Harrison Eiteljorg, II

 

nickegcsanetorg

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Professor Joi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab
77 Mass. Ave.

Cambridge 
MA 02139-4307"

Dear Professor Ito:

I happened to have watched "60 Minutes? tonight and to have seen, in succession,
the segment about the man (Aleksander Kogan) who started the Facebook operation
that resulted in such extensive data violations and the segment about the Media Lab.
Perhaps because of seeing the two items in succession, I wondered if the Media Lab has
any formal system for examining projects as they move through the development
process to consider ethical issues in some formal fashion. I looked at your website (not
extensively) and could find no indication that there is such a process. If that is correct
and there is no formal process, I would like to encourage you to consider adding to
your staff at least one scholar whose job is to examine projects for the ethical
implications of the work and its potential final outcome.

As a very early adopter of computer technology in my own field or archaeology, I
believe I have a fair View of the technology, and I am inclined to think that there are
many more potential problems than we generally acknowledge. Therefore, a formal
examination procedure seems to me to be critical. I hepe you already have such a
formal procedure. Please note my use of the term, ?formal;? it re?ects my View that a
thorough examination of the implications of a project requires a rather rigorous process.
If such a process is not currently part of the program, I hope you will think long and
hard about adding it.

Yours truly,

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Harrison (Nick) Eiteljorg, II