Memo From Country Director

Memorandum

To: Jason Pearce, Peace Corps Trainee

From: Earl M. Brown, Jr. CD/Guyana

Subject: Extension of Training

Date: August 15, 2002

I have expressed to you both as part of your training group and to you individually, the concerns relative to the creation and use of a Yahoo website, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peacecorpsguyana and its links to your personal site and to that of others associated with the Peace Corps. My understanding is that the purpose of the Yahoo website is to serve as a vehicle for communications with other Peace Corps Guyana Trainees and Volunteers and other persons interested in our programs, including RPCVs and invitees. You also maintain another website, http://net.jasonpearce.com, which includes extensive written material about your experiences as a trainee, including a web log or "blog" as well as links to pictures you have taken in Guyana, including other trainees and host family members. My understanding is that although you maintain these web pages are intended only for a limited number of family and friends in the US, a quick "Google" search demonstrates that your site has already been linked, presumably by you, to dozens of directories of personal homepages. For instance, there is blurb about your personal web page at "WWW RIOT" which states:

"Jason Pearce | Peace Corps Volunteer and - Jason Pearce grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, attended Elon University, and is a Peace Corps volunteer in Guyana. Pearce is an editor, web developer, graphic artist, and content manager. He has vi"
See http://www.dxpnet.com/riot/

I have been advised that access to your personal home page from WWWRIOT's links appears to be blocked to web users from the peacecorps.gov domain. You have already indicated to me that you blocked access to Jason.pearce.net by users from the peacecorps.gov domain so that Peace Corps staff would not be aware of your postings. However, the placement of images (for sale), written and audio monologues that are accessible to other web users, including the general public are, therefore, placed in the public domain and constitute "publishing." Guidance relative to Peace Corps Trainees/Volunteer publishing was available to you in your Peace Corps Handbook and has been further discussed in the Peace Corps Guyana Handbook.

Individual discussions, the most recent occurring on August 12th (all trainees) and individually with you and others on August 13th, have been held during which you were specifically asked about your role in the establishment and use of websites and your use of the images, and monologues (audio and written) found on your website.

During the August 13th meeting between you, Claudius Prince, APCD Training, and myself the following things issues were discussed.

  1. Your judgment and sensitivity in the placement of private and personal information in the Internet that is accessible to more people than your family and friends.

  2. Putting personal information (visual and audio) including medical about other trainees and host families on the website without securing permission to do so. Even if someone has told you about his or her medical or other personal information, that individual would have no reason to expect that you would then literally "broadcast it" to the entire world by means of the Internet and the person should not be assumed as having, tacitly, given you permission to post the information.

  3. Providing detailed information, names, locations of placement and training sites presents a serious safety and security risk. You should be aware that the Peace Corps does not routinely release this information to the public, absent permission from the Trainee or Volunteer.

  4. Our concerns were expressed about the Yahoo Groups Peace Corps Guyana website and other websites developed by you and others being associated with the Peace Corps. We all are guest in this country and as such we have to be extremely sensitive to language and images used beyond personal expression that could be considered or construed to be negative representations of Guyana by Guyanese. If I remarked as the Peace Corps Country Director that an official acts like a "jerk," which might describe my personal opinion, I cannot nor should not allow that opinion to become public knowledge nor put in the public domain. Public pronouncement (putting information in the public domain) is not an acceptable action by a foreign visitor representing and international agency, specifically the Peace Corps.

  5. Putting in the public domain your daily impressions (written, images or audio monologue) that are available to visitors to the site constitutes publishing under Peace corps rules as set forth in the Volunteer Handbook and elsewhere, and as such, must be cleared by the Country Director. Additionally, such information in the public domain, if it became publicly known, may result in the Peace Corps and the US Mission in Guyana having to make an apology for words or images shown.

  6. Putting information in the public domain about others without their permission and information that is confidential and personal (medical information, illness, etc.) is a violation of their individual rights.

In some instances your seemed reluctant or unwilling to modify your insistence on expressing "your views and opinions" on your site because "as you indicated, you have published many websites and it is the manner in which you communicate with family and friends."

At this point, I am unconvinced that you have the requisite emotional maturity and adaptability necessary for you to serve as an IT Volunteer. A Trainee cannot be sworn in as a Volunteer, unless he or she has demonstrated in training that all competencies have been met. For me to be satisfied that you have absorbed the concerns discussed with you by staff and that you accept the need for you to adapt your behavior, and will do so, you must do the following:

  1. Unblock access to your website for users coming from the peacecorps.gov domain.

  2. Remove all photos of people from whom you do not have permission to post on your site. Written permission is not necessary, but you must make them aware of the posting and the fact that people from anywhere in the world can view and print the pictures. You should also make them aware that their pictures may be made available for sale. If the pictures are of children below the age of 18, you must secure permission from their parents or legal guardians.

  3. Remove names of trainees and site locations. Remove location of host family. Remove detailed references to intimate details about the host family and their child, such as casually mentioning, "never knowing what you'd be made for meals" and comments about the "child's extreme weight and preference for nudity," including in front of you. While informative and innocent if written to a restricted audience, such as your family and close friends, such information is invasive of the host family's privacy when published and, also could easily be misconstrued by an outside reader in a way that would be completely unfair to you.

  4. Provide me with a statement that you will refrain from asking your host agency, or any other agency with which you may work, from allowing you to use the agency's information technology equipment, including, but not limited to, computers, scanners, faxes and copiers for your personal use. The same statement should also give your assurances that you will refrain from using information technology equipment of your host agency or other agency with which you work for your personal use. Your host agency will be informed by me that volunteers are not permitted to make use of host agency materials for personal use, including, but not limited to, information technology equipment.

  5. You must agree that any information you wish to publish on your website or any contribution by you to any website will be presented to the Country Director, or acting Country director in my absence, in accordance with Manual Section, 204, Section 3.8.1, "Publication of Articles." In addition, any audio logs discussing your experiences in Guyana, events in Guyana, or the Peace Corps must be made available for review by me or a designated staffer before being posted to your website.

Until the steps outlined above are taken by you, you will remain in Trainee status. If you need assistance removing material from your website, our IT Specialist can assist you.


Received:
Jason Pearce, Peace Corps Trainee

Witnessed:
Earl M. Brown, Jr., Country Director


Attachments:
MS 204 "Volunteer Conduct"
MS 284,4.0, 402. "Failure to meet Trainee Selection Standards"
MS 201 "Eligibility and Standards for Peace Corps Volunteer Service"