Field Research

[Matthew Bernius]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Claire Bowern <clairebowern at gmail.com>
 wrote:

> Just like you don't have to ask an IRB's permission to go to the library
> to read archival materials (doesn't fall under their purview)


This is an interesting point. If Kathryn was to have simply gone to the
list's web archive: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=LINGANTH all
of this would be a moot point. The archive (or at least its top page) is
"published" on the web and comes up in search. In this respect there is no
difference than doing archival research (heck the static link -- "listserv.*
linguist*list.org/archives/linganth.html" -- has archive in its title).

However, since Kathryn is a member of the group, and receiving the emails,
there is a sense of a different relationship with the content itself. Is it
the personal deliver or the idea of "real time" versus "archival
collection?"

(btw Kathryn, you might want dedicate some time to analyzing the meta
conversation that your simple request generated ;) ).

----------------------------
Matthew Bernius
PhD Student | Cultural Anthropology | Cornell University |
http://anthropology.cornell.edu
Researcher At Large | Open Publishing Lab @ the Rochester Institute of
Technology | http://opl.cias.rit.edu
mBernius at gMail.com | http://www.mattbernius.com | @mattBernius
My calendar: http://bit.ly/hNWEII