Internetiquette

That was a word Your Humble Blogger just made up. But it describes something completely important: what are the rules for being a respectable person on the Internet? Not just what is considered cool, but what is considered crass?

NPR has started a new segment where self-appointed experts begin to sift through the do's and don'ts of the Internet. The burning question in this story: Should you friend your boss on Facebook?

•Do we all pretty much agree what is appropriate and inappropriate online, or is there still a lot of disagreement?

•Has a friend or family member done something online that you thought wasn't right, polite, or smart?

•Have you ever had to make a tough call over who gets friend status on Facebook and who doesn't? Who was it?

•What would you do if your boss wanted to friend you on Facebook? What if one of your teachers wanted to friend you?

You Can't Un-Ring a Bell

In his distant misty past, Your Humble Blogger was a student newspaper adviser. It was a surprisingly challenging job. Perhaps the most difficult part was the ethical problems that would inevitably pop up.

This recent email is a classic student newspaper ethical (and to some degree legal) dilemma. YHB will edit out a few names, but otherwise the email below is what was sent by a student newspaper adviser on another California community college campus...

Fri, May 11, 2012 at 8:36 AM, XXX wrote:

All,

I am hoping you can give me some help. A student in my intermediate newswriting class who also serves as our photo editor wrote an opinion piece for The XXX on gay bullying. He cited examples like the death of Tyler Clemente and wrote about his own experiences of being the target of this kind of bullying. He never said in the piece that he was gay; just that he had been targeted.

The story was signed off by the EIC and put in the server for the section editor to read it and to lay it out on his opinion pages.

When the paper came out Wednesday, the words - "I have been the target of bullying - especially gay bullying: were changed to "I have been the target of gay bullying especially because I am gay.

The writer has not come out to his family or friends. He told me that it has destroyed his life. He doesn't want to come back to school. He has threatened suing the student, has reported the incident to student life, and had to have a crisis team from our health services called in. He want a retraction printed (actually asked that it be on the front cover) and wants the editor fired. I explained libel law, procedures, of editors being fired, of how corrections/retractions are dealt with, but he is not satisfied.

I immediately called an editorial board meeting of all the editors. The opinion editor was devastated. He said he could not imagine ever adding words to an opinion but said he would step down because it's his pages. The EIC then said that they were having problems with layout and design and that he may have done it without thinking if the words had been cut off.

The editors will of course print a correction in the next issue, but they are all convinced that this was not malicious but an accident.

Not sure where to go with this. The student will not accept a correction. He wants to see the editors punished.

What would you do in a situation like this?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Questions...

•How is this more of a print problem than an online problem?
•In this case, is gatekeeping the cause, the solution, or both?
•Which of the following questions should guide an ethical solution to this problem?
•What solution will do the greatest good for the greatest number of people?
•What would be a moderate solution, one that neither does too much or too little?
•How would you want to be treated if you were the student who was apparently outed?
•Should this be treated like any other error made in the student newspaper?

If You Like This Post...

Stereotyping people is not generally considered to be a good thing. And the assumptions made in those stereotypes are often inaccurate.

But what if people's preferences and habits are cataloged and used to predict what other preferences and habits they may have? Is that stereotyping, or is it just 21st Century marketing?

Algorithms are increasingly used online to narrow searches, suggest products, and even predict which news stories we want to read. Are algorithms good for us? This NPR story gets into the topic.

Questions...

•Are algorithms a good thing, a bad thing, or just a thing?

•Are algorithms the same as stereotyping people? How is it different?

•Are algorithms more relevant or less relevant in a long-tail economy?

•How does Amazon use algorithms? How does NetFlicks use them?

•How might Glendale College use them? How might Groupon or the owner of a new restaurant use them?

Cyberstalked by Donkeys and Elephants

Online political advertising has been around for a few years now, but in this election year the presidential candidates are getting involved in a big way, according to NPR. For one thing, President Obama's campaign is currently spending more on online ads than on television ads. And for another thing, the Republicans have a Facebook app that will allow categorize individual voters based upon the issues that they are most interested in. And we still have nearly six months to go until election day.

Questions...

•Is this move toward online political advertising smart, or is it just trendy?

•Which of these ideas do you think will be effective

•Do you think online advertising is more effective than TV advertising?

•How can social networking data be used for political campaigns?

'Brick and Mortar' or Atoms to Bits?

"Brick and Mortar" has become a code phrase for something outdated or obsolete. Brick and Mortar book, music and shoe stores have been hurt by Amazon, Zappos and other online retailers. But what about higher education? Is the brick and mortar campus about to be replaced by the virtual campus and online education?

Online education has been around for at least 15 years, and it has had as many failures as successes. But this NPR story indicates that some leading universities are finally becoming successful at getting large numbers of students into online classes.

Questions...

•Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Lab famously said all media will go through an "atoms to bits" transition (Chapter 3). What is this transition? Are we in an atoms to bits transition for higher education?

•What type of student--in what sort of situation--does online education work best for?

•What type of course could be taught effectively online? What type of course could not be effectively taught online?

•Will this make university brand names like Harvard or Stanford more powerful or less powerful? Why?

•What is the concept of "disintermediation" from Chapter 1? What intermediary will be disintermediated if an atoms to bits transition takes place in higher education?

Happily Anonymous

In Germany, legal theorists talk about "the right to be forgotten." Meantime in America, harvesting personal information is big business.

There is a clash of cultures and priorities in what Europeans and Americans see as important in the online world: the Europeans see privacy as a traditional right worth defending, while Americans talk about the end of privacy.

This NPR story notes that many of the current privacy safeguards on the Internet are a reaction to European concerns. Are the Europeans trying to regulate something that can't--or shouldn't--be regulated? Are the Americans giving up an essential right--the right to privacy--too easily?

Discussion Questions...

•What do websites know about you? Does it matter?
•Do you know what information you are giving up at the moment you are giving it up, or do you only find out later?
•Do you hope the European attitude prevails, or the American one? Why?
•Is the end of privacy inevitable?