[Air-L] Online research ethics - my two and 1/4 cents

[Radhika Gajjala]

lol - I see that we are still re-inventing the wheel with regard to  
these issues -
I had the same dilemmas and negotiations studying email listservs more  
than 10 years ago.
Its like any ethnographic research - always and continually negotiated.
Depends on what you (intend) do with what you "research" (even the act  
of reading something online and being there is research for a  
researcher) and how much you should or reasonably can protect  
confidentialiy etc.


My advice -get HSRB approval just in case.

Use informed consent forms if the blogs/websites are explicitly  
protected - see descriptions etc - if password protected or for  
friends only - and you can read it - well then you are a participant/ 
reader part of the in-group and should probably not violate trust -  
get consent...

keep the consent forms handy - negotiate each instance case by case by  
researching how "private" or "public" features intersect in each  
unique case...

there are no absolute generalizations in terms of ethics - I would say  
- but there ARE things like accountability to the community and people  
that you are writing about and with - and this determines what ethical  
behaviour you pursue


r
Radhika Gajjala
Grad coordinator office on secondlife:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bowling%20Green%20State/203/217/39
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik