
offered precisely; when and how to obtain those services; and how to
ensure that promised services are, in fact, delivered (UNESCO 2009).
In their
final report, the academic steering committee –
Rafael Capurro (project leader), Johannes Britz, Toni
Carbo, F.W.
Horton, Jr., Theo Bothma and Coetzee Bester – underlined that the
central focus of e-government in Africa should be of helping to
accomplish development goals and objectives, which include improving
the quality of life of individuals and families, strengthening
institutions in both the private and public sectors, and enlarging the
role of elements of civil society, so that civil society can partner
more effectively with the other elements of the public sector and with
the private sector. Development, in short, encompasses not just social
and cultural goals, but governance/political and economic, business and
industry strengthening as well. All sectors of an African society are
embraced by development goals and objectives. If an e-government team
is considering an application that cannot be linked more or less
directly to a development goal or objective, in all likelihood it
should be accorded a lower-ranked priority.
The
accurate identification of, and inclusion of all stakeholders in
e-government visions, mission statements, policies, plans and
strategies is essential. Starting at the most local level, referring
first to institutions and organisations with existing groups, whether
formal or informal, and then extending upwards to provincial/state,
then national, then sub-regional, then regional, and, finally in some
instances, even international stakeholders (e.g. international
intergovernmental organisations such as ITU, UNESCO, WIPO, UNDP). Even
international non-governmental organisations such as the International
Federation of Information Processing Societies (IFIPS), the
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
(IFLA), and others should be identified and included.
Inclusivity
does not just refer to institutions and organisations, but it also
refers
to sub-populations that have special needs. For example, ensuring
inclusion of both women and men, youth (girls and boys), diverse
linguistic and cultural groups, elders, people with disabilities,
literate and illiterate people, the unemployed, underemployed and
migrant populations, minority ethnic, racial and religious groups, and
so on. While women are often active participants in the workplace and
in local communities, they are too often unable to read and write, and
are not always fully included in decision-making by governments.
According
to the Academic Steering Committee, emphasis should be placed on
utilising existing technologies and traditions (such as storytelling,
radio, 'word of mouth' sharing – for
example
during taxi rides, information talks at local gathering places) as a
starting point. Sometimes this has been referred to as the 'information
and communication culture'. Existing resources, such as paper
documents, can be transformed into learning tools, and presented via
radio or oral demonstrations with the community, for example, using the
simplest tools, technologies and other capabilities such as the human
voice, hand signals, or radio.
All
documents of this meeting are available at the Africa Information
Ethics
and E-Government Portal (www.africainfoethics.org, Africa E-Gov-Portal
2009).
Santo Domingo 2006
The first regional Latin American conference on
information ethics took
place from December 6-9, 2006 in Santo Domingo, the capital of the
Dominican Republic under the patronage of UNESCO and was organised in
cooperation with the National Commission for UNESCO, the Permanent
Delegation to UNESCO of the Dominican Republic and the Fundación
Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) (UNESCO 2006, FUNGLODE 2008).
Experts from some ten countries discussed issues of accessibility,
confidentiality, intellectual property rights, the promotion of respect
for fundamental values and principles, increasing awareness of
information ethics and strategies and policies with respect to the
protection of privacy, personal data, and preventive measures against
illegal use of ICTs. A declaration on the ethical dimensions of the
information society (Declaración de Santo Domingo) was adopted
by the participants. It underlined the following goals and values:
- to promote peace and respect
fundamental values such as
liberty, equality, solidarity, tolerance and shared responsibility;
- to promote the awareness on the ethical
dimensions of
ICTs;
- to avoid abusive use of ICTs and to
promote the respect
for privacy and personal data;
- to promote equal access to information
and knowledge
considering their impact on the economic, social, and cultural
development of the society;
- to promote the responsible use of ICTs
and other
communication media according to the best professional and ethical
standards;
- to improve the access and responsible
autonomous use of
ICTs by young generations;
- to take all measures in order to allow
an equitable
access to ICTs encouraging young people to debate on ethical aspects of
the information society;
- to coordinate political and
administrative action at all
levels in order to promote the debate on ethics and information;
- to support all activities related to
the implementation
of the Geneva Plan of Action particularly the ones established in
Line C10.
The
conference goal was to create conditions for enhancing the visibility
of, and the interest for, information ethics issues among member states
from the region. It was one of the first concrete follow-up actions to
implementing Action Line C10 'Ethical Dimensions of the Information
Society' of the Geneva Action Plan adopted by WSIS.
In the
afternath of this conference, a Latin America portal on information
ethics, the Red universitaria de ética en el ciberespacio, was
created. Two years later another academic network dealing with
information ethics research
in Latin America, the Red Latinoamericana de ética de la
información (RELEI), was established. In this context the
extensive work done by the community Metodología e Impacto
Social de las Tecnologías de la Información y de la
Comunicación en América (MISTICA) should not be
forgotten, particularly its final document, 'Working the Internet with
a Social Vision' (MISTICA 2002).
Hanoi 2008
The Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO, in
cooperation with UNESCO
and other partners, organised the first Regional Conference for Asia
and the Pacific on the Ethical Dimensions of the Information Society,
from 12 to 14 March 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam. According to UNESCO: "This
conference was an important step toward capturing the full potential
of the information and communication revolution for development. It is
also a significant forum for participants to discuss issues such as
accessibility, confidentiality, privacy, diversity and respect of
fundamental human values." (UNESCO 2008). About 70 participants,
including representatives of government bodies, national commissions
for UNESCO, civil society, the private sector, and representatives of
UNESCO field offices and headquarters, attended the event. The
conference objectives were to:
- identify and discuss the issues
considered priorities for
the Asia-Pacific region in the field of ethics of information and
communication;
- raise stakeholders' awareness of the
ethical, legal and
socio-economic dimensions of information and communication technologies;
- create a regional network of experts in
this field and
promote regional and interregional cooperation on information ethics;
- contribute with the organisation of
this regional
conference, and subsequently through the action plan that could be
drafted on this occasion, to the implementation of the WSIS Action Line
C10 on the Ethical Dimensions of the Information Society, facilitated
by UNESCO;
- contribute to the UNESCO Draft Code of
Ethics initiative
(elaborated and discussed during the three previous regional
conferences);
- further promote UNESCO's mission and
commitment to
ensuring sustainable development, peace and progress thanks to access
to knowledge and increased use of ICT's.
The participants of the
conference convened and agreed on a set of priorities for the region
regarding the following themes: universal access to information,
freedom of expression, and lastly, privacy and personal protection.
They issued a statement on information ethics as a contribution to
UNESCO's Code of Ethics.
Strasbourg 2007
A regional European meeting on ethics and human rights
in the
information society was organised by UNESCO together with the French
Commission for UNESCO and the Council of Europe. It took place in
Strasbourg from 13 to 14 September 2007 and included participants from
Europe and from the United States (UNESCO 2007a). The purpose of this
meeting was to discuss and identify the issues considered to be
priorities for the European region and to raise stakeholders' awareness
of the ethical issues of information and communication technologies and
usages. It was based around four thematic round tables which were
structured around three main pillars:
- analysis of the opportunities offered
by ICTs;
- side-effects, negative impacts and
possible conflicts of
interest;
- recommendations with the aim of
contributing to internet
governance founded on the involvement of all stakeholders and the
sharing of responsibilities.
Conclusion
The
regional
declarations are prima facie
similar with regard, for instance, to the values and principles as
stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But if one makes a
thorough analysis, to which we can only briefly point now, it is
evident that most of the issues can and will be understood differently
according to different cultural frameworks. One clear example of this
relativity of interpretations and relevance is privacy that plays a
major role in Western countries, but is differently understood within,
for example, Buddhist traditions. This is not to say that, on the one
hand, common terms are necessarily equivocal or that it is not
possible to find either a common ground for values and principles, as
long as cultures are not considered as closed worlds. But, on the other
hand, it is evident that issues such as solidarity, social justice or
indigenous knowledge play a more important role in some regions of the
world than in others.
The
principles of autonomy and human dignity are more related to Western
traditions. Universality of access and multilingualism might also raise
different questions according to cultural and political settings. The
issue of 'deviant behaviour' addressed in the Hanoi declaration might
also be interpreted differently according to different moral and legal
standards. In other words, an Ethics Declaration for the Information
Society is possible and necessary in order to have a common ground for
dealing with global issues, but it presupposes a deep and sustainable
analysis and critical discussion of the issues at stake.
In his
1985
article, 'The quest for a code of professional ethics: An
intellectual and moral confusion', the American philosopher John Ladd
argues that the very idea of a code of ethics is a contradiction since
ethics is essentially problematic (Ladd 1985). What can be codified
are ethical principles as the temporary result of argumentation, not
established by consensus or decision-making. Codes of practice, if one
wants to avoid the misleading formulation 'codes of ethics', have pros
and cons as Ladd remarks, taking as an example the case of professional
codes. They can inspire conduct in professionals, but they can give
them also a sense of complacency, covering even irresponsible conduct.
In some cases they a defence mechanism diverting the attention from the
real macro- und micro-ethical problems of the profession.
If this
is
the case for professional groups, it is no less the case for society as
a whole or even for the global society. The ethical challenge is not
just to establish a global code of ethics, but to promote a (global)
discussion on ethical issues. These issues are not only too complex to
be reduced to general principles, but also are subject to
interpretation in their practice (Schwarz 1979). Such a code or canon
of apparently unequivocal dogmatic principles can divert from a
prudential ethical discourse; prudence being the virtue or source of
action that characterises the situation of someone who is conscious of
her limitations. It delimits the anti-criterion 'everything is allowed'
making us aware of ambivalent situations. It prevents us from taking a
simplistic solution by giving up one alternative or the schizoid
unification of two opposites.
A
prudential
ethical discourse has the function of preserving ethical sensitivity
(Capurro 1985). This function should be promoted at a local as well as
a global level. A global ethical dialogue will unavoidably take
cultural
ethical differences seriously (Brey 2007). This means not only that
moral issues are rooted in specific contexts and traditions, but also
that the arguments with which ethics understood as moral philosophy
clarify, are 'thick', as Michael Walzer calls them (Walzer 1994).
Following this line of thought, global information ethics concern not
only the idea of achieving a common ethics (Ess 2008) on the basis of prima facie common principles
extracted, for instance, from religious traditions (Hans Küng),
but also involve a critical intercultural analysis of the differences
between moral arguments based on cultural presuppositions. In other
words, transcultural and intercultural issues are not to be seen as
contradictory, but as part of the necessary tension of human existence
with all its ambiguity and openness.
This is
the
reason why it is important to distinguish between global ethics in the
sense of a global code of
ethics and global research on
ethics (Vandekerckhove et al. 2008). As any other academic field,
ethics in general, and information ethics in particular, are
essentially global. They take place primarily in research institutions
and professional organisations, such as the International Global Ethics
Association (IGEA), and Globethics.net or, in the case of information
ethics, the International Society of Ethics and IT (INSEIT), the
International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE), but are no less
open to local and global societal, political, and legal discussions.
This
century
will be deeply influenced by information and communication
technologies. the ethical challenges arising from them have just
started to emerge and develop over the globe with breath-taking speed.
Local cultures are changing rapidly due to synergistic effects with
other cultures and a global culture is emerging out of such synergies
that might help societies and humanity as a whole to be able to better
manage global challenges in the ecological, economic and political
arenas. Seen in this way, information ethics is an open space of
reflection where commonalities and differences, theoretical as well as
practical, can be discussed without the immediate pressure of
decision-making.
Such a
patient discourse, also practised in other scientific and academic
fields, might explore the complex historical developments and present
cultural layers of different societies and promote a critical appraisal
of traditional moral and cultural norms. The present research agenda in
information ethics is characterised by the status of the internet and
related digital technologies that give rise to questions of privacy,
intellectual property and rights of access to knowledge, identity,
information overload, plagiarism, censorship, gender, digital divide
and intercultural information ethics (Himma and Tavani 2008).
New
technological developments will raise these and other topics from
different perspectives. The search for commonalities, no less
than the respect for differences, will be a topic of a future
information ethics. This topic considers different possibilities of the
good life and the choices made by individuals and societies based on
their preferences that are based on the traditions in which they are
rooted, including their questioning or reaffirming of such traditions
as norms of living. The key question in a globalised world is then how
far such differences can not only freely co-exist – but
also to
enrich and respect each other. Due to the basic fragility of human life
and human institutions, including our moral codes and legal frameworks,
now more than ever we need spaces of free and creative thinking about
these issues that will allow young generations to express their hopes
and fears and to imagine a better world. This free space for common
ethical thinking, the ethical space,
is what we, the authors of this paper, would like to envision when we
speak about a global code of information ethics. In other words,
information ethics is not only about norms, but also about our critical
reflection on the visions and options for better lives in the digital
age.
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Michael (1994). Thick and Thin:
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Note
1 A draft
copy of this Global Code of Ethics is now online
available. (This URL is 2017 not any more active. See here and here)
Note on Contributors
Rafael Capurro is President
of the International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE), Director of
the Steinbeis-Transfer-Institute for Information Ethics (STI-IE)
Karlsruhe (Germany), and Distinguished Researcher in Information
Ethics, School of Information Studies, University of
Wisconsin-Millwaukee (USA). Dr. Capurro holds a degree in philosophy
from Düsseldorf University as well as a post-doctoral degree in
ethics from Stuttgart University. He was lecturer on Ethics at
Stuttgart University and Professor (Emeritus) on Information Management
and Information Ethics at Stuttgart Media University. he is
editor-in-chief of the International
Review of Information Ethics (IRIE). Dr. Capurro is member of
the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) to
the European Commission. He is co-founder of the Africa Network for
Information Ethics (ANIE) as well as of the Red Latinoamericana de
Etica de la Información (RELEI). Dr. Capurro is author of
numerous books and articles in the field of Information Ethics.
Johannes Britz is Dean and and Professor at the School of
Information Technology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
Dr. Britz is co-editor of the International
Review of Information Ethics (IRIE) and serves on the Library and Information Science Research
Journal of the University of Bucharest. He is a member of the
advisory board of the Soutz Africa
Journal of Library and Information Science and of the
International Research Foundation for Development. Dr. Britz is author
or numerous articles in the field of information ethics and his latest
research focuses on information poverty and social justice.