[Air-L] Fw: avatar research ethics

[Rhiannon Bury]

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Rhiannon Bury <rcbury at rogers.com>
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Sent: Sunday, March 9, 2008 11:42:49 AM
Subject: Re: [Air-L] avatar research ethics


----- Original Message ----
From: jcu <jcu at execulink.com>
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Sent: Saturday, March 8, 2008 8:42:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Air-L] avatar research ethics

you 
wrote,

"That 
said, 
anything 
said 
on 
a 
forum 
that 
does 
not 
require 
special 
permission 
or 
passwords 
to 
access 
is 
generally 
fair 
game 
in 
my 
books."

PhD 
or 
not, 
how 
does 
this 
differ 
from 
a 
paparazzi 
agenda?
As 
long 
as 
there 
are 
living 
human 
beings 
creating 
text 
or 
speech, 
in 
whatever 
for(u)m, 
isn't 
it, 
at 
the 
very 
least, 
common 
decency 
to 
simply
ask 
for 
permission? 
So 
my 
question 
is, 
fair 
game 
for 
what? 
Sounds 
like 
research 
has 
become 
target 
practice 
to 
me.

Me again:

The metaphor I chose was probably not the best; I'm not suggesting that we lurk about in online forums or in SL ready to "pounce" on unsuspecting participants just because we can! Obviously, there has to be a set of research questions that inform the decision to study a particular set of interactions, identities, communities. 

We don't go through the Ethics Review process to be "decent" to our subjects. It is a quasi-legal process (the legal beagles might want to jump in here) that offers the subjects, the researcher and the institution certain protections and responsibilities. Of course, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be "decent" to our subjects. :) Feminist  methodologies are all about addressing unequal power relationships between researcher and researched etc. 

My point is that not all research that studies online communication involves human subjects in a direct enough way to issue a formal contract.
 Not all research even constructs the producer of certain utterances as a "human subject". I don't have to ask a published author permission to analyze their writing and copyright law allows me to quote passages directly within limits. I understand that this is not necessary a clear or fixed distinction with CMC. Certainly grad students or people early in their research career shouldn't be making these decisions in isolation. Upthread, Ted offered good advice for that context: ask your board, ask your Chair and ask the internet research community!

And for the record, I have no problem with the paparazzi. ;) 

Rhiannon