Ironically, at precisely the time when American technology companies are looking to social science to help understand their users and improve their business, this research is being denigrated in the House. And at exactly the time when independent research on Internet practices is needed, scholars must turn to companies for both data and funding. This is a short-sighted move. On the one hand, it means that we will train fewer social scientists to rigorously and responsibly answer the new questions posed by big data. But it also pushes basic research about social life online exclusively into the private sector. This leaves the same companies that make the technologies we use to talk, shop and socialize responsible for managing the ethics of online experimentation. No wonder that esoteric questions like informed consent are suddenly headline news. time/2950699/facebook-experiment-social-science-funding/
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 11:38:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015