Maryam N. Razavi
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a grounded theory of information sharing behavior of the users of a personal learning space. A personal learning space is an environment consisted of weblog, ePortfolio, and social networking functionality. It is primarily used within education as a tool to enhance learning, but is also used as a knowledge management tool and to develop communities of practice. Our results identify privacy as a main concern for users of a personal learning space and illustrate challenges users face in ensuring privacy of their information and strategies they employ to achieve the desired level of privacy. We then identify factors that affect users' decisions regarding disclosure of their personal artifacts to various people and groups in a personal learning space. The three main themes as emerged in our study include current stage in the information life cycle, the nature of trust between the owner and the receiver of information, and the dynamics of the group or community within which the information is being shared. Together, these themes portrayed a clearer picture of users' perspective on the privacy of their information in a personal learning space. The findings offer some ideas about how to create privacy management mechanisms for personal learning spaces that are based on users' mental model of information privacy. Practical implications of the results are also discussed.
- Adams, A., Users' perception of privacy in multimedia communication, Extended Abstract, in Proceedings of CHI 1999, Pittsburgh Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Adams, A., The Implications of Users' Privacy Perception on Communication and Information Privacy Policies, in Proceedings of Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, Washington DC, 1999Google Scholar
- Adams, A., Sasse, M. A., Privacy in multimedia communications: protecting users not just data, in Proceedings of IMH HCI, 2001, pages 49--64Google ScholarCross Ref
- Batson, T., Electronic Portfolio Boom: What's it all about? Syllabus 2002, available online at http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=6984Google Scholar
- Cohn, E. R., Hibbitts, B. J., Beyond the Electronic Portfolio: A Lifetime Personal Web Space, 2004, available online at http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm04/eqm0441.asp.Google Scholar
- Corritore, C. L., Kracher, B., Wiedenbeck, S., On-line trust: concepts, evolving themes, a model, in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 58, Issue 6, June 2003, pages 737--758 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Erickson, T. From PIM to GIM: Personal Information Management in Group Contexts, in Communications of the ACM, January 2006. Google ScholarDigital Library
- The Elgg project home page: http://elgg.net/Google Scholar
- Glaser, B., Strauss, A., The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, Chicago, 1967Google Scholar
- Gathercoal, P., Love, D., Bryde, B., McKean, G., On Implementing Web-Based Electronic Portfolios, in Educause Quarterly 25(2), 2002, pages 29--37, available online at http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0224.pdfGoogle Scholar
- The GUSSE project home page: http://gusse.org/Google Scholar
- Karvonen, K., Creating Trust, in Proceedings of the Nordsec'99, the Fourth Nordic Workshop on Secure IT systems, November 1999, Kista, SwedenGoogle Scholar
- Lewicki, R.J., Bunker, B., Developing and maintaining trust in work relationships, in Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, Sage, Newbury Park, CA, 1996, pp. 114--139Google Scholar
- Love, D., McKean, G., Gathercoal, P., Portfolios to Webfolios and Beyond: Levels of Maturation, in Educause Quarterly, Volume 27 Number 2, May 2004, available online at http://www.educause.edu/pub/eq/eqm04/eqm0423.asp?print=yesGoogle Scholar
- Morse, J. M., Richards, L., README FIRST for a User's Guide to Qualitative Methods, Sage publications, 2002Google Scholar
- Olson, J.S., Grudin, J., and Horvitz, E., A study of preferences for sharing and privacy, in Proceedings of CHI 2005, Portland, Oregon Google ScholarDigital Library
- Patil, S, Lai, J. Who gets to know what, when: Configuring privacy permissions in an awareness application, in Proceedings of CHI 2005, Portland, Oregon Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tosh, D., Werdmuller, B., ePortfolios and weblogs: one vision for ePortfolio development, March 2004, available online at http://www.eradc.org/papers/ePortfolio_Weblog.pdfGoogle Scholar
- Whalen, T., Gates, C., Private Lives: User attitudes towards personal information on the web, poster, in SOUPS 2000Google Scholar
Index Terms
- A grounded theory of information sharing behavior in a personal learning space
Recommendations
Privacy-Preserving Sharing of Sensitive Information
Privacy-preserving sharing of sensitive information (PPSSI) is motivated by the increasing need for entities (organizations or individuals) that don't fully trust each other to share sensitive information. Many types of entities need to collect, analyze,...
The effects of different personal data categories on information privacy concern and disclosure
AbstractThe potential threats of exposing personal data associated with online services have been a reason for concern, and individuals as customers may decline to disclose their data due to trust issues. Literature has shown evidence that ...
Comments