Thank you, Peter and Bruno (and all who have replied offline). Much of the advice seems to focus around: * taking the research offline (a little disappointing since it cuts off the Web -- but surely wise) * making sure the informants/subjects are protected. (which is the primary concern to begin with!). It makes me wonder if there isn't an Underground Internet -- complete with its own codes, signals, and even protocols --- to allow those who might be persecuted to more freely communicate and share information. Has anyone done any work in this area? I certainly appreciate all the feedback and look forward to any other advice you might have. Best, Mark On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 2:49 PM, Bruno S. <bselun@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi there,
in order to protect oneself from being traced back, I highly recommend using TOR (The Onion Router) > http://www.torproject.org/ <.
The principle is brilliantly explained at > http://www.torproject.org/overview.html.en <. Since it is virtually untraceable, your student would need to use it for every connection she makes to her blog, or wherever it is that she'll be conducting the research from. From the earliest stage (searching for a hosting service, subscribing to it) throughout her use of it (posting any comment, any post, just logging on to the website), she will need to use TOR not to be identified.
This answers the question regarding her anonymity, but not the respondents'. I could suggest they *all *use TOR, but that requires some kind of technical understanding, and may not be easily put in place. What are others' suggestions?
Bruno Selun _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Writing Program University of Southern California http://WriterResponseTheory.org http://CriticalCodeStudies.com