about   |   mailing list   |   writing   |   archives

Impartial Encounters

Kyoto: impartial encounters?
 

Or not.

Short radio interview here with the Economist.

Summary: the tools to help us negotiate today’s (heavily loaded notion of) impartiality is going to be further eroded by our, our participants and other peoples ability to pull an additional layer of information into social situations – before you or they initiate an interaction. For some it will be about pulling up a Facebook profile, other’s will prefer looking up sexual preferences or tax brackets, and for the researcher out in the field – what you’ve published and where, professionally or otherwise.

Sure all of this information can be pulled up one way or another today. And sure if you’ve been researching the digital realm the link-back to your online you(s) is something that you’ve been dealing with for a while. The significant shift comes from those out in the field – whether journalists, researchers or spooks, and the most significant impact will be in environments where there the consequences lie at the extremes.

Like here.