Abstract
Technology requires not only the assessment of aims and processes but also an assessment of results. This task is carried out according to these values, first from an internal point of view and later from an external perspective. The principal purpose of this paper is to evaluate information and communication technology (ICT) values (with a specific focus on the cases of the Internet and the World Wide Web), from an internal point of view.
Regarding the internal aspect of the technological product, the degree of technological accessibility as “physical”, from a material perspective, should all be borne in mind; as “cognitive” linked with the appropriate understanding of the user. Thereafter, the analysis goes on to consider ICT versatility, dealing with the need for technology to accomplish different kinds of functions. Later, the attention shifts to the technological level of internal profitability or efficacy, which highlights the teleological focus. Finally, the paper concludes by focusing on ICT internal values in relation to efficiency.
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Notes
- 1.
An analysis of some aspects of technological design can be found in Oosterlaken and Hoven (2012).
- 2.
On Luciano Floridi’s philosophy of technology, see Demir (2012).
- 3.
As mentioned previously, software connects to the field of the sciences of the artificial.
- 4.
On aesthetics and technology, see Barker (2012).
- 5.
- 6.
On security see Kervalishvili and Michailidis (2012).
- 7.
- 8.
Cf. Electronic Frontier Foundation (2010). This Foundation, established in 1990, aims at the defense of civil rights in the electronic media.
- 9.
The primary role of an Internet Exchange Point (IXP) “is to keep local Internet traffic within local infrastructure and to the reduce costs associated with traffic exchange between Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In many developing countries, poor connectivity between ISPs often results in the routing of local traffic over expensive international links simply to reach destinations within the country of origin. IXPs can also improve the quality of Internet services in a country by reducing the delays. Furthermore, IXPs can serve as a convenient hub for hosting value-added and critical infrastructure within a country,” Internet Society (2011).
- 10.
On the role of norms in technology, see Vries, Hansson, and Meijers (2012).
- 11.
On rationality see also Vogel (2012).
- 12.
“The origins of the internet are to be found in ARPANET, a computer network set up by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in September 1969. (…) The first nodes of the network in 1969 were at the University of California, Los Angeles, SRI (Stanford Research Institute), the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah”, Castells (2001), pp. 10–11.
- 13.
- 14.
About these aspects of technology, see Gonzalez (2005), pp. 8–13.
- 15.
While the development of the World Wide Web effectively had a quick support from the business sector; it was not so with the internet. Manuel Castells points out that “the Internet did not originate in the business world. It was too daring a technology, too expensive a project, and too risky an initiative to be assumed by profit-oriented organizations (…) The most blatant illustration of this statement in the fact that in 1972, Larry Roberts, the director of IPTO, sought to privatize ARPANET, once it was up and running (…) After considering the proposal, with the help of experts from Bell Labs, the company refused,” Castells (2001), p. 32. On risk see Coeckelbergh (2013).
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Neira, P. (2015). Values Regarding Results of the Information and Communication Technologies: Internal Values. In: Gonzalez, W. (eds) New Perspectives on Technology, Values, and Ethics. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 315. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21870-0_3
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