Ethical and Spiritual Panel Event – Ethical Dragons Den

Ethical issues in IT are now far more salient than in 1997 when the WCIT held the first colloquium on the Ethical & Spiritual implications of the Internet. There are many codes and principles. But exploring the issues in practice is not simple.

“Here be dragons” means dangerous or unexplored territories, and on Mon 25th Oct the Ethical & Spiritual Panel will be holding the first pilot of an “Ethical Dragons Den” in which a company brings their IT product or service and we discuss some of the ethical issues that might be raised by it and related products. This will be via Zoom, with a proper interactive discussion led by these “Dragons”.

The discussion will be recorded and may be used to help seed a wider Ethical & Spiritual Discussion Board for Members which is under consideration.

There is no charge, but we encourage you to donate to the WCIT Charity here. Zoom connection details can be found in your confirmation email.

The four Dragons:

Victoria Baines. Chair-designate of Security Panel. authority in the field of online trust, safety and cybersecurity. Formerly Facebook’s Trust & Safety Manager EMEA. Previously led strategy team at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, Principal Analyst at SOCA and at Surrey Police. Former visiting research fellow Oxford & guest lecturer at Stanford.

Nicholas Beale. Chair of Panel. Strategy consultant. 1st Author An Unethical Optimization Principle paper (2020). Co-author Cybernauts Awake! 1997 report on Ethical & Spiritual Implications of Internet & co-organiser of 1st Colloquium on this topic in 1997 (at House of Lords for WCIT)

Chris Rees. Former Chair of Panel, BCS President 2018-19 taking The Ethics of AI as presidential theme. Co-author From Principles to Profit – The Art of Moral Management and a chapter on The Ethics of AI in Unimagined Futures – ICT Opportunities and Challenges, Director Charteris for 18y until he retired in 2015, ex Deloittes & IBM.

Auriol Stevens. Global Technology Director – Employee Experience and Digital Workplace at Unilever, also leading on work related to Racial Equity. NED Royal Navy, Advisory Board Chair, Institute for Security Science and Technology at Imperial College, Deputy Chair of the Advisory Board of Security, Privacy, Identity and Trust (SPRITE+) network.