Ethics Statement Statement of Ethical Practice in Digital Storytelling General Statement Sharing sensitive, personal information always involves some degree of risk. Whether the implications of sharing personal information on a public forum can include, but are not limited to, the invocation of emotional, intellectual, and in extreme cases physical or legal situations, it is important that the storyteller be both informed and provided control over the level to which they share personal events. It is this author of this site’s intention to respect the boundaries and to maintain consistent controls informed by the storyteller that is contemporary with their current interests regarding physical and emotional security. With that said, I cannot fully predict the blowback from a storyteller’s actions, and recognizing that every individual is a free and active agent, I cannot assume responsibility for any unintended consequences precipitated by their decisions regarding how they share information, and to what degree it is made public. Privacy and Protection of Personal Assets It is the author’s responsibility to maintain current standards of best practices regarding the security of personal information. While I cannot be held liable for decisions or flaws in the security protocols of industry accepted software programs, and I am bound to do everything within my power to make sure that software is up to date, and to sanitize assets should a particular product be found to have a critical security hole. It is also my job to maintain the security of and sanitize meta-data which might be used by third parties as a means of targeting unsuspecting participants. Consent as an Informed Process (In relation to telling the sotries of others) It is my job, when telling another person’s story or stories involving other people, to tell, within the best of my ability, their story or portray their character in the way they see things, or at least from the perspective of an unbiased observer. In other words, its my job to tell their story, not to format their story to fit my personal narrative. It is also important to observe that participatory consent is a continuous process, not a one time agreement. It is not my job to coerce someone to do something which they feel uncomfortable, or more specifically unsafe, doing. Sometimes, in relating personal events, the details or story itself may be realized to open more of a “Pandora’s box” than initially realized; therefore, its important to make certain that participating parties feel safe and are consistently informed about potentially adverse affects throughout the production and releasing process. Copyright Unless other wise noted, all content is the creation of the Riston Denaux. Material from this site may be shared in unadulterated form so long as the author is acknowledged and for non-commercial purposes. (In other words, don’t plagiarize my work and if your making money off of it, so should I!!!)
