Dear AoIR-ists, As many of you know, as part of our annual conference last October in Berlin, AoIR has initiated a new ethics working group to develop an internet research ethics (IRE) guidelines 3.0. The co-chairs of the new working group are: Anja Bechmann (Aarhus University, Denmark), Charles Ess (Oslo University, Norway), and Michael Zimmer (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). Our broad plan is to research and develop a draft set of documents for review and comment by the AoIR membership, both by email (i.e., postings to the list with request for response) and as part of the 2018 conference. Depending on the outcomes of that process, we hope to have a semi-final version of the IRE guidelines 3.0 ready for final comment, again by email and, if needed, during the 2019 conference. We hope to have the final version ready for presentation for vote and eventual approval either at the 2019 conference or soon thereafter. A primary impetus for the new guidelines is the critical mass of participants and presenters at the IRE panels this past October: for the first time in our history the majority of presenters and participants were from outside the United States. As well, as was argued by many of the panel presentations, an IRE 3.0 is called for as continued technological and research developments open up new research ethics questions that are only partially addressed in IRE 1.0 (2002) and 2.0 (2012), if at all. In addition, many of the more contemporary issues – especially as driven by “Big Data” developments and research interests – are shared across a range of academic and professional communities, such as computer scientists engaged in the development of “networked systems ethics” (Bendert Zevenbergen) and The Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in the Design of Autonomous Systems (IEEE Standards Association - <https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/7000.html> <https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/7000.html>) At the same time, however, as with the 2.0 guidelines (2012), we anticipate that the 3.0 guidelines will thereby build and expand on both earlier guidelines as foundational documents and approaches in many ways. The WG 3.0 members are listed below: we are very grateful indeed that these colleagues have agreed to join us. As a more complete list of their CVs and research interests (available soon) makes clear, the WG is robustly international as well as radically interdisciplinary; it further includes colleagues outside the AoIR communities whose work will offer relevant insight and directions for an IRE 3.0. As well: we invite AoIR members who would be interested in joining the WG to send us your self-nominations to WG membership. We especially encourage these from scholars and researchers whose work and background will help represent the voices, perspectives, and traditions of areas currently underrepresented in the WG - namely, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Participating in the WG entails a commitment of ca. 20-30 hours a year for the next 3 years or so. While we hope that many members of the WG 3.0 will be able to attend the annual AoIR conferences and participate in IRE-related events (roundtables, panels, fishbowls, open listening sessions, WG meetings, and, eventually, open meetings with the membership to review and refine suggested IRE 3.0 guidelines) - such attendance is not a requirement for WG membership. Finally, as with all things AoIR (smile), these are volunteer positions: we have no funds to offer to support conference attendance, etc. If you are interested in nominating yourself to the WG, please get in touch with us off-list; we'll send along a more complete position description and approximate schedule of our activities. Self-nomination requires no more than a brief summary of your academic background and research interests, coupled with a few lines about the specific ethical challenges and issues you would like to focus on as part of your contribution to the WG. Lastly, we will be very grateful for your suggestions for what you see as emerging ethical challenges in internet-facilitated research, their possible resolutions, and/or relevant resources. You are welcome to post your suggestions to the AoIR list and/or send them along to the co-chairs off-list. Posting suggestions to the list may help spark other ideas and suggestions as well that we can take on board. Some of the immediate results of our work will be presented and open for discussion as part of the AoIR conference in Tartu this coming October. We very much look forward to gathering your thoughts and suggestions in that venue as well. Many thanks for reading this far and for giving this work your attention and consideration. On behalf of my co-chairs and the WG 3.0, - charles ess -- Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html> <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html> Editor, The Journal of Media Innovations <https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/> <https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/> Postboks 1093 Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway c.m.ess@media.uio.no __ AoIR WG IRE 3.0 – current members, institutional affiliations Brake, David (St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada) Bruns, Axel (Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia) Dennen, Vanessa (Florida State University, USA) Franzke, Aline (Utrecht Data School, Utrecht, the Netherlands) Gammelby, Ane Kathrine (Aarhus University, Denmark) Gotved, Stine (IT-University, Copenhagen, Denmark) Gray, Mary (Harvard Center for Internet and Society, Microsoft Research - Cambridge, Mass, USA) Heise, Nele (University of Hamburg, Germany) Hongladarom, Soraj (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand) Hård af Segerstad, Ylva (Gothenburg University, Sweden) Jones, Steve (University of Illinois, Chicago) Kanerva,Lauri (Research Management Lead, Facebook) Kinder-Kurlanda, Katharina (GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne, Germany) LIM, Sun Sun (Singapore University of Technology and Design) Locatelli, Elisabetta (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy) Lomborg, Stine (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) Markham, Annette (Aarhus University) McKee, Heidi (Miami University, Ohio, USA) Murray, John (SRI, Menlo Park, California, USA) Nahon, Karine (Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel; University of Washington, USA) Puschmann, Cornelius (Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, Hamburg; Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany) Seko, Yukari (Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, Canada) Tiidenberg, Katrin (Tallin University, Estonia; Aarhus University, Denmark) Unsworth, Kristene (Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) White, Michele (Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) Whiteman, Natasha (University of Leicester, UK) Wilhelm, Carsten Center for Research on Economy, Society, Arts and Technology, University of Haute Alsace, France) Zevenbergen, Ben (Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy, New Jersey, USA; Oxford Internet Institute, UK)