Hi, Eero, and all A long post I made in answer has fallen into the internet ether, so I will let elijah's stand in for me to some extent. I do want to say though, I don't agree that our individual attachments to personal ethics or the law are quite enough to stand in for guidelines. As a newer member of the aoir ethics committee chaired by Charles Ess, and as a presenter of a paper on ethics of researching online community and relationships, I applaud the aoir group for putting together a pioneering set of guidelines growing from people with allegiances to many different disciplines and countries. I also disagree that posting in a newsgroup is analogous to walking down the street. There is a large grey area between the totally public and totally private online which bears examination and continued attempts to reach at least a rough agreement on how and when to do research there. Finally, without having professional knowledge of the profession, it seems to me that journalists often have fewer strictures than researchers, not only because of our IRB's, but because of the demand for daily stories and the traditions of their profession. For example, they may be more than satisfied if three people back up their information, whereas we may need far more than that to support a thesis about everyday life. best, andrea baker (andee)
Andrea, At 19:00 08/05/2004, you wrote:
I also disagree that posting in a newsgroup is analogous to walking down the street.
Of course, it is not, even in the age of omnipresent CCTV, it is far more public to post in a newsgroup, then to walk down the street, which is, indeed, semi-private. Thomas -- thomas koenig department of social sciences, loughborough university http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/staff/thomas/index.html
Great discussion all. Just to chime in again: I have to agree that universals are not what we need here. (Per and earlier point from Thomas, though, yeah--I am beholden to an IRB in the end, if nothing else). And I don't mean to sound "consequentialist" here either--but, it does have a lot to do with if people get hurt. Some newsgroups and some blogs and some chatrooms are a lot like the street: I see you there, I report that. Its normal. Some blogs, even, are a bit like Hollywood Blvd. I see you there, and you WANT me to report that. However, some places have expectations of privacy. So . . .even if you are "covertly" watching people--if it seems "covert" to them, I am not sure what justifies that. I guess, being a weirdo ;) ["Dude . . . are you starting at me?"] for the sake of science is one thing if you really have some sort of valuable result to come up with. (Again, my IRB demands to know what that benefit is no matter how "invulnerable" my respondent population is.) But if you don't, again, why be rude? In all seriousness, admitting you are there is, in the case of most social behavior, going to have very little impact. Unless, again, its a sensitive situation. Hence, if it is a sensitive situation you probably shouldn't be misleading people! Rude researchers make it harder for us all to do research. Which isn't' to say I haven't been flamed or I haven't made mistakes. It happens. But still--its a judgement call, and doing no harm is obviously a good thing to aim for. So, again, I have noticed that when I am tempted to be "covert" there is often some very good reason why I might be in a position to do some harm. So, I guess--when you aren't risking much by going "covert" then maybe its fine. But in those cases, I suspect the forum you are observing has rather low expectations about privacy; who is gonna complain if I publish to the world that they were walking in Hollywood? Or in Paris? What about Baghdad . . . ? (To gesture to the other thread on the list.) Rob
Andrea, At 19:00 08/05/2004, you wrote:
I also disagree that posting in a newsgroup is analogous to walking down the street.
Of course, it is not, even in the age of omnipresent CCTV, it is far more public to post in a newsgroup, then to walk down the street, which is, indeed, semi-private.
Thomas
-- thomas koenig department of social sciences, loughborough university http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/mmethods/staff/thomas/index.html
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-- Robert Glenn Howard Assistant Professor Department of Communication Arts & Communication Technologies Research Cluster University of Wisconsin - Madison rgh@rghoward.com http://rghoward.com
participants (3)
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bakeraï¼ ohiou.edu -
RGH -
Thomas Koenig