•  1642
    The paper analyses six ethical challenges posed by cloud computing, concerning ownership, safety, fairness, responsibility, accountability and privacy. The first part defines cloud computing on the basis of a resource-oriented approach, and outlines the main features that characterise such technology. Following these clarifications, the second part argues that cloud computing reshapes some classic problems often debated in information and computer ethics. To begin with, cloud computing makes pos…Read more
  •  1528
    The ethics of information transparency
    Ethics and Information Technology 11 (2): 105-112. 2009.
    The paper investigates the ethics of information transparency (henceforth transparency). It argues that transparency is not an ethical principle in itself but a pro-ethical condition for enabling or impairing other ethical practices or principles. A new definition of transparency is offered in order to take into account the dynamics of information production and the differences between data and information. It is then argued that the proposed definition provides a better understanding of what so…Read more
  •  203
    An Evaluation of the 2008 Loebner Contest.
  •  191
    How to do philosophy informationally
    with Gian Maria Greco, Gianluca Paronitti, and Luciano Floridi
    Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3782. 2005.
    In this paper we introduce three methods to approach philosophical problems informationally: Minimalism, the Method of Abstraction and Constructionism. Minimalism considers the specifications of the starting problems and systems that are tractable for a philosophical analysis. The Method of Abstraction describes the process of making explicit the level of abstraction at which a system is observed and investigated. Constructionism provides a series of principles that the investigation of the prob…Read more
  •  95
    The Case of Online Trust
    with Mariarosaria Taddeo and Antonino Vaccaro
    Knowledge, Technology & Policy 23 (3-4): 333-345. 2010.
    This paper contributes to the debate on online trust addressing the problem of whether an online environment satisfies the necessary conditions for the emergence of trust. The paper defends the thesis that online environments can foster trust, and it does so in three steps. Firstly, the arguments proposed by the detractors of online trust are presented and analysed. Secondly, it is argued that trust can emerge in uncertain and risky environments and that it is possible to trust online identities…Read more
  •  70
    Ethical protocols design
    Ethics and Information Technology 9 (1): 49-62. 2007.
    The paper offers a solution to the problem of specifying computational systems that behave in accordance with a given set of ethical principles. The proposed solution is based on the concepts of ethical requirements and ethical protocols. A new conceptual tool, called the Control Closure of an operation, is defined and used to translate ethical principles into ethical requirements and protocols. The concept of Generalised Informational Privacy (GIP) is used as a paradigmatic example of an ethica…Read more
  •  45
    Ethics and the Practice of Software Design
    In P. Brey, A. Briggle & K. Waelbers (eds.), Current Issues in Computing and Philosophy, Ios Press. 2008.
    The paper offers an analysis of the problem of integrating ethical principles into the practice of software design. The approach is grounded on a review of the relevant literature from Computer Ethics and Professional Ethics. The paper is divided into four sections. The first section reviews some key questions that arise when the ethical impact of computational artefacts is analysed. The inner informational nature of such questions is used to argue in favour of the need for a specific branch of …Read more
  •  25
    The Case of Online Trust
    with Antonino Vaccaro and Mariarosaria Taddeo
    Knowledge, Technology & Policy 23 (3): 333-345. 2010.
    This paper contributes to the debate on online trust addressing the problem of whether an online environment satisfies the necessary conditions for the emergence of trust. The paper defends the thesis that online environments can foster trust, and it does so in three steps. Firstly, the arguments proposed by the detractors of online trust are presented and analysed. Secondly, it is argued that trust can emerge in uncertain and risky environments and that it is possible to trust online identities…Read more
  •  16
    Dynamics of Control
    with Jeff Sanders
    First Joint IEEE/IFIP Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Software Engineering (TASE '07) 440-449. 2007.
    This paper proposes a notion, the ?ambit? of an action, that allows the degree of distribution of an action in a multiagent system to be quantified without regard to its functionality. It demonstrates the use of that notion in the design, analysis and implementation of dynamically-reconfigurable multi-agent systems. It distinguishes between the extensional (or system) view and intensional (or agent-based) view of such a system and shows how, using the notion of ambit, the step-wise derivation pa…Read more