Essay Sample on Tech and Democracy: The Impact of IT on Governance

Introduction

Information technology is a system that plays a vital role in the transformation of public redefining and administration in a democratic society. IT also has new applications that promise governments good things but at the same time has concerns concerning their abuse and power. By using the Geographical Information System, as an example, and the Snowden revelations concerning the National Security Agency Surveillance, the paper will elaborate more on the philosophical underpinnings of technology and the ethical discourse it brings in the society.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The IT applications are increasingly pervasive in the application of public administration. The central concern of Akhlaque Haque and David Lyon is about IT and how it has affected the companies about the public at large. David Lyon (2014), shows that along with the ambiguous complicity of international controversies and internet companies there is a surge of contemporary conundrums of big data and surveillance. The attention if IT has also changed from the C20th networks and information technologies to the C21focus on data currently called the 'Big Dat,' (Lyon, 2014) Big Data, for instance, intensifies the surveillance trends that are connected with networks and information technology thus ending up complicating fresh information of the current configurations.

The configurations, in this case, are done in three ways: the first one is the capacity of Big Data and metadata that expands the interconnected analytic tools and datasets. Such dynamics control the scope and speed of the internet through new techniques particularly if predictive analytics exist (Lyon, 2014). The second way is that even though Big Data is about the quantity then the qualitative change practices have accenting consequences and are predictable. This means that faith in technology, control motif; user involvement and public-private synergies from memory and history of the quest pattern are used to predetermine the unprecedented access to data (Lyon, 2014). The third way is the ethical turn is more urgent in the mode of critique. This means that the modernity predilection of privacy betrays the surveillance subject because of the conformation of both legal practices and computing that are embodied and engaged to the users.

According to Akhlaque Haque (2003), the proliferation of the internet and the reliable and fast computer hardware and software has now developed tools for the government. The reason behind this statement is to show that there is no function in the military, scientific administration and the federal governments depend on the computer software and hardware for smooth functioning. Since 1998 information technology has transformed gradually to adapt to the way people play, work, learn and live (Haque, 2003).

This supports David's concern is on the Big Data and how it can cross-reference significant data sets, aggregate and search for any information. For instance, the telecommunications giant Verizon requires metadata to access all phone calls. However, a question was raised: To what extent and in what ways does the Snowden disclosure show that the practices of Big Data are importance to surveillance? This question was raised due to the queries on the practices of Big Data concerning public concern and surveillance on the activities conducted by using the internet (Lyon, 2014).

When this situation is looked closely it is clear that IT has become the engine of transformation. For instance, the traditional hierarchical structure of the public organization has problems with horizontal, organic and flexible structures (Haque, 2003). In other words, the shift in formal organizational structure facilitated by IT has developed greater access and god data to workers across and within organizational levels. IT is therefore considered as an active intermediary that re-structures the hierarchies of organizations but offering the X-ray version to public administrations (Haque, 2003). The structure has also made public managers penetrate beneath the surfaces to observe the changes that have taken place on structuring the organization.

The same concern is also seen in David's article when he talks about the Snowden revelations and how it has been exposed to the public eyes (Lyon, 2014). The surveillance practices as elaborated by Snowden show that the governments, especially on Canada, Britain, and America, engage in large scale monitoring programs to monitor the population. The NSA, on the other hand, makes contractors share their work challenges by using the data collected by other corporations like the web companies, the internet and the telephone (Lyon, 2014).

As a result, similar agencies and NSA will use log-in information and cookies to derive data from devices lime geo-locating social media data sited and cell-phones to disclose information (Lyon, 2014). It is clear now that the big data and metadata's perspective related to users without their knowledge when they use such gadgets and machines (Haque, 2003). Therefore not only are individuals affected but also the government agencies, private corporations, and unwittingly ordinary users. The articles, in short, show that many people are being affected indirectly when they use the internet. Only a few organizations have lost finances due to such connections.

The hierarchical relationship in Information Technology is seen to have the ultimate control and power of people. The degree to which information is influenced depends on the ease of access for technology. Information technology today plays a vital role in the distribution of power and the creation of knowledge among public officials and citizens (Haque, 2003). With the codes of ethics, the objectives of these articles are to bind the user course of action and how technology reinforces their sense of behavior.

The proposal of these articles, in this case, is not to legislate new codes that will bind the technocrats or public officials in data generation rather make them stewards of public service who would uphold the democratic values of people. This a difficult challenge because everyday information technology is taking a new direction in shaping the lives of people. Therefore changing or convincing people to see the danger is impossible.

Conclusion

Information technology is a system that plays a vital role in the transformation of public redefining and administration in a democratic society. According to Akhlaque Haque, IT also has new applications that promise governments good things but at the same time has concerns concerning their abuse and power. However, David Lyon (2014), shows that along with the ambiguous complicity of international controversies and internet companies there is a surge of contemporary conundrums of big data and surveillance.

Akhlaque Haque gave an example of the Geographical Information System, such as the Snowden revelations concerning the National Security Agency Surveillance, and how the philosophical underpinnings of technology bring ethical discourse to the society. The author also showed that Big Data and metadata that expand the interconnected analytic tools and datasets have dynamics control the scope that speeds up the internet through new techniques particularly if the predictive analytics exist. The articles also reveal that information technology has its advantages and disadvantages to public administration.

References

Haque, A. (2003). Information technology, GIS and democratic values: Ethical implications for IT professionals in public service. Ethics and Information Technology, 39-48. doi: 10.4018/9781591401681.ch007

Lyon, D. (2014). Surveillance, Snowden, and Big Data: Capacities, consequences, critique. Big Data and the Society, 1(13), 1-11. doi: 10.7554/elife.38992.009