[Air-L] Public/ Private

[Charlie Balch]

It should be noted that the act of deleting internet content does not remove
its availability. Sites like http://archive.org claim to record the entire
internet history and provide free access and comparisons of content changes.

I've occasionally explored the evolution of content using archive.org (I've
no association other than an occasional user). My interest has mostly been
how business and government sites change but the possibility of looking at
revisionist blogs is a fascinating research opportunity. 

I've also written software that allows me to "scrape" or aggregate public
information when the owners would not or could not provide the database for
analysis. I've not published the information collected from my scrapes for a
variety of reasons. Mostly because I'm lazy and the value of self-selected
responses to surveys are very questionable. 

Then again, I suspect I could find "serious flaws" in almost *any* research
design. I continue to be amazed that research provides useful results
despite how easy it is to find errors in the research process. 

As a bottom line, if you post it on the net, it is public. The publisher
might regret their post but that does not make it private. Yes, additional
exposure might bring some greater harm to the poster but the poster has
brought it upon themselves. 

IRBs should focus on research where an *intervention* might cause the
participant harm.

Charlie Balch Me.D, MBA, Ph.D yada yada
professor of Computer Information Systems
Arizona Western College
http://charlie.balch.org