[Air-L] IRB and blogs, redux

[Christine Moellenberndt]

i've read through part of this discussion and hopefully can add at least 
some anecdotal information here.

It sounds like my research is very similarly structured to the research 
being asked about; a combination of blog analysis and personal 
interviews.  i also tossed in an anonymous survey as well.  i explained 
in my narrative that the textual analysis would have names and titles 
attached, as i am not analyzing any private content (i.e. locked entries 
available only to a small group of readers), the interviewees would have 
pseudonyms, and the survey would be completely anonymous.

Ironically, they had absolutely no problems where i thought they would, 
i.e. the textual analysis.  i did lay out the case, however, that public 
online discourse does not need to be protected, and compared it to a 
newspaper or magazine analysis; it was published in a public arena and 
therefore is meant to be read by, commented on by, and (i would argue) 
used by in whatever manner they see fit, the public at large.  i also 
cited Kelty's The Cultural Significance of Free Software as an example 
of online community analysis without pseudonyming anyone or any site 
therein.  This explanation seemed to suit them fine.

Where they did get confused was on my interviews, as they thought i'd be 
connecting usernames on LiveJournal with the pseudonyms of my 
interviewees... thus completely rendering the pseudonym useless.  I drew 
them a chart explaining my privacy procedures and told them about the 
uselessness in so many words.  i passed through and was fine.

Perhaps a way to handle this in the future is to come up with a list of 
"previous case laws" and just cite them over and over in IRB proposals 
of this nature until the IRBs get the point? These can be previous 
studies, the AoIR ethic guidelines, anything that helps prove the case. 
  i think even just having the one cite i did have made a world of 
difference to my IRB.

Dunno if it helps the discourse, but just wanted to toss something out 
there into the ring since I've Been There.

-christine
Master's Candidate
SJSU