taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (02/08/87)
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THE ETHICS OF COMPUTER CONFERENCING
By John R. Cook
ABSTRACT
The objectives of the present study were twofold. First, an
attempt was made to assess the extent to which some traditional moral
principles governing face-to-face communication have gained acceptance
by the users of computer conferences. This was done by assessing the
prevailing community standards for computer conferencing on Compuserve's
CB and on BITNET's Relay. The assessment was carried out using email
and other message facilities on both of these networks to distribute a
24-item questionnaire entitled Questionnaire for Users of "CB's" and
Other Computer "Chats". The second objective of the study was to
explore some approaches that might be taken towards distributing
questionnaires and collecting data over computer networks.
The 25 CB and 112 Relay users participating in the study
tended to be male, undergraduate students in their mid-twenties and
their average level of education was that of a college sophomore. Six
of the CB users also turned out to be Relay users. In terms of their
use of electronic journal and mail services, the largest portion of
Relay users (21%) were Psychnet subscribers, followed by NetNorth (17%)
and COMSERVE (16%).
CB users were found to be much more reluctant to participate
in the study than Relay users, as evidenced by their lower response
rate. Also, Relay users were found to be more accepting of a proposed
rule requiring users to register their true names and identities before
signing onto the system. Otherwise, there was a high degree of
similarity in the responses of CB and Relay users on this survey.
The moral or ethical standards for computer conferencing
revealed by the survey were found to be largely consistent with the
moral principles governing face-to-face communication. One difference
between computer-mediated and face-to-face communication was suggested
by the conference users' greater acceptance of practices such as
adopting nicknames that are considered sexually provocative or sharing
details of one's intimate personal relationships on a public channel.
However, when CB and Relay users were asked to evaluate the potential
benefits of computer conferencing, they appeared to discount the
importance of some of these practices, in a way that brought them back
in line with traditional moral principles governing face-to- face
communication.
In conclusion, it seems we do tend to attach importance to
the same sorts of activities both on- and off-line. In this respect,
several traditional moral principles governing face-to- face
communication have been found to be accepted by the users of computer
conferences. One area where discrepancies between our on-and off-line
ethical standards do tend to occur, is in the larger range of behaviors
we are willing to consider as morally acceptable in other conference
users.
This is an abstract of the full paper, which is still in preparation.
For a copy of the full paper you may send your electronic mail address
to John R. Cook, UD118169@NDSUVM1.Bitnet, and a copy paper will be sent
to you when available.