They must assume that their communication is being observed by other people who may comment about it, record it, analyse it etc - and if they do not wish for this to occur the solution is very simple, dont make such utterances publicly.

Life is a pretty simple business when we sweep away the bulldust, why must we complicate it ?

Thanks for your comments, Eero. But how is it simple, when the minute we begin to look at the record of even a single human interaction in any form, we are made aware of all the weight of history and custom, the constructs of shared meaning, the potential clashes between private definitions on the part of any two people - even if they live in the same town? My grandfather had a different sense of civility than my own, my colleague from Korea, yet another. I'd say it's simple only when viewed from a great distance. I'd add to that the reality of technological mechanisms for observation and capture constitutes so large and rapid an alteration of our interactions that we're all learning as we go about its impact in every part of our society. We shape and reshape our civility, and ethics rise from that creation. One hundred years ago you might not have been subjected to another's private conversation on the bus, because you might not have had access to such public transportation. If, legally, we should learn to be aware that our privacy is no longer a reasonable expectation, as it once was, how does that affect us - not only our practices, but our expectations of dignity? And can't we differentiate between 3 things (there may be more, I don't know yet): expectation, ethical behavior, and law? The law may sternly claim that each individual carries a responsibility for whatever utterances or behavior he or she enacts, but the individual may blithely proceed with whatever their inclinations might be, feeling (the foolish thing!) safe among a like-minded society. Carol Perryman Graduate School of Library & Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign cp1757@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself with the new version of MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/