ETHICS – The Ripple Effect

Sculpture of Socrates from the Paris Louvre

We don’t much talk about Ethics these days because it seem to have slipped under the wire. I’ve written recently about this subject. I am particularly interested in Ethics and frankly always have been. From what’s going on in the world in politics, as that seems to have a ripple effect more than any other, I leave you to make your own conclusions as to who and what is Ethical in today’s climate.

My interest has been heightened by being asked by the venerable chairman of the Society of Data Miners, (SocDM) Tom Kabhaza, to help get Ethics more noticed in data, whether it be with data miners, data analysts, data scientist or for that matter anyone who works in or with data. They plan one day to get the rules written and they’ve made a start.

Data has grown exponentially over the past few years and I’ve been writing about it for a lot longer than that. Data is now under the aegis of knowledge management and its growth is off the wall, or should I say ceiling? So the IoT (Internet of Things) was established and is getting better known each day. So I became a member of SocDM, although my knowledge comes from document management which is a basis for data. What happens to it once it’s managed, belongs to the realm of data scientists, miners, analysts and the like.

I learnt from a meeting last year that there were no written rules on Ethics in the data industry (for that’s what it has become) in the UK and I was appalled. In the US they do have rules and this is admirable as it’s probably from the US that so much data has grown and is growing. Every little thing that is written, or filmed or recorded is captured and saved somewhere.

But I’ve always maintained that one’s own moral compass is the first guide to ethics. You can hardly teach children about Ethics until they understand what the consequences of their actions are. The Ripple Effect, I call it, whereby if they say or do wrong things it will move around like an eddy, the same goes for what they say or do that is right.

My mission, if you can call it that, takes me occasionally back into the fray, back into the world of business and that is far ranging, it means I have to be out there, fortunately rarer and rarer, looking and observing and mostly communicating. Unless you communicate, then there’s less likelihood of Ethics getting on anyone’s agenda.

It would be interesting for me to hear of anyone’s views on this as we are in a community here, this Steemit community and from what I observe, people on Steemit have ethics and values, and that’s really cool. There is a better feeling to be had when people behave well and care for others. Business is no exception and in fact Ethics should be up there guiding what happens next.

So I dare you to be bold, dare you to come back with a simple response to this question, make it concise and share:
“Why is Ethics important to our existence?”

My opening picture (from Wikipedia) is of my hero Socrates, who through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics.