eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar’s Group Wants to Help Prevent the Next Facebook Scandal
The new website, which its creators have dubbed the Ethics in Technology Practice, is filled with advice and training materials. It was funded by Omidyar Network, a $1 billion impact investment firm in Santa Clara, Calif., started in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. Concerned about technology's downside, as well as its upside, Omidyar Network commissioned the suite of materials from Santa Clara University philosophy professor Shannon Vallor and technology ethics experts at the school's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
The ethics toolkit teaches engineers to anticipate the social impact of a software or hardware as part of its design. Case studies illustrate successes, as well as failures — such as surveillance technology that spies upon or discriminates against segments of society.
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics mentioned in Barron's.