[Air-L] online research ethics

[Peter Timusk]

On 12-Mar-08, at 6:07 PM, Rhiannon Bury wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: David Brake <d.r.brake at lse.ac.uk>
>
> ...It is true that (non-friend/password protected) bloggers
> are making their material available to be read. But in my own
> interviews (with 22 personal webloggers) their imagined and desired
> relationships with readers varied widely and a few of them said they
> had no intention to be read by anyone else when they started. We need
> to leave room for the people we study to fool themselves on issues
> like this (one of the central points of my upcoming thesis in fact!)
>
> Hmm, I don't believe that they are being totally honest with you or  
> themselves, David. They may not have  *expected* anyone to read it,  
> (so many blogs, so little time), but if they didn't secretly *hope*  
> to find some sort of audience, they wouldn't have set up a  
> networked blog in the first place. Sounds like a face-saving kind  
> of statement to me. In any case, I'd like to hear more at some point.
>
> Rhiannon
>
>

I blog because first blogs were the next big thing, then because I  
like the ease of creating the web pages. On-line journals of 1995  
were difficult which is why blogging software companies make money. I  
know the audience is the "public" plus the wakos who might do me  
harm. So I write without some content that might offend. I rarely  
swear on line for instance. But my point my computer log book blog is  
really only for me to keep notes on my computers and what I installed  
on them last night. I sometimes write the posts thinking of somebody  
trying to install the same software so these would be tips for  
someone. But unlike many out there I have no money coming in from  
blogs. Nor is that my expectation. nor am I trying to do advocacy. At  
least not much on whatever of all my various blogs.

One other blog I keep is my school notes. I justify this as a way of  
self exploration writing, a way to keep my citations all in one place  
and sometimes I use it to set goals like posting "I will have  
question 8 marked for 30 papers by 4 am."

So my point that writing can be for one's self should not be ignored.  
Sorry I am not a cultures student so do not see everything as a  
productive art work in the sense of needing an audience other than  
myself.. Also I see the blurring of audience and producer to be multi  
facetted.

And I also note your point that there is probably not much of an  
audience with so many blogs out there. I also carry an axe for the  
use of bloggers as authoritative voices. I do not want to be in that  
category.