Internet search (engines) should serve people, not the other way around. We are convinced that Internet search needs ethical boundaries and guidelines in addition to legal-regulatory ones, just as AI does. And that search engines of the future can become better and more innovative through “ethics from the start”, through values such as trustworthiness and transparency.
The Ethics working group ensures that the goals of the Open Search Foundation are achieved on the basis of the European core values. This requires the definition and exploration of ethical questions, the embedding of ethical values and ongoing critical support. Finding, discussing and anchoring these values is what the Ethics Section provides the impetus for in a professional community, but also in the public. In addition, framework conditions for the ongoing safeguarding of ethical values are to be established.
Goals of the Ethics Working Group
Fair, transparent, diverse. This is what the internet search of the future should look like.—That is why the Open Search Foundation is committed to the creation of an open search index and is launching the #ethicsinsearch project. Funded by the Mercator Foundation, it is intended to provide the values-based foundations for the new “Internet index”.
We invite interested people in universities, schools and companies across Europe and beyond to contribute to a more ethical internet search. Are you a researcher with a focus on digital ethics, ethics of AI, philosophy/sociology of technology, humanism in tech innovation, digital humanities? Do you deal with (ethical) aspects of digital transformation, technology impact assessment, technology sustainability, social aspects of search engines, search engine bias? Are you active in the area of corporate digital responsibility of a company?
Nicolas Dierks
Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany
Nicolas inspires people with new perspectives on humanity in the digital age – with books, keynotes and workshops. He is Head of the CAS-Certificate Digital Ethics at the Leuphana University and explores the road towards a good digital future in his podcast „smart aber fair“.
Anton C. Frank
School of Computation, Information and Technology at Technical University of Munich, Germany, Germany
Anton is Vice Dean Information Management and Digitalisation and managing director of the computer science department. With a background in computational science and high performance, grid and environmental computing he is now active in the fields of IT ethics and sustainability.
Rosie Graham
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Rosie is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature and the Digital and co-director of the Centre for Digital Cultures of the University of Birmingham.
Benedikt Hoffmann
Cologne, Germany
Alexander Nussbaumer
Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science at Graz University of Technology, Austria
Alexander is a Postdoctoral researcher with focus on digital learning, information systems, user-centerd evaluation, human factors, and computer ethics.
Leon Pfeiffer
LMU Munich, Germany
Student at Law
Christine Plote
Open Search Foundation e.V., Germany
Christine is founding member of the Open Search Foundation and member of the board. She leads the ethics group and the #EthicsInSearch project. With a background in economy and communication, she is head of communication at the osf.
Renée Ridgway
Aarhus University/SHAPE centre, Denmark
Post-Doc
Pernille Tranberg
dataethics.eu, Denmark
Founder, Expert for data ethics
