[Air-L] Dissertation

[Jeremy Hunsinger]

actually, you might not even need 'informed consent' at all.  in  
fact, you probably don't need it.  you may not even need to disguise  
your research subjects.

the first step is 'do not go overboard' in your ethical assumptions.

the second step is to contact someone who has published something  
similar to what you are doing.  posting to general lists like this  
will get your general and usually very nervous responses.  experience  
counts, look at your bibliography, see who has done what, write them  
specifically.  your context and country counts more than anything else.

the third step is to check your newly found opinions against the aoir  
guidelines, which then will make you check against both your  
disciplinary ethical guides and your legal situation.

with those three steps in hand, you are set.  If you don't do step 2,  
check with people who you cite, you will likely get it wrong.  Start  
with who you cite, base your ethical stance on prior work, so you  
know your tradition, and you know its requirements.  Don't worry  
about too much otherwise.   don't worry about the international or  
american context unless prior researchers in your country have  
worried and found ways to deal with it.

I worry about the 'contact me offline' below.  it suggests to me that  
there is some 'secret knowledge'  that cannot be known.  There is none.
On Aug 9, 2007, at 7:51 AM, Heidelberg, Chris wrote:

> Brooks contact me offline and I can explain what you can do to keep  
> yourself safe legally at least from an American perspective. Swiss  
> law may differ somewhat. The key is to get written agreements with  
> everyone to cover yourself in the event that you decide to publish  
> commercially. You need to place that in your informed consent form  
> so that folks understand that you own the rights to the research  
> and that they consent to your use of their names, pseudo-names and  
> likenesses. Get a creative commons license.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l- 
> bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of brook bolander
> Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 3:13 AM
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] Dissertation
>
> Dear AOIR,
>
> I am writing my PhD on the subject of "power in blogs", and thereby  
> exploring how power is negotiated in the interaction between  
> bloggers and their readers, and between the readers themselves in  
> the comments sections of blog posts in which conflicts are salient.  
> I have received an initial e-mail confirmation from the bloggers  
> that they consent to my research and have given them the option of  
> requiring me to use psuedonyms. I now intend to write to the  
> bloggers, asking for their addresses, so I can outline the project  
> in more detail and obtain written consent.
>
> I am aware, however, that research on the internet can be very  
> complicated in terms of ethical issues. What I am less sure about  
> are the legal issues.
> Am I correct in assuming that if I do not include quotations, use  
> pseudonyms for the readers (whose permission I have not gained),  
> use pseudonyms for those bloggers who ask me to (one blogger has  
> explicitly asked me not to), gain written consent from the bloggers  
> themselves and inform them in the letter what the study entails,  
> that I will run into no ethical or legal problems? All my bloggers  
> state they are adults.
>
> Or do I need to write to the hosts as well, like blogger, for  
> example, to ask for their permission as well?
>
> One of the bloggers asked me whether she would have any problems  
> vis à vis her readers if she consented to my study, for example,  
> and I found I didn't really know, with any certainty, what to reply.
>
> I hope that my PhD will be published in a couple of years, and am  
> not sure whether that plays a role in terms of its label as  
> something for 'commerical purposes'. I am writing my PhD in  
> Switzerland.
>
> I really want to go about this the right way and am having problems  
> gaining the information I need.
>
> Thanks a lot in advance for your help,
> Best wishes
> Brook Bolander
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Jeremy Hunsinger
Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research,  
School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee  
(www.cipr.uwm.edu)

Words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a  
thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions,  
think. --Byron