Executive Summary

Information Technology (IT) has become an integral part of society and many IT tools have been developed to further enhance society. Among these are the television and the topic of this report, Peter Vogel's Intelligent Content Engine (ICE). ICE is a digital set top box that provides additional functionalities such as blanking out of advertisements and recording of programs without advertisements. Through the examination of this topic and its associated ethical, social and legal issues, this report aims to answer several key questions - What motivates IT Professionals? Does IT have a positive or negative impact on people? Is it easy to make a difference with IT?

Research has been conducted in a number of methods in regards to this topic. First-hand research in the form of questionnaires, interviews and statistic gathering give accurate information on the topic at hand. This is supplemented with the reading of journals, articles and web sources to give second-hand and expert information.

Spending on information and communications technol...

D-File: For TV Programs

English: Logo Information Technology

The Intelligent Content Engine raises several issues in its use and ideas. These include the removal of advertisements from TV and the effect that this will have on advertising companies and TV viewers. It was found that there can be no definite resolve to the issues raised, as ultimately there are always opposing sides of an argument and it comes down to personal judgement. Legal issues include the recording of TV programs and the legality of the ICE machine and this also highlights the responsibility placed on the individual to behave in a legal manner.

Results from research done to answer the questions posed by this report indicate that IT professionals are mainly motivated by an interest in the area of IT, with a secondary motivation of the money that can be made from working in the industry. This is...