[Air-L] Online research ethics

[Heidelberg, Chris]

Hey I created several blogs for my dissertation that have become reasonably popular for an academic based blog and even are high on the Google list. In fact, it got so crazy that I had to create a separate blog for the actual dissertation, but it was truly worth it because I based and a leading expert in the field traveled from North Carolina to Maryland to watch my successful defense and he wants me to write some journal articles with him and for a publication. My blog looks like a traditional site but operates interactively like a blog. I used an open research model with the permission of the participants.

In fact I will be speaking on April 15th at Innovation 2008 in Breckenridge, Colorado, where many of the people that I cited will be on the program. Just Google Innovation 2008 to get the conference details.  

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Charles Ess
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 8:47 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Online research ethics

Hi again,
> 
> the Blogs I am using for my Diss are being treated as Web content too 
> and I am citing them accordingly.
> 
> Doing my Diss in the literary studies department this was accepted 
> without further discussion, i guess because -  basically - the 
> author-as-an-inidivdual-subject is not a category given much consideration.
> So if I am speaking about the "Blogger" I am talking about a textual 
> subject.
> 
> Still textual subjects obviously have a lot to do with who and what we 
> are and definitely deserve protection.
> 
> The Blogs I am dealing with (Soldiers Blogs) have mostly been written 
> about in the press and are all under censorship by the Pentagon anyway 
> - so that complicates the question even more, but makes it ok for me 
> to also treat them as public material.
> 
> Sorry, as you can see I think this is a difficult issue too.

Thanks very much for this -
I'm wondering: since bloggers by definition want their material to be read, and so a blog is a publication - it would seem that they are to be considered primarily as authors.  As noted previously, copyright law then comes into play - at least in the U.S. (I don't know how this would play out in the German context - aber es würde mich sehr interessieren, das zu
erfahren!)  But, at least in the U.S. Context, not so much concerns about Human Subjects protections.
But you're also quite correct, of course, that bloggers are people, too (smile).  And so I'm wondering if you can say more about what sort of protection you think might be ethically called for here?

Let me quickly add: I'm _not_ challenging your intuition - on the contrary:
I think you are on to something important here.
Part of my curiosity stems from the fact that when the AoIR guidelines were developed and approved, blogs were a relatively new phenomenon and we did not have much opportunity to explore the ethical dimensions of this then very new territory.  But they clearly evoke important ethical considerations, as these recent postings make clear.  And so I'm hoping and hopeful that by teasing out a bit more here, we - and especially the ethics working group - might gain some very helpful insight indeed into some of the issues, possible responses, etc.

Vielen Dank / many thanks!
- charles 


Distinguished Research Professor,
Interdisciplinary Studies Center <http://www.drury.edu/gp21> Drury University Springfield, MO  65802  USA

President, Association of Internet Researchers <www.aoir.org> Co-Editor, International Journal of Internet Research Ethics http://ijire.uwm.edu Co-chair, CATaC conferences <www.catacconference.org> Professor II, Globalization and Applied Ethics Programmes <http://www.anvendtetikk.ntnu.no/pres/bridgingcultures.php>

Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23


_______________________________________________
The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Join the Association of Internet Researchers: 
http://www.aoir.org/