Daniel Berdichevsky

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Daniel Berdichevsky (b. July 20, 1976) is a noted figure in the world of academic competition and in the ethics of persuasive technology[1]. A former Dean's Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Berdichevsky is the president of DemiDec, a global educational venture which recently opened its first Academyin South Korea.

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[edit] The World Scholar's Cup

Berdichevsky is the founder and curriculum director of the World Scholar's Cup, an international academic competition held annually in East Asia. Participating countries include Malaysia, Cambodia, Korea, the United States[1], Australia, Japan and others[2]. Berdichevsky has recently presented at administrator conferences in Taiwan and India in an effort to spread the program to new schools.

[edit] Academic Decathlon

Berdichevsky is the fifth highest scorer[3] in the history of the United States Academic Decathlon[4], and was the highest scorer in the Academic Decathlon competition from 1994 to 2008. Berdichevsky's development of private preparation materials for the Academic Decathlon is credited by some as having helped move the Academic Decathlon toward publishing its own curriculum booklets. Berdichevsky is frequently sighted at Academic Decathlon competitions.

[edit] Persuasive Technology

Berdichevsky's most notable theoretical work has been on the ethics of persuasive technology[5]. His first paper in the field was published in Communications of the ACM in 1998 and is studied in design and theory courses at leading universities, including MIT [6] and the University of North Carolina[7] It is also referenced regularly in new journal articles. [8]

In the paper, Berdichevsky and co-author Erik Neuenschwander posit a framework for the ethical design of technologies that aim to change user attitudes and behaviors:

What if home financial planning software persuaded its users to invest in the stock market? And what if the market then crashed, leaving the users in financial ruin? Or, more subtly, what if the makers of the software arranged with certain companies to “push” their particular stocks? Would such designs differ in a morally relevant way from stockbrokers who encourage their clients to buy the stocks that earn them bonus commissions [6]? They do, though in unexpected ways. That’s why our exploration of the ethics of persuasive technologies seeks to begin establishing a first set of principled guidelines for their design and implementation. Doing so requires us to apply to this new domain a number of questions (and answers) associated with earlier work in the ethics of persuasion and in the ethics of technology—especially computers. Until now, no one has looked specifically at the convergence of these fields.

Berdichevsky and Neuenschwander propose eight design principles, including what they term the Golden Rule of Persuasion:

The creators of a persuasive technology should never seek to persuade a person or persons of something they themselves would not consent to be persuaded of.

Their design principles were described in David Levy's 2006 book Robots Unlimited: Life in A Virtual Age as "add[ing] to those responsibilities imposed on robots and their designers by Asimov's Laws."[9]

Berdichevsky went on to co-author a "sequel" that is less well known.

[edit] Other Writings

Berdichevsky has also written a series of columns for the Stanford Daily during and following his time as a graduate student there. Some of these articles overlap with his blog, which primarily mixes political analysis and travel anecdotes. His research on "How the GOP Could Take Back California in 2008" (here) was published in the Kennedy School Review in June 2005.[10]

[edit] Silicon Valley Experiences

In 2000, Berdichevsky was the co-founder of VentureNova, a $9M venture fund financed by CASIO Computer Corporation to invest in Internet appliances. Prior to this, Berdichevsky served as CASIO's Strategic Innovation Leader.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Toward an ethics of persuasive technology
  2. ^ "Nimitz student invited to World Scholar's Cup" Dallas Morning News. April, 2007. http://neighborsgo.beloblog.com/archives/2007/04/nimitz_student_invited_to_worl.html
  3. ^ AcaDec Scores Page. http://acadecscores.gilslotd.com/wiki/Scorers
  4. ^ "The Sport of Knowledge". Fresno Bee. January 6, 2007. http://www.fresnobee.com/223/story/298664.html
  5. ^ BERDICHEVSKY, D., AND NEUNSCHWANDER, E. (1999). Toward an ethics of persuasive technology. Communications of the ACM, 42(5), 51-58.
  6. ^ Designing Persuasive Environments and Technologies
  7. ^ .Information Ethics.
  8. ^ Toward an ethics of persuasive technology
  9. ^ Levy, David. Robots Unlimited: Life In A Virtual Age. A.K. Peters: 2006.
  10. ^ Berdichevsky, Daniel, et al. "How the GOP Could Take Back California in 2008." The Kennedy School Review. Volume III, Spring 2005.