Hello Everyone: When I tossed out the nugget of the public / private phone conversation, I was thinking along the lines of Goffman's stage / backstage and how they are becoming blurred with the increasing use of modern ICT. Ed said, >But this group is most interested in online research (Internet).< While I understand the sentiment that this discussion may be noise from the current perspective of online (Internet) research I would have to disagree. As ICT becomes more ubiquitous in our lives, I think there is going to be a continued blurring of some of the lines that we have drawn. For instance, if the discussion that the person having on the cell phone was instead being conducted using WiFi and Voice over IP, it does then in my mind become clearly related to Internet research. Online (Internet) research is no longer only about text based spaces that comprised the Internet just a few years ago. Picture this scenario: The RFID in our clothes or our PDA alert a digital billboard that we are approaching. The billboard then searches online databases about our consumer habits and presents a personalized advertisement for our eyes and then changes it for the next person travelling behind us. In that scenario, when online and offline lose their distinctions because of ICT ubiquity, any lines drawn to say this is Internet / online research would seem to be moot. I personally believe that this conversation on the ethics related to research where lines used to be clear but are now blurred has become a jewel. I appreciate everyone's contributions. Kevin W. Tharp Community Informatics Officer Senior Research Officer Faculty of Informatics & Communication Central Queensland University Rockhampton, Queensland Australia 07 4923 2566 k.tharp@cqu.edu.au http://infocom.cqu.edu.au/Staff/Kevin_Tharp/