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I've been wondering about this too.


   Barry Wellman
  _______________________________________________________________________

   S.D. Clark Professor               FRSC               NetLab Director
   Faculty of Information (iSchool)                 611 Bissell Building
   140 St. George St.    University of Toronto    Toronto Canada M5S 3G6
   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman          twitter: @barrywellman

   NETWORKED:The New Social Operating System. Lee Rainie & Barry Wellman
   MIT Press            http://amzn.to/zXZg39      Print $22  Kindle $16
                  Old/NewCyberTimes http://bit.ly/c8N9V8
   ________________________________________________________________________


On Wed, 19 Jun 2013, Andrew J. Enterline wrote:

> Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:03:16 -0500
> From: Andrew J. Enterline <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Barry Wellman <[log in to unmask]>
> Cc: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [SOCNET] puzzling omissions
> 
> howdy,
>
> i am a political scientist and merely a consumer of the SOCNET discussions, 
> which i enjoy and learn from. over the past week, i was struck by lack of 
> response to barry wellman's post regarding the absence of a discussion about 
> the recent revelations concerning the NSA ("puzzling omissions," 6/14). 
> indeed, this dearth was thrown into even greater relief by the impressive 
> buzz regarding attribution for achievements in network analysis and the 
> veracity of information on wikipedia.
>
> while most of us are rarely trained in the normative and ethical implications 
> of our pursuit of normal science, it seems to me that pondering the social, 
> political, and economic ethical implications of the science we do is an 
> important exercise, even if it is difficult and often inconclusive. political 
> science certainly has a long history (even preceding its modern incarnation) 
> rife with examples of theories not used for "good", or well-intentioned 
> efforts to implement theories for the good that go awry. the post-WWII qualms 
> of hard scientists wrestling with the implications of their creations is also 
> notable, and helped motivate the field of peace science. yet, even peace 
> science is cut through with a normative tension: if one is a peace scientist, 
> can one do research demonstrating how to win wars that may in turn be used by 
> governments?
>
> i simply wonder what scientists of social networks think about these 
> normative issues in their general form, rather than as an indictment of a 
> specific government policy, the NSA, and so forth.  perhaps it is simply 
> better to address the negative implications of network analysis in fora other 
> than science (e.g., politics), to forge ahead confident that when the chips 
> fall where they may, good outcomes will exceed the bad?
>
> regards,
> andrew
>
> On 6/14/2013 8:09 AM, Barry Wellman wrote:
>> *****  To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
>> 
>> I am flabbergasted that there has been no discussion on this list -- or 
>> even announcement -- of the NSA's use of social network analysis to do 
>> massive surveillance of American and unAmerican populations.
>> 
>> Nor any talk of the Turkish situation -- seems to fit Chuck Tilly's 
>> network-basis analyses of collective political behaviour.
>>
>>   Barry Wellman
>>  _______________________________________________________________________
>>
>>   S.D. Clark Professor               FRSC               NetLab Director
>>   Faculty of Information (iSchool)                 611 Bissell Building
>>   140 St. George St.    University of Toronto    Toronto Canada M5S 3G6
>>   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman          twitter: @barrywellman
>>
>>   NETWORKED:The New Social Operating System. Lee Rainie & Barry Wellman
>>   MIT Press            http://amzn.to/zXZg39      Print $22 Kindle $16
>>                  Old/NewCyberTimes http://bit.ly/c8N9V8
>> ________________________________________________________________________
>> 
>> _____________________________________________________________________
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>
>
>

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