Ethical Confusion when Studying the Web

One area of the research process which has struck me as being in need of refinement for studying the Web is the procedure for obtaining ethical approval. Specifically, the ethics of using a social network such as Twitter as a data source for a study.

A general ethics application procedure for a project may question whether the study involves human participants, and if so, whether it will collect “personal data” (data which could potentially identify a participant). Often, it is assumed that if there are no human participants, then personal data will not be collected. If there are humans participating, then issues revolving around sensitive data, risk of harm, deception, consent, and right to withdraw become significant. This makes sense for a psychological lab experiment, for example. For a study on the Web, this causes great confusion.

My Thoughts on Google+

One of the great things about studying the Web is that you can sign up for new social networks and feel like its justified in your quest to understand the Web’s development. I would have signed up for Google+ regardless of whether I was studying Web Science or not, but doing so means that I don’t feel like I’m wasting time trying out something which basically just replicates the features of other services I use, and instead it has got me thinking about the potential disruption it could cause to the current ecosystem of social networks. 

eBook Pricing

Following on from a previous post where I grumbled about digital music, I now have another source of bewilderment regarding digital content: eBook pricing. Looking on Amazon.co.uk for the new James Bond novel (Carte Blanche) and hoping to be able to get a reduced price version for Kindle (Amazon’s eBook reader device), I was frustrated to find that the Kindle price was no lower than the hardback price: £9.99.

I’m a big fan of eBooks – in the year that I’ve owned a Kindle I have bought and read 400% more fiction books than in the same time period over any of the last 5 years. I prefer the experience of reading a book on the device compared to a physical book and I like the convenience of being able to receive a book pretty much instantly, thanks to Web connectivity. Previously, however, the books I’ve purchased on it have been fairly old – at least not brand new releases – and so have been priced fairly reasonably. Carte Blanche was the first time I have looked at buying a book through the service so soon after release, and given the cost-saving nature of eBooks (no printing, binding, distribution, or physical storage are required), I was optimistic about it being a fair amount cheaper than the hardback copy. If the Web is going to be utilised for this kind of business, then in my opinion the price is one of the first things that must be favourable compared to offline sources. With equal prices, I can’t really understand what I would be paying for, given all the reductions in costs on the production side.

Google Search Globe

I just found this on Google's blog and thought I would share it as not only does it look cool, it has strong ties to Web Science regarding the different languages used on the Web across the globe. The globe shows a day's worth of searches, with each language that a query is made in represented by a different colour. While it doesn't seem surprising to see far fewer queries in certain areas of the world, I still find it shocking to see how much of a difference there is between continents.

Free unlimited music streaming comes to an end on Spotify

After reading about it in the news a couple of weeks ago, sure enough when I started up Spotify yesterday, I was greeted by a message stating I could now only listen to each track a maximum of 5 times... Ever! Additionally, I am now limited to 10 hours of streaming per month, although both of these restrictions can be removed if I choose to upgrade to a paid subscription account (either £4.99pm or £9.99pm for offline and mobile access). I have reservations about this however – I was attracted to Spotify on the promise of unlimited, free streaming of music, with the odd advert thrown in - which was never much of a problem for me. That promise is now gone. Perhaps buried in the terms and conditions it stated that this wouldn’t last, and as I was never paying for anything I suppose they have no obligations to continue what they were offering me. I’m not saying what they’ve done is in anyway devious, it’s just frustrating to see such a good service pretty much give up on its free offering.