Re: [Air-L] avatar research ethics
Marjorie Kibby wrote: "Our review board guidelines [....] would see avatars as human subjects." Forgive if this is too simplistic, but where would this leave someone wanting to study some cartoon character? I mean, obviously any such study would have to mention the author & author's rights. But those guidelines strike me as , I don't know, too harsh? Too strict? Best regards, Will William Bain PhD Student Comparative Literature Department of Spanish Philology Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
A cartoon charater is not "inhabited" by a human being in the way that a MOO character or avatar is - when you live there for a long time... Think of Avatars on SL and puppets/puppeteers. Would you write about a puppet separately from the puppeteer? r On Mar 8, 2008, at 2:29 AM, William Bain wrote:
Marjorie Kibby wrote: "Our review board guidelines [....] would see avatars as human subjects."
Forgive if this is too simplistic, but where would this leave someone wanting to study some cartoon character? I mean, obviously any such study would have to mention the author & author's rights. But those guidelines strike me as , I don't know, too harsh? Too strict?
Best regards, Will
William Bain PhD Student Comparative Literature Department of Spanish Philology Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
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The puppet/puppeteer analogy is an interesting one. Indeed, what if one were studying a puppet? Would human subjects approval be necessary? Where does one draw the line? The study of the puppet, inert, we might presume to not be study of a human subject (although maybe the puppet is in some way an "artifact" representing its maker and one would be required to have human subjects approval?). The study of the puppet as a "medium" for interaction with the puppeteer we might presume to be study of a human subject (that is, a study of the puppeteer via the puppet) but a) to what degree, if at all, does the puppet "represent" the puppeteer? and b) what if the puppet had some agency of its own? Then there's the study of the puppet engaged in a play. Perhaps the play is entirely scripted, perhaps it is entirely improvised, or it is somewhere in-between. Is the study in any case human subjects research? Sj On Mar 8, 2008, at 5:12 AM, Radhika Gajjala wrote:
A cartoon charater is not "inhabited" by a human being in the way that a MOO character or avatar is - when you live there for a long time... Think of Avatars on SL and puppets/puppeteers. Would you write about a puppet separately from the puppeteer?
r
On Mar 8, 2008, at 2:29 AM, William Bain wrote:
Marjorie Kibby wrote: "Our review board guidelines [....] would see avatars as human subjects."
Forgive if this is too simplistic, but where would this leave someone wanting to study some cartoon character? I mean, obviously any such study would have to mention the author & author's rights. But those guidelines strike me as , I don't know, too harsh? Too strict?
Best regards, Will
William Bain PhD Student Comparative Literature Department of Spanish Philology Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
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I think in this case we have to deal with the part of the IRB guidelines that specify the term 'interaction' to include interpersonal communication as definitive of intervention. if you attempt to communicate then it is intervention. Then you either have pursue the knowledge as to whether it is communication with a human, such as you find with most avatars in sl, or not. On Mar 8, 2008, at 7:02 AM, Steve Jones wrote:
The puppet/puppeteer analogy is an interesting one. Indeed, what if one were studying a puppet? Would human subjects approval be necessary? Where does one draw the line? The study of the puppet, inert, we might presume to not be study of a human subject (although maybe the puppet is in some way an "artifact" representing its maker and one would be required to have human subjects approval?). The study of the puppet as a "medium" for interaction with the puppeteer we might presume to be study of a human subject (that is, a study of the puppeteer via the puppet) but a) to what degree, if at all, does the puppet "represent" the puppeteer? and b) what if the puppet had some agency of its own? Then there's the study of the puppet engaged in a play. Perhaps the play is entirely scripted, perhaps it is entirely improvised, or it is somewhere in-between. Is the study in any case human subjects research?
Sj
On Mar 8, 2008, at 5:12 AM, Radhika Gajjala wrote:
A cartoon charater is not "inhabited" by a human being in the way that a MOO character or avatar is - when you live there for a long time... Think of Avatars on SL and puppets/puppeteers. Would you write about a puppet separately from the puppeteer?
r
On Mar 8, 2008, at 2:29 AM, William Bain wrote:
Marjorie Kibby wrote: "Our review board guidelines [....] would see avatars as human subjects."
Forgive if this is too simplistic, but where would this leave someone wanting to study some cartoon character? I mean, obviously any such study would have to mention the author & author's rights. But those guidelines strike me as , I don't know, too harsh? Too strict?
Best regards, Will
William Bain PhD Student Comparative Literature Department of Spanish Philology Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
--------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. _______________________________________________ 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
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jeremy hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu ) wiki.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.stswiki.org/ sts wiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ Learning Inquiry-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series
exactly. could we study the puppet - inert? what would be the point? textual analysis and semiotic analysis does have a point - but we dont ever really get IRB permission for that... so its the methodology that leads to the need or not? On Mar 8, 2008, at 8:02 AM, Steve Jones wrote:
The puppet/puppeteer analogy is an interesting one. Indeed, what if one were studying a puppet? Would human subjects approval be necessary? Where does one draw the line? The study of the puppet, inert, we might presume to not be study of a human subject (although maybe the puppet is in some way an "artifact" representing its maker and one would be required to have human subjects approval?). The study of the puppet as a "medium" for interaction with the puppeteer we might presume to be study of a human subject (that is, a study of the puppeteer via the puppet) but a) to what degree, if at all, does the puppet "represent" the puppeteer? and b) what if the puppet had some agency of its own? Then there's the study of the puppet engaged in a play. Perhaps the play is entirely scripted, perhaps it is entirely improvised, or it is somewhere in-between. Is the study in any case human subjects research?
Sj
the methods do determine whether or not you need to seek irb approval, that was my point on the prior discussion. if you are studying objects or documents, you don't need irb approval. you need irb approval when you have a human subject, which is defined as a living person that you intervene with or collect private information from. where intervention is defined as changing the environment, manipulating the person, and interaction and interaction is defined as interpersonal contact or interpersonal communication. On Mar 8, 2008, at 7:33 AM, Radhika Gajjala wrote:
exactly. could we study the puppet - inert? what would be the point? textual analysis and semiotic analysis does have a point - but we dont ever really get IRB permission for that... so its the methodology that leads to the need or not?
On Mar 8, 2008
jeremy hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu ) wiki.tmttlt.com www.tmttlt.com () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.stswiki.org/ sts wiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ Learning Inquiry-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series
Some list members will be interested in today's "Urban Word of the Day" Email. Subscription is my only association to the mailing list. Regards, Charles Balch -- Urban Word of the Day posting follows -- Urban Word of the Day www.urbandictionary.com March 08, 2008: collateral misinformation http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=collateral+misinformation&def id=2903349 When someone alters a [Wikipedia] article to win a specific argument, anyone who reads the false article before the "error" is corrected suffers from collateral misinformation. I changed the scientific classification of red foxes last night in order to win an argument with Judy. I hope some stupid High School student didn't suffer from collateral misinformation.
What a great term...I think it applies to both the media and academic presentations as well as Wikipedia...like when some ill informed journalist talks about things like SL with all the inaccuracies and rumour or when someone who has never used SL for anything more than to replicate a boring ,non-participatory lecture in a replica of their RL lecture hall and comments in a presentation or paper on SL being a waste of time instead of their pedagogy being he item in question...perfect examples of collateeral misinformation to me. Lindy Lindy McKeown aka Decka Mah http://lindymckeown.com -- Urban Word of the Day posting follows -- Urban Word of the Day www.urbandictionary.com March 08, 2008: collateral misinformation http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=collateral+misinformation&def id=2903349 When someone alters a [Wikipedia] article to win a specific argument, anyone who reads the false article before the "error" is corrected suffers from collateral misinformation. _________________________________________________________ This mail sent using iTEL Webmail - www.itel.net
Lindy, I share your dislike for lazy journalists, but I don't see how what you describe relates to collateral misinformation. By the way, not all SL critics haven't tried it. Could I be controversial and say that I do not like SL either? And yes, I have given it a fair try, but I simply cannot get past the clunky technology and the endless rendering lag. Best Regards, Andres -- Andres Guadamuz AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law Old College, South Bridge Edinburgh, EH8 9YL Tel: 44 (0)131 6509699 Fax: 44 (0)131 6506317 a.guadamuz@ed.ac.uk http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/ SCRIPT-ed Journal of Law, Technology and Society http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/script-ed IP/IT/Medical Law LLM by Distance Learning http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/distancelearning/ Lindy McKeown wrote:
What a great term...I think it applies to both the media and academic presentations as well as Wikipedia...like when some ill informed journalist talks about things like SL with all the inaccuracies and rumour or when someone who has never used SL for anything more than to replicate a boring ,non-participatory lecture in a replica of their RL lecture hall and comments in a presentation or paper on SL being a waste of time instead of their pedagogy being he item in question...perfect examples of collateeral misinformation to me.
Lindy
Lindy McKeown aka Decka Mah
-- Urban Word of the Day posting follows --
Urban Word of the Day www.urbandictionary.com
March 08, 2008: collateral misinformation
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=collateral+misinformation&def id=2903349
When someone alters a [Wikipedia] article to win a specific argument, anyone who reads the false article before the "error" is corrected suffers from collateral misinformation.
_________________________________________________________ This mail sent using iTEL Webmail - www.itel.net
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participants (7)
-
Andres Guadamuz -
Charlie Balch -
Jeremy Hunsinger -
Lindy McKeown -
Radhika Gajjala -
Steve Jones -
William Bain