Transcript PowerPoint - WebArchivist.org

Ethics of/in Web Archiving:
Internet Research 4.0
Toronto, October, 2003
Kirsten A. Foot
University of Washington
[email protected]
Steven M. Schneider
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
[email protected]
Meghan Dougherty
University of Washington
[email protected]
Web Archiving
Given the need for scholarly Web archiving,
how do we engage in this research activity
ethically?
(or: who provides and gets access
to what Web materials when,
and who decides)
Ethical Concerns in Internet Research
Typically center on
 Protecting privacy
 Guarding identity
 Avoiding harm
 Humans as authors/producers?
Ethical Concerns in Web Archiving

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Agency of producers, archivists, scholars
Integrity of meaning
Fair use: balancing of interests
Access
Security

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Archiving something that shouldn’t have been
Web-served in the first place
Aggregating information
Copyright & Fair Use
in Scholarly Web Archiving
Copyright laws
 Vary by country
 Important for scholars as Web producers and
users as well as data collectors/archivists
 Becomes particularly salient in regard to
access/display
 Contradictions lead to ambiguity & a range of
interpretations
 Spectrum of institutional stances: know yours
Web Archiving Operations
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Collecting
Cataloging
Displaying
Collecting: Creation
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Like many kinds of data collection, archive creation
requires identification, selection & demarcation of
units/boundaries of Web objects
Identification process for archiving may implicate
terms of use of source

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E.g. Systematic harvesting of links from a search engine
Concatenating & concentrating Web materials can add
value not available on the live Web
Can result in combinations of elements not found
together on the live Web

E.g. Capturing the frame of a page at a different time than other
elements
 Ethical obligation as scholar-collectors to maintain
authenticity between the impressions we create & the
originals, or at least to make the distinctions clear.
Collecting: Notification
Notification about inclusion in collection
 At what stage?
 By whom? (If not principal investigator, then
collection commissioner? agent? displayer?)
 With what rationale?
Collecting: Inclusion/Exclusion
Opt in/opt out mechanisms during collection:
 Should the threshold for inclusion be opt in or not
opt out?
 On what grounds?
 When may a site producer opt out?


Revising history
Should anyone be allowed to request exclusion of
any materials, or just materials he/she produced?
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Coproduced materials
Offensive materials
Security/expungement
Collecting: Robot Behavior
Robot behavior
 How to avoid harm to servers?
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E.g overloading servers (denial of service to
others), imposition of cost
How to handle robots.txt exclusions?
How to respond to complaints?
Cataloging

Ethical concerns not unique to Web archiving, but particularly
important given dependence on search engines for indexing

Categorizing/classifying as forms of framing

Providing linear/hierarchical or multi-field search functionality
privileges some types of info and some modes of search

Structures information in ways that shape users’ access and
sense-making

Can enable or foster interpretations not envisioned/intended by
producers, and which would have been less likely from the live
Web
Displaying: Access

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Anticipating audiences:
 Scholars, journalists, corporations, activists
 National and international
 Intelligence & law enforcement entities
 Civic and criminal
Mode of access: public Web, protected Web, onsite?
If no Web access, then collection restricted to those with means
to travel
To full or partial collection? (e.g. some parts of collection
restricted from display by opt-out or lack of opt-in)
By multiple users simultaneously or individual users sequentially
(i.e. first sale doctrine)?
Displaying: Uses & Control
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Archive display renders identity of site producer
subject to potentially broader public visibility than on
live Web
Can extend the public life of Web objects beyond
what producers intended
Can enable uses not intended by producers
Examples: personal identify theft, stalking, terrorism

To what extent should use of collection be controlled
through mechanisms such as durable links to Web
archive records only rather than to index of sites?
Responsibility for Assessing Ethical
Concerns in Scholarly Web Archiving
Who will decide and on what bases?
 Principal investigators
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Institutional research review boards (IRBs)
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Institutional liability
Site producers
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Social responsibility, institutional liability
Collection commissioners, agents, displayers
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Intellectual freedom, social responsibility, personal liability
Protection of intellectual property, autonomy, liability
Law enforcement bodies

Security concerns
Ethics of/in Web Archiving
Internet Research 4.0
Toronto, October, 2003
Kirsten A. Foot
University of Washington
[email protected]
Steven M. Schneider
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
[email protected]
Meghan Dougherty
University of Washington
[email protected]