Wow, Ailsa, this is rich. In many ways you have highlighted how complicated these issues are and while there is increasing research as to these ethical topics, there is certainly no full agreement. I can only hope that the long-working AoIR ethical workgroup helps to shed more light on these issues. As you mentioned with your own research, while you have done everything for your research that you believe is needed, you can get a marker who questions things nevertheless; lack of clear guidance. Many institutions do not have clear approaches to Internet research, and in this way there is such a lack of consistency that the entire issue seems murkier now than it did a few years back.

I am working on a follow-up posting, this time exploring the issue at “Researching #Change11” on the bottom of http://change.mooc.ca/week01.htm, which seems more along the lines of what I was asking (though not necessarily agreeing with!) than how you perceive the issue. Have you seen this statement they made?

Jeffrey