Applied ethics in internet research Export

@book{citeulike:563616, abstract = {What are the ethical challenges for internet research? Applied Ethics in Internet Research seeks to answer the question through eleven short chapters by experienced scholars and graduate students taken from a one-week conference and graduate course at the Programme for Applied Ethics at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim. The book is divided into two sections. The first four contributions are from the lecturers and broadly cover ethical issues in internet research. The second section of seven contributions covers some basic topics grounded in particular contexts. The approach to the subject is generally methodologically based, so it skews toward pragmatism. The book's premise is this: The terrain of the internet not only poses new challenges compared to traditional scholarship, but is also constantly changing and introduces new and serious ethical dilemmas for the researcher. The purpose is to address some of these issues in a meaningful way to offer a guide to the research community engaged in online scholarship. After referencing the (www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf) Ethical Guidelines produced by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), May Thorseth, the volume's editor, a senior researcher in Philosophy, and Coordinator for the Programme of Applied Ethics at NTNU, presents some guiding questions that other authors seek to address. The first two are broadly placed, (these are right out of the text and she identifies them as questions) "whether internet research contributes to more extended freedom and sharing of ideas compared to traditional culture" (viii) and "whether the freedom of expression of the internet at the same time may imply more homogeneity because the audience is limited" (ix). That is, if there is more freedom online, is it necessarily a good thing for culture and society? Thorseth next approaches more methodological issues that consistently vex internet researchers (as well as the Human Subjects Review Boards who oversee them), including the demarcation of the public and the private and issues of vulnerability especially for special populations such as youth. This leads us to issues of informed consent, pseudonymity, challenges of what constitutes meaningful data, and links between our embodied/disembodied online/offline selves. Dag Elgesem opens the first section discussion by asking, "what are the relationships between the internal norms of good scientific practices and external norms pertaining to the ethics of research?" (3) Moreover, "does the correspondence of normative structures have any moral implications?" (3). Central to his analysis is the claim that that the underlying structures of the internet and the cultures that arise from it are similar in important ways to the culture of scientific research. Elgesem compares Castells' (2001) online cultural categories with Merton's (1973) scientific norms. For example, Castells techno-meritocratic culture and its embedded-ness in the architecture of the internet and the "hacker" culture comprise an ethic of open access that relates to Merton's "communism" (social not political) in that they all value openness, peer review, and building on each others work. His premise is that while open and dynamic systems thrive on critique, "the implications for research ethics of the parallels between the norms of science and those internet culture are limited".}, address = {Trondheim}, author = {Thorseth, M.}, citeulike-article-id = {563616}, keywords = {ethics, internet, research}, posted-at = {2006-03-26 00:11:00}, priority = {3}, publisher = {NTNU University Press}, title = {Applied ethics in internet research}, year = {2003} }

TY - BOOK ID - citeulike:563616 L3 - citeulike-article-id:563616 N2 - What are the ethical challenges for internet research? Applied Ethics in Internet Research seeks to answer the question through eleven short chapters by experienced scholars and graduate students taken from a one-week conference and graduate course at the Programme for Applied Ethics at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim. The book is divided into two sections. The first four contributions are from the lecturers and broadly cover ethical issues in internet research. The second section of seven contributions covers some basic topics grounded in particular contexts. The approach to the subject is generally methodologically based, so it skews toward pragmatism. The book's premise is this: The terrain of the internet not only poses new challenges compared to traditional scholarship, but is also constantly changing and introduces new and serious ethical dilemmas for the researcher. The purpose is to address some of these issues in a meaningful way to offer a guide to the research community engaged in online scholarship. After referencing the (www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf) Ethical Guidelines produced by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), May Thorseth, the volume's editor, a senior researcher in Philosophy, and Coordinator for the Programme of Applied Ethics at NTNU, presents some guiding questions that other authors seek to address. The first two are broadly placed, (these are right out of the text and she identifies them as questions) "whether internet research contributes to more extended freedom and sharing of ideas compared to traditional culture" (viii) and "whether the freedom of expression of the internet at the same time may imply more homogeneity because the audience is limited" (ix). That is, if there is more freedom online, is it necessarily a good thing for culture and society? Thorseth next approaches more methodological issues that consistently vex internet researchers (as well as the Human Subjects Review Boards who oversee them), including the demarcation of the public and the private and issues of vulnerability especially for special populations such as youth. This leads us to issues of informed consent, pseudonymity, challenges of what constitutes meaningful data, and links between our embodied/disembodied online/offline selves. Dag Elgesem opens the first section discussion by asking, "what are the relationships between the internal norms of good scientific practices and external norms pertaining to the ethics of research?" (3) Moreover, "does the correspondence of normative structures have any moral implications?" (3). Central to his analysis is the claim that that the underlying structures of the internet and the cultures that arise from it are similar in important ways to the culture of scientific research. Elgesem compares Castells' (2001) online cultural categories with Merton's (1973) scientific norms. For example, Castells techno-meritocratic culture and its embedded-ness in the architecture of the internet and the "hacker" culture comprise an ethic of open access that relates to Merton's "communism" (social not political) in that they all value openness, peer review, and building on each others work. His premise is that while open and dynamic systems thrive on critique, "the implications for research ethics of the parallels between the norms of science and those internet culture are limited". AD - Trondheim TI - Applied ethics in internet research PB - NTNU University Press KW - ethics KW - internet KW - research AU - Thorseth, M PY - 2003/// ER -