Frank Carver's Punch Barrel » anonymity http://blog.punchbarrel.com Frank Carver's musings about software and life Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:43:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Information distribution and ownership http://blog.punchbarrel.com/2008/07/13/information-distribution-and-ownership/ http://blog.punchbarrel.com/2008/07/13/information-distribution-and-ownership/#comments Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:53:29 +0000 Frank http://blog.punchbarrel.com/?p=195 I’m currently mulling around a bunch of thoughts and half-formed opinions on the distribution, ownership and attribution of ideas and information in an age of free-flowing digital media.

One of my current concerns is the tension between perceived needs one the one hand for attribution, academic traceability and ownership of ones own words; and on the other hand for privacy. This is seen in sharpest relief in solicitations for academic surveys. Routinely such instruments come with a disclaimer pointing out that all answers will be anonymous. Well-structured surveys and questionnaires, though, often also contain a section for general comments and feedback. In most cases I do not want this to be anonymous – indeed I would rather it formed part of a dialogue between the researcher and subjects, allowing both to benefit, learn and develop.

I am considering taking up a habit of always adding my contact details to academic survey submissions to deliberately challenge the assumption that I wish to be an anonymous donor of information, and to encourage researchers to participate in a community of interest.

Some things I have read recently on associated topics include:

Mathemagenic » Blogging research: attribution and ownership of ideas

Read at Joe’s » Blog Archive » Personal Publishing

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