[Air-L] online research ethics

[Nishant Shah]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 1:54 AM, Emma Duke-Williams <
emma.dukewilliams at gmail.com> wrote:

> I wonder if many personal bloggers start with a (very) limited
> audience initially, and may be somewhat uncomfortable to discover
> they're read by a wider audience.
>
> This is an interesting conversation. I find it difficult to believe that
there are people who write blogs (at least non-password non friends-only
protected blogs)  without the imagination or the intention of a reader. It
is an interesting argument and perhaps  I need to think about it more.

However, coming to Emma's wondering aloud, I fall in that category. I
started my personal blog about five years ago on Livejournal. It started as
one of those personal accounts meant only for the close set of friends who
had all started the blogs with me. In four years, my blog readership (and
subsequent friend's list) had grown to more than a thousand people. The day
I realised that so many people are getting a glimpse of my blog which was
still intensely personal - discussion relationships, people, paranoias and
peeves - was the day I panicked and completely froze. I haven't written on
my blog since a year now. I have also begun a new 'secret' blog, not giving
away my identity as in the earlier one and keeping a low profile, sharing
the link only with a few friends and not adding strangers.

For me, as a blogger, especially for personal blogs, the imagination of what
constitutes an audience gives me the freedom to write and express the way I
want to.

Just my small bit
Nishant

>
> --
> Emma Duke-Williams:
> School of Computing/ Faculty eLearning Co-ordinator.
> Blog: http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/<http://userweb.port.ac.uk/%7Eduke-wie/blog/>
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-- 
Nishant Shah
Ph.D. Student, CSCS, Bangalore.
Research & Development, COMAT, Bangalore.
# 0-9740074884