Timothy J. Foley
ABSTRACT
The growth and expansion of information technologies on campuses across the country has caused many universities to begin to develop (or modify existing) information policies. Questions concerning moral, ethical, and legal obligations have arisen which in the past have been overlooked or not even considered. Lehigh having implemented a campus-wide information system which is used by over 90% of the campus has had to develop an Information Policy to address the growing concerns on campus relating to the appropriateness of publicly available electronic information.
Lehigh's Information System allows individuals to post information without any filtering to both on-campus and off-campus messaging systems. While these facilities are very useful, they have raised serious concerns relating to system resource management, possible legal liabilities concerning the nature of the information, and also the placement of materials that are obscene and offensive. The following issues relating to the development of Lehigh's Information Policy are discussed: possible legal liabilities, censorship, resource management, information ownership, user responsibilities, and approval chain.
- 1.T. Foley & M. Newman, "An Empirical Study of User Satisfaction with a Microcomputer-Based Campuswide Information System" Proceedings of ACM SiGUCCS User Services Conference XVI, pp. 91-100, 1988. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- 2.13. Meeks, "As BBSes Mature, Liability Becomes and Issue" INFOWORLD, Volume 12, Issue 4 Jan. 22, 1990, pp. 14-15Google Scholar
- 3.j. Wallace & R. Morrison, SYSLAW (LLM Press, NY, 1988)Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Developing a computing & information policy
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