Message-ID: <76BBC71E3@fs1.ec.man.ac.uk> Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 18:41:58 BST From: Dr Richard Heeks <mailto:mzdid10@FS1.EC.MAN.AC.UK> Subject: Re: IT and Mexican Election Fraud To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Agreed, the major point of this event is something that devel-lers will know well: in social and political terms, technology rarely changes the status quo. How was technology used in the Mexican election case? - to support undemocratic practice by making it easier to commit electoral fraud (e.g. the quick manipulation of votes, which would not be so easy with a manual system).Although the result, in this case, was not produced by computer, we do tend to assume a spurious objectivity about information produced by IT. I'm continuously disappointed by managers and others taking computer output at face value, when they should know better. There's a nice Dilbert cartoon of this, tracing three steps: step 1, a wild guess made up by a staffer; step 2, this becomes rumour as it is passed to other staffers; step 3, it becomes fact when someone types it onto their PC.
Richard
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