Big data, little wisdom: trouble brewing? Ethical implications for the information systems discipline

Abstract

The question we pose in this paper is: How can wisdom and its inherent drive for integration help information systems in the development of practices for responsibly and ethically managing and using big data, ubiquitous information and algorithmic knowledge and so make the world a better place? We use the recent financial crises to illustrate the perils of an overreliance on and misuse of data, information and predictive knowledge when global Information Systems are not wisely integrated. Our analysis shows that the global financial crisis was in part caused by a serious lack of integration of information with the larger context of social, cultural, economic and political dynamics. Integration of all the variables in a global and information hungry industry is exceptionally difficult, and so “exceptionality” of some kind is needed to make sufficient integration happen. Wisdom, we suggest, is the exceptionality needed to lead successful integration. We expect that a wisdom-based shift can lead to more organizationally effective and socially responsible Information Systems.

Keywords:

• Wisdom
• social practice wisdom
• ethics
• big data
• analytics
• information
• algorithmic knowledge
• global financial crises
• critical approaches

Notes

1. The Report states:

The Commission used the authority it was given to issue subpoenas to compel testimony and the production of documents, but in the vast majority of instances, companies and individuals voluntarily cooperated with this inquiry. In the course of its research and investigation, the Commission reviewed millions of pages of documents, interviewed more than 700 witnesses, and held 19 days of public hearings in New York, Washington, D.C., and communities across the country that were hard hit by the crisis. The Commission also drew from a large body of existing work about the crisis developed by congressional committees, government agencies, academics, journalists, legal investigators and many others. (FCIC 2011, xi, xii)

2. In a 2009 article in Wired Magazine, Recipe for Disaster: the Formula that Killed Wall Street, the author Felix Salmon argues that it was an algorithm, the Gaussian copula function, which allowed complex risks to be modelled with relative ease and accuracy and which was indiscriminately and uncritically adopted by most of “Wall Street”, which led to the 2008 financial crises.

3. The astute reader will not fail to see the irony of using algorithmic software in this study. Well noted! However, the case is that although we use it as a tool, we also read wider literature, think, reflect and discuss the data-set extensively. Moreover, the result is critically peer reviewed. These are significant differences from the way algorithmic software is being used in the business world.