Hi Mike
there is an organization for internet research: http://www.aoir.org/
"The Association of Internet Researchers is an academic association
dedicated to the advancement of the cross-disciplinary field of Internet
studies. It is a member-based support network promoting critical and
scholarly Internet research independent from traditional disciplines and
existing across academic borders. The association is international in
scope."
Some of the methodological and ethical question you raise have been
addressed in Readings in Virtual Research Ethics
http://www.amazon.com/Readings-Virtual-Research-Ethics-Controversies/dp/1591401526
and in articles in journals such as
http://www.cyberpsychology.eu/index.php
http://www.liebertpub.com/publication.aspx?pub_id=10
http://behavior.net/JOB/
take care, blaine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Palij" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)"
<[email protected]>
Cc: "Mike Palij" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 7:00 AM
Subject: [tips] Facebook, Anyone?
I admit to not being familiar with websites like facebook
or myspace (the one or two times I looked at these sites
seemed to me to require too much time and effort to
really understand what they were about) but it appears
that these types of social networking systems will be a
rich source of archival data for analysis, as shown in this
morning's NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/style/17facebook.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all
Of course this raises a variety of questions (to whom does
research based on such a website generalize to, what are
the ethical issues involved [apparently some of the research
is conducted without the participants knowledge]). How many
researchers will study such online phenomena instead of
traditional human/animal-based research?
-Mike Palij
New York University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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