[Air-l] ethics of recording publicly observed interactions

Kevin Tharp k.tharp at cqu.edu.au
Tue May 11 16:34:31 PDT 2004


Hello Everyone:

When I tossed out the nugget of the public / private phone conversation,
I was thinking along the lines of Goffman's stage / backstage and how
they are becoming blurred with the increasing use of modern ICT.

Ed said, >But this group is most interested in online research
(Internet).<

While I understand the sentiment that this discussion may be noise from
the current perspective of online (Internet) research I would have to
disagree.  As ICT becomes more ubiquitous in our lives, I think there is
going to be a continued blurring of some of the lines that we have
drawn.  For instance, if the discussion that the person having on the
cell phone was instead being conducted using WiFi and Voice over IP, it
does then in my mind become clearly related to Internet research. Online
(Internet) research is no longer only about text based spaces that
comprised the Internet just a few years ago.

Picture this scenario: The RFID in our clothes or our PDA alert a
digital billboard that we are approaching.  The billboard then searches
online databases about our consumer habits and presents a personalized
advertisement for our eyes and then changes it for the next person
travelling behind us.

In that scenario, when online and offline lose their distinctions
because of ICT ubiquity, any lines drawn to say this is Internet /
online research would seem to be moot.  I personally believe that this
conversation on the ethics related to research where lines used to be
clear but are now blurred has become a jewel.  I appreciate everyone's
contributions.

Kevin W. Tharp
Community Informatics Officer
Senior Research Officer 
Faculty of Informatics & Communication
Central Queensland University
Rockhampton, Queensland Australia
07 4923 2566
k.tharp at cqu.edu.au
http://infocom.cqu.edu.au/Staff/Kevin_Tharp/






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