Hi all, Before jumping into this discussion, I'd also like to raise the flag of internationalism (as I sit here in ohio) and remind folks that different rules and procedures will apply for different regions/nations/etc, including different assumptions about what constitutes harm, risk, etc. That said, I got curious as to what my own IRB says about blog research, since I've done newsgroup analysis in the past and didn't get approval for it. Here's why: The IRB guidelines are actually a re-direct to US (federal) guidelines for IRBs and research. They say that "...research activities in which the only involvement of human subjects will be in one or more of the following categories are exempt from this policy: "...Research involving the collection or study of existing data, documents, records, pathological specimens, or diagnostic specimens, if these sources are publicly available or if the information is recorded by the investigator in such a manner that subjects cannot be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects." Source at: http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.htm#46.101 So, publicly available blog sites, websites, newsgroups, etc, would appear to be exempt from review (unless we want to argue over what "publicly accessible" means). And more interestingly, if you read this closely, it would seem that even if it is NOT publicly available, but the researcher makes sure that "subjects cannot be identified" that type of work is also exempt. I'm guessing that might apply in situations such as Facebook, where to gain access to someone's profile you need to be friends (thus making those profiles semi-private). I'm not advocating such an approach, but it would seem to be acceptable at least according to US IRB guidelines. Finally, I think we need to keep in mind a bigger concern about places like blogs and social network sites, which is that the companies which run them have NO compunctions about monitoring your activity, taking ownership of your content, tracking you, etc etc. My two cents, Mia -- Mia Consalvo, Associate Professor Director of Graduate Studies 213 RTV Building School of Telecommunications 9 South College Street Ohio University Athens, OH 45701 740.597.1521