[Air-l] an Ess-ian Q: when does the personal becomes public?

[Barry Wellman]

Every once in a while, I Google recent and high page-ranking references to
me.

I was surprised when I did this recently to find my name mentioned in two
blogs:

-- A purported quotation from me from a dinner table conversation a few
years ago.

-- A side comment that I purportedly made to the blogger who claims to be
sitting next to me at another conference.

This has gotten me to thinking.

1. Is it ethical to publish private conversations without the speaker's
approval?

2. Or has the nature of networked community become such that just as the
public has become personal, the personal has become public?

Secret police types would concurr: If you have nothing to hide, why worry?

But I have had enough experiences in America, China, Russia
and Bulgaria to know I don't want to live that way. And neither do my
friends who have lived in these countries.

Surely there is a matter of private discourse among friends and
colleagues. Or has blogging by scholars merged with gossip columns?

My own feeling is that my papers, lectures and perhaps even public
conference utterances are publishable. My side comments over dinner and in
informal groups are not -- unless I explicitly agree.

Or am I just an old fuddy-duddy who doesn't understand the new world of
blogs -- even those by scholars?

 Barry
 _____________________________________________________________________

  Barry Wellman         Professor of Sociology        NetLab Director
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman

  Centre for Urban & Community Studies          University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue    Toronto Canada M5S 2G8    fax:+1-416-978-7162
	     To network is to live; to live is to network
 _____________________________________________________________________