Here’s what will happen to library executive who took Super Bowl tickets; Las Vegas Review-Journal, October 16, 2024

 Jessica Hill,  Las Vegas Review-Journal; Here’s what will happen to library executive who took Super Bowl tickets

"For one year, Watson must comply with the ethics law and not be the subject of a complaint that a Commission on Ethics review panel finds sufficient cause to refer to the panel, Armstrong said.

He also said Watson must arrange and implement ethics law training for himself and all of the library district’s staff.

If Watson complies with the agreement and meets those requirements, the alleged violation will be dismissed, “and the library district will have a strong ethics foundation to build on going forward,” Armstrong said.

Ethics commissioner Teresa Lowry urged government employees not to accept tickets for the many sporting events offered in Las Vegas, from football to the National Finals Rodeo to Formula 1.

Lowry said Watson’s case is an outlier in that he relied on the advice of counsel, but it can serve as a cautionary tale for employees subject to Nevada ethics laws.

“It was wrong advice. It was bad advice, but our law looks at and gives mitigators to people who reasonably go to their counsel, and the safe harbor implications are then going to apply,” she said. “But just as a cautionary tale, as the events unfold for the remainder of this year and moving forward, if you are a public official, public employee, do not take tickets, accept gifts to these various sporting events.”"

The founder of Craigslist is funding a competition to make computer science more ethical; Quartz, October 10, 2018

Simone Stolzoff, Quartz; The founder of Craigslist is funding a competition to make computer science more ethical

"What have you been doing to help promote democracy recently?

Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, has certainly been doing his part. His invention may have helped decimate classified-advertising revenue for print newspapers, but last month, he gave $20 million to a team of experienced journalists to investigate the power of Big Tech. In June, he gave $20 million to the CUNY journalism program, so the next generation of journalists can do the same. And today (Oct. 10), he announced he’s helping to fund a new competition called The Responsible Computer Science Challenge to incorporate more ethical training into undergraduate computer science curricula.

The initiative, which was incubated by Omidyar Network, and is also backed by Mozilla, and Schmidt Futures, is soliciting proposals from professors and graduate students about how to make ethics a central part of a software engineer’s education. A panel of independent judges will award up to $3.5 million in prizes to the winners.

The competition couldn’t come at a better time."

UT computer science adding ethics courses to curriculum; KXAN, March 5, 2018

Alyssa Goard, KXAN; UT computer science adding ethics courses to curriculum

"Barbary Brunner, CEO of the Austin Technology Council, believes that what these ethics courses at UT are “a really valuable thing.” She explained that as companies in the tech world search for new ways to disrupt old ideas, it’s important to look at the human implications of what they’re setting out to do.

“This may be where the university leads the industry and the industry wakes up and says, ‘Wow that’s really smart,'” Brunner said. “For Texas to become a real tech powerhouse– which I think it can become — it needs to engage in the same sort of collaboration between higher education and the technology community that you see in California, that you see in the Seattle area.”

Brunner hasn’t heard many overarching discussions of ethics within the Austin tech world, but knows that individual discussions about ethics are going on at many companies, especially those related to security and artificial intelligence.

In the long run she thinks that ethics training may become one of many qualities tech companies look for in the recent graduates they hire."

USOC gives USA Gymnastics board six days to resign or federation will be decertified; USA Today, January 25, 2018

Nancy Armour and Rachel Axon, USA Today; USOC gives USA Gymnastics board six days to resign or federation will be decertified

"The other conditions imposed by the USOC are:

--All USA Gymnastics staff and board members must complete SafeSport training offered by the U.S. Center for Safe Sport within three months.

--All staff and board members must complete a comprehensive ethics training unit within the next six months.

“USA Gymnastics completely embraces the requirements outlined in the (email),” USA Gymnastics said in a statement posted on its website. “We understand that the requirements imposed by the letter will help us enhance our ability to build a culture of empowerment throughout the organization, with an increased focus on athlete safety and well-being.”

Rethinking Ethics Training in Silicon Valley; The Atlantic, May 26, 2017

Irina Raicu, The Atlantic; Rethinking Ethics Training in Silicon Valley

"I work at an ethics center in Silicon Valley.

I know, I know, “ethics” is not the first word that comes to mind when most people think of Silicon Valley or the tech industry. It’s probably not even in the top 10. But given the outsized role that tech companies now play, it’s time to focus on the ethical responsibilities of the technologists who help shape our lives.

In a recent talk, technologist Maciej Ceglowski argued that “[t]his year especially there’s an uncomfortable feeling in the tech industry that we did something wrong, that in following our credo of ‘move fast and break things,’ some of what we knocked down were the load-bearing walls of our democracy.”...

I work in an applied ethics center, and we do believe that technology can help democracy (we offer a free ethical-decision-making app, for example; we even offer a MOOC—a free online course—on ethical campaigning!). For it to do that, though, we need people who are ready to tackle the ethical questions—both within and outside of tech companies."