Dear Marcie, I am presently undertaking research on a social networking site that is as big as myspace (not yet at liberty to say which one!). Even with the full cooperation of the SN site themselves, and the fact that their members agree to particular conditions on joining we have had the devil's own job getting ethical approval through our university board of ethics - not least because many of the members are under the age of 13yrs. I strongly advise you to make sure that you have full ethical approval - as elijah says - 'you'll have to do quite a lot more work to properly do research that involves MySpace.' Denise Dr Denise Maia Carter, Research Fellow, Cyberspace Research Unit University of Central Lancashire Maudland Building Preston, PR1 2HE Quoting kuehlm@ou.edu:
Hello Listmates-
I am a geography master's student, just starting out in the world of internet research and have a question:
Has anyone conducted research on Myspace.com and been forced (by IRBs or other parties) to obtain permission from myspace (or any other social networking website) before conducting the research?
How have you gone about this?
Or
Does anyone know of a way to prove that the information on myspace.com is public information and thus permission from the owners is not necessary?
Any help would be great! Thanks! Marcie
________ Marcie Kuehl Department of Geography M104 Sarkeys Energy Center University of Oklahoma 405.325.7468 kuehlm@ou.edu
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