[Air-l] member privacy

[Jeremy Hunsinger]

The policy was that AoIR puts the privacy of its members foremost.    
AoIRa\ does not distribute any information about its membership  
beyond what people make available themselves.   To that end, in the  
past, AoIR has not sold its membership lists, it has not published  
lists of emails or contact information, or provided that information  
in other ways.   This has the added effect of limited the amount of  
spam that member receive, but that in my opinion, was not the primary  
motivation.  The primary motivation is that each aoir member can  
choose to do as they wish individually with information that they may  
view as public or private, and aoir should not dictate this to members.

As for what you believe the internet is for, that is a matter for  
your opinion, i don't think it has any normative end that defines it  
as a whole, just as I don't believe that the organization can  
determine for each individual member whether their information should  
be public or private.

I don't think there is any paranoia.  I've always thought that the  
best reasoned position for this is to let individuals announce their  
aoir membership if they want, but that is for them to do, aoir will  
either certify that it is true or not.   That argument really isn't  
about abuse of information, though that could quickly become a an  
issue the first time that such abuse occurs.

It is also the tradition of this organization to deal with these  
issues openly when possible, not in a private poll.  In the end,  
decisions about things like this are generally referred to the paying  
members in a vote or through discussion.  The original discussions  
about this policy will be found on the old conference lists and  
elsewhere.   As i recall, didn't we have a vote when we instituted  
the non-discrimination policy the first time.


On Feb 15, 2006, at 12:52 PM, wrc at tcfir.org wrote:

>
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I am troubled that I cannot email other members directly as I see  
> fit. I
> joined the association because I wished to form collegial  
> relationships with
> other researchers around the world. This is more than a simple  
> "fear of
> spam" issue to me. It goes to a crucial use of the Internet. As the
> Cluetrain Manifesto so clearly articulates, the Internet is about  
> unfettered
> conversations. This paranoia about abuse actually reflects a systemic
> misunderstanding of the subject we are attempting to study.
>
> Clearly you have an opinion about this subject. One way or another,  
> please
> email me at my email address wrc at tcfir.org and state your opinion.  
> I intend
> to submit the results to the AOIR leadership. I am trying to  
> understand the
> policy and your opinion is important.
>
> You have my permission to communicate with me at will. I do not  
> object to
> hundreds of emails from my new colleagues!
>
>
> Reid Cornwell
>
> ________________________________
>
> W. Reid Cornwell Ph.D.
> The Center For Internet Research
> 720.212.0719 (voice)
> 970.485.5109 (mobile)
> 801.807.3130
> wrc at tcfir.org
> http://tcfir.org
>
>
>
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Jeremy Hunsinger
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
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