[Air-L] avatar research ethics

[Kristin Lindsley]

Well, I can think of a few situations in which this is an issue. I'm
hesitant to give too many details for fear of causing someone further
embarrassment, but I do know someone who was quoted in a published,
peer-reviewed piece of research and identified by avatar name, which gave me
(and plenty of other people) enough information to identify the "real
person" behind the avatar. Anyone who can Google could have done the same,
and it was not a flattering quotation! I teased him about it as a friend,
but I'm sure some people were less kind! It's a bit like saying quoting Mark
Twain is sufficient to make Samuel Clemens anonymous, I suppose.

Even if that wasn't the case, I always further anonymize avatars and online
handles in my work because using them is a threat to online identity as much
as "real identity". Even if no one could associate my offline "real" persona
with my avatar in a MMOG or Second Life or even on a message board, I can
still be impacted by it in major ways. My avatar might not be "real", but
the way other avatars interact with it is a very real part of my
experiences, and things attributed to it are a very real part of my
identity, even if "only" online.

Kristin Lindsley

On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 7:09 PM, Gordon Carlson <gordycarlson at gmail.com>
wrote:

> A common method for protecting individuals is obscuring their identity via
> pseudonyms etc.  Isn't this sort of the function an avatar plays?
>  Assuming
> you do not divulge the real world identity, isn't anonymizing or otherwise
> protecting avatars sort of redundant?
>
> I am all for leaning on the side of caution, but either avatars are
> already
> pseudonyms for people or the avatars aren't real and should not be covered
> by IRB.  I can't see a case for them actually being human, though I am
> very
> much up for hearing one...
>
> Thoughts?
>
> -Gordon Carlson
> -PhD student, UIC
>
> On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 6:04 PM, Steve Jones <sjones at uic.edu> wrote:
>
> > If I may ask: Why? Is it because the avatars somehow "represent"
> > humans (or vice versa)? Can we be sure that the "harms" we may
> > identify in the case of human subjects are ones that could also harm
> > avatars? Might there be avatar-specific "harms" to which we should
> > attend? What was behind the Review Board's decision? And how does it
> > define "online identity?"
> >
> > Sj
> >
> > On Mar 7, 2008, at 3:22 PM, Marj Kibby wrote:
> >
> > > Dr Marjorie Kibby,
> > > Senior Lecturer in Communication & Culture
> > > Faculty of Education and Arts
> > > The University of Newcastle,  Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia
> > > Marj.Kibby at newcastle.edu.au
> > > +61 2 49216604
> > >>>> Jeremy Hunsinger <jhuns at vt.edu> 03/08/08 4:26 AM >>>
> > > The question was.... "When I take pictures of any random person using
> > > a building in sl, am I doing human subjects research?'
> > >
> > >
> > > Our Review Board guidelines say that online identities must be
> > > afforded the same protection from harm as real world identities.
> > > They would see avatars as human subjects.
> > >
> > >
> > > Marj
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > 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/
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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/
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Gordon Carlson
> C: 541-990-1155
> _______________________________________________
> 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/
>