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A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet (3rd Edition) |  | Author: Sara Baase
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Category: Book
List Price: $85.00
Buy Used: $32.59
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Seller: northmsbooks
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 20913
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0136008488
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.4834
EAN: 9780136008484
ASIN: 0136008488
Publication Date: January 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
KEY BENEFIT: Baase explores timely social, legal, philosophical, ethical, political, constitutional and economic implications of computing from a computer scientist's perspective. KEY TOPICS: Coverage of the issues readers face both as members of a technological society and as professionals in computer-related fields. Adds new information on phenomena such as the growth of amateur work on the Web, blogs, video sharing, collaborative works (such as Wikipedia), and social networking. Includes new privacy topics such as cameras in cell phones, access to our search queries and all sorts of data we put on the Web, social networking, location tracking, high-tech surveillance systems, and some anti-terrorism programs. Updated chapters on intellectual property, professional ethics and responsibilities, and crime. MARKET: A useful reference for computer science professionals or anyone interested in learning more about computing technology and its arising issues.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Legal Issues and Ethics February 21, 2009
Thomas E. Graffte (Johnstown, PA USA)
I use this text in a college course on Ethics in Computer Information Systems. It covers a lot of information and is not just based on computer issues. Excellent presentation.
 Excellent update of a good textbook November 26, 2008
Robert Arens
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The new edition of "A Gift of Fire" is a welcome update to a good textbook. My opinion of the second edition is that it's a solid three star book, but the restructuring and inclusion of new material puts the latest edition into four star territory.
The textbook itself is an excellent introduction to the material, with an emphasis on "introduction"; it is by no means a deep and encompassing work, but its accessibility is quite welcome in a field of supposed introductory works that are absolutely impenetrable to those actually in need of an introduction. I've given the book to a few non-experts - or, as one of them referred to himself, a "computard" - and they've enjoyed the book quite a bit. The mix of historical, philosophical, and light theoretical content manages to inform without overwhelming. I find the writing a bit preachy at times, especially considering the fact that the book is supposed to be an ethical primer as opposed to commentary, but those sections are few and far between.
I've taught out of this book, and I have to say that one of the book's greatest assets is the supplementary material on its associated website. Type the title into Google, it should be the first hit. Updates to the source material are posted every few months to keep up with changes in case law, the news, etc. The website also includes sample lecture schedules, assignments, discussion topics, and just about everything else you would need to develop a course.
So to sum up: welcome update on a good textbook, definitely for neophytes as opposed to experts, excellent value added by the website.
Excellent Primer--for the Completely Uninitiated December 8, 2008
avgvstvs (Omaha NE)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an ethics book of course, so I will keep the writing short: This book is written very well, and is suitable for someone whose never taken an ethics course before--which wasn't me, but I changed majors and info-tech ethics was required.
The exercises are the most valuable part of the book but it will take a good teacher to make the most out of them: I got lucky there.
Baase does a very good job of hitting all the high-notes and gray-area cases that have popped up in the last 20 or so years as a result of new technologies. But at the end of the course I didn't feel I ended up taking anything away that I couldn't have learned by myself.
The book is really very wordy in my opinion--even for an ethics book--and doesn't hit enough ethical theory for my taste. It's great for its target market though, but don't think it'll work magic if you've already had some 'traditional' ethics courses.
Decent, as far as text books go. April 29, 2009
A. Clark
A lot of common sense. The case studies and Thorac 25 are probably the most interesting part of this book. I've read worse in my college career.
Interesting Thoughts July 18, 2010
D. Hardesty
This book was required for my course in social/legal/ethical issues of computing. The author provokes some interesting thought concepts that I, as an intermediate computer user, never thought of before. I've also learned some things that I never knew before about internet law, cookies, etcetera. Probably wouldn't be a book one would want to read for leisure purposes.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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