Copyright Podcast Reflection

I have always found the idea and concept of copyright to be quite complex and rather scary. Having the opportunity to listen to Melanie Wrobel’s presentation was a great privilege. I would recommend this podcast to others who also struggle with this VERY important concept. I feel as though copyright is such an important concept because of the way and methods that information can now be distributed. Everyday there is copyright infringement. People are constantly using others’ pictures, words, or “unique expressions” (personal communication, June 13, 2016).

Melanie Wrobel provided a very informative and straightforward copyright podcast. The information was clear and easy to understand. I learnt so much from this podcast that I think this blog post would be pages and pages long if I were to put it all down to paper! There were several perceptions that Melanie was able to dispel during the podcast that I found particularly interesting. I will sum up a few of, what I feel like, are the major items or takeaways from the podcast.

With the advancements and instant ability to share or post information with the use of technology, I feel as though copyright is getting harder and harder to track. Melanie mentions that this is an ongoing issue (personal communication, June 13, 2016). Authors or creators, wouldn’t even know that there has been an issue of copyright unless they search and find it, someone finds it and brings it to their attention, or they use a copyright detection software (personal communication, June 13, 2016). I’m very eager to see what the future brings in order to get a handle on copyright infringement or whether further rule development will take place making more content fall under the Public Domain.

I didn’t realize the specific definition of Public Domain and how information is considered to be on Public Domain. Melanie mentions how most members of the public assume that works on the internet or anything without a copyright sign, are of Public Domain (personal communication, June 13, 2016). I was surprised to learn that this isn’t accurate. Public Domain or an expired term of copyright is when an author dies PLUS 50 years (personal communication, June 13, 2016). This makes me look at things very differently. The articles that we share on social media, the memes that we share, the posting content; copyright needs to be considered with them all. I think there could be drastic impact to social media if people really enforced their copyright to content and images.

Copyright in terms of research study participants was also very interesting! It’s not so much of a surprise that there should be copyright protection, but I think it is something that is being overlooked. Stories and ideas from research studies are often overlooked because of anonymity for participants. This is so important for researchers to consider before starting the study and to outline rules so that everyone is comfortable with how information that is provided will be used (personal communication, June 13, 2016).

The last point I want to reference was the information that was provided on the different types of licenses for Creative Commons. I had no idea that there were differences in the copyright of information and how that information can be used. It was absolutely eye-opening! I appreciated how Melanie provided the information on which licenses were most free and least free, but also how to make sure we were using the information properly or what type of license we should use and how we can get that information (personal communication, June 13, 2016).

After watching and listening to Melanie’s podcast, I feel like I have a much better grasp on copyright and the laws that there to protect us and others.

Reference

Wrobel, M. (2016). A Guide to Copyright [Audio recording]. Retrieved from https://moodle.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/page/view.php?id=347413

My Thoughts on Dr. George Veletsianos Q&A

Dr. Veletsianos provided some very detailed responses to the questions proposed by the five teams. The ethical question and response really stood out to me and stayed with me while listening to the other responses. The question was surrounding the ethics of today and the ethics of tomorrow. I was a member of the team that posed this question to Dr. Veletsianos and I felt like this was a tough question as the ethics of tomorrow is really an unknown. I really appreciated the position that Dr. Veletsianos took when answering this question. “Participant well-being should be taken from the very beginning, it should never be an after thought” (personal communication, August 16, 2019).  This was the focus of Dr. Veletsianos’ response to the question and he was saying that ensuring the well-being of the participants is the key to remaining ethical. You cannot predict the future, but you can make sure you are taking every precaution you can to ensure the well-being of your participants. I appreciated this thought and the undertone it took through some of his other responses. For example, with the question surrounding social media platforms and the use of such platforms in research. Dr. Veletsianos mentions that some platforms have an easier accessibility of information which can cause more researchers to use that platform, this can bias the results (personal communication, August 16, 2019). This would be unethical in my mind. Researchers could be knowingly “overusing” research information for their gain because it was easier to acquire. Even though it most likely hasn’t been disclosed, Dr. Veletsianos mentions to take this into consideration when looking at these types of research (personal communication, August 16, 2019). Having a bias result, isn’t respecting or ensuring the well-being of your participants. With the changes in research, the ethical issues will continue to develop and change along with it. Due to this constantly changing environment, I believe the issue of ethical behaviour will continue to be priority.

Reference

Veletsianos, G. (2019). Questions about Research for George Veletsiano [Audio recording]. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yzG3Sqo0wImXN0tUf9dcjXODISiSYt9gH8_gJnMC_hY/edit

What Makes a Good Research Question?

When I think about what makes a good research question, there are two things that immediately pop into my mind:

  1. Clear
  2. Concise

A clear question that identifies what is the objective of the research being done. A concise question that provides the relevant information needed to ensure the research question is being appropriately answered.

I decided to further investigate, as I have always somewhat struggled when it came to research. I would start with what I thought was a clear path and I would end up somewhere completely different taking turns left and right.

When I looked at the Writing Centre there is an outline for the basis of a research question, “a research question should: be clear and specific; state the focus of investigation in the research; not be answerable with a yes/no response” (“Thesis statements/Research questions/Problem statements | RRU Library”, 2019).

Comparing what I had originally thought versus the information I was able to pull up, leaves the question itself. To expand on my original thought, I would include that a research question should include: who, what, where, why, and/or how. This ensures that the question would not be answerable with a simple yes or no.

 

References:

Thesis statements/Research questions/Problem statements | RRU Library. (2019). Retrieved from https://library.royalroads.ca/writing-centre/writing/structure/thesis-statements