To second what Alex and other have said, in my experience US IRB boards in general: 1. Treat anything that's posted to the internet, without any form of membership/login as public speech. That goes for posts and comments. 2. In general once any form of log-in comes into play (as in myspace or live journal) then you need to get specific permission to publish. The only case where you have wiggle room is in cases where all that is needed is to create a log in based on an e-mail address (which can be argued are freely available to anyone). However, if the owner of the blog has to give you permission to read their entries (or in some cases the owner of the content) then you definitely need to get consent there. 3. If individuals have taken steps to protecting their identities, you also need permission if you are going to link screen names with RL "real names". 4. Get permissions for any interview data (again, just like in off line studies). - Matt -- ----------------------------- Matthew Bernius Visiting Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology mBernius@gMail.com http://www.waking-dream.com